april joys

This one is just a reflection of Good Things, like a thick slice of cake, some Everyday Magic!

I was very excited for the arrival of April! I love April. I love spring. I’m so tired of winter and all the extra precipitation, snow after snow after snow, the cold and wind… and so happy it’s getting lighter for longer and will one day be warm again. 😆

I love April. Spring, colors, warmth, new life. And my birthday!!!!

I’m a big birthday person. This year feels really special in “everyday magic”-type ways because we’re filling the month with fun plans… a couple really big, but most of them just home and together and tangibly wonderful. Out of the ordinary, yet simple and unassuming.

I told my husband I really want to finish a bunch of house projects all month. Some come from a growing list of procrastination, like installing the microwave, hanging tons of pictures and decor, etc. Some are new and unexpected, like this project. And we also decided to swap two rooms in our house, our guest room and what was supposed to be my office. So we’re planning to empty and switch those, paint the one, and set the other up for my own inspiring space! (If that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is! 😉 I’m so excited about putting together my very own little room!)

So I told Jake this is what I really want for my birthday gift. Not stuff. But working together, seeing big results in our house, completing tasks that are partially done, making it all feel really settled and cozy and homey. Magic is what happens every day, in the moments when you aren’t paying attention, in the spaces where you belong and can be fully yourself. Magic is family and choosing to love each other and building a beautiful life together. It’s the enjoyment of your life, the delights you create, the tiny joys you notice, and the hard work and effort you commit and offer, showing up over and over.

It feels really special and unique to create a plan to spend time together and get the gift of service and help and a lovely home for my entire birthday month! I’m envisioning so many evenings and weekends together focusing on this, and I can’t wait. It’s such a generous gift, especially in its multifaceted layers — quality time, practical work and acts of service, making many days this month feel like a special occasion, not just my actual birthday, the satisfaction and enjoyment of our finished work… I’m really grateful and thrilled and full of anticipation to see everything we’re going to do!

We are ALSO doing one especially big thing this year! We got tickets to Knotts Berry Farm and are going to have a blast of an amusement park day with four dear friends! I am spoiled and lucky and over the moon. AND we’re going to the park in the middle of their annual “Boysenberry Festival,” which is just so darn cute and tasty and whimsical and magical! I love berries and pastries. I love good food. I love special attention brought to something to make it a Bigger Deal. I got us the “Boysenberry Passes” so we each get to sample three boysenberry tastings, and the list of options is long and full of variety, including a bbq boysenberry pizza and all kinds of imaginable boysenberry delicacies and spin offs! What a harmonious, well-timed, springy birthday surprise!

We will be having a family dinner to celebrate my birthday as well, and I’ll probably request some kind of simple fun on the actual day to make my birthday a special occasion even though we’ll be at work during the day.

My bestie is going to take me to get our nails done together and have another birthday dinner! Girl time!

Unrelated to my birthday, but still making April feel like a magic month all month long: there’s an Easter bbq with the family, and this weekend we also have a night out all together, with Jake and my parents and my sister and her boyfriend, to see the new Mario movie in a fancy theater with giant recliner seats and your own button to order food, drinks, and dessert at any time during the movie. 🤤

Spring has sprung! If it hasn’t sprung yet, it’s springing very soon. Things coming to life. Growth and sunshine and outward expression. Wake up, do a little dance, make some fun plans, contribute something on purpose, have a great time!

Happy April. 💗🌷

P.S. This is a calendar from one of my favorite artists, Katie Daisy. Her shop is full of joy and wonderful creations — treat yourself! 🌼🌼🌼

P.P.S. If you are not a big birthday person or aren’t sure how to go all out celebrating yourself (in big and little ways!), please note: it’s worth it! In whatever form it takes for you, on your birthday or on any other day of the year, making your life, and your enjoyment, and wowing and appreciating your own damn beautiful self, a priority is so magical and important! You deserve it. 💋