The Month Of Home: March 2026 Recap

I’m writing this while looking at the rushing river outside my apartment. Snow is finally starting to melt in Upstate NY and as a result the river is going wild. 

Somehow 2026 is 1/4 over and I’m still not used to saying “2026.” Absolutely madness 🙂 . So let’s see what I got up to in March!

I Went Home

This month I went back to my homebase in NY and continued living my rural homestead life 😉 . I watched my family tap maple trees, boil sap and helped make homemade ice cream with my SIL’s cow’s milk. 

I also observed that same SIL incubating chicken eggs and raising adorable baby chicks. On the other side of things, I ate heart steak from one of their cows that was slaughtered.

My MIL and SIL also started planning out their spring gardens and I absorbed all I could about that process. My Partner also helped his brother rip out and replace flooring and insulation in his house while I tried to keep his children from throwing themselves off the furniture. Look at us go 🙂 !

And the last part of small town life that stuck out to me this month is that St. Patrick’s Day happened, which coming from ATL, was not really a thing. In school we might have worn green, but that’s about it.

I was surprised to see that apparently rural northeastern towns go all out. There were Irish flags on the streetlights downtown, decorations everywhere and there was even a parade (that I avoided because those kinds of crowds are my idea of a nightmare, but it sounded fun). 

I Used Mobile Passport Control (MPC)

When I was flying back from México, Global Entry was idiotically closed because of this new record-breaking government shutdown. The decision to close Global Entry, which is not paid for by tax payers but by the membership fees and is a mostly automated program that saves everyone involved time, is so counterproductive it boggles my mind. 

But anyway, when I was on my plane back to the US (woohoo plane Wifi!), my Mom suggested trying an app called Mobile Passport Control (MPC). I hadn’t heard of it before, but I was willing to try anything so we didn’t get caught in a long immigration line and miss our connecting flight home. Luckily I was able to download the MPC app over Delta’s Wifi.

I then filled in information about myself, my Partner and our travel plans. I also had to take a selfie of each of us, which was fun to try to do since this was all on my phone and my Partner sits behind me on planes (we’re weird and that works for us). 

• Yes, We Have Separate Comforters

However, luckily, when we landed at ATL airport, the immigration lines were not that long. They were however not labeled clearly so we got into what we thought was the MPC line only to discover it was a regular line. We still didn’t wait more than a few minutes so it wasn’t a big deal. 

However, it’s good to know this app exists and can help expedite immigration lines. I’ll be keeping that in my back pocket in case this government continues to do idiotic things to travelers as apparent political leverage during their toddler-style tantrum. 

I Did Home Improvements

I’m continuing my transformation into a domestic goddess 😉 . Literally I’m so clueless about all of this stuff, so here are a few things we did around our apartment and learned this month!

First I learned how to use a drill and change a drill bit:

Then I discovered that the reason some chairs don’t scrape against the floor is because of chair stickers. I didn’t know such a thing existed – I guess I’ve just never thought about it. So I bought stickers at my local hardware store that are similar to these chair leg stickers and now my chairs are silent (and deadly 🙂 ). 

Then we tackled a plumbing problem – our bathroom sink was draining slowly so we bought a drain snake similar to this snake drain once again at our local hardware store. Then we learned how to safely remove the sink stopper, which was important because my Partner accidentally broke one previously trying to remove it so we looked it up and were glad we did – it’s way more complicated than I expected. Then we cleaned the gunk out of the sink and now it drains like a dream!

Next up were window blinds! I guess I’m stronger than I thought because when I closed our blinds one night, I broke the top of the blind and pulled the entire window unit onto my toe – I have a lovely bruise there now. As you may have noticed, I am clueless about home repairs so I texted our landlord asking if this was something I should ask our maintenance guy to help with.

I thought it was a complicated process that I might do incorrectly and irrevocably hurt the window frame. But then I asked around and looked deeper online and discovered it’s a fairly straightforward process.

Whoops! So I apologized for bothering the landlord lol. The community came in clutch once again and we borrowed my FIL’s drill and drill bits, I did some measurements and we bought a new window blind. We then installed it, which was quite an easy process that the video below helped me understand. 

