2026 March Recap

April 5, 2026

March has been quite an interesting month, with unexpected surprises. Looking back, I also realize I worked on a lot of projects and ate a lot of good food, which I'm definitely thankful for. ๐Ÿ˜‹

books ๐Ÿ“–

365 Days With Self-Discipline — I was not that great at keeping with my morning routine this month either (long story, being stranded and my schedule out of wack), but still picked up a few tips from this book

Make Time — hit the 75% mark! I hope to finally finish this in April, then start another book (haven't decided which one yet)

Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case by Donald J. Sobol — rereading a childhood favorite character hehe

The Most Wonderful Egg in the World by Helme Heine

games played ๐ŸŽฎ

Starsand Island — maybe played a little too much of this one hmm...๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜ณ

Hatch Dragons — tbh I wish the dragons were cuter lol

food pics ๐Ÿ“ธ

honey-flavored potato fries chips...was weird lol

pastry cakes yum yum ๐Ÿ˜‹

make-your-own noodles

fruit popsicle

lantern festival goodies

beef noodles

quail eggs

someone made homemade strawberry cake

beef and potato noodles

้…ธๅฅถ (suan nai) in a bag

beef-flavored Lays on sale

yummy grape popsicle ice cream thingy

้…ธๅฅถ (suan nai) in a jar

more ice cream

red bean mochi egg pastry

ๅ…ปไนๅคš (yang le duo, Yakult) — another childhood favorite

matcha ice cream

durian ice cream bar

chocolate-covered honeydew melon ice cream

lemon berry something ice cream

ๅ†ท้ข (leng mian) — one of my fav street foods

taro chickpea ice cream

one of my favs, not too creamy and very refreshing

shaved ice from Meetfresh

beef noodles with tomatoes and cheese, so good ๐Ÿคค

็ƒง้น… (roast goose)

someone made cake with 12 layers ๐Ÿคฏ

apple-flavored gummies (QQ candy)

peach ice cream

vanilla mochi ice cream

activities and fun stuff I did

look at all these flavorsssss

snow ๐Ÿ˜ณ

watching the younger ones play with firecrackers

I made a lantern for the Lantern festival

first time to Forbidden City

project updates ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ

Small Girl Abroad

Had an idea to do a travel blog:

  • settled on the name + got the domain
  • started brainstorming colors and fonts and branding
  • did some UI sketches

Personal Hub

  • made some overall UI updates
  • made some updates to the calendar
    • added more task info to the calendar events themselves
    • updated task-clicking to show information in a side tray

Stamp Collector App

  • finished basic UI designs
  • implemented code for designs
  • integrated Clerk for authentication
  • integrated Neon and Prisma for data
  • attempted to code functionality for focus sessions

Misc

  • brainstormed online educational platform idea
  • brainstorming a unique project with a friend...hehe iykyk ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ’’

achievements & accomplishments โœจ

checklist โœ…

โœ… wrote my 2026 February recap

โœ… 75% through reading Make Time

learning ๐ŸŽ“

โœ… finished Design Fundamentals with AI course (cert)

โœ… finished Generative AI Content Creation course (cert)

โœ… finished Brand Identity: How Branding Works and Building Your Personal Brand course (cert)

โœ… finished Level 1 (HIG Principles & Philosophy) and Level 2 (Apple's Visual Language) of Apple Human Interface Guidelines course

other ๐ŸŒŸ

โญ took the Uxcel Pulse assessment

โญ picking up my morning routine and stretches again

experiments ๐Ÿงช

Willow & Fern Brand Guidelines

Had a little fun with this.

things I'm thankful for ๐Ÿ™Œ

  • Got to catch up with a lot of old friends and saw some kids grow up, which was super fun! ๐Ÿค—
  • Ate long dinners with my family this month. ๐Ÿฝ๏ธ
  • Met new friends at an English corner. ๐Ÿซ‚
  • Gave a short talk on career and personal development to a group of high school-aged kids. ๐Ÿ’ผ
  • Lots of time for family, friends, and myself due to delay of the start of the semester and two-week Pesach break. ๐Ÿ๏ธ

~Catherine ๐Ÿ’š