Words of March || Wrap-up

You won't believe how much I tried to do in March. I went to bed tired—in mind, body, and soul—every single day.

Freshly disappointed by my February, I decided to focus on each day in March. I wanted to do everything that I wanted to at least once. My idea was to keep some things constant and do others on a rotation basis. I didn't fully succeed but I am content with my March. There's a certain satisfaction that only comes from pushing yourself daily.

Because I tried to fit everything in and focused on the present day instead of the month or year as a whole, it feels like March was longer than 31 days. I have a lot to catch you up on. So, grab a drink or a snack and settle in.

words on books

As always, let's go through my reading first because it's the easiest section for me to write about.

I did not set a TBR for February and followed my mood. I read most of them in snatched bits of time like during my breakfast, my commute, or right before going to bed at night. It was a cosy and stress-free reading month.

I tried not to look at my number of books as well so the count is slightly lower. I read 8 books in March and most of my reads were great. 5 were paperbacks (my paperback reading is going up!), 1 was an audiobook, and 2 were ebooks. No rereads are part of the count because I read all of them partially and hence didn't mark them as a full read.

Poonachi: or the Story of a Black Goat by Perumal Murugan. I started the month with this interesting story that is translated from Tamizh. It reminded me of Animal Farm but was also unique to the Indian and Tamizhan experience, in a way. The whole time, I was sad that I wasn't reading the original Tamizh version because... unfortunately... I can't read the language properly despite it being my mother tongue 😢 But maybe one day! I'm looking forward to more of Murugan's work as well.

Cracked Foundation by Bex Dawn. I saw this being praised somewhere online in my 5 minutes of browsing on a random day and decided to try it. By the end of the book, I was so lost and taken aback. It had good parts, weird parts and a lot of nonsensical parts. It's a pure smut book with kinks that I had not heard of before. Not my thing.

The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling. I haven't read the first book of the series but this was available on Libro.fm to me so I gave it a shot. It was a lovely light-hearted companion to my commutes. It had a good amount of magic, humour, romance, and suspense. I usually struggle to finish audiobooks but this was a breeze.

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. It was high time that I read this book so I picked it up from the bookstore in January and got to it soon-ish. It was a book with many layers. It showed happiness, pain, war, tragedy, resilience, and more. There's a lot of triggering stuff but they're all to teach the reader about the Vietnam war. I learnt a lot of information. I liked that it was a slice-of-life book set in that time and didn't end with a moral or a conclusion. It showed how life was then and alludes to how it continues to affect lives.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. I actually read this book five years back but didn't continue the series and forgot almost all of it. My friend loves them so she is lending me her copies one by one to get me to finally finish the series. The book was just as nice as I remember it being, I got the second book from my friend already and I'm excited to read it.

Unravel Me by Becka Mack. For some reason, I thought I read and disliked this book. But it came on my radar again and I realized that I didn't read this exact one (maybe that was a book of the same name by another author?) so I picked it up. It was an enjoyable read. Some of it was unrealistic (how is the guy such an angel with no flaws???) and we did not see the guy play hockey despite apparently being an amazing player. There was a buildup to the third-act breakup right from the beginning but the reason for the breakup turned out to be something else, surprising me. Overall, a pleasant read. If you like romance books where the guy plays a saviour and is always patient, kind, and helpful, you will like it.

In The Language of Remembering by Aanchal Malhotra. I finally got over my disappointment from The Book of Everlasting Things and read this and it was SO GOOD. It's a huge book (650+ pages) that is hard to read so I spent most of March slowly reading this. It's written in a unique format and is quite different from Remnants of a Separation. I liked how the book was about how the Partition affected subsequent generations because that's rarely documented about big events. It taught me a lot and spoke about suppressed events that have largely been erased from history. It was so interesting to read interviews from descendants of influential people of that time. The author addresses the current political and religious situation and how it colours the current young generation's views. She also calls out her biases and even unearths a large revelation about the terminologies we use for what happened in 1971. It is a great book, I highly recommend it. (Watch out for my review which I'll be posting soon!)

The Inheritance Games by Jeniffer Lynn Barns. I wanted something very different after In The Language of Remembering so I picked this up the next day which was a rest Saturday. I read most of it while lying on the bed and finished it in a few hours. It wasn't an amazing book but it did keep me hooked. It was full of puzzles and riddles. The characters were a little eerie, a lot suspicious, and highly interesting. I'm looking forward to getting the next book in my next bookstore run.

I also tried listening to the audiobook of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini but stopped at 23%. It was too long and the story was not interesting. I fell asleep twice.

words on the blog

March was a messy month for the blog. It was okay in the beginning and then, at some point, the Jetpack plugin got automatically updated and messed up my blog's fonts. It was blocking my site from loading Google fonts. Before I found out the cause, I got in touch with the BlueHost support and they fixed it by tweaking something else.