I also learned from reading the window blind instructions that you can easily cut blinds that are too long. I had no idea! I’m really starting to learn about these adulting things 😉 . 

Lastly my Partner wanted to put up some more shelves in our kitchen and asked our maintenance guy the last time he was here to confirm our stud findings. He did and marked it for us, but when my Partner tried to drill into those marks, he hit brick (our kitchen is on an exterior wall).

So he did some research and learned that he would need special screws, drill bits and a special drill to drill into brick and that was too much so those shelves have now been hidden until we get the energy to do all of that. I assume this is classic home improvement behavior 🙂 . 

I Did Car Repairs

I got pulled over by a cop at night because my headlight was out. Unfortunately that timing of my bulb going out really sucked because my Partner had a medical appointment he couldn’t miss the next morning when it was supposed to be raining hard, a situation when we would need our headlights. And I didn’t want to get pulled over again. 

Once again, community came in clutch – I didn’t know off the top of my head if changing a headlight was something a car noob like me should attempt or if I needed a mechanic, but it turns out that replacing headlight bulbs are super easy! Our family suggested finding the type of bulb on a guide like the one here, buying the replacement at Walmart and then popping it in ourselves. 

So we headed to Walmart and in the auto section, headlights are locked up for some reason, but there’s a big book where you can look up the bulb type you need based on your car. Sweet!

I used the call button to get an employee to open the case and…they never came 🙁 . So I went to find someone in person and soon after someone else came to help me.

But I seriously don’t understand why these bulbs are locked up – they’re not very expensive (mine was $15 and I got 2 to replace both at the same time as recommended). So if you know why this inefficient system exists, feel free to let me know in the comments.

Anyway, so we then followed the amazing video below and replaced our headlight bulbs:

We replaced both bulbs because online guides suggested doing that, claiming that usually the second headlight would go out soon after. I assume that’s only the case if the previous owner also replaced both at the same time, but whatever. That’s what we did. 

After changing the light, it was a lot brighter, which was awesome. Apparently headlights dim over time until they die – I guess that makes sense, but I never thought about it. So if I notice my headlights are less bright than usual, they might be on their last legs. Anyway, doing another at home car repair made me feel like a badass mechanic and I’m excited to expand my mechanical knowledge. 

I Tried Press On Nails

I talked about this experience in ridiculous detail in the below post, but to summarize: I tried press on nails for the first time and I expected to not like them because I assumed they would feel strange on my nails and would have similar issues as the Glaze gel nails that I didn’t enjoy. 

• Dashing Diva Magic Press On Nails Changed My Life

Luckily I was wrong on all counts! These nails are ridiculously quick and easy to put on, perfect without effort, and last forever (I’m on week 3 with my last set and they were still completely stuck on when I removed them). I also don’t need as many tools to put these on as my beloved Gloss nail stickers. 

• Review: Dashing Diva Glaze Semi-Cured Gel Nail Strips
• Review: Dashing Diva Gloss Nail Stickers – A Nomad Beauty Revelation

So I’m completely in love with these Dashing Diva Magic Press nails that are usually $10 for a set that I can get at least 2 manicures out of. Sensational 🙂 . 

And on a related note, I went back to my Gloss nail sticker roots and put on these “Irish You Were Here” nail stickers for St. Paddy’s Day. 

I Knitted

Knitting was wild this month. I tried DPNs (double pointed needles) for the first time and I…hated it 🙂 . I thought I was annoyed by how much I had to move around my previous (not very malleable) KnitPicks cables while knitting these Uppsala Slippers for my Partner, but despite DPNs making it easier to knit small circumference items – I did not enjoy the experience 🙂 . 

I didn’t find these KnitPicks Wooden 5″ DPNs I bought to be enjoyable to use. The wood kept digging into my fingers and I didn’t enjoy having to rearrange these 4 needles every 15 stitches or so.

I also found that the 5″ needles were long enough to knit a mitten I discuss below, but are so short that the end of the needles poked me in the hand, which didn’t feel great 🙂 . So overall it wasn’t the magical process I was hoping for, though it was more enjoyable than using my previous cables.

