State of Affairs, March Edition

Trips taken:  None, again
I did get out for fun shopping trips all by myself on a couple of occasions, both in the name of gathering supplies for the girls' birthday.  Naturally, I managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping for me too while I was out and about.  It's only fair, right?  I got to go to a movie this month as well, when I took some teenagers to see The Hunger Games.

I also took a Saturday trip to Fayetteville, TN with my mom and aunt to a fabric store.  We enjoyed a leisurely day, stopping at a local craft fair, eating lunch on the downtown square, and checking out the gigantic Goodwill store.

(There are already two day trips on the books for April.  Woo hoo!)

Books read:  5.5
Anything--Meh.  Strange and vague on the details.  More like an outline of what could have been a better story.

The Lifeguard--There was a somewhat-unexplained supernatural theme to this one too, but I didn't mind nearly as much.  Not bad.

Shooting Stars--Far-fetched, but pretty entertaining.  I liked the way it worked out in the end, and didn't really see it coming.

The Last Plea Bargain--My favorite of the month.  A legal thriller in the vein of John Grisham, but with a main female character.  A little on the long side, but I liked it quite a bit.

Speak--I have heard a lot about this YA book over the years and finally picked it up at the library this month.  I read it in just a couple of days, but I didn't just love it or find it that outstanding.  I did like the ending of this one as well.

I'm halfway through both Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (continuing my Harry Potter re-read) and Survival Mom.

(By the way, for anyone who may be interested in any of the books I mention in these recaps, they are listed on my Goodreads profile.)

Music
Eh, nothing exciting here this month.  A & M have now discovered The Fresh Beat Band on Netflix, so I get to hear a lot of that before bed at night.  Thankfully, it's not too annoying.  We have also listened to the Disney/Broadway station on Pandora and I have been reminded of just how much I love that one song from The Little Mermaid.  Cheesy much?

Crafts and Projects
The project I am most proud of this month (maybe for the entire year?) is outfit I made for the girls' birthday party.  I have a ton of party pictures and details to share soon, but I loved the way their outfits turned out...even if they included skirts and not a full dress like Dorothy wears!

I made cupcake toppers and party favors for the party, as well as designing their invitation.  I have never really fooled around with digital design before, except for the blog, so I was excited that I managed to accomplish that as well.  I bought fabric for simple kitchen curtains, but that project was sidelined for the birthday craftiness.

Project-wise, Jeremy gets the gold star this month.  With a lot of help from my dad and his stepdad, he spent an entire weekend putting together our birthday present for Addison & Mackenzie:

They love it, and I love that we have something to keep us busy outside in this beautiful spring weather.  I have already claimed a prime spot for my lounge chair and plan to spend a lot of time there, reading and watching the girls play.  : )

Notables

Here, at the end of March, I am not nearly as stressed as I was at the beginning of the month.   Though some things didn't turn out as well as I had hoped this month, I have pretty much let it go and given myself permission to start over with a clean slate in that area.  And I have vowed again to say no to things that will just add to my stress.  Every couple of years I have to be reminded that I can't do it all and refocus myself on what I can do.

Jeremy and I did a lot of thinking and talking about food this month, and while we aren't yet committed to huge changes, I do see good things beginning to happen in our attitudes about the way we want to feed our family.  I am very much looking forward to the upcoming fresh foods and vegetables of the summer.  Also food-related, I made a first attempt at any kind of homemade bread and made this Cinnamon Strawberry Bread.  It is amazing, and has become a regular rotation in our house...proof that I can actually follow a recipe sometimes!

We also finalized some plans for fixing up some things around the house and began to loosely, but seriously, discuss adding on to our house.  We love this neighborhood, our yard, and most things about this house, but we want just a little more space.  We hope to possibly meet with a contractor this month to find out the possibilities to add a new master bedroom and bathroom.  I don't know if it will work out or not, but it's fun to dream.

How was your March?