March was early spring nostalgia and swapping the flannel bed sheets for percale. April will be family celebrations, Chris's busiest work season, and holding on tight on to spring before it slips, just like that, into hot summer days. I noticed another sign of spring recently in the absence of something: drinking hot tea. It's been weeks since I made myself a cup of hot tea which I love to do on winter mid-mornings and afternoons. I suppose I only crave it when there's still a chill in the air at 10 a.m. and those days are already past us this year. Which makes me a little sad but I remember that those days will come around again, as they always do. So instead I'm thinking about starting to stock the fridge with cold brew coffee again for a mid-morning treat.

At our house in April there's a lot to celebrate, even more so since Maeve's arrival two years ago. Our wedding anniversary, two birthdays, and often Easter as is the case this year. Although Easter is not a religious day for us it's cause to celebrate spring and family and new beginnings. This month I want to dwell in all that we have to celebrate.

I'm already feeling the busyness of planning birthdays and longer work days for Chris. So my goals this month are about finishing things up, taking care of myself, and catching up. On to April!

Big things happening in April:

+ Our 12 year wedding anniversary! Last Friday we had our favorite Coffee Shop breakfast which been our standard since 2008. Then we had an overnight staycation in downtown Phoenix – our first overnight together with no kids since Maeve was born! We played Qwixx and Yahtzee (which we haven't done in forever), had great pizza and delicious, creative ice cream, and basked in all that we have to be thankful for and look forward to. And, of course, we busted out a spreadsheet and did some big picture budgeting and had an in-depth conversation about our current household division of labor. This is what a twelve-year marriage looks like for us and I love it so much.

+ Maeve turns two; Dash turns nine!

+ Easter. We're hosting a big family get together at our house with the Wharton side of the family plus my parents and aunt and uncle who will be visiting.

+ Chris is gone for a long weekend for a Scottsdale guys' trip.

April goals:

+ Finish writing and publish Maeve's birth story. Birth stories are emotional to write and share, even when the experience was a positive one. I have a strong draft and so need to make time to keep working this towards being done.

+ Tidy up my phone photos and catch up on sharing photos with family. I'm usually on top of keeping my photos fairly tidy. After taking multiple shots I tag a couple favorites and delete the rest. Occasionally I back up all my phone photos to Google Photos and then delete them off my phone. I also share favorite photos of the kids to a shared album that family and close friends can see. I'm behind on all of this and want to catch up this month.

+ Start tracking my cycle on paper. For a while I've been wanting to track my period and my mood to see if I can make any connections. I don't feel that I experience severe mood swings around my period but I am curious to know if I can find trends of when I feel more stressed versus calm or when I am craving socializing or downtime. Plus I have a hormonal IUD which makes my periods inconsistent and I'm not sure how that might affect my moods. I've tried a few different apps but they either don't track all the information that I want or don't display it in the way I want to see it. I think what I need is old fashioned paper and pen. I was about to go buy myself a monthly calendar when I realized that all I need is to print out a monthly calendar on a piece of paper.

+ Finish setting up the Toyota app on my phone. Apparently I'll be able to start my car remotely from my phone once I finish this. I really think this could be a summer game-changer if I'm able to pre-cool the car instead of loading kids into baking-hot seats.

+ Make progress on our 2021 family photo book. I have a good start but need to keep working on it!

+ Make some summer plans for the boys. We're hoping to sign them up for a few weeks of camp this summer but getting their buy-in is essential.

Happy April, friends!

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