Monthly Review – May 2025

Welcome to my monthly review of what we’ve been up to, what new recipes we’ve been trying, and plans for the month to come.

What we’ve been up to

  • Uni
  • helping coach Hooked In2 Hockey each week
  • online creative courses
  • Federal Election – the Labor Party won
  • Mother’s Day
  • Junior Hockey Gala day
  • K took part in the state Youth Forum
  • local craft group
  • Youth Mental health First Aid Course
  • School hockey training started back up
  • Winter Solstice headdress workshop

What I’ve been posting (links open in new window)

  • Nothing new – it’s been a month

New recipes we’ve been trying

Monthly stats

Number of photos taken: 241
Books: 3

Plans for the month ahead

  • Pride Month
  • Week in the Life
  • Autism workshop
  • Local crafty hangouts
  • more me time (under doctors orders)
  • HookedIn2Hockey & School hockey
  • online craft summits
  • WWDC (online)
  • Solstice in the Square
  • Yule
  • Mum’s birthday

Want to see previous reviews? Check out the monthly review tag

Monthly Review – April 2025

Welcome to my monthly review of what we’ve been up to, what new recipes we’ve been trying, and plans for the month to come.

What we’ve been up to

  • Uni
  • helping coach Hooked In2 Hockey each week
  • School holidays/Easter break/Mid-semester break
  • celebrated Samhain
  • watching Wrestlemania
  • ANZAC Day
  • having 2 weeks without a car, during school holidays

What I’ve been posting (links open in new window)

New recipes we’ve been trying

Monthly stats

Number of photos taken: 260
Books: 2

Plans for the month ahead

  • Voting in our federal election
  • Watching WWE Backlash
  • Mother’s Day
  • Online craft summits
  • Local crafty hangouts
  • IDAHOBIT
  • Eurovision
  • Youth Mental Health First Aid training

Want to see previous reviews? Check out the monthly review tag

Month in Review – March 2025

Welcome to my monthly review of what we’ve been up to, what new recipes we’ve been trying, and plans for the month to come.

What we’ve been up to

  • Uni – submitted my first assignment
  • helping coach Hooked In2 Hockey each week
  • celebrated Autumn Equinox
  • started on my 100 Happy Days for 2025

What I’ve been posting (links open in new window)

New recipes we’ve been trying

Monthly stats

Number of photos taken: 156
Books: 1 (1 started)

Plans for the month ahead

  • Easter School holidays
  • Mid semester break
  • All the April birthdays
  • 100 Happy Days
  • Wrestlemania
  • ANZAC Day
  • TasFaire

Want to see previous reviews? Check out the monthly review tag

Month in Review – February 2025

Welcome to my monthly review of what we’ve been up to, what new recipes we’ve been trying, and plans for the month to come.

What we’ve been up to

  • Back to school prep for the kiddos. Youngest in Grade 5 and the Eldest starting year 9 at Indie School.
  • Finish setting up my planner for 2025
  • General life stuff
  • Eldest turned 15
  • I started uni – O week and Week one

What I’ve been posting (links open in new window)

New recipes we’ve been trying

  • Sweet & Sour pork
  • Crispy chicken burgers

Monthly stats

Number of photos taken:200
Books: 2 (1 finished, 1 started)

Plans for the month ahead

  • Celebrate Autumn Equinox
  • Hooked In2 Hockey
  • International Women’s Day events
  • Birthdays
  • 100 Happy Days

Want to see previous reviews? Check out the monthly review tag

Month in Review – January 2025

Welcome to my monthly review of what we’ve been up to, what new recipes we’ve been trying, and plans for the month to come.

What we’ve been up to

  • NYE with friends. Had a great night until youngest tripped and skun both knees then big had an allergic reaction to something
  • Massive New Year clean up in the bedrooms, lounge room and kitchen
  • Setting up my 2025 planners & creating videos for my YouTube channel
  • K at leadership camp for 3 days
  • Chinese takeaway for Dad’s birthday
  • K had first Youth Council meeting
  • Birthday week

What I’ve been posting (links open in new window)

New recipes we’ve been trying

Monthly stats

Number of photos taken:201
Books: 3 (1 finished, 2 more started)

Plans for the month ahead

  • Celebrate Lammas
  • Get the kids ready for back to school
  • Inchie challenge
  • K’s birthday
  • I start uni!