As a result, I decided to bite the bullet and ‘invest’ in the knitting cables all of my knitting friends and family gush about. I dropped $216 on this ChiaoGoo Twist Red Lace 5″ Complete Interchangeable Needle Set, which includes 6 Twist Red Lace cables (3 for small needles, 3 for large) that apparently make magic loop enjoyable (Spoiler: It does 🙂 ). 

That needle set also includes a wide range of sizes from US 2 all the way up to US 15. I was bracing myself to be disappointed by this purchase after my DPN debacle and I’m shocked to say…naw these needles and cables rock! 

I was also nervous because I’ve only used wooden needles instead of stainless steel like these needles because I found metal too slippery when I was first learning to knit, but now that I’m an expert 😉 I actually really enjoyed the lack of friction when using them and didn’t find that I dropped stitches more often while using them. In fact, since I’ve bought them I’ve been using them exclusively instead of my wooden needles because they’re so enjoyable to use.

Though one of the reasons they’re so fun to use is because of the cables – they actually live up to the hype. Now I know why all my KnitTubers seem to use them (including in the video above 🙂 ). And as I implied, these cables make Magic Loop a much better experience that’s way easier than what I was previously doing. 

As a result, I flew through finishing the small circumference items I’ll get into below, and I once again must admit I’ve become bougie because I think these needles and cables are indeed worth the price. My only negative about ChiaoGoo is that unlike KnitPick’s interchangeable needle sets, ChiaoGoo has different cables for mini (US 0-US1.5), small (US 2-US 8) and large size (US 9-US 15) needles so you can’t easily use the same cables across all needles like KnitPicks (which proves it can be done). 

However, ChiaoGoo cables are lightyears better than KnitPicks (which have broken on me multiple times in the last year) so I’ll forgive this inefficiency. I do have one other gripe as a previous marketing professional – I hate the fonts they use for their brand and on their products 🙂 . It makes me think this is a brand for children, which is the opposite of the truth given the cost. 

My SIL told me that she’s usually a “monogamous knitter” so I guess I’m a knitting floozy in comparison because I’m currently working on 4 projects at once. I knitted my first fingerless mitten (with the pattern called My Cup Of Tea Mitts) and this was the smallest circumference I ever knitted for the thumb, which really made me glad that I bought those ChiaoGoo cables. 

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I also started my first sock, which I’m currently regretting because it’s colorwork (called the Shifter Sock) and having my first sock be colorwork seems to have been a mistake 🙂 . I might end up with only one knitted sock at this rate. 

I also finished the bank panel on my Saven Sweater and finally started on the front panel. I’m in a race against time to try and finish this giant sweater before the weather turns too warm for me to wear it. We’ll see if I make it. 

And finally, I did the gauge swatches for my new Knives Out sweater that’s a literal reverse engineered replica of Chris Evans’ sweater in that film with a pattern that is appropriately called the “Handsome Chris Pullover” 😉 . Phew! So yeah my knitting life is ridiculous, but I’m loving it overall 🙂 . Also here’s my Ravelry account in case you want to be knitting friends 🙂 . 

I Played Video Games

I restarted Stardew Valley with my Partner on Co-Op mode and proceeded to…play for 2 hours and then watch as it took over his life for several weeks. Oops! I’m glad he had fun 🙂 . This was my third time restarting the game and my first two times, it took over my life so I guess the 3rd time is the charm. 

Next I tried a game that my friend suggested called House Flipper. It was on sale for 90% off so it was a low stakes way to try a new game and I’m glad that’s the case because…I didn’t enjoy it very much. 

Maybe I had the wrong idea, but I thought it would be about decorating houses, but instead it was mostly about cleaning up garbage and repairing small things by pressing a button. Is this actually a video game that’s trying to make me think that I can do home repairs? I’m onto you!

Apparently according to this game, flipping houses is more about cleaning and repairing things than interior design, which I found to get boring quickly. I also didn’t appreciate that they gave new types of challenges, such as fixing a garden and then when you’re done say “the only way to get more like this is our garden dlc!” There’s no need to be sneaky about it. If I want your dlc I’ll buy it. It just put a weird taste in my mouth. 

