April 2018 | Recap

Before I begin my monthly recap, I have two disclaimers:

• Apologies for being a bit late with it this month, but I’ve been off in Quebec at the Women in Travel Summit! This has been such an amazing experience and I’m excited to bring you guys some content on it this month!! So the wee blogging break is worth it, I promise 😉
• WE ADOPTED A PUPPY IN APRIL!!!!!!!!! THEN WE ADOPTED A SECOND PUPPY!!!!
  • If you want to skip this whole post, that’s basically the most important news.

Where was I in April?

Michigan!

Favorite Instagram in April…

I DIDN’T INSTAGRAM IN APRIL! For non-bloggers this may not seem like big news, but any fellow bloggers know this is kiiiinda a big deal. I went on an impromptu month-long Instagram fast because, well… it was getting me down. (I am now back on Instagram and feeling much more at peace with it…check ya girl out here).

April adventured like…

• April was the first month of 2018 that I didn’t travel! I stayed in Michigan for the whole month. However I did a lot of travel planning, including my trip to the UK and Portugal this summer! I also booked my trip to Quebec for the Women in Travel Summit (which is where I’m writing this post from now!). Read about my other 2018 travel plans here.
• A lot of my April was consumed by… running. Y’all know I’ve been training for an all-women half marathon to raise money for my beloved Refugee Women Centre (where I worked in France). Well, April was full of the long runs, which meant hours and hours running each week. I ran the half marathon on Earth Day and got a PR!! It was such a fabulous day with so many women supporting women. I didn’t quite meet my GoFundMe goal, but I have some people who are donating in cash/cheque because they didn’t want to deal with the GoFundMe service fees (which takes a small percentage of donations), so in the end I will have reached my $500 goal!
• In lieu of travel travel travel, I worked worked worked. That’s right, I’ve got a job (I think I mentioned that last month?) and it’s fab. I’m working in a dementia home and loving it, every day is an adventure. It’s just a part time job while I apply for my OT board exams, but I’m also hustling that freelance writing on the side and really building up my portfolio!

April in health…

• Last month a lot of you mentioned you are interested in continuing to read about my health journey with my chronic gastrointestinal illness. (One day there will be a BIG blog post on the whole saga, but lemme figure out what exactly is goin on first…).
• Basically in April the big news was 1) I saw an allergist, and 2) I started new gastrointestinal meds.
  • ALLERGIST: In March I had a blood test saying I was severely allergic to yeast, which felt like a huge “AHA!” moment. But when I saw the allergist in April the further tests were inconclusive. My allergist told me that allergy tests can be really unreliable and the only way to know for sure is to do an elimination diet. So right now I am eliminating yeast from my diet for 4-6 weeks, and then will introduce it again to see my reaction. It’s really hard because yeast is in, like, everything and they don’t know what specific strain I am (or am not) allergic to… sooo I’ve gotta eliminate it all.
  • MEDS: I’ve had a saga with gastrointestinal meds, first with them just plain not working, and then having an allergic reaction to one that made me stop breathing. In April I started a drug that is pretty new on the market. It’s expensive and I would really prefer to solve my problems naturally, but when you’re sick you can’t always be picky about what the cure is. Trust me, I’m natural and holistic all the way but I also think there’s a very important place for Western medicine. So far it is kindddda working, but not every day, so I’m still testing it out.

April read like…

• I read 6 books in April! Ranging from thriller to teen-fantasy-fiction to romance to quality crime novel. You can see which ones I read on my goodreads here.
• Basically this was my month of not giving an F when it came to reading. I let go of all the vestiges of my English major pretentiousness and just read crappy books that I wanted to read. It was freeing and great. I recommend everyone have a month of reading “bad” books!

Sooo April was a slow, sweet month full of the happy things that happen when you live at home and aren’t constantly traveling! Not traveling in April gave me the space to have some really important health appointments, read some books, and work. Home sweet home!

…Which is to say that in May I’ve promptly gone and traveled as much as I can lol!

What are you guys up to in May?

Sarah xx

PS can I just say sorry not sorry that puppy pics took over this monthly recap.