To the surprise of nobody, we’re here at the end of May, and I’m only just trying to get the recap out for April and get out May’s goals…clearly blogging has had to take a major backseat at the moment.
And since we’re in the weeds right now (literally) with the last of the spring planting, my recap of April will have to be very brief–partly because I don’t have the time to go into detail, and partly because by now, I simply don’t remember what happened, lol.
So here are the big things that happened in April:
- The kids had their spring break the first week in April, and we took them all to a children’s museum we’d never been to and went to our friends’ house for dinner, where they fed us rice bowls, which effectively got Matt and I hooked on eating rice bowls for the next several weeks as an easy lunch option 🙂 Later in the week, we had some other friends over for dinner, and we did some smaller things in between like library trips and things like that.
- Raven turned 10. She’d been begging me for years to do another scavenger hunt for her birthday presents (which is something I did right after COVID hit in 2020 to try and boost morale since we’d had to cancel a lot of our plans), and I finally obliged this year. Now, of course, the boys expect the same on their birthdays. Honestly, we keep birthdays so low-key around here that doing something simple like a scavenger hunt for presents seems like an easy way I can make their days a bit more special. We also met grandparents at Pizza Pie Cafe for her “official” birthday celebration.
- We celebrated Easter with the usual — Easter egg hunts (multiple) the day before, dyeing eggs, and going to church the day of and also to family parties at both of our parents’ houses. For the Easter egg/basket hunt at our own house, we invited our good friends over with their daughter so they could join in the fun.
- Naomi turned 2. We celebrated by having grandparents over for dinner and ice cream, and Naomi solidly refused to touch the cake or ice cream (we’re in the middle of a stage where she’s very, very suspicious of any foods that she doesn’t eat regularly). Naomi also started to pull herself up to standing easily and cruise along the furniture, and she’s now getting into all the drawers and cupboards, so we’ve had to put locks on those. She’s the cutest little mischief there ever was.
- Naomi’s continued to have to be on oxygen at night and during naps, which is unusual this far out from being actively sick. We finally met with some specialists, and we determined that we probably should try removing her tonsils and adenoids and see if that helps to clear up her airways and help with her sleep apnea. That surgery will be in June.
- We started officially selling through a big wholesale floral market up north of us in April, and we have LOVED having that sales outlet. It’s meant not only that none of our flowers have gone to waste yet, but that we’ve also had a steady and reliable paycheck from the farm. What a relief!
- We also opened up our flower farm’s self-serve farmstand and our bouquet subscriptions in April, both of which got off to a very solid start. A great way to begin the official opening of our cut flower season!
April Goals
Flower Farm Goal: Plant all hardy annuals and perennials
One of these years, we’ll actually manage this. We did way better this year than last, but we still had a ton left undone by the end of April. We actually only finished this up this week, at the end of May.
Marriage Goal: Take a weekly walk just the two of us
We’ve actually done pretty good at this! We missed a week or two around Mother’s Day with all the floral craziness around then, but we’ve done all right on this goal. Considering that we’re rarely able to get out for dates anymore, these little mini date walks are a great opportunity for us to just talk with the two of us, without the constant buzz of kids around.
Home Goal: Put away all kids’ clothing that’s sitting in our bedroom
Uh, no. It keeps nagging at me, but other more urgent things have always pushed it to the back burner. Maybe once planting is all finished, I can have the head space I need to deal with the nagging house tasks again.
May Goals
Home Goal: Complete monthly decluttering challenge
Our house is getting out of control regularly again, which is a sure sign I need to do another thorough declutter. I decided to print out a blank calendar page for May and cross out each day when I’ve decluttered the corresponding number of items for that day (one item for the first of the month, ten items for the 10th of the month, etc.). I haven’t made myself go in order or anything or even do it every day…I’m simply just crossing off days as I get around to it.
Garden Goal: Get all my containers planted
Since I’ve given up the idea of having my own “regular” personal garden for the time being but still want to grow flowers for ME to enjoy, I decided this year to lean into planting a ton of containers and calling that my “garden” for the time being. I’ve grown all the seedlings for it; now I just need to get them in the pots!
Flower Farm Goal: Hire employees
We vowed at the beginning of this flower farming season that we would do whatever it took to make sure that we never had another year as stressful and taxing as last year was on our family. We knew that that would mean that we’d need to hire employees, so now that we have regular income coming in again from the farm, it’s time to cross this off the list. I am SO excited!
And now that we’re at the end of May, I need to turn right around and do another post all about this month 🙂
