April Flowers

April was pretty quiet for us, which was nice. Owen took a break from organized sports (though he's been working on his <6.5-minute miles in PE!), and Hadley is still doing gymnastics every week, but there are no more meets planned this year, so it's just conditioning and skills practice. We've been trying to enjoy the spring weather, which has been really pleasant this month. We volunteered to help with spring planting at the church. The kids worked on this cross of sweet alyssum, made up of hundreds of tiny plants, with a couple of other volunteers, while I worked on some neighboring flower beds. I'm happy to report that most of our plantings are still alive, several weeks later, and that we saved the church $6k by not hiring landscapers!

I took the kids to check out Matilda, Jr., put on by the Junior High Theatre students. A couple of Owen's good friends were on stage, and all of the kids did such a great job! The students did everything from publicity, lighting, and costumes to stage set design and acting. Plus, it was a musical, and Owen had no idea that his friend would be singing a solo! During intermission, we went to see a 3D, black light art exhibit, done by the art students. It was also excellent! So glad their school has a strong fine arts program!

April is synonymous with the ranch for me. It's a beautiful time of year weather-wise, there are tons of wildflowers (bluebonnets!) to see on the drive up, and we celebrate Grandad's birthday and Granna and Grandad's anniversary on April 16. That happened to be a Saturday this year, so it worked out perfectly. I wish I'd gotten a picture of them, but we got Grandad a puzzle and spent most of the afternoon helping him with it. I had no idea the pieces would be so small! But we got it finished and went for a walk. Some of the flowers/weeds are almost as tall as Hadley! 

The following day was Easter! I got a picture of the kids with their baskets, but they wouldn't humor me with a picture in their Sunday finest at church later. We did several egg hunts throughout the house and ate lots of candy. They got a 4-day weekend off of school, but some of us still had to work, unfortunately.

Finally, we took in the last regular season game for the kids' future high school. Our neighbor is the catcher on the varsity team, so we wanted to show our support. It was a gorgeous evening for a baseball game, but sadly, our team lost. We accidentally sat in the visitors' section, and some of the visiting parents were less than exemplary spectators. All I can say is, I hope we beat them in the playoffs! And, "go Pete!" (our neighbor shares John's high school nickname) 😎

Home Office

While we were away at WDW, a not-so-little home project got underway. This house did not have a dedicated home office, which became a bit of an issue when the pandemic hit. With both of us now working from home full-time, the open, formal living room was certainly serviceable as an office, but not ideal. 

It's five feet from the front door, ten feet from the kitchen, and pretty much open to everything. Hello, person having a meal at the kitchen table!

Staring down another summer with kids running around prompted us to realistically consider making it closed in. Our neighbor was raving about their contractor, so we had him come over to give us an estimate. Oh, while we're at it, can we talk about this column blocking the doorway line-of-sight and get rid of the octagonal opening?

We liked his number, so shortly thereafter we were on his schedule. A few delays (no, we don't want a custom door) and numerous prompts (hello?) later, and work finally began. It took a little bit longer than projected, but we are happy with it. So long, octagon! It's still a little awkward, but short of moving the stairs, we're working with what we've got! 

French doors added privacy without making it look too much like a weird closet. (We were originally going to go with a half-glass, half-solid door, but that was apparently a custom job after they looked into it. Rather than full glass doors exposing potential office clutter, we decided on full solid doors instead.)

Who wouldn't want to work in here? We added can lighting, a ceiling fan, and even got rid of the dark tan paint! It had previously had no overhead lighting, just a light switch that could turn on an outlet for a lamp. Now the dual wall switch actually goes to the lights and the fan!

And no more tiny opening between column and wall. They did leave an unusual indent in homage, so we'll have to look into long and skinny art to highlight there or maybe a sword display? Whatever the case, it's a definite improvement to make our home work the way we need it to.

Though I will miss this a little bit...