On a positive side, I tried a demo for the upcoming indie game, Thrifty Business and I had a fun time playing it. You run a retro looking thrift shop and I’m curious to see what this whole game is like once it’s released. Also shoutout to the lovely GameTuber I learned about this game from:

I Became A Plant Parent!

My SIL offered to give me a cutting off of a plant in her house because it was turning the room into a scene from Jumanji. And I accepted! I obviously haven’t had a plant since before I was a full-time nomad, over 5 years ago so I was pretty excited.

Luckily my SIL helped me out and gave me an extra pot with some soil that she had along with the plant that had sprouted in water. She told me that the plant was hydrophilic so I needed to put the soil in the pot, soak it with water and stir it with a spoon so it was really moist before transferring the plant into it so it wasn’t shocked after living in water.

So that’s what I did and I felt like a mini gardener 🙂 . I was curious to learn more about my plant so I downloaded the free Plant Parent App, which I found both helpful and annoying.

It was helpful in that it easily identified my plant from a photo – it’s a Golden Pothos (or the “Money Plant” woohoo!) and told me what this plant prefers. It likes full shade, weekly watering and is toxic to eat. Uh oh! 

This app was also helpful when I was in México because one of our Airbnbs had real plants and we were there for a month so I wanted to care for them properly (the host didn’t ask us to do this, I was just trying to be helpful). The Plant Parent app once again identified the plants from a photo and told me how much to water them, which I appreciated.

But the app is annoying in that its notifications are over the top in my opinion. Every time my plant needs watering it sends me a notification that says “Your plant needs you!” like it’s an emergency or I left a child at home or something. Calm down 🙂 . Plants are supposed to be calming.

It has similar notifications for things I did not plan to do, such as fertilize this tiny house plant every 2 weeks. So maybe this app is for more hardcore plant parents than me, but I did find it helpful in some ways. 

But anyway, I have a plant! And despite the added responsibility (I’m a commitment-phobe, can you tell 😉 ) I’m enjoying how it livens up the space. 

I Hung Out With People

This month involved some of my usual virtual meetups, such as that weekly call with my Mom and Weekly Movie Nights where we watched the below. If you’re curious about my ratings of movies, I have a Letterboxd account here.

Movies

1. Project Hail Mary
2. Ever After
3. Azeem Banatwalla: Minor Celebrity

TV Shows

1. Pluribus (S1)

I also had some fun experiences with friends and family, which included:

• Daily Morning Coffee Time with my MIL and SILs
• Weekly Family Dinner
• Cinema Movie Night with a College Friend
• MIL Retirement Party
• Knitting Hangouts

I Read 10 Books

Here were my favorite reads this month:

1. Parent Like A Millionaire (Without Being One) Outsmart Big Baby, Save on Childcare, and Secure Your Family’s Financial Future by Kristy Shen & Bryce Leung
2. Goodbye Paradise by Sarina Bowen

To see the other books I read this month and my ratings of them, I have a Goodreads account here. It was a pretty standard month in reading in that I didn’t feel like reading actual books for a few weeks and then I became ravenous for them and went into a reading hole. It was lovely 🙂 . 

I Wrote 5 Posts

In case you missed it, this month I published the below posts:

1. The Month Of CDMX: February 2026 Recap
2. Review: National Express Bus from Bath to London Heathrow
3. Dashing Diva Magic Press On Nails Changed My Life
4. Review: Avanti West Coast Train from London to Liverpool, England
5. My Curly Hair Routine: Products, Tips and Revelations

In addition to that, the website Thrifty Traveler offered me 2 free weeks of their premium subscription, which is currently $60/year. I usually decline these kinds of invites, but I was curious about what kind of travel tips and flight deals they share so I said yes.

It was cool to see the flight deals for cash and points that they found, but since I plan my travels so far in advance, it wasn’t very actionable for me. However, what I was surprised to really enjoy were their travel tips, which they send out for their free tier as well. 

But if Thrifty Traveler sounds like something you would enjoy, feel free to sign up for their free newsletter and if you want their premium features, you can use promo code APURPLELIFE to get $20 off your first year. 

