Life Lately: April 2023
They say April showers bring May flowers…we definitely have the April shower part right! It has been such a wet month. To be fair, it’s usually pretty wet during Spring here in Western Washington but it gets old really quickly! Thankfully this last week is bringing us some nice weather and I am so grateful for that. April was filled with a lot of family time and a lot of time spent in the garden between rain showers! Here is what we got up to this month!
Life Lately: April 2023
Easter
We are not a religious family but my dad invited us over for Easter dinner with my Aunt, cousin, and her two kiddos. We had a yummy dinner and I made a delicious pesto potato salad that I adapted from a Half Baked Harvest Recipe! It was delicious, admittedly I am not a huge fan of a creamy potato salad. This was the perfect addition to a ham dinner and everyone really enjoyed it!
Helping Dad Find A New House
Earlier this month, my dad sold my childhood home and is now on the hunt for a new place to live. He is on a fixed income but we have looked at some really nice places. We have spent a lot of time together this month and I have really enjoyed it. We rarely get to spend time one-on-one so it’s been nice catching up and looking at real estate! I am happy that I can be there to help him in this way!
Double Date With My Brother
Jake and I went on a double date with my brother and this guy Rob that he has been seeing for a while. We met for dinner at Johnny Rockets and then went and saw the Super Mario Brothers movie. I really liked Rob and the movie was actually really entertaining. I am not usually a fan of animated movies but it was a pleasant surprise!
Video Call With Friends
I had a great catch-up with two of my girlfriends from high school! One of them lives in North Seattle and the other now lives down in Olympia so getting together has been a challenge. Thankfully Google Meet works great for us. I’ve been missing them so it was nice to see their faces and get caught up on life!
Our Greek Dinner
Jake and I decided to give Hello Fresh a try and the first recipe we tried was a Greek falafel bowl and it was delicious! So Jake wanted to try and make homemade falafel. He did and it was delicious! He also made a huge batch of roasted red pepper hummus. We decided to have my dad and my Aunt Theresa over for dinner and everything was a hit! It was a lovely meal and we have tons of leftovers for the week!
In the Garden
Even with the cooler temperatures this month, the vegetables that are planted out in the garden are coming along great! The perennial flowers around the yard are doing wonderfully as well and I am really looking forward to an explosion of blooms in the months to come!
Harvesting:
We did our first harvest of broccoli from the garden this month! We roasted it up and had it with baked chicken thighs. It was delicious and I felt so excited for more harvests to come!
Planting:
I spent the month planting out the flowers that I started from seed. They began looking a bit bedraggled and we will see which ones make it and which ones I will have to fill in with seeds. I am hopeful and the garden bed off the patio is looking very full! Can’t wait to see what blooms for me! Over in the sideyard, sprinkled some wildflower seed packets in the garden bed to see if I can get a bit of a meadow vibe on the side of the house where we don’t really have a lot going on. I also have planted out my pea starts and sweet pea starts.
At the hardware store, they had bulbs on sale for 50% off so I picked up some of those to plant in various places in the yard as well. I bought a new dahlia, some anemones, and a large pack of gladiolus. So excited to see how they do this year!
Seed Starting:
This month I started several seeds. I started pole beans, 2 types of zucchini, a golden nugget squash, a white patti pan squash, several types of basil, cilantro, and dill. I am so pleased with how great my tomatoes are doing this year as well. This is the first year since I started gardening that the plants I started from seed look this good. I have a feeling it could be because I started them a little earlier than usual this year but I am going to take this win! I have started the hardening-off process for the majority of the seedlings with the exception of the squash and beans that have not had any germination yet.
Things I Am Enjoying At The Moment
- My ‘Songs I Love’ playlist on Spotify
- Avocado toast with eggs for breakfast
- Watching gardening videos on YouTube – Roots & Refuge, Whispering Willow Farm, Josie, Homegrown Garden, Acre Homestead
- Making my own gardening videos for YouTube
- Checking on the sprouts in my garden
- Love is Blind Season 4
- Girl in the Blue Mustang Podcast
Blog Posts To Catch Up On
5 Edible Flowers Found in my Garden
What We’re Growing in Our 2023 Garden
YouTube Videos
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