I'm writing this with freshly trimmed hair (ahhhhhh) tucked away in the office on Sunday afternoon. I resisted an attempted break-in from two small bandits who banged on the door yelling, "Mama!", and not fooled for a minute of what is behind the locked door. So I'd better be brief.

 I think that I've kept writing every month that summer, like the toddler bandits, is knocking at the door. And yet we are holding it off. Just today the boys and I watched chilly rain from the safety of our garage after a bike ride and dared each other to dart out into the rain and run back. (This is life in the desert; every rain a mysterious and exciting event.)

I still make my side of the bed with a twin-size down quilt every night but by the middle of the night I'm kicking it off. The air conditioner has been running at night for a few weeks. I'm enjoying the long spring evenings and having enough light after we get home on weekdays to be outside with the boys.

Chris and I take turns either watching the boys or being on dinner duty which, honestly, is usually the coveted duty after a work day when you crave a few minutes to yourself before the hubbub of dinner and bedtime. But whenever I end up outside with the boys I'm always glad to be there, and that someone else is making dinner.

Big things happening this month:

+ My family visited! It was great to have my parents and aunt and uncle here and we saw my cousin perform in a touring production of Of Mice and Men in one of the lead rolls (Lennie) and he was so fantastic. 

+ We celebrated Dashiell turning THREE! We visited our neighborhood fire station and then blew bubbles and flew model airplanes in our backyard and ate chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles.

+ Evening commitments for Chris. Including a dinner with Michael Pollan this week!

+ Day date with Chris to celebrate six years of being married! 

April goals:

+ Organize my closet. 

+ Order one or more summer shirts. My spring and summer wardrobe is looking sparse and drab in the shirt department. I'd like to find a couple of shirts that will work in the summer heat and for running around the the boys and that will hold up. I often find that thinner shirts develop small holes where they rub against the buttons on my pants and I'd like something that will hold up for a few years.

+ Schedule a painter to paint our house! We've settled on a painter who will paint our house and the Ladd's next door and we have our colors. Hopefully this will be done within the month!

Recurring monthly goals:

+ Exercise three times per week. I'm happy to be getting back to this goal, hopefully this week. The run of being under the weather continued lately and resulted in some missed workouts.

+ Get up early on Tuesdays for the 4 AM project. This has been especially hard lately with the super early mornings the rest of the week and often Cedric has been waking, randomly, at 4:30 on the days I get up early, which usually sabotages my chance for writing.

+ Publish to RISING*SHINING on Mondays and Wednesdays. This is always my goal but if I miss a day or a week here and there I don't sweat it.

+ Record and produce new episodes of The Girl Next Door Podcast and Matrimoney on schedule. 

Happy (belated) April!