Hello everyone! Today, I have an action packed April to share with you!

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I’ve started my blog posts for BirthMay, so it’s nice to get a break from writing those to be able to recap April! Let’s get started!

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My Lively

Creative Fun

DIYs

Alas, I skipped DIYs this month! The librarian in charge of those took last month off from DIYs so I was excited to get back into them this month but then I ended up having to work late that day. I finally logged off 15 minutes before the DIY was set to start so I decided to skip because I still had to take the dog out, would have still had to change, and was exhausted from the day. And good thing I did actually, since shortly after I logged off a coworker texted me with an update that the deadline had been miscommunicated to someone and they thought the deadline was the next day! Luckily, I had hustled to get ahead by a day, so I wasn’t stressed out too much but I logged back in shortly after getting the text so I could tie up a few loose ends that I thought I had another day to work out. And we met the deadline! What a relief!

Back to the DIYs, I did skip this month’s but it actually was fine. The project was making a gnome and I am honestly very creeped out by gnomes and would never bring one into my (parent’s) house. The librarian had laughed when I told her that too at the end of March’s book club, so when I texted her I had to skip she remembered and said it was for the best considering I didn’t even want to make a gnome LOL. What a great and understanding friend she is.

Bujo

My poor bullet journal has actually been pretty neglected this month! While I strive for work-life balance, especially when I work from home, it’s just been so busy lately that I haven’t dedicated as much time to my bujo!

I did, however, get to show off my bujo with a friend at the end of this month’s Tai Chi class. In case you missed it, I found out some of my Tai Chi friends had started bujos and we’d decided to share with each other in April’s class! We had a great time comparing them and it was so nice to see other ideas.

Entertainment

Books

As always, I’m listing all the books I’ve finished since the previous Lively post below with their star ratings. All thoughts on them are saved for future (or even past!) Mini Book Review posts but those will be linked below if so. I won’t include any books that I didn’t finish although I’ll be sure to add them into the review posts.

This month I read 16 books. Now, some of them were actually from the end of March, but after last month’s Lively post, so they are being shared now! That brings my total up to 41 books read so far in 2022. That is 63% of the way to my official goal of 65 books, which is 22 books ahead of schedule! My unofficial goal is 100 books, so I would guess I’m probably on track for that goal too. Oh, I track all the books I’ve read on Storygraph by the way!

• Well Matched by Jen DeLuca, 4 stars
• These Precious Days by Ann Patchett, 4.75 stars
• How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell, 4.25 stars
• Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead, 3 stars
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, 4.5 stars
• The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood 4.5
• Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
• The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman, 5 stars
• Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare, 3.25 stars
• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, 4.5 stars
• Working on a Song by Anais Mitchell, 4.25 stars
• The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris, 4.5 stars
• It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey, 4 stars
• The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene, 3.5 stars
• A Place for Everything by Judith Flanders, 3.75 stars
• Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia, 4 stars

Movies

I’ve watched a few films this month! First one was on YouTube actually, called The Art of Walking. This film was a documentary of hiking the Pacific Coast Trail. It was pretty cool and the views shared in the documentary were gorgeous! I had a good time watching this, so I would recommend looking it up on YouTube if you’re in need of something fun and light to watch.

I also watched the film Turning Red on Disney+. I always put off the Disney films for some reason! But it was getting so much attention that I had to watch. I thought it was so funny! I loved how Mei embraced her red panda and became a little businessperson with her friends as they created meet and greets, merch, and even scheduled appearances at birthday parties. How fun! It was also really cool that the film was set in Canada, specifically Toronto. I really loved watching Mei become her own person and I was so happy she kept her panda.

TV Shows

Here is the obligatory “I love Madam Secretary, Gilmore Girls, and Schitt’s Creek so I’ve been watching all three again this month” update.

I watched the second season of Bridgerton on Netflix. I’m not going to lie, I was actually going to skip it. I felt like season one was just already perfect and I didn’t really care to keep watching. But the hype got to me and I pressed play eventually. Honestly, I did love the season! It was just so different from the first in a fun way. I didn’t feel like I was watching the first season with new characters, which is what I thought it would be considering it was supposed to be about another Bridgerton getting married. It is so silly how different the genders are treated when it comes to getting married in the Regency era! Daphne was in her early 20’s I think for her first season and got married right away, Eloise just turned 18 I think and already had her first season, Kate is 26 and is considered to be a spinster because she still isn’t married, but Anthony is supposed to be in his early to mid 30’s I think and he was just now considering getting married. In fact, the three eldest Bridgertons are boys, but Daphne was the first to get married of the Bridgertons. Insanity! Anyway, I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for the TV post.

I finally finished season one of Selling Tampa on Netflix. I honestly do like it, even though it feels heavily scripted. I love that the realtors are all black women and I do hope that one or two of them set up their own brokerage and it turns into following all of them.

