A sort-of abbreviated April 2026 Monthly Recap

In the spirit of (trying) to keep my posts shorter, I’m going to do a slightly less thorough April recap. (*everyone cheers*)

The month kicked off with the first ~5 days spent in the Virgin Islands. We returned late Sunday April 5th, then dove into a new workweek. I struggled to get my footing a bit, as I tend to, lol, (and yet I do it to myself over and over… 😅). Ahh, I’m a glutton for punishment, aren’t I.

The rest of the month didn’t have TOO many major “have-to-do’s” and dang- this month actually had quite a lot of fun things, I’m noticing, as I skim over my logs!!

I still feel like I was quite productive and got a lot done, also. (Especially at work. I felt really dialed in. Maybe my time away on vacation paid off.)

It was a good month. A bit hard to believe that we’re in month FIVE of 2026 already though now.

Accomplish List (highlight version):

• went to Asher’s Award Night at school (celebrated his 4.0 GPA!)
• did our taxes 👎
• presented at the Nursing Symposium!
• took Asher to doctor, Charlie to groomer
• some decluttering stuff: cleaned out basement fridge and freezer
• household stuff: cleaned, groceries, weeded front yard, etc.
• Charlie to vet
• scheduled physicals for the family
• big Monarch $$ catch up/ spring bring financial reconcile
• toured UW Madison with Ethan!
• some seasonal closet change-around work
• deep cleaned my van!
• worked on site twice

Happy/Gratitude List (picking and choosing some!):

• a message from an old coworker who learned from a mutual friend about my blog and sent me the sweetest comment saying how much she loved it! Seriously, made my day.
• a warm, spring rain
• reading in sunroom with the patio door open
• nachos
• Ethan’s tennis friends (+ some newer closer friendships for him)
• the black dress I wore to present in
• The Pitt (boo, we finished it…)
• tracking and categorizing my time was weirdly fun!
• the hot tub
• Ethan went to Prom and looked handsome. 💕
• a long email clean out at Panera on a Sunday afternoon while Ethan was working (and occasionally popping out to lobby to chat with me) while I sipped large amounts of unsweetened iced tea. 🙂
• cooking dinner with the window open and the local evening news on the TV
• both boys having good success with their spring sports
• a Target run with Asher
• Charlie’s initially-too-short haircut now looks very cute again. 🙂

Fun Things I Did:

• finished our Virgin Islands Trip!
• went to Ivan’s cousin’s house for a little birthday dinner/ party
• went to a comedy club book launch party for one of our surgeons at work
• went to see “You, Me and Tuscany” movie in theater with Ivan and ate popcorn and gummy worms.
• had an impromptu kind of fancy post-work happy hour at Turn Key Supper Club with Ivan after my presentation
• went to an awesome blogger meet up at Panera in Brookfield with blog reader Kaethe!! so fun!!
• went to a Candlelight Concert (Beatles/ Queen) and out to Nattspil for dinner with Ivan’s cousin + wife (a thank you to them for watching Charlie)
• went to Milwaukee for basically a whole day to watch Ethan’s tennis tournament + out to Cafe Hollander in Mequon for dinner w/ my parents
• toured UW Madison with Ethan and out to State Street Brats for lunch with him
• bought Garth Brooks tickets! (Well, A ticket. 😆)
• went out to a shrimp boil place (new to us) with Ivan’s cousin’s family as a send off for Ivan’s aunt and uncle who had been in town visiting from Mexico. It was DELICIOUS and also insanely messy! ha. We had to wear bibs and disposable gloves to eat our boiled peel and eat shrimp and lobster tail with corn and rice and potatoes… we of course got the super spicy version and it kind of looked like a crime scene! But so, so good.

*WOW I am noticing I sure did a lot of fun things in April!!! Who am I. haha.

Bummers List

• vacation ended??
• Charlie got chunky while we were away 😬
• our taxes outcome!!
• getting extremely behind on my Gmail….
• struggled getting back on the “healthy train” after vacay
• tons of bad storms one week/ multiple tornado warnings + hail damage to Ivan’s rental car… blah.
• I had the worst hangnail for days that really hurt! ha.
• a few unbloggables 🙃
• feeling a little sad/ guilty (?) about not enough time with the boys lately. (Even though it’s not my “fault” and they are legit busy with other things, etc., I feel like I should be somehow making this happen more….? I’m probably overthinking.)

(Okay this is really not abbreviated. 😅😅 But hey, still shorter than these recaps usually are.)

Upcoming in May:

I made a silly long goals list for May…maybe more on that later. It’s kind of embarrassingly long, to be honest….

Will share things on the docket, for now:

• a work luncheon
• Mother’s Day! Next weekend. AND I already bought my mom’s gift, so proud of myself. 😉
• Ethan has several home tennis matches this week and an overnight tournament
• I have a dr. appt.
• Asher has an ortho AND dentist appt.
• Asher has prom! (Junior prom, and he’s a sophomore, but most of his friends are Juniors so he’s going.)
• AP exams for both boys (Ethan had one of his today, AP Bio! 2 more to go; Asher has 3 also) and final exams for Ethan
• more tennis, more golf
• Memorial Day long weekend
• Charlie’s getting a deep teeth cleaning under anesthesia on 5/26…
• summer volleyball (sand league!) starts up sometime this month. Need to check those dates.
• end of season tennis banquet and golf banquet, I think? Not 100% sure of dates!
• spring yard stuff- get out patio furniture, plant some flowers, etc.

How was your April? Drop me an “Accomplish, Happy/Gratitude, Fun Thing and a Bummer” in the comments if you want to play along. 😉

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for SPRING WEATHER.

Bonus pic: the shrimp boil! From Mad Seafood Boiler, right off State St. in Madison.