Magnolia Parks Archives - Mom Works It Out by Angela Gillis

Happy March! With the start of the new month, it’s time to recap the previous month. Overall, February was a good, healing month for me. I hate to sound like a Disney song, but “for the first time in forever,” I started feeling like myself again.

February was a busy month. The PTA is doing a lot of firsts this year, so we hosted our first party/dance for the kids for Mardi Gras. This is the one thing I wanted to accomplish besides a better field day as PTA president. That took a lot of work, but the kids enjoyed it. Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures of myself during the event because I was running around making sure everything turned out ok. Also, we had candy grams for Valentine’s Day and an AR party. PTA kept me busy in my free time.

Valentine’s Day was fun, but just another day. I worked hard on a present for Willie, which he loved a lot. Valentine’s Day isn’t my favorite, but I had a good time with it this year. Tot has spent a lot of time reading, and she’s getting much better. It’s incredible how much she’s learned this school year. I also caught COVID, but it was short-lived and nothing major. It was from spending my free time at the school.

I read eight books and almost put myself in a reading slump. I’ve read 12 books of my 60-book goal for the year. I found the motivation to read while working out. I put my Atomic Habits to work and learned to use my reading to use my gym membership instead of just working out at home.

My workouts:

I got into a routine of working out every other Day or 4-5 times a week. I had a strict no workout on the weekend because I wanted to spend time with my family. I had to rethink this because I put so much pressure on myself to finish my workouts when I’m the busiest. Doesn’t working out when I have the time without feeling bad about it make sense? I don’t know why we put these arbitrary “rules” on ourselves, but sometimes, we have to step back from those “rules” to make life happen.

Anyway, I’ve been running short miles and spending some time on the elliptical and stairstepper at the gym. Did I tell you all I joined a gym last month? Also, I’ve been going to Hotworx to do pilates and some of the HIIT classes. I’ve also been using the Hotworx weight section for strength work. The weight section at Hotworx is fully equipped and way less crowded. I have yet to be very consistent with the weights, but I need to find a way to work it into my schedule because I am losing serious muscle mass.

What I ate:

I took no pictures of anything I ate this month, mainly due to not eating anything exciting or trying anything new. I went into autopilot and had ground turkey tacos or pasta for most of the month. I also had many leftovers from the Mardi Gras party, including turkey sandwiches, King cake, and Zummo sausages. I probably ate more Zummo sausages than I would care to admit because those tended to be the food of choice for every school event. Note to self: kids do not eat Zummo sausages; adults do. (I know many of you don’t know about Zummo’s because it’s a local company, but I just realized this place down the street from my house has gone nationwide. Way to go!)

My monthly favorites:

I got a MagSafe grippy from Casely. I don’t use my phone to film, but I do use my phone for workouts. It would be great to stick my phone to the mirror, and this is great because it’s MagSafe, and it doesn’t have to stay on my phone when I’m not using it.

Willie got me a Reacher Sunrise Alarm (affiliate link), Hatch alarm dupe, that doesn’t require the monthly service fee and works similarly. I love it. It wakes me with a subtle light and a sound of my choosing. It’s been refreshing not to be jolted out of bed with a jarring alarm sound.

Daisy Haites is a favorite this month. It’s not a shock to you that I love the Magnolia Parks series, but I prefer the Daisy Haites books. Even though she’s rich AF, Daisy has more depth and understanding of the world. Daisy is the edgy Magnolia Parks. The last Daisy Haites book, Daisy Haites: The Great Undoing, is one of my favorite books ever. It has stuck with me for weeks after reading it.

I landed on Lego TikTok, and the whole family decided we might want to build Legos. I am fascinated with people building these huge sets, and I want to get a Harry Potter or Star Wars Lego set soon. First, I have to get good at building the sets, and second, I need a bank account big enough to support buying them. Those sets are expensive. I had a good time, but Tot quickly became disinterested because it took too long to build. She enjoyed the finished product, though.

Content for the month:

I’ve been consistent with my content in February, which was a primary goal. I’ve been working on getting more content for the blog and editing my videos promptly. Creating content is always a struggle because it’s not a full-time job (and I never would want it to be), but finding the time to get it out is hard. Sometimes, the quality of my content could be better because I feel it’s best to get it out instead of having it perfect.

Here are the blog posts for February

Videos for the month:

That’s all for this month. February turned out to be a great month, and I got many things accomplished. Thank you for keeping up with me and enjoying the content. I understand these blog posts are highly personal, but I like having a timeline of the year and how things were going on. It’s nice to look back on at the end of the year. I aim to make it through the entire year with these posts because I tend to fizzle out mid-year.