I also finally finished season two of Love is Blind and omggggg it was a struggle. I had raced through season one and just was dragging my feet with season two. Eventually I realized it was because I really didn’t like any of the couples. But it was still pretty cool watching it and so wild that most of those couples even made it to the wedding. I do want to say that I do suspect they are pressured to make it to the wedding. In the reunion, Shake tried to reveal that they were pressured and everyone shot him down and said they weren’t, but the fact of the matter is that they went on the show (Shake being the exception) in order to get married. That was the goal! So I do think they are pressured, if not by the producers then by their own expectations. But It’s crazy how many did make it as far as getting to the alter. Like, Natalie at least I felt should have called it off the morning of instead of getting dressed and walking down the aisle. Anyway, I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for the TV post on this, but wow what a roller coaster! Oh, one more thing real quick, it was so funny to me that it was a Chicago season since I’m in the Chicagoland area!

I started watching The 100 again on Netflix. I actually didn’t start it from the beginning, since I’d previously started the series years ago. But I wasn’t about to go back now! Anyway, I like the idea well enough, that the 100 kids, who are expendable because they’ve been sentenced to death anyway, are sent to find out if Earth is livable, and the kids end up having to create their own society after they lose contact with their former spaceship home. And it is interesting but I did find that the first few episodes moved way too fast. I’m on episode 4 or 5 or something and they’re already back in contact with the spaceship, and I would have preferred to see them Lord of the Flies it a little longer. I also have to admit, the character of Clarke is a bit much for me, probably because I’m equally as annoying as she is. She’s portrayed as the pinnacle of humanity and morality, which is great! But she’s also very pushy with her own morals onto the rest of the kids and tries to lead them without actually leading. Like, good for her for never wavering, but also, girl, take a stronger stand in the creation of the society already!

I started Our Great National Parks on Netflix. I can’t help it, I see President Obama and I click. Am I really enjoying the series as much as I thought? Maybe not, but I do like the idea and I will keep watching!

I also started Old Enough! which is a show that I saw hyped up on TikTok. It’s SO CUTE to see these tiny toddlers in Japan take off on their own to run errands. They are too funny and so sweet as they head off to the store, their neighbors, local farms, or even home. It’s so funny to see the kids get momentarily distracted, forget what they are supposed to get and wonder if they’ll remember in time to get back, and even see them “break” the fourth wall as they interact with the film crew! On one hand, it’s honestly a tad horrifying that so much responsibility is placed on those tiny shoulders. On the other, I’ve seen TikToks of very independent toddlers preparing their own lunches and clearly the kids are capable (from what I’ve seen so far) so it seems like a good idea to let the kids flourish as much as they can on their own. Love that for them!

Music

I’ve been listening to a ton of Taylor Swift of course! Same as always.

I also have been listening to a ton of RBD since watching the reboot of Rebelde last month. I am loving revisiting their songs!

I’ve been revisiting Hadestown OBC as well. Having watched the musical last month and listing to the creator’s book, Working on a Song, really pulled me back into that world.

One more music fave for the month is Pedro Infante’s song “Cien Anos” (imagine the ~ above the n, I can’t remember how to type it on my keyboard!). I was on TikTok one night, and had the volume up. One TikTok came up with that song and my dad commented on it, saying it’s my maternal grandfather’s favorite songs. So I texted my mom, who is currently visiting the aforementioned grandfather, and let her know that I was enjoying one of his favorites. She loved that!

YouTube/Podcasts

So many podcasts I’ve enjoyed are via YouTube, so I decided to combine these two! Here’s the YouTube pods:

• Teachers Off Duty – I like the idea and all, but I find that the teachers tend to talk over each other SO OFTEN and so it can be quite frustrating.
• The Morning Toast – an all time fave and I’m loving the guests as well as when Jackie hosts (she’s mainly on mat leave right now).
• Ladies & Tangents – another all time fave. Love these gals!

I’ve enjoyed the following pods on Google Podcast:

• Comfy Cozy Witch
• NPR Politics
• This American Life
• Musical-splainin’
• Dear Hank and John

Video Games

I’ve been enjoying Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I have two new villagers, Flora and Ellie. Ellie and I actually share a birthday, so that’s super exciting! I can’t wait to see what happens on our birthday next month. I also built a new bridge and have been making a ton of changes. I’m a little upset because I missed one of the cherry blossom DIYs but I can’t be bothered to time travel back to try to find it.

Active Life

Tai Chi

I have to say, it was super cool to watch Turning Red and see a tiny glimpse of someone practicing Tai Chi! Anyway, this month was so amazing because the room was pretty full of newcomers! We had about 12 participants and usually it’s 4-5. I did notice it was advertised in more places, including in the local park district’s booklet, so maybe that’s why! It was great.

walk

Foxy and I were doing so well, but the weather has turned back to being super cold and even snowy at times again, so we’ve had to stop walking again. Hopefully May will be better.

ballet

I’ve been loving ballet! The new session has 12 people in class and in last week’s class the room was full. The instructor had to bring in a portable barre for some of us. The pressure is on for me though because while in the first class of the session we didn’t do full turns, we were allowed to start turning again this month if we were return students. Some of my classmates complimented my turns, which was so nice! Personally I think my turns are not that great, but it was nice of them to say and now I feel like I need to make them better! Overall though, class is super fun!

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So that’s my update on all my hobbies this month! Hope you’ve been up to fun stuff too!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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