If I were to summarise April in one word, it would be memories. April was a time of making memories as a family. We had a holiday as a family. We enjoy the times together travelling and exploring new places. I don’t think we ever go back to the same place thought half of us had been to two cities where we went in April. We are also known to see how much and how many places we can pack into a limited time. We probably don’t go as deep into a place as we could but we see the highlights.

The other memory that was made in April was a visit with my mom. She came about 2.5 years ago in the autumn and I wanted her to come in the spring and see England in the spring. We had a wonderful time exploring, visiting, playing games, sewing, and just being together.

One way that I keep memories alive for our family is through scrapbooking, yes, the big 12×12 paper scrapbooks. I keep books for each child with their memories and I also have a family book. I have also begun putting trips in photo books that I create online and have printed. I like them because they don’t take as much space. It is a toss up if there are faster to do (my scrapbooks are not that elaborate). I got home from the trip, loaded my photos, cropped and edited them slightly, and made a book. I had my book completed within a week of the trip. That is a record. (Don’t think I am always that organised, my to do list includes finishing a book from 2016.)

Memories are important ways of helping my children know who they are. As Third Culture Kids (TCK) it helps them to have a visual of memories. I have written about that in the past.

I am using my I Will Meditate Journal. I am finishing Matthew and looking forward to digging into Genesis. We are studying 2 Samuel in our small group. Last week we were in 2:1-5:3. There were plenty of twists in the story. The question for us was, “which king will you serve?”.

I have begun doing some spring cleaning. Do people still do that? I needed to do some of that just because the deep cleaning needs to happen. I am sorting through things, washing winter things, trying to get rid of things. That seems to be a never ending task.

Two books that I read in April that I really enjoyed were Humble Roots and Messy Grace. Reading Humble Roots I found encouragement as I am writing A Fruitful Year. Here is a quote that gave me something to ponder.

“When we believe that we are responsible for our own existence, when we trust our ability to care for ourselves, we will have nothing but stress because we are unequal to the task.” (page 28)

We want to control and are fooled into thinking that we will reduce our stress but we then learn that it that desire to control that gives us stress. Stress has been a topic that I have been thinking about and this was just a reminder of one thing that causes stress.

Here is a new recipe that I have made and we enjoy it, Moroccan Chicken. I love the blend of spices.

That is a brief wrap of what happened in April.

Here are three things that I used and loved in April.

1. Eagle Creek packing cubes – These make it easy when we are traveling and spending one or two nights in one place and then heading to the next destination. The only thing I wish is that I had gotten each of us our own colour.
2. Plum Paper Planner – This is my first year to use a Plum Paper Planner and I have to say that I love it for planning, recording, and noting what is happening. I use it as much for tracking as for planning.
3. Twining Cranberry and Blood Orange Tea – This is my new favourite tea especially in the evening after dinner.

If you could sum up April in one word, what would that be?