April sure flew by. Maybe it seemed that way because we only had one week in the month without anything extra scheduled.

We enjoyed a lovely Easter with the family. A good church service, great food, an egg hunt (with money in plastic eggs) for the kids. And Jason and Mittu surprised us with an egg hunt for us, with things they appreciate written on strips of paper folded inside plastic eggs.

We attended a free dress rehearsal of Mary Poppins at the school associated with our church. They offer that as a thank you to the church, plus it gives the cast and crew a chance to run through things in front of an audience and work out any kinks. They did a great job.

Timothy’s birthday was this month. We went out for dinner early so he could enjoy it before a scheduled orthodontist’s visit. Then we celebrated as a family with cake and presents a little later on. The play mentioned above was on his actual birthday, plus he and his parents went on an outing that day. Then he had a party with friends the next week. So he got to spread out his birthday over a couple of weeks. 🙂

Around the house, Jim has been cleaning up the yard, porch, and patio from winter debris. We haven’t planted anything in the flower beds or planters yet–we usually do that around Mother’s Day. We had a bird build a nest in the few inches between our porch light fixture and the wall. If it’s just a nest without eggs, Jim usually takes it down. But this one had an egg when he saw it. Four more were added over the next few days. The baby birds were crowded in! They didn’t stay very long. And what was even more unusual, we didn’t hear them. There’s often a nest on the porch somewhere during spring, and we’ll hear the baby birds chirping as the parents bring them food. But not this time. They left a pretty big mess, though.

Some of the other scheduled things were medical–a dentist’s visit at the end of March, a visit to the sleep center, an eye doctor appointment, and, today, a mammogram and bone density test. Thankfully, they all went well–I hope today’s scans will, too. Plus all but the dentist are once-a-year appointments, so it’s nice to get them out of the way.

Watching

Though we’ve watched a few things, I failed to make note of them. Some were not good nor recommended. We watched a few episodes of Hudson and Rex, a series about a detective and his dog (I guess it was in our “you might like this” queue because we’d watched Sue Thomas, F.B. Eye and Blue Skies, which also featured detectives or agents with dogs). Though the few episodes we saw were clean, we just didn’t connect with the main characters. I don’t know if we’ll get back to it.

Creating

I only made one card this month, for Timothy’s birthday. He’s currently into weather radios, so I came up with this:

The radio and “speech bubble” frame were done with the Cricut. I printed the words from the computer onto card stock, pasted the frame around them, and then cut it out with scissors. I was going to center the words over the radio. But it didn’t look right with the arrow and antennae. So I put the words over to the side. Then I thought of putting a balloon or something in the empty space, but decided not to.

I also put together a Jane-Austen-themed Lego kit that I had received for Christmas. More on that and some other bookish projects here.

Reading

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

• True Woman 201: Interior Design: Ten Elements of Biblical Womanhood by Mary Kassian and Nancy Leigh DeMoss (now Wolgemuth) with our ladies’ Bible study. I didn’t review it this time since I did the first time I read it, here. I enjoyed going through it again.
• The Characters of Easter: The Villains, Heroes, Cowards, and Crooks Who Witnessed History’s Biggest Miracle by Daniel Darling. Excellent!
• The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield. Mixed emotions with this one. It was good and convicting in many areas, but at times came across too strong. Plus I didn’t quite agree with every little thing she said.
• All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley. After his brother’s death, Patrick needed a change. He spent ten years as a guard at the Met and shares his experiences as well as some observations of the art he came to know so well. I was disappointed by some bad language in this one, but enjoyed some of his thoughts.
• The Prince of Spies by Elizabeth Camden, the third in the Hope and Glory series, audiobook. Luke Delacroix is a journalist intent on exposing the fraudulent practices of long-time enemy Clyde Magruder. But then he falls in love with Marianne, not knowing at first that she is Clyde’s daughter. Very good.

I’m currently reading:

• None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different From Us and Why That’s a Good Thing by Jen Wilkin with a friend.
• Life Under the Sun: The Unexpectedly Good News of Ecclesiastes by Hannah Anderson.
• Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Big Idea by Jennie Nash. This got crowded out by other seasonal reading, but I want to get back into it.
• God Moments in my Publishing Life: The Making of a Writer and Publisher by Leslie H. Stobbe
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, audiobook, a comfort read for me.
• Jose’s Zulo by Lou Ann Keiser. Lou Ann and her husband were missionaries in the Basque region of Spain for several decades. I knew her through the support of our church in SC. We’ve communicated for years but never actually met in person. Her debut novel is set in that country

Blogging

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

• Sure-Footed Confidence. “The book of Habakkuk might seem an unlikely place to draw inspiration for Easter. But my study from Habakkuk last week gave me food for thought this Easter week.”
• When People Act Like Jerks. “I thought, ‘Or maybe he’s just being a jerk.’ Because people are sometimes, especially while driving. So what do we do with jerk-like behavior?”
• What I’ve Learned About Ministry. “Here are some things I’ve learned in nearly fifty years of ministry in and out of church.”
• Broken Pieces. “If your life is broken, it may be because pieces will feed a multitude.“

Writing

Our critique group is starting another round, with my piece due this week. I’ve had some great, though exhausting, sessions working on it.

Looking ahead

We look forward to planting the flowers beds and planters, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, a dinner with friends, and a (routine, thankfully) visit with the cardiologist.

How was your April? What are you looking forward to in May?