April has not been the funnest month ever in spite of a few fantastic bright spots. Like, on the one hand, my aunt came to visit us for a few days and we had an amazing time showing her around town. On the other hand, the house keeps trying to fall apart. My son turned eight this month and my dog had new mystery ailments. BB made huge strides in potty training but still throws temper tantrums over the most Four Year Old things daily.

On the one hand, I took the kids to the zoo during spring break and the weather was gloriously beautiful. On the other hand, I think that might have been the only gloriously beautiful day this month. I’m being near sighted with that statement and I know it but we’ve had a few too many consecutive days of gloomy, rainy, windy, hail storms putting holes in my house kinda days. So I’m a little over it, you know?

Anyway, before I consciously uncouple with the month of April, let’s talk about what I’m into lately. I’m linking up with the lovely Leigh Kramer today to share all the best of books, music, movies, tv and life that April has had to offer in between hail storms.

APRIL READING

This month began with a lot of me reading books and then not finishing them – so far this is the one lone book I read to completion this month:

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell – Finished April 24, 2014 – I think it’s safe to say that Rainbow Rowell is becoming a new favorite author of mine. This book sucked me into the story and its characters in all the same ways that Fangirl did. I found myself anxiously waiting to continue reading the story during the day, as though Eleanor and Park might do something drastic or need me there badly during my non-reading hours and it would ruin everything. And much like Fangirl, I found myself eventually just sitting down and ignoring everything for a few hours so that I could finish it – and then being sort of sad it was over, because now what? – full review –

Right now I’m reading (and looooooving) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle. Like, seriously, where has this book been all my life and also did Madeline L’Engle invent sliding doors? This book has me asking a lot of questions and thoroughly enjoying this sort of coming of age / science fiction / fantasy / social satire conglomeration. Truly fantastic and I’m already planning to buy the entire serious because YES.

APRIL WATCHING

TV

For the most part April has been a big long Veronica Mars marathon. My husband and I have made it through to Season Three of our “It’s been too long, let’s rewatch the series before we see the movie” mission and we’re just as hooked as ever. Luckily my memory is terrible so I only remember half of the plot twists as they come up and the relationship foils don’t feel like one big spoiler alert. I’m very impatient to see the movie and find out what happens to everyone.

I’ve also been really enjoying American Idol still. My two favorites: Alex and Jena are still in the competition so I’m pretty darn pleased and I’ve been enjoying all their music week to week – and the lack of drama at the judges table continues to make me a very happy fangirl.

MOVIES

I made my husband watch 12 Monkeys with me because he’s never seen it and um Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis. Seriously. He says he enjoyed it but that it was incredibly cheesy and he wants to watch Fight Club now. He’s not entirely wrong but I still consider it basically a classic.

We also watched Harriet the Spy with the kids. MM laughed uproariously throughout the whole movie and Dan and I reminisced a lot. It is so different to watch the movie as a parent than as a kid and I couldn’t get over how young all the actors were.

We rented the newest Thor movie a few weeks ago and of course it was awesome and sets you up perfectly for a second movie. We also rented The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and it was… just wow. I wanted to travel EVERYWHERE even more than usual after seeing it. Such a beautiful movie, I’m so glad we finally watched it.

BROWSING

This Huff Post article: I’m Done Making My Kid’s Childhood Magical was probably the best thing I read online this month. It sorta speaks to all the little thoughts and feelings I’ve been having for awhile now and I have tried to think back on it throughout the month when mothering gets overwhelming.

I dyed Easter Eggs using this easy red cabbage dye to make blue eggs recommended by Design Mom and was really impressed with the results. We used two different homemade dyes this year but the red cabbage eggs were my favorite.

Pro tip: Remember to refrigerate your dyed and hard boiled eggs before leaving the house for 3 hours or you won’t be able to keep all the pretties.

Did you read about how a teen discovered that changing their font could save the government millions? And it’s my favorite font!

I’m not really into the news that Craig Ferguson is leaving the Late Late Show but I sure am thinking about it a lot. I’ve been really pleased with some of the newcomers to the late night talk shows – Colbert taking over for Letterman is fantastic news for me and I’ve been enjoying Seth Meyers as well but thinking about late nights without my favorite grumpy Scottish host is not fun at all. I wonder what the odds are that they have another UK Late Night Rebel in their pocket because I’m really going to miss the accent and the antics.

Speaking of UK Antics:

That’s about it for this month though I’m sure I’m forgetting something majorly important.

Tell me, what are you into lately?