April 2025 Recap

Hmmm, April! I’m not sure what I think about April. I think in general spring is just not my favorite season.

In March we had the big London trip which dominated everything, but April was pretty typical, I guess. I did have a few events that “shook up” my regular routine (namely houseguests + having to work on site at the hospital several times). I also feel like my mood just wasn’t the best in April really! Looking back, I had a lot of positive, good moments for sure, but my overall vibe was just a little rocky. Not entirely sure why! But I just felt a little “off” sometimes. Who knows.

Accomplish List:

• finalized getting glass installed in our kitchen cabinet doors (had picked them up, brought home, only to find there was a scratch in the glass on one, requiring phone calls and then 2 more trips back and forth to have it redone…).
• dealt with an annoying exchange of my new high school tennis hoodie (sizing was WAY off but they didn’t want to allow an exchange… anyway, after several emails and photos with a tape measure laying over the sweatshirt, I finally was granted an exchange)
• 2 work presentations (prep, etc)
• went to Asher’s club swim team banquet
• did our taxes
• did a massive 1,000+ email purge!
• did a mini garage clean out
• scheduled physicals + dentist appts for family members
• drove Asher around a lot…. lots of new lifeguard shifts, to golf range, to many swim practices…
• had to drive to hospital 2 weeks in a row for on site events
• went to Academic Awards Night at Asher’s school
• took Charlie to the groomer
• went to a last-minute “birthday party” for my niece (on a Tuesday night…)
• had labs done
• took Asher to the dentist
• had a doctor appt
• lots of fairly intense work this month, busy days, general stress
• cleaned the house x2 (with Ivan)
• hosted houseguests for a few days
• Asher took a 3 hour long practice AP test after school one day
• Ethan- tennis season, also studying a lot for AP exam next week
• went on a shopping outing one Sunday with Ivan… got a few new things but have ultimately been striking out on my main goal of finding new black work pants that I love!
• dealt with several returns…
• spent one weekend making an actual dent in making some tangible potential plans for spring break 2026, lol. (Super complicated next year in general for travel- the boys don’t have the same spring breaks, will be Ethan’s toughest year (junior year), their high school sports are more “high stakes” now as they get older (harder to miss), need to allow time for college visits(?!), summer will be quite difficult too due to family coming/ other plans… 2026 is going to require some creativity but we are down to only 2 years left with Ethan at home, so I am determined to still take a couple great trips somehow!!

Happy/ Gratitude List:

• Bodi.com workouts stepped in to keep me moving when I was floundering a bit and needed a little reprieve from the gym
• hot tub w/ Asher several times
• a big project/presentation that had been looming for months is finally done and went really well
• the spicy arbol salsa at our Mexican place (I think I list this every month)
• a fun birthday party one Saturday night at Ivan’s cousin’s house
• that Charlie was able to generally behave with his new doggy friends at the party!
• a relaxing Saturday morning in the sunroom on a nice day
• Asher’s swim banquet was really nice
• checking “do taxes” off the list (did them on April 6th, I think… a little close, but hey. They were done and in well before the deadline! The outcome sucked (we owed a big chunk of $$, oops, darn it. Need to fix that) but at least it’s done.
• my new tennis sweatshirt (in the correct size!). It’s so comfy and I love it.
• my dad’s bilateral cataract surgeries this month went well!
• Asher getting a 4.0 GPA award! Yay Asher, so proud! 🙂
• a couple nice phone calls w/ my mom and/or dad while walking Charlie. Love this combo of walking + talking.
• stopping for a solo Chipotle lunch after an on site work event
• playing the piano
• 21 Day Fix workouts. Short, sweet, effective, convenient! Glad they exist.
• I blocked 2 hours one Wednesday morning from 8-10 and did a big “errands block” (lab, glass store, pharmacy, library, post office). I’d built up a big list and needed to get to these places and just went for it one day and it felt so good!
• a long phone call w/ my aunt Barb (she’s a dog trainer and we talked about Charlie’s reactivity issues! It was just so nice to talk to her, in general.)
• a thunderstorm on Good Friday morning
• watching Harry Potter #2 with the boys
• lunch out on Easter
• hot tub w/ Ivan
• a particular swim pick-up run when I drove Ivan’s car (he had my van off getting mulch). His car is a lot more fun to drive than mine, and it was a pretty sunset sky and the song Danger Zone came on just as I jumped on the highway. 🙂
• Charlie running the backyard…his floppy ears are so cute
• Charlie getting the zoomies after a couple rainy walks!
• our houseguests were so sweet and nice; we had a good time. Fun local outing to Memorial Union terrace/ campus!
• a low key “recovery day” after all the guests!
• reading on the couch for a while (I so rarely do this! It felt nice)
• getting back to the gym this week, and for my archive of old EmPowered workouts
• my mom coming to visit now for a few days!
• Asher getting up and going to a bunch of 5:30 a.m. swim practices (3 this week!)
• my back pain has remained nearly nonexistent! (still on Meloxicam, just reintroduced lifting at the gym this week, so I guess we’ll see…. so far so good I think…)
• Ethan got his braces off and his smile looks great!
• Dairy Queen blizzards after Asher’s ortho appt on a rare 80 degree day in April

