I can’t believe that 2025 is one-fourth over, which means my Year of Me Journey is also one-fourth complete. My mom always says that the older you get, the faster time passes by, and she is correct. I believe this means that we must take advantage of each day and find joy and contentment in the small things instead of waiting for the big moments.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to a group of people about self-care, and I was troubled by the number of participants who came up to me after and discussed how they feel their mental state and financial well-being have decreased in the last 60 days. We discussed being intentional when coping with these areas of concern. I also think it is important that we all

March was filled with a fun trip to see friends, time spent with friends and family, and several other self-care activities.

Our trip to Florida was the best part of March. Our trip did get off to a great start with an hour-and-a-half delay. This meant we moved gates three times, including one that had us traipsing from one end of the terminal to the other at the Denver airport. Once we boarded the plane, it was all smooth, with a tailwind pushing us to Florida.

The purpose of this trip was to spend time with family and friends, relax, and make memories. We managed to meet all those requirements and more. Spending time with friends and family was by far the best part of the trip. My parents have been friends with Gary & Cherry for 30+ years, so for part of the visit, we had four generations of the families together. Unfortunately, the lighting at VRBO was poor, so the group picture is not worth sharing, but I am glad I have it. What do you do to feed almost 20 people? You create a pizza bar that could rival Cicis Pizza in selection and taste so much better. My daughter made homemade pizza dough, so she and I built eight different types of pizzas.

In addition to eating good food on this trip, we spent a lot of time on the river.  This river is gorgeous and averages 72 degrees year-round. Unfortunately, we did have a couple of days when the ambient temperature was cold and windy. We all believe our trip up and down the river on the pontoon boat was wonderful. My youngest granddaughter saw her first alligator and otter out in the wild, along with numerous birds and turtles. Although we were not rowing the boat, she had us sing the song Row, Row, Row Your Boat on repeat. The guy spent some time kayaking. We dipped our toes in the river on the last day, but the wind made it too cold to enjoy.  Making memories with family and friends is my best form of mental and emotional health.

My economic self-care challenge was spending less than $100 on Amazon in March, and I am excited to say that I only spent $50.20. Even more impressive is that $43.45 of that was for my daughter. The item she wanted had a limit of 4 per account, so I purchased four on my account. It got easier throughout the month to not think about making a quick purchase on Amazon. Now, I want to keep my Amazon spending under control in April. I am off to a good start because it is April 9th, and I have yet to make a purchase on Amazon.

For my environmental self-care, I cleaned out some of the closets in our house. I could toss or donate some of the items, but most of the work involved organizing them to make the best use of the space. One of the commitments I made when I started this organizing process was not purchasing another storage container. Over the years, I bought hundreds of dollars of organizational boxes, bins, and baskets, so I certainly do not need any more containers.

My office also serves as a nursery for my youngest granddaughter, so the storage space must work for both of us. The closet is secure because of the extra child-proof locks on it, but it had become a catch-all, so I cleared it out and reorganized the space to maximize its usage. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture before, but this picture shows the results.

One of the items I did not get in this house was a wonderful pantry in my kitchen. Somehow, a home with 1000 more square feet and 15 years newer than our old house has a pantry half the size of the old house. So, the main floor linen closet has become an ancillary pantry. As the picture below shows, it was completely disorganized, and we had no idea what we had in it. So, once again, I found myself pulling everything out of the closet and starting over. Per usual, I had to find a second burst of energy to complete this task, but I am very pleased with the results.

March was my comeback month after my less-than-stellar February on my Year of Me Journey. It is just proof that when our plans are derailed, there is no need to quit; we just keep moving forward. So, it is time to see what is in store for April.

April is one of my favorite months because spring is starting to make an appearance. Spring makes me feel like anything is possible. Let’s take a look at the areas of self-care that I will focus on this month.
My husband, Robert, introduced me to the impact of random acts of kindness on both the contributor and recipient. The surprise of the act makes both people smile with genuine happiness that is so uplifting. I know that Random Acts of Kindness week is in February, but the middle of the spring season feels like the right time to celebrate my own Random Acts of Kindness month. So, I will work on my mental and emotional health through random acts of kindness in April.

I am continuing my work on financial self-care with a week of no food or drink purchases from anywhere other than the grocery store. So, in the week of April 20th, I am preparing all of our meals and forgoing my iced coffees from McDonalds. Our monthly restaurant spending is over $500, so one week without should save about $125, and we always have food we can prepare. I am even going to try a few new healthy recipes during this week. Additionally, healthy recipes will help me with my physical self-care.

For various reasons, I missed some of my social events, such as monthly lunches or book club meetings. In April, I need to get back on track with these groups because I love spending time with these ladies. I did enjoy reading the books, but I missed the discussions about the books and socializing. So, for April, I am determined to get back on track with my groups because they feed my social and intellectual self-care.

I hope that you will take time during April to focus on your self-care. Our days are filled with many moments when we just need to pause and reset by using breathing techniques, dancing to your favorite song in the middle of your kitchen, singing at the top of your longs, sitting in the sunshine for 5 minutes, or whatever makes you feel good.