The next day, I realized that they fixed it by uninstalling the Jetpack plugin itself. So, my stats weren't loading in the WordPress dashboard. I contacted support again and that's when I found out the real reason for my fonts breaking and how they fixed it. The agent suggested using Google Analytics and MonsterInsights instead as they are better than Jetpack.

However, I quickly got annoyed because MonsterInsights doesn't show the daily stats info and most of its features are behind a paywall. The GA dashboard is highly annoying to go through as well. So, I just reinstalled the Jetpack feature and it seems to be working okay with a slight font change? I don't know.

The blog stats (in WP dashboard) also highly dipping for 5 days since all the above happened. I'm not sure if it's cuz of the changes or if it's because of something else. I didn't notice it sooner because I stopped seeing my stats much. When I finally noticed, I contacted BlueHost support again to get the blocking rules removed just in case. The fonts seem to be okay now.

I also noticed that my site's connection to Google Analytics was broken for 5 days because I had uninstalled Google Site Kit to install MonsterInsights. When I got annoyed with the latter and removed it, I forgot to reinstall the former. I finally did it on 30th March.

So, essentially, my stats for this month are scattered and messed up. For about a day, the blog stats are only on GA. And then when I reinstated Jetpack, GA stopped tracking. I don't care that much at this point sooo. It's okay. I did disable auto-updates for all plugins, though. I had kept it enabled only for 2 but now none of them have it enabled.

Another update, I finally got my ad provider to remove the annoying video ads on mobile views! It was annoying and led to multiple issues. I debated ending my contract with them completely but then got sidetracked in the middle when I noticed a different issue.

They also did some updates which made the video ad go away if you clicked the X button but the issue was back in a few days. I finally just emailed them with feedback saying that it's annoying my viewers and I'd like it removed, so they did it.

I was told that it was the highest revenue-generating ad placement for my site. However, because of the stats mess up, I'm unable to quantify the decrease yet. I'll have a look after a couple of weeks when there's enough consistent data.

My stats may also have been affected by some Google Helpful Content Update that happened recently that is affecting a lot of sites that get search traffic from Google. I heard about it from another blogger because they mentioned it in their newsletter. Google has been pushing out these random updates to make search results "better" but just.. affect everyone badly?

It's funny how Google rewarded some types of content for years so everyone upskilled in them and now with their "helpful content updates (AKA HCU)" and "core updates", they are penalizing the same types of content. Time for me to stop thinking about stats, I guess. I'm considering removing ads completely in a while because it is just inconvenient and the revenue isn't worth it anymore.

If anything's broken, please let me know! Because I realized only later that even my popular posts section at the bottom was broken 🥲

I was hoping to post at least twice in March because I was so behind. But I managed it! I posted 5 times (including the Feb wrap-up) and am currently one post ahead of the schedule. In case you missed them:

• My February wrap-up speaks of my disappointment with the month. Surprisingly, I motivated Bianca to post about their month despite it not being great through it. That felt great 😅
• My Blog Income and Expenses in 3 Years. I'm aware of being a minority in the book blogging community because I've managed to monetize my blog. I always wanted to share my experiences and the numbers so here it is.
• Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez is one of my comfort books and I finally wrote a review of it.
• My 2023 Blog Statistics. I actually forgot about this until March and wrote it quickly. It speaks of how my relationship with blogging and blog stats has changed in the past year.
• Ashes of You by Catherine Cowles is a new romance release that surprised me by being so good. I had to write a review on it.

At this point, I've published 16 posts this year (including this one) and I'm slowly running out of ideas. There are so many things to write about in the beginning of the year but the challenge is to continue having ideas when times change. I have a ton of ideas noted down but they're old and I was a different person then, so I don't feel like writing about them now.

Writing more full-length book reviews is helping but I want to write other posts as well. It's been a long time since I wrote discussions so maybe that? I could do guides or listicles too but I'm not sure of the topics. If there is anything that you'd like me to talk about, do let me know! It'll help me too 😂

Meanwhile, I'm reading amazing blog posts by others:

• I loved Sophie's post on 25 pearls of wisdom for 25 years. I lowkey considered writing a similar post but didn't go through with it.
• Anoushka's story of how she ended up with a pet cat is so entertaining.
• Naomi's narration of her Iceland trip made me want to go there immediately.
• Michelle shared a list of simple ways to romanticize your life.

words on my 2024 goals

My reading goal is going great, as usual. I'm at 35/100 books which is 11 books ahead. My blogging goal is also going great as I'm now at 16/25 blog posts. I'm not worried about these two goals.

A new dish has been added to my favourites list so I recently learnt how to make it from my mom. I am yet to make it myself without her help, though. I also finally learnt all the financial investment terms by attending an online class. Haven't taken any action yet but at least I can now understand exactly what people mean when they talk about investment in front of me.