Bummer List

• the cabinet glass scratch + extra tasks that generated
• a particular weekly meeting that is a drag and I tend to dread
• an evening that felt aimless and wasted and unsatisfying!
• Charlie chewed the corner of my basement rec room toss pillows that I love! 😫 (and bought years ago, and are quite unique and will be impossible to replace)
• an irritating social issue, no further details needed here 🙂
• I ordered several black dress pants and none of them worked
• we owed a bunch of $$ for taxes, ugh. Need to re-calculate/ figure that out better ASAP cuz it’s already May now and want to avoid same issue for next year!
• got home very late from the (fun) cousin’s birthday party…party was good, but the way-too-late night was a bummer and made me sluggish the next day
• neighbors directly behind us cut down the bushes that provided a bit of a visual barrier between our houses! Annoying.
• feeling nervous/edgy about a meeting I led for the first time
• just generally feeling a bit down this month some days/ frazzled/ stretched too thin/ always pressed for time (even though calendar is actually not that full at all compared to previous years, so I’m also… confused?)
• totally fell off my time tracking habit!! I decided to take a little break, and that’s okay. But I want to resume it, because I do really enjoy it overall!

Habits/ Books Read:

• I didn’t fill out my habit tracker this month really, or at least not completely!! Oops.
• I did exercise consistently. Did basically all of the 3 week 21 Day Fix program.
• Walked more this month (longer walks) than in winter months. We had some decent warmer weather some days!
• My weekly grocery runs have probably been my biggest “successful change” so far in 2025. This is one goal I feel I can confidently say I have really implemented. It’s been a good thing!
• Finished Harry Potter #2.
• I didn’t actually complete any other books, but I have like, 3 books going right now and 2 are close to completion. So I think May’s totals will be higher!

Things I Cooked:

• cream of broccoli soup
• a chicken/ veggie risotto
• ground beef, potatoes, pinto beans in salsa verde
• breaded tilapia, roasted zucchini/ carrots, rice
• shrimp tacos, black beans, Mexican rice
• chicken tinga tostadas
• sloppy joes
• some other random stuff but the above is all I can really remember!

Upcoming:

Hmm, May looks WEIRDLY not full so far on the calendar!!!

The last 2 years have been intense in May. I know last May Asher had school volleyball, swim AND soccer all going on at the same time, plus a ton of “8th Grade Graduation” special events and he had spring band concert in May + several sports banquets.

This May, we have….1 swim meet (tomorrow) that I have to volunteer at. Asher has a behind-the-wheel driving session. Ethan has tennis stuff, but it honestly doesn’t always involve me at all. The boys have AP exams next week, and then Ethan has finals in a few weeks, but those also don’t really involve me! They are chugging away studying on their own.

I know we’ll have a tennis banquet somewhere in there, but other than that- I don’t see too much! WHOA. This is weird. Asher isn’t doing band anymore, no one is graduating from anything, and no tournaments or big away meets?! Asher does seem to need a ride somewhere approximately every 5 minutes these days (between swim, work and the golf course/ driving range), but that seems mild in comparison to some previous Mays.

I do need to um, start planning our trip to Copenhagen, which is in like 6 weeks now?!?? Eeek.

I’m also thinking I should really maybe try and deal with the storage room this month! It feels like a “do it now or forever hold your peace” situation, because I think in summer Ivan’s parents may come and we have travel plans and then there’s yard stuff and we may try to get a jump on some college visits (?!) and I just feel like it will get busy. And once fall + holidays come around, forget about it.

Happy May to all!! 🙂

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for my mom being here!