Hello, April.

I always love April. This is a month of hope, with the mud turning to dirt, the brown turning to green. For our family, March is a bit sad as we remember our son, as well as my dad. But April is a month of happiness. We have several birthdays to observe, including our eldest son on the 4th, and my mom and brother both on the 18th. Friends and extended family as well. I love to see what will sprout up in the gardens and spend quite a bit of time dreaming what our future flower beds and veggie patch will look like. Gardening here has definitely been a long, drawn out process, but we started literally with a blank slate. Every year, I feel better and am proud of what we've done that year. Can't wait for this year. Definitely have some creative but labor intensive plans. Going to be a great Summer. 

For this first day of April, though we are on holidays this week, we were up pretty early, worked out, showered, dressed, bed made, then we were off to pick up an item in the Big City, that turned in to three, from a lovely lady who is moving to Australia. I show them in tomorrow's post. We then headed back to our little hamlet to do some banking, then to the store to buy groceries for Easter dinner. I'm deadly allergic to potatoes, so I've never tried scalloped potatoes but can eat sweet potatoes. Trying a Martha Stewart recipe for white cheddar potatoes and hoping I can substitute okay. After we got home, we had lunch and then I realized I wasn't feeling 100%. Not sick, just super tired. So while dh did some taping in the studio, I curled up on the couch to watch a show and ended up napping away a good part of the afternoon. Clearly, I needed some extra sleep! We had a lovely dinner of breakfast, then dh headed back to the studio after we cleaned the kitchen and I went out for a walk with our neighbors. Our garbage bins have to be walked down the lane to the main subdivision road because the County won't drive their big trucks down our private road to get our bins. Our other neighbors down the lane burn their garbage but we recycle and compost and have a black bin for things that have no other place to go. It was a lovely walk and nice to catch up. I love watching their littles grow, and two out of three are now on bikes and doing so well. We are so blessed to live down the lane and in the big woods. And to have close neighbors who have so much experience living in the country. We would have been stuck a few times without their expertise to help guide us. They are priceless to us! I hope we are equally helpful to them.

Tomorrow I hope to have more energy like I did at the start of the week. I usually have one day a week where my energy wanes, and typically it's Wednesday. But that didn't happen this week, so I guess today made up for having lots of energy yesterday! Before I go back to work on Tuesday, I'm hoping to get some more of our board and batten work done, some painting, our taxes dropped off at the accountant, my mom's paperwork completed, our seeds started for the veggie patch and lots of writing to finish up. I'm already feeling lighter from some of the other tasks I've already taken care of since being home this week. Such a relief to have a list to stay focused and then tick those items off. I've even tackled a few that weren't on the list but stuck in my head as "one day, I'm gonna tackle that" and here I'm am .... done and done! The best feeling ever. 

Easter will be quiet again this year. So hard to believe it's our second celebration in lock down. We take each day at a time, have hope for this to end in time and truly wish those that don't believe it's "a thing" will adhere to the regulations so we can ALL get back to living. One day soon, we hope, we hope. Travel would be lovely again. Seeing our family and holding them in our arms. Going for dinner. No fear of talking with someone in person. These are the things I wish for. Maybe April will see this change and a return to a more freeing lifestyle again. For now, we are enjoying our extra time at home to be cozy all together, practicing true Hygge.

Wishing you a beautiful Good Friday

and a very Happy Easter this weekend.

~ Chy