April 2023 goals

April is looking to be a whirlwind month. As you’ll see below, we have several trips planned: a spring break trip to Florida with all of John’s siblings and parents to celebrate his mom and dad’s fiftieth wedding anniversary, and a weekend trip to Asheville to celebrate my sister paying off all of her undergraduate and graduate school student loans.

I love opportunities like these, to celebrate the people I love and to help them feel seen and honored. I’ve also learned that be able to do that as I’d like, and to truly enjoy these moments, I need to give myself plenty of time to prepare – otherwise, I’ll feel stressed in the moment and (more often than not) regret after the fact. I am not a wing-er. This was a hard-won lesson for me, as one of my only regrets in life is that I did not prepare well to toast my older sister at her wedding. So – scratching out toast drafts for my beloved in-laws and plotting ways to fete my adored younger sister is how you’ll find me this month.

Here’s what else is in the plans…

On my calendar this month:
— Lots of travel! In addition to Florida and Asheville, I’ll be in Texas for several days for work.
— Biking the American Tobacco Trail with a friend. We’ve blocked out a full school day to ride the 44 miles together!
— A trip to the WRAL Azalea Gardens when everything’s in bloom.

What I’m loving right now:
— I’ll listen to anything Tim Keller says. I so appreciated his piece in The Atlantic about needed revival in American Christianity.
— If you love all things powder blue as much as I do, run, don’t walk, to Target. I snapped up four sets of these paper snack plates.
— After many years with my beloved bow hat, it is finally looking a little worse for wear. After much deliberation, I chose this hat to be my new sun companion. I’m still getting used to the look, but I think I love it. (Tip: size up – I ordered a small first and had to exchange it for a medium.)

As a reminder, you can find allll the things I’ve loved over the last few years neatly organized right here!

What I read in March:
— Girl With a Pearl Earring | I plucked this old favorite from our bookshelf when I was waiting on library holds. It was an interesting re-read… though I still enjoyed it, I found it to be different in feel from many of the novels I read today. More simplistic? I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I suppose it makes sense that what constitutes a popular novel might change in 20 years.
— The Odyssey | Like many of you, I read The Odyssey in freshman English. I have fond memories of it (maybe not like many of you, ha). When a friend raved about this first translation in English by a woman, I happily added it to my reading list and pals, it did not disappoint! As one review puts it: “Wilson’s language is fresh, unpretentious, and lean…It is rare to find a translation that is at once so effortlessly easy to read and so rigorously considered.” The introduction and translator’s note at the beginning were lengthy, but fascinating to read – and made me even more impressed by all the work that must have gone into creating this version, which is written in near-perfect iambic pentameter and contains the exact number of lines as the original Greek (!). (And now I want to read Circe next – it only seems appropriate, yes?)

My reading list for 2023 is moving right along!

Revisiting my March goals:
Cull and sort second half of 2021 photos
Paint our master bathroom cabinets (Paint has been purchased! I went with Lehigh Green – seen above!)
Tackle the coat closet
Meet with a lawyer to update our estate planning documents (Appointment is scheduled for April!)
Make a style guide for the EFM book
Capture photos of our kitchen and bedroom to share updates

April goals:
— Organize our master bath cabinets
— Paint our master bath cabinets (will be revisiting this post!)
— Complete 2008-2009 in the EFM book
— Plan well for our Asheville trip
— Send invites for the book swap
— Finish the Best of EFM page (bless it, it’s been hanging out in a very unfinished way for months…)
— Film Annie in April

As a reminder, many of these are drawn from my 2023 goals!

What are you looking forward to this spring? I’d love to hear!

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