Oh man, just two posts in April?! But that speaks to a "typical April" for Team Wharton when the end of academic year craziness bleeds into the rest of our life. There are always evening events. There is always a deadline. Somehow Chris always ends up traveling.

I'm not sure if I could really say I handled it any better this year; I get stressed and start to globalize (why is the house NEVER clean?! who do I have no time to write EVER?!) even though I know it's just a phase. Chris is traveling this week, which I was having some anxiety about, but I reached out to my mom colleague and got some great tips and I asked for help (which can be hard to do!) and I'm feeling OK about it. I had a great day with the boys on Sunday - I can do this!

Awesome things in April include Dash learning to ride his pedal bike on his own. The other evening, when we got home from work and daycare, we packed up a picnic dinner, loaded Cedric into the bike trailer and rode bikes - three of us! - to the park. I love seeing Dash's pride and independence and thinking of all the family bike adventures that we will go on. And, on a less significant level of awesome, I also made good on my April goal of ordering a summer shirt: I am loving this soft and long tank from LL Bean.

In May the busyness should settle down and we'll coast into our summer and sabbatical schedule (Chris is on sabbatical this fall!). We are so excited. I'm also hoping this month to get back into a groove with my writing, blogging and e-course development. So, welcome, May!

Big things happening in May:

+ Chris travels to Vancouver.

+ Our house gets painted! Although my yellow front door was disapproved by the HOA. Guys! I'm all kinds of emotional about it. Planning to follow up this week and while I do enjoy following the rules I may have to go rogue on this.

+ Girl Next Door Podcast mini retreat. So often Erica and I get together to podcast but we're fitting it into our full lives and we don't have time to make bigger plans for the podcast. We're taking a Saturday this month to do just that; what fun work!

+ Two day creative retreat. I have two reports due on May 9 and the following week I'm taking off two days to work on my own creative projects. It will be such a sweet rewards after ending those projects.

May goals:

+ Find consistent time for blogging. My weekend creative work time has gone by the wayside with recent full weekends but I'm hoping to get back to this. If the fourth goal on this list goes well perhaps I'll get back into a habit of a 4 AM morning here and there.

+ Organize my closet. This is a hold over from last month that I hope to complete this month, including putting away any winterish clothing.

+ Go on a breakfast date with Chris to celebrate the end of the academic year!

+ Hire and work with a sleep coach. Are you tired of hearing about my sleep woes? I'm tired of hearing myself talk about my sleep woes. Also, I'm just tired. Dash is now fairly consistently waking in the middle of the night - sometimes several times - and waking for the day in the early 4 AM hour. It doesn't feel sustainable for Chris and me and it can't be what's best for Dash. I think having an objective, outside opinion, an integrated plan and support to implement that plan will help a lot. Cross your fingers for us and I'll report back on how it goes!

Recurring monthly goals:

+ Exercise three times per week. This has been going well and I've been feeling really fit and healthy.

+ Get up early on Tuesdays for the 4 AM project. Putting this aside for now until we figure out how to get more sleep. I had the idea for working at 4 AM when both our boys started sleeping through the night and until at least 5:30 AM. Since that is no longer the case this hasn't been working well.

+ Publish to RISING*SHINING on Mondays and Wednesdays. Working on getting back to this.

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

Happy May!