Want to see previous reviews? Check out the monthly review tag

Month in Review – December 2024

Goodbye December.
It's time to review.

What we’ve been up to

  • Christmas shopping
  • Indie School interview for K
  • Christmas parade
  • Annual D&D group Christmas dinner
  • Early Christmas lunch with my family
  • End of school year
  • Christmas with in laws
  • Boxing day with Dad
  • Doctor Who Christmas special
  • Bestie’s mum’s funeral
  • New Year’s Eve party

In the News

  • Martial law declared in South Korea by the president. He is then impeached about a week later.
  • United Healthcare CEO shot & killed by Luigi Mangione
  • Earthquake in Vanuatu
  • Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, an Embraer ERJ-190AR, crashes in Kazakhstan. Twenty-nine out of the 67 on board survive the crash
  • Jeju Air Flight 2216, a Boeing 737-800 passenger flight from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, veers off the runway at Muan International Airport and crashes into a barrier, killing 179 people. Two injured survivors are reported.

New recipes

  • Beef steak fajitas

Monthly stats

Photos taken – 505
Books read/listened to: 1

Plans for next month (January)

  • Tidy my bedroom & get my craft corner reorganized
  • Get back into creating videos for my YouTube channel
  • Finish December Daily /Journal Your Christmas
  • NYE
  • 2025 goals
  • K at leadership camp
  • Dad’s birthday
  • My birthday

Until next month!

You can catch up on previous months by checking out the Monthly Reviews tag.

Month in Review – November 2024

  • First lot of neonates for the 2024 kitten season. 5 little babes.
  • Hooked into hockey program
  • 18 years of marriage
  • 20 years of business
  • Ovarian Cancer Australia Workout 4 Women
  • Visit from some of the family from Scotland
  • Art Street Art launch

In the News

  • US election Trump wins
  • ICC issues arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif on accusations of war crimes committed during the Israel–Hamas War
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that a ceasefire deal has been agreed to end fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon
  • Flooding in Spain

New recipes

  • Chinese chicken curry
  • Arabic chicken & potatoes (Tonight p 181)
  • Golden Garlic Chicken Bites over Creamy Parmesan Pasta
  • Greek Kofta Kebabs
  • Ultra Crunchy Fried Chicken Burger
  • RTE Chinese BBQ chicken & Garlic Noodles
  • RTE Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin
  • RTE Chicken Chow Mein

Monthly stats

Photos taken – 508
Books read/listened to: 2

Plans for next month (January)

  • Tidy my bedroom & get my craft corner reorganized
  • Get back into creating videos for my YouTube channel
  • Finish December Daily /Journal Your Christmas
  • NYE
  • 2025 goals
  • K at leadership camp
  • Dad’s birthday
  • My birthday

Until next month!

You can catch up on previous months by checking out the Monthly Reviews tag.

Month in Review – October 2024

Seriously, how is it the 1st of November? Must mean it’s time for another monthly review…

What we’ve been up to

  • New laptops. Kids got our old laptops.
  • Finally got & set up desks for the kids room.
  • Relive the Rivalry footy game. We were sick so missed it.
  • Watched the Hawthorn FC Best and Fairest count.
  • NRL Grand Final.
  • K graduated from the Seagulls to Chips program
  • New brakes and tyres for the VW
  • J 2 year anniversary of not dying from Pulmonary embolism.
  • Watched Bathurst
  • First lot of neonates for the 2024 kitten season. 5 little babes.
  • Checked out Indie School for K next year
  • Packed away winter clothes
  • Hooked into hockey program
  • Halloween/Beltane

In the News

  • The Israel Defense Forces invade southern Lebanon, expanding its conflict against Hezbollah.
  • The Japanese parliament elects Shigeru Ishiba as the new prime minister of Japan.
  • SpaceX achieves the first successful return and capture of a Super Heavy booster from Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever to fly.
  • Spain experiences its worst flooding in half a century, with at least 158 killed and many more missing, as a year’s worth of rain falls in eight hours.

