Friday Fun: April Randoms

                At the end of 2025, Callie wrote this post as a structured roundup to the year. I loved it so much that I earmarked it to revisit at the end of THIS year, but I actually decided to use it as a springboard for a monthly recap. I wrote posts for each month of the first quarter of 2026, and now I’m back again for April!

Best Personal Adventure: I loved my first attempt at making Challah bread with fresh milled flour! In all the busyness of Holy Week, taking time for creativity and quietness the day before Easter was just what I needed. And the bread was really good – and pretty! I would love for this personal adventure to turn into a tradition, but I guess we will have to wait and see if that happens.

Best Adventure Together: Once again, this month wasn’t our friend in being able to get away for fun dates. But we did manage to work together to totally clean out my parents’ apartment, and I celebrate that we were able to knock it out in 30 days. It was hard work, rough timing with Easter and other things, but we teamed up and did it!

Best Milestone: My favorite milestone this month was Ryan’s birthday! I always love an excuse to celebrate him! I remember so vividly all the years I prayed for a husband to celebrate, and I don’t ever want to lose the wonder of that answer to prayer!

Best Faith Grower: Since January 1, I’ve been writing the Gospel of Matthew by hand, and this month I finished it! I learned so much as I slowly wrote each passage, and the end of this month brought about all the passages about Holy Week. Since I had just lived and studied that week, it was extra special. Now I’m handwriting Mark!

Best Lesson Learned: I scheduled a creative/writing retreat for myself this month, but I didn’t want to leave home – both because I really detest being apart from Ryan, and I didn’t want to pay for lodging somewhere. But I learned that if you don’t leave, your chances of actually retreating successfully are slim…or none. My plans were foiled and the retreating never happened. Lesson learned. Retreats must be much more heavily protected.

Best Purchase: My Easter gift from Ryan was a new set of dishes, and we liked them so much we bought a second set so we have service for eight. I love them. They are white with blue rims, so they look very lake-y! I read online that photographing food on white dishes is better than on color-saturated dishes, and I am indeed finding that to be true!

Best Habit Created: At the beginning of the year, I took a challenge from Nourish Move Love to do 10 push ups every day for the whole year. I’ve always modified my push ups by doing them on my knees, but starting in April, I decided to do them from my toes. It’s kind of like starting over…and my form certainly needs much improvement. But I did the push ups from my toes every single day this month, and I am proud of that.

(It's adorable that you think there would be a photo of that!)

Best New Recipe: I think the Challah recipe might have been my favorite new find this month. (I returned to a lot of tried-and-true favorites throughout the month, but this was my favorite NEW recipe.)

Best Tradition: I think we might have created a new one this year. I loved our charcuterie board Easter lunch and would love to keep that going in future years. It was simple and filling – and so pretty. I’m so glad I happened upon the idea on Pinterest!

Best Little Luxury: The day we had our groceries delivered was such a fancy day. We’ve never done that before, and we won’t make a habit of it, but it sure was a privilege the day it happened. Isn’t it funny what ends up feeling fancy? (Lexi thought so too.)

Best Date: My favorite date came the night before Ryan’s birthday. We’d gone out to eat at Cracker Barrel with his family, and we ended up impulsively stopping by Ivanhoe’s on the way home. I feel like life lately has not lent itself to impulsive dates (or dates at all, honestly), and this was just so much fun. Plus, it was the perfect night for an ice cream stop! Ivanhoe’s was packed, so we got ours to go, but it was still fun! 

Best Answer to Prayer: My best answer to prayer this month is one I am holding close to my heart. It isn’t something I feel is mine to share publicly, but I had asked God for great clarity, and He provided it!