And this month in the realm of “weird opportunities I declined/ignored” we have:

• A website that asked me to review Montréal restaurants (I have no idea how I got on that mailing list since I haven’t been to Canada in like 2 years)
• AliExpress
• A supposed women’s health brand

Physical

Sleep

My sleep was pretty good this month though I did get sick, which made it difficult for a little bit to sleep through the night. And generally, I find myself waking up early to go to the bathroom lately.

No matter how early I stop drinking my beloved tea, I still seem to get up at 4am on the drop to pee. So I’m not sure if I’m just turning into my Mom 🙂 ( she gets up at 4am every day and stays up).

But yeah, that’s been happening pretty consistently this month. Luckily I don’t usually have a lot of trouble going back to sleep and this does help make sure I watch the sunrise, which I love to do, but it was an interesting change I noticed since I got home from México. 

Food

Food this month was great. I did take more days off than planned because I was sick and didn’t feel like counting calories or making keto food when I didn’t feel well, but I’m glad I built flexibility into my keto plan this year so it wasn’t a big deal. In the end I ate keto 77% of the time, took 7 days off keto and it was worth it 🙂 . 

Exercise

I’m still trying to lift three times a week, which is more successful when I’m not sick or having cramps, but even if that’s the case, I try to do a few lifts so overall I am lifting 3x a week. This month I tried to focus on my form, specifically my squat form by lowering my weights and making sure I can squat properly consistently before increasing weight again. 

I also learned that tensing my muscles before doing these reps in addition to inhaling and holding my breath helps a whole lot, so I’m going to keep doing that as well. 

Mental

Learning

So it’s time for my favorite segment: Fun Facts Nobody Asked For! Here’s what I learned and explored this month:

Astronomy

I saw the usual suspects in the sky above our homebase in NY and I’m always so happy when I can see stars with my naked eye since that wasn’t always easy in NYC or Seattle. However, I also discovered something cool – my free app Star Walk 2 works on Airplane Mode!  When I was flying back to the US I was able to identify stars we were zooming past in a plane, which was super cool. 

Birds

Birding this month was a lot of fun because I saw a lot more birds than usual outside our homebase window! The bird feeders at my SIL’s house were also always occupied so it was fun to just knit and watch birds from her couch – combining some of my favorite hobbies! 

Anyway, here are the birds I saw this month: 

Barred Owl (my nephew did their call and the owl called back – so cool!), Black-Capped Chickadee, American Robin, Song Sparrow, Dark-Eyed Junco, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, Red-Winged Blackbird, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Cardinal, White-Breasted Nuthatch, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, American Crow, American Goldfinch, Downy Woodpecker, Common Grackle, House Finch, European Starling, Canada Goose, Red-Tailed Hawk, Wild Turkey, Purple Finch, Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Creativity

My creativity was pretty good this month. I’m really enjoying writing here, but I’m super behind on writing about and posting my travels to Instagram so I might need to make a plan for that. But overall my creativity is flowing and I’m really enjoying all my creative endeavors – writing, knitting, photography – all of it 🙂 .

Emotional

Emotionally. I’ve been pretty good this month! However, as I mentioned, I was hoping to return to a beautiful spring in New York after our time in México, but instead was greeted with below freezing temperatures and snow. But now it seems like spring is finally on its way! 

It’s becoming warmer and starting to rain instead of snow. However, I’m still trying super hard to finish my latest knitted sweater before it becomes real spring so I can wear it before summer. I can’t ever be happy I guess 🙂 .

So emotionally I’ve been pretty good. It’s been really nice to see my loved ones again every day and I love feeling cozy in my apartment with my Partner while also traveling almost every month – it’s the best of both worlds 🙂 . 

Money

It was a dividend month – the first month of 2026, which is always exciting:

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This month I also reflected on how relatively little I spent living in México City for a month, while feeling like a queen eating out all the time and living in a two-bedroom apartment in the heart of a beautiful neighborhood.

View this post on Instagram

And here’s where my net worth ended up this month:

View this post on Instagram

Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in March! Next month I hit the road once again and head to the southwest to see an old friend. She warns me it’s 100F there, but since it’s still often below freezing in Upstate NY, I will happily accept that trade! Until next time 😉 . 

