April 2026 Goals

March was another busy month but hopefully April will be a bit calmer.

Home: I'm pleased with the progress made in March. The two main bedrooms are now decorated and the new carpets fitted, and best of all, I am now sleeping back in my bedroom instead of in the living room. The new curtains and blinds for both rooms have been ordered and will be installed ... I don't have a date yet, but it will hopefully be before the end of April.

The installation of the electric fire has ground to a halt, waiting on the plasterer to do his bit. I'll chase that up after Easter, but am hopeful that it's another thing that can be ticked off the list in April.

The flooring is now down in the kitchen and I'm really pleased with how it looks. On the 9th April the replacement worktops will be fitted. The original ones I bought had a matt textured finished and were a nightmare to keep clean and looking good, so I decided that enough was enough and chose some black sparkle quartz worktops instead. It's more expense that I hadn't planned for, but it will make life easier in the long term and I'm happy with my decision to replace it all. After that's been done BiL and nephew's FiL will be back to finish off in the kitchen. 

As soon as the kitchen is finished I plan to advertise for a lodger. The fireman didn't work out as he couldn't get permission to live at mine, so I will take some time to think about what I actually want and get the advert placed.

Garden: M will start work on the garden some time in April. The focus initially is to tidy up where necessary and start emptying all the pots. I'm only planning to have a couple of pots on the patio, but won't be doing those until the patio has been sealed, so all the other pots from my previous garden will be emptied and stored in the garage for the time being. Some of the contents can be planted out in my new garden - spirea, gauras, salvias, penstemons, and the hibiscus - and the rest contain annuals which weren't cleared away last year. M doesn't want to plant any of the new perennials (still to be bought) until later in May when the frosts should be over and done with.

Music: Yay, the piano is accessible again so I can get back to doing some regular practice.

Photography: There's no real progress to report during March but April will see a change as, with Niall's help, I will be photographing all the items I want to declutter. This includes items to sell via eBay, Gumtree, Vintage Cash Cow, as well as some freebies to advertise on the local Freecycle website. I also have the photos to take for my monthly photo challenge and Joy's ten on the 10th challenge. Weather permitting, we also plan to visit a couple of places locally so I can take some photos for a blog posts. 

Swimming: I'm not sure whether to keep this in the list and we never seem to get to the pool! It's an activity that will be good for me so maybe I'll just leave it here as a reminder to myself with the aim of getting back to swimming once I've finished with the home improvements.

Reading: I listened to some more audio books during March. My sister send round another bag of books yesterday so I will choose some of them to read during April. I started reading 'Strange House' by Uketsu last night and will aim to read a total of three books this month.

another gift of books from my sister

Healthy lifestyle: Again, it's been another iffy month, with lots of days when I wasn't well enough to get on with the things I'd planned to do. The chaos in the living room as a result of emptying the contents of the two bedrooms ready for the decorating had quite a negative impact on my mood during March but that is slowly improving as I sort through and am gradually returning everything to it's correct place.

I have four medical appointments in April, two with the diabetes nurse at my GP surgery, and two with the endocrinology department at the RUH. I also have to monitor my sleeping for the sleep study to determine whether or not I have sleep apnoea. It's take about six weeks to get the results from both endocrinology and the sleep study. 

Socialising: Despite all the illness, my social life is still plodding along nicely.  I achieved most of the activities I listed in my March post, and enjoyed them all. There's not as much on in April; as well as seeing friends I have these events planned so far ...

• Apr 6th: u3a Canasta group

• Apr 20th: u3a Canasta group

• Apr 27th: u3a Something Snappy group