I thought I’d go ahead and share my end-of-month post since I have other things scheduled for the last few days of April.

I found a quote from Mark Twain in my files that seems to describe April weather: “In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours” (from a speech titled “The Oldest Inhabitant-The Weather of New England”). It sure feels that way! We’ve had another cold snap this week, but I hope we’ve seen the last of 30-degree weather til next October.

We finally went to an annual “Chalk Walk” event downtown where artists drew masterpieces on Market Square. We enjoyed celebrating Easter and my grandson’s 9th birthday this month. But otherwise, April has been pretty low-key. Even still, it seems to be passing all too quickly.

One big change in our schedule is that my husband started working four days a week instead of five. He usually works much more than 8 hours a day anyway, so it was no hardship to change his work week to four ten hour days. Now he has Fridays off to get away from the pressures of work and get other things done or just relax. He took Timothy fishing last weekend.

The only problem with a four-day work week is that I get discombobulated on Fridays, feeling like they are Saturdays. 🙂

One sobering event this month was the death of the man who was a youth pastor in my home church during my college years. I was out of the youth group by that time, but I got to know him while working in the church office one summer while the church secretary was out sick. His wife gave me several recipes, one of which shows up regularly for dinner (Cherokee Casserole–this recipe is pretty similar except I use tomato sauce instead of tomatoes and American cheese instead of cheddar). He and his wife were missionaries in Mexico for several decades. He developed a sudden kidney problem and died the day before he was supposed to start treatment. I felt for his wife having to deal with everything in Mexico, but she said the folks at the churches there were a big help. She’s planning to stay there for now.

Then I mentioned last week that Ron Hamilton passed away. We did not not know him and his wife personally, but felt in some ways like we did. Our whole family listened to and sang his music since before our kids were born. His death was not unexpected, as he had been declining from early-onset dementia for years. It’s a mercy, in a way, that he is released from the effects of illness on his body. But I almost get teary when a song of his comes on the radio or my playlist.

Timothyisms

It’s been a long time since I shared one of these. Last night, Jim mentioned that our lilac bush was in bloom. He commented his grandmother usually wore lilac-scented perfume, so he always connected that scent with her. Mittu asked Timothy what his grandmother smelled like. He replied, “Cookies and clean laundry.” 🙂

Creating

As I looked on Pinterest for card ideas for Timothy’s birthday, I saw these free downloads for a Minecraft birthday party. I used one of their sign designs for a card. I figured that would be better than anything I could do by hand.

Watching and Listening

I have a couple of podcasts queued up that I haven’t listened to yet.

I enjoyed watching the latest season of The Mandalorian. As I mentioned before, I am not all that into Star Wars, but I really like this series.

My husband and I watched On a Wing and a Prayer, based on a true story about a man and his family who were passengers in a friend’s small plane when the pilot had a heart attack. It was not the best-made film we’ve ever seen. But it was enjoyable. I liked that during the closing credits it included some footage of the real-life man from the story who had to land the plane.

We also watched Ithaca, a coming-of-age story about a teenager during WWII. His father has passed away and his older brother is a soldier, so he takes on a job with the telegraph office to help out at home. In that era, however, most of the telegraphs he delivers are informing families of the death of their sons. His eyes are opened to hard things in the world. The movie moved very slowly. I told my husband, it could have been really sweet and poignant, but there was something missing. I just couldn’t put my finger on what. Then I learned this film was a remake of The Human Comedy, an older film starring a young Mickey Rooney. I may watch that some time for comparison.

Reading

Since last time I have finished (titles link to my reviews):

• Be Joyful (Philippians): Even When Things Go Wrong, You Can Have Joy by Warren Wiersbe
• Seven Words You Never Want to Hear: How to Be Sure You Won’t by Denise Wilson, based on Jesus words, “I never knew you; depart from me.”
• Murder Your Darlings: And Other Gentle Writing Advice from Aristotle to Zinsser by Roy Peter Clark
• All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese. A social media influencer volunteers at a facility helping foster care kids transition to adult life. But she’s the one who is changed. Loved this.
• Ring of Secrets by Roseanna M. White, audiobook, first in the Culper Spy Ring series, set during the Revolutionary War. Excellent!
• Whispers from the Shadows by Roseanna M. White, audiobook, second in the Culper Spy Ring series, set during the War of 1812. Also excellent.
• The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon by Linda MacKillop

I’m currently reading:

• Be Worshipful (Psalms 1-89): Glorifying God for Who He Is by Warren Wiersbe
• Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul by Hannah Anderson
• Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World by Benjamin Vrbicek and John Beeson
• Circle of Spies by Roseanna M. White, audiobook
• All That It Takes by Nicole Deese
• The Dwelling Place by Elizabeth Musser

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

• Applying God’s Word
• Resurrection Hope Beyond Easter
• Goodnight, Ron
• Called to Sacrifice
• Thankful God Is Not a Stranger

A few weeks ago, I read Broken Links: How Often Should You Check and Fix Them on Your Blog. I used to fix old non-working links in my blog as I discovered them, mainly as a courtesy so someone who found an older post wouldn’t get frustrated by links that no longer went anywhere. But I didn’t know, until this article, that search engines would rank your blog lower if you have a lot of broken links. Plus, this author, Hugh, says spammers are more active on blogs with broken links. Both these effects result from broken links in the comments as well as in one’s post. He shared Broken Link Check Dot Com and told how to use it. So I’ve spent a couple of sessions ferreting out broken links and fixing or deleting them. I can only stand to do a handful at a time, so I have a long way to go yet.

Writing

No real headway this month. Hopefully I’ll get back into it next month.

How was your April? Are you looking forward to anything in May?