If you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

Weekly (2020)

1. Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out
2. Early Retirement Week 2: The Vacation
3. Early Retirement Week 3: The Whiplash
4. Early Retirement Week 4: The Heartbeat
5. Early Retirement Week 5: The Election
6. Early Retirement Week 6: The Trophy
7. Early Retirement Week 7: The Train
8. Early Retirement Week 8: The Challenge
9. Early Retirement Week 9: The Question
10. Early Retirement Week 10: The Game
11. Early Retirement Week 11: The Recharge
12. Early Retirement Week 12: The Holiday

Monthly (2021)

1. The Month Of Rest: Early Retirement Month 4 (January 2021)
2. The Month Of Birds: Early Retirement Month 5 (February 2021)
3. The Month of Change: Early Retirement Month 6 (March 2021)
4. The Month of Atlanta: Early Retirement Month 7 (April 2021)
5. The Month of Portland, Maine: Early Retirement Month 8 (May 2021)
6. The Month Of New Hampshire: Early Retirement Month 9 (June 2021)
7. The Month Of The Northeast: Early Retirement Month 10 (July 2021)
8. The Month Of New York State: Early Retirement Month 11 (August 2021)
9. The Month Of City Hopping: Early Retirement Month 12 (September 2021)
10. The Month Of The Southwest USA: October 2021 Recap
11. The Month Of Santa Fe: November 2021 Recap
12. The Month Of Family: December 2021 Recap

Monthly (2022)

1. The Month Of Freezing My Balls Off: January 2022 Recap
2. The Month Of Thailand: February 2022 Recap
3. The Month Of Spring(?): March 2022 Recap
4. The Month Of México: April 2022 Recap
5. The Month of Mérida: May 2022 Recap
6. The Month of Seattle: June 2022 Recap
7. The Month of Washington State: July 2022 Recap
8. The Month Of New Hampshire: August 2022 Recap
9. The Month Of Maine: September 2022 Recap
10. The Month Of Acadia: October 2022 Recap
11. The Month Of Argentina: November 2022 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2022 Recap

Monthly (2023)

1. The Month Of Snow: January 2023
2. The Month Of New Hampshire: February 2023
3. The Month Of Sea: March 2023
4. The Month Of California: April 2023
5. The Month Of Seattle: May 2023
6. The Month Of Chicago: June 2023
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2023
8. The Month Of Troy, NY: August 2023
9. The Month Of Australia: September 2023
10. The Month Of New Zealand: October 2023
11. The Month Of Puerto Vallarta: November 2023
12. The Month Of Warmth: December 2023

Monthly (2024)

1. The Month Of Family: January 2024 Recap
2. The Month Of Costa Rica: February 2024 Recap
3. The Month Of San José: March 2024 Recap
4. The Month Of The Solar Eclipse: April 2024 Recap
5. The Month Of Arizona: May 2024 Recap
6. The Month Of Upstate NY: June 2024 Recap
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2024 Recap
8. The Month Of Canada: August 2024 Recap
9. The Month Of Iceland: September 2024 Recap
10. The Month Of Switzerland & Italy: October 2024 Recap
11. The Month Of Amsterdam: November 2024 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2024 Recap

Monthly (2025)

1. The Month Of Yuki Matsuri: January 2025 Recap
2. The Month Of Auckland: February 2025 Recap
3. The Month Of Sakura: March 2025 Recap
4. The Month Of Seattle: April 2025 Recap
5. The Month Of Settling Down(ish): May 2025 Recap
6. The Month Of Machu Picchu: June 2025 Recap
7. The Month Of The UK: July 2025 Recap
8. The Month Of Bath: August 2025 Recap
9. The Month Of Iceland: September 2025 Recap
10. The Month I Became A Millionaire: October 2025 Recap
11. The Month Of Thanks: November 2025 Recap
12. The Month Of Festive Cheer: December 2025 Recap

Monthly (2026)

1. The Month Of México: January 2026 Recap
2. The Month Of CDMX: February 2026 Recap