April was April this year.  Among other things, the yard bloomed.  Our yard is beautiful…an entire front lawn {well. hill.} of dogwood and azaleas, blooming together.  I am in awe of this every spring.  Also, I finished my first graduate class.  Meaning: if I could do a back handspring, I would do one right now.  Since I can’t, I am eating unreal peanut butter cups instead.

As soon as I finished writing my final paper {actually, while Mike was proofreading it for the final time}, I picked up my first non-school book in a while:  Shadowlands.  It’s the play upon which the movie is based…the story of C.S. Lewis’ beautiful but brief marriage to Joy Gresham.  I finished reading it the following evening, but I have been living with it for days now.  It’s a must-read.

Of course, there’s Ann’s post, “When You’re Praying for Boston.”  These 15 words.

Even though there’s a bit of a theme, here, I couldn’t resist Lewis’ words on the topic of “the secret thread” from The Problem of Pain.  He says, “There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else.  You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread.  You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words…  Again, you have stood before a landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life…  Even in your hobbies, has there not always been some secret attraction…something, not to be identified with, but always on the verge of breaking through, the smell of cut wood in the woodshop or the clap-clap of water against the boat’s side?”

I suppose it was a bit of a “Lewisian” month.  He even appeared {quite extensively} in my Harry Potter paper.  What can I say?

I love Emily from Primitive Roads!  I first “met” her during her 31 Days series…and her Letter to Jen sold me on 7.  Then recently, she instagrammed about a “BN/TJ” date with her husband.  I knew exactly what she meant.  {Also, I knew it meant we might be related.}  Anyway, Emily wrote the most beautiful post on Bread and Wine, which will absolutely be on my summer to-read list.  {And anyone who also writes about Annie Sloan and Shauna’s Blueberry Crisp in the same month?  Treasure.}

What do Vera Wang, Isaac Newton, and Steven Spielberg have in common?  A slide show of 26 people “who failed at first”…  I may have to show this to my students.  May we always remember that life happens in the waiting and many stories are yet to be written…

Also, Sarah’s interview with Sarah Bessey.  I pinned this post, folks.

Are you as obsessed with Instagram as I am?  How about this list of apps for better Instagrams?

{via Serena Olivieri…so love her work}

And then this little gem of a flash mob.  There should be more like these.  I don’t know which I enjoyed more:  the mob or the faces of the onlookers {little girl climbing the lamp post, man singing along under his breath}…  Be sure to watch every moment of it.

Um…from one of my very favorite scenes from “New Girl”:

{via}

Also, I went shopping.  Yes, the month after possessions fasting.  Also, the month I had leftover birthday money.  I bought this shirt precisely after seeing it on someone in a coffee shop.  I told her I loved it, she told me it was from Anthro, and I was across the street in a fitting room in two shakes.  I’m that person.  And if she’s reading this, hey. You have taste!  What can I say?  {I may or may not be pairing it with my new black jeans.}

And finally…  15 free, beautiful online magazines.  This weekend’s project?  Combing through them.

How was your April, dear friends?  Any goodness out there?  Any lagniappe?

Linking up…