Thursday, April 30, 2026

Joining Patty for these fun questions first!

1. I have to say the hydrangea! I love them so much! My periwinkle hydrangea is starting to sprout its green leaves on the bottom right now. My Dad dug this up from our childhood home in 2005 when they moved to their new home so it’s extra special and I verbally thank my Dad in Heaven every spring when it blooms.
2. We have flowering bushes in addition to the hydrangea because of my husband. He picked azaleas and rhododendrons.

3. I am not a gardener! I really wish that I was. We all have our gifts and this one isn’t mine, sadly. I appreciate gardens and flowers of others so much!

4. Blouses! Blouses with jeans, cut offs, jean skirt.

5. I love all the nautical type stuff and red, white, and blue. My mind hit a blank for other trends right now!

6. I love long sleeves with shorts! I think a long-sleeved blouse can work in transitional weather quite well. I say also to change from morning to afternoon if need be.

7. I turn to lemon! I am not big on lemonade but I love a lemon centered cocktail. The limoncello spritz is delicious and I had a blueberry lemon fizz cocktail recently.

8. BLTS with a side salad, a salad with a piece of protein on top (buy protein already cooked), Mexican burrito bowls (buy ready made chicken).

April Books

This month I thought I would combo my books of the month with how I did on my April/Spring goals, and my grocery total for the month. I didn’t end up tracking my spending like I did in February and March. I did, however, track groceries because I had the goal of less food waste and reducing spending with just the two of us (humans) eating.

This was cute:

I enjoyed this:

I loved this! This would be a great beach read/summer read.

This was a good mystery, and I enjoyed trying to predict how it would wrap up.

This was cute:

This was difficult to read as it was about two estranged sisters whose mom died. I had issues with decisions the characters made. I liked some things that happened in the book. I am just at a bit over a year of my own mother dying, so that affected me, of course. I am not sure I would recommend it.

This was so cute! My sister Molly loved Anne of Green Gables and still has the dream to go to Prince Edward Island. My mom wanted to take all the girls in the family.

I read 7 books again this month – this seems to be my sweet spot. Here are my January, February, and March books. This is the first year I’m recording them!

I did really well with my April/Spring goals!

Here is what I had said:

Adult Easter bags for my kids and their roommates – check

Do an April Fool’s Day prank on Tom -check

Cook an Easter meal – check

Switch out minimal Easter decor for minimal Derby decor – check

Keep playing Mah jong – try to go to Monday night Mah Jong at a local restaurant -check

Look for appropriate places to play Mah jong at local businesses (bonus if it’s a patio)

Continue spring clean out list – try to do one area per day in April

Wrap up Spanish tutoring with my student – check – we have four more Mondays

Go to one new place a week – a coffee shop, a store, or a restaurant, or walking trail – check

Walk outside in different places/Walk EO in different locales – check

Go through spring and summer clothing (curating my style) – Words I identify with or want to identify with this season – classic, prep, Nantucket, blues, pinks, greens, yellows, whites, creams – quality over quantity, only things I love and “feel” like me – I feel like my summer style is more classic or maybe it’s more of an age thing. I am curating my spring/summer shoes, too.

Listen to live music – outside if possible – I have a couple dates on my calendar of opportunities for this

Read outside – check

Visit a farmer’s market -check

Attend some spring events going on in town – check

Watch steamboat race (part of Derby)

Watch airshow (part of Derby) – the weather wasn’t good – I don’t even think they did much of an airshow this year

Attend Churchill Downs racing day for locals (5 days before actual Derby) with college friends

Plan Mother’s Day – not sure my kids will be off work

Host on my patio – twice for Mah Jong – check

Teach Tom and kids how to play mah jong – check! It was comical.

I’m really proud of how much I did in April. The ones in bold I will carry over to next month. Those are the ones I didn’t accomplish.

Grocery (as best as my records are – admittedly I really slacked on recording this month!)

Kroger $658

Whole Foods $72, $32

Aldi $52

Fresh Market $0

Paul’s $28

Trader Joe’s $0 – is this possible?

$842- If this is accurate, we did much better this month on groceries. I do believe we ate out more than we did in March, though. This month I did smaller pick up orders at Kroger to try to plan/avoid food waste better and I think it worked. I did discover my new love of Whole Foods, though!

Well, we sure did talk about a lot today!

Amy