April Wrap Up

Image by oprisco photography

 

It feels like time has moved both slowly and quickly this April. Looking back now, it seems like it flew by (especially the portion of it that contained my spring break). However, the past few weeks felt interminably long while I was actually experiencing them. I'm in that terrible stretch now that is the last few months of school, and time tends to stand still throughout those weeks. I did manage to get quite a bit done though, for both my work life and personal life, so I was relatively happy.  

As far as my reading goes, I managed to continue my streak of 100 pages a day. I read a total of 3,897 pages and finished ten books. I had a crazy amount of four and five star reads mixed in there too - it was pretty lucky. I picked a lot of winners. Here's everything I finished:

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (5 stars)

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor (5 stars)

The Hideaway by Pam Smy (5 stars)

Alone by Megan E. Freeman (4 stars)

Cress Watercress by Gregory Maguire (5 stars)

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston (3 stars)

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh (4 stars)

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos (5 stars)

The Missing of Clairdelune by Christelle Dabos (4 stars)

The Memory of Babel by Christelle Dabos (5 stars)

My favorite read of the month is really difficult to determine. I think Strange the Dreamer takes the top spot this time around, but I was really torn between that one and Cress Watercress. Those were two very different books, but both were clever and full of heart. 

My least favorite read was Exit, Pursued by a Bear, a young adult contemporary novel about sexual assault. I appreciated its sensitivity towards its difficult subject matter, but several things about the writing irked me.

I didn't end up hauling that many books this month, which is a very good thing because I bought way too many in February and March. I only ended up adding two to my shelves:

An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X.R. Pan (young adult, fantasy, physical book)

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (literary fiction, physical book)

I decided to donate Alone, Exit, Pursued by a Bear, and My Year of Rest and Relaxation, meaning that three books left my shelves.

Next month, I plan to stay the course with all my challenges. I'll read another series, some books from my 22 in 2022 list, and more middle grades fiction. My plans are:

Storm of Echoes by Christelle Dabos

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill

The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. by David Levithan

I continued to work on my physical reading journal this month, but I didn't do as much with it as I wanted to again. I need to settle into a better routine with it, but I have to figure out the timing. 

I did pretty well with my non-reading activities too. I made a lot of progress on my diamond painting over spring break. I only have six sections left to go on it. I'm really looking forward to finishing it so I can start in on some other projects that I'm more interested in. I should be able to get it done in May.

I also finished a handful of jigsaw puzzles. The first was an image of a whole lot of flamingoes from Blanc Puzzles. This was my first time trying this brand out and I really loved it. I was surprised by the quality, because this was just a cheap buy from Target. The pieces inside came in a resealable bag (which is not common, but should be), and they fit together very nicely. They kind of "clicked" together when I placed them, which was extremely satisfying. This was 500 pieces, so it didn't take too long to finish.

I made another 500 piece puzzle from Blanc as well, this time of a snowy lantern scene. It was similarly satisfying.

I think my favorite puzzle of the month though was Lazy Sundae from Piecework Puzzles. This was 500 pieces too, and everything about it screamed quality. The pieces were thick and heavy and they had a velvety feel. I found myself constantly running my fingers over them - the texture was that good. The only downside was that the image made me crave ice cream big time.

I watched a bunch of movies and TV shows throughout the month too. In the theaters, I saw Everything Everywhere All At Once, which was amazing and probably one of the best movies I've ever seen in my entire life, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which was unusual but a lot of fun. I finally saw Black Widow on Disney Plus too, and wasn't super-impressed. For series, I binged my way through Inventing Anna on Netflix, which started off really promising and then got stupid at the end. I finished two documentaries as well - Bad Vegan, which was about a con man that messed up the life of a notable restaurant owner and White Hot, which was about the rise and fall of Abercrombie and Fitch. Both were very good.

I did pretty well on my ukulele throughout the month. I learned Chim Chim Cheree from Mary Poppins and You've Got a Friend in Me from Toy Story. I'm still working on Once Upon a Dream and Surface Pressure, and playing around with A Whole New World and Bare Necessities. It was a very Disney kind of month, obviously. I am also starting to learn Baby One More Time by Britney Spears.

Next month is going to be tough. The kids' behaviors at school are really ramping up. Things always deteriorate as summer break approaches, but this year was more difficult than usual to begin with, so it's really bad now. I'm going to have to focus a lot on self care and be very organized to get through it. I just have to keep reminding myself that before long I'll be on my break and have lot of time to read and do whatever else I want.