Share Four Somethings Saturday – April

I’m glad that spring is well on the way but it’s been quite a bit colder than I would like around here lately. Usually, April is the month when it really starts to feel like spring but we’ve had more than our fair share of frigid days.

I still can’t believe we’re already more than a quarter of the way through 2021. 2020 felt like it would never end and in some ways, it still does. I’m fighting for hope that things will begin to improve in the weeks (or months) ahead.

Something Loved

I honestly never realized until recently how much impact fresh flowers have on my mood and home. This time of year I have lots of things blooming in my yard and bringing them inside as often as I can manage has been lovely. I’m working on slowly building a cutting garden so that I always have a few things blooming and so I can cut some every few days without picking my yard bare.

Something Read

This month I’ve fought the constant battle between reading and sleep. I need to find books that keep my attention but so much that I can’t sleep. This month I’ve been mostly reading My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. As a big fan of the TV show The Durrels of Corfu, I’ve been enjoying the books they are based on, though the perspective is a bit different.

I’m also getting started on Castaway in Cornwall and Prince of Spies which I am long overdue to read. Hopefully, as our school year comes to a close, I’ll find a lot more time to read.

Something Treasured

My manuscript is finished! At least, I’m finished writing it and the first and heaviest round of editing and revision. After a multi-year process of stalling, I finally set a few deadlines for myself and found ways to enforce them. I had an idea for Lenten devotional almost as soon as published by Advent devotional. Writing it took a few years longer than expected and editing even longer. But I decided that this would be the year and I was determined to let my writer’s group be my beta readers during Lent this year. While I didn’t entirely meet my deadline (the last few daily reading weren’t finished until after Easter), and I still have another few rounds of edits to go, it felt good to have fulfilled my current goal.

Something Ahead

While we’ve had a tough school year we’ve also had some high points. I’ve enjoyed the variation of doing cousin school with my sister and her kids. We’ve only recently started extracurriculars again and while there has been some benefit to that I’m looking forward to when everything finishes up. We usually finish our school year by the middle of May and I’m really looking forward to it. It will relieve some of the pressure on me to be a constant drill sergeant and leave room for lots of enjoyable reading and easy-going days. I’m looking forward to lots of time outside in the spring weather and meeting up with friends in the outdoors

We also have a bathroom tiling job that was delayed a year because of COVID. While it seems like a minor deal compared to much of what is happening in the world. I’m looking forward to having a clean, well-tiled shower and refinished tub.

I looking ahead to my favorite weather, my eighteenth wedding anniversary, and planning for a better year to come than the last.