There's no progress on my 10k running goal because I barely ran in March. Other types of workouts took over my days. I'm not disappointed with my status on the goal, though, since I'm having fun.

words on life & other stuff

Summer has set in well. It's so sunny in the afternoons and 4 pm in my room is unbearable without curtains being pulled. The heat attacks us all day and we're unable to stay without AC or fan.

With the summer, dehydration has set in as well. Although I drink a considerable amount of water, it's not enough for this climate. My bottles are emptying in no time and it feels like I'm refilling them every time I drink water. For a week, I was dealing with badly chapped lips as well and noticed that many people around me were also picking at their lips.

I'm sweating so much nowadays, especially during workouts. After playing badminton for 30 minutes, my face and neck are covered with dripping sweat. It's as if I took a bath!

Speaking of, I joined a badminton group that plays in my court. Hence, I'm playing badminton much more now. I'm giving it my all as well and members of the group recently mentioned how I've improved a lot, especially that my reflexes are great. I played badminton 15 times in March. I'm highly enjoying playing. At random times during the day, I think of plays to try.

I worked out 30/31 days in March! I played badminton, ran, or just walked every day. Walking is a little easier because my commute to work 4 days a week requires me to walk at least 3kms a day. It's the other 3 days of the week that I have to consciously do something.

I was trying for 31/31 but it's hard and my body needed a break in the last week of the month. For almost the entire last week, my knees were hurting more. After 5 continuous days of badminton, I went on a steep climb with a friend. Then played 4 times again the following week. On the 30th, I ran 3km and that literally made my knees wobble. Then, I went cycling for an hour after years the next day. Basically, I'm putting my body through a wringer and asking it to manage it all.

Remember when I said that I went to bed completely tired every day? It's because of all the non-stop physical activities. I used to wake up around 7 am to a full day and couldn't stay awake past 10:30 pm. My brain and body would start winding down at 9:30 pm whether I wanted it to or not so it pushed me to read or do small chores at that time and go to bed.

It was nice to find out that my body can take a lot more than I thought it could, though. When I mentioned that my knees hurt for a week, it was mostly right after playing every day. It would be okay in a while and so I'd go the next day too as the pain wasn't constant. One day, I played badminton with more power in each shot rather than being strategic. By the end, my shoulder hurt and I was so sure that it would be hella sore the next day. But it was alright in a couple of hours!

Now that I'm exercising every day and making my body take on more, it's gotten used to doing more and healing faster. I was always the girl who'd pant and become tired soon and now I'm not that anymore. Love this for me.

In April, I'm going to fit in rest days. I'll try for a perfect month of everyday exercise later again. For now, it looks like my body is tired of me pushing it daily for badminton and then also walking (as I can't skip it) along with everything else. It's nice to have friends who are being more active and taking me along with them but I need to remember to rest in between.

My ideal routine would be 3 days of working out, a day of rest, and repeat. It should be evenly spread between badminton and running. I'll try to get there this month. It's important to rest as well, especially when I already have weak knees.

While the weekdays were almost solely for daily activities like work, workouts, reading, and chores, the weekends were for resting and having fun. I also blogged mostly on the weekends, writing posts in almost one sitting because that's when I have the time.

I didn't spend a lot of time outside with friends but I did enough. As I said earlier, I went on a climb with one friend. Another day, a few of my colleagues and I went to an event. One Sunday, we stayed at a restaurant from 6 pm until midnight. I met my book club friends as we do every month and it was so fun—we played board games, had good food, and laughed until we got tears. During a weekday, my team at work went out for dinner and drinks and had fun.

March wasn't filled to the brim but there was enough such that I was thinking about only the present and not worrying about the future. It feels great, to be present and try to make every day a good day.

One interesting note: because my routine and food intake are pretty consistent nowadays, I noticed what my body reacts to. After over a year of no refined wheat flour, I became a little lenient to that rule. I have a couple of bites here and there. I had maggi a couple of days in March after years and noticed that 2 days after both times, my eczema became worse. After a year of pretty good condition, I had a bad eczema flare-up. I woke up with blood and scratches on my arm twice, right after eating maggi.

So, I'm back to my no-refined-wheat-flour rule. I'll have a couple of bites if I want to try dishes and break the rule only for ramyeon because I love it and it seems to not cause an issue.

I journalled less in March because I couldn't find the time to journal every day. I journalled only 10 days which was mostly in the first 10 days. In the last 3 weeks, I journalled only on Fridays. Somehow, the night after a week of work is best suited to journalling.

chat with me!

I knew that I had a lot to say but I didn't think I'd write 3k+ words 😂 I'm treating these wrap-ups like a diary of random updates. It's fun to write, though, and I hope you're enjoying them as well.

How was your March? What did you read? What did you do? What are your random life updates? What are you looking forward to in April?