New recipes

  • Chinese Sizzling Beef
  • Everyday Hokkien Noodles
  • glazed hoisin chicken sir fry
  • Normandy pork chops
  • black bean chilli
  • Honey Pepper Chicken

Monthly stats

Photos taken – 319

Books read/listened to: 1

Plans for next month (November)

  • Tidy my bedroom & get my craft corner reorganized
  • Ovarian Cancer Australia Workout 4 Women – my donation link
  • Get back into creating videos for my YouTube channel
  • Moving the fridges
  • Visit from Scottish rellies
  • Our Wedding anniversary (18 years!)
  • December Daily Prep day
  • Hooked in2 Hockey
  • Craft group
  • TasPop Geek market
  • Gem & Mineral Fair
  • Art Street Art launch

Until next month!

You can catch up on previous months by checking out the Monthly Reviews tag.

Month in review – February to September 2024

Since we’ve missed so much of this year here’s a pretty general overview of our year to date – February to September.

What we’ve been up to

  • K turned 14
  • Back to school. K part time
  • K went on camp
  • State election
  • Back to hockey. A playing U14. K playing U14, U16 and Div 3
  • Started an art group at A’s school.
  • Joined a local art group
  • Started coaching school hockey.
  • Went to Hobart for the Battle of Crete memorial
  • So much hockey
  • Checked out Big Picture School as an option for K next year.
  • Uni open day

In the News

  • State election. Liberals won.
  • Eurovision
  • Julian Assange freed from prison
  • UK Election – Labor wins in a landslide.
  • Attempted assassination of Trump.
  • US Election debates.
  • Biden steps out of the US Election race and endorses Kamala Harris
  • Olympics in Paris.
  • Global IT outage
  • WHO declares mpox a public health emergency
  • Hurricane Helene hits the US state of Florida.

New recipes

  • Pork Tenderloin with Honey Garlic Sauce
  • Chow Mein Ramen Noodles
  • Parmesan crusted baked fish & potatoes
  • spicy apricot chicken
  • chicken satay noodle bowl
  • country beef dump dinner
  • slow cooker honey soy beef brisket
  • chicken casserole with cheesy damper top
  • Quick french onion chicken pie
  • one pot honey bbq beef brisket
  • coconut chicken curry & yoghurt
  • slow cooker kung pow chicken
  • slow cooked melting pork ramen
  • RTE doner kebab
  • Slow-cooker beef with tomato chutney
  • Slow-cooker spiced chicken meatballs in tomato sauce
  • Slow Cooker Coca-Cola Chicken
  • Slow cooker Chinese beef
  • thai sweet pork
  • general tsoa’s chicken
  • yakisoba
  • pork & hokkien noodle stir fry

Monthly stats (Feb-Sept total)

Photos taken – 2568

Books read/listened to: 2

Plans for next month (October)

  • Apply to go uni.
  • Get my planner caught back up.
  • Get back in0to blogging.
  • Tidy my bedroom & get my craft corner reorganized
  • K graduation for Seagulls to Chips program
  • Get our front car brakes replaced
  • 18th birthday do for a friend
  • Alt market
  • Halloween/Beltane
  • Finish some of the books I’ve started

Until next month!

You can catch up on previous months by checking out the Monthly Reviews tag.

Month in review – January 2024

Well here we are at the end of the first month of 2024. Time for my first review of the year.

What we’ve been up to

  • setting up my 2024 planner (while waiting for my new planner cover to arrive)
  • cleaning and decluttering
  • enjoying a quiet school holiday
  • watching the cricket
  • setting up home school stuff for K for Term 1
  • new shelves in the kitchen
  • dropped one lots of fosters back and picked up another lot
  • Dad’s & my birthdays
  • J had 30ml of fluid drained off his knee. Gout.

In the News

  • Queen of Denmark abdicates
  • Plane collision in Japan
  • Taiwan elects a new president
  • Israel-Hamas war

New recipes

Monthly stats
Photos taken – 340
Books read/listened to:
started – Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torz
finished – The Clean House by Katrina Springer

Plans for next month

  • Read 2 books
  • Continue working on Declutter 365
  • Get my 2024 planner setup in my new Melody cover
  • Planner blog posts
  • K turns 14