Spring is my favorite. I’m glad to welcome it in, though it’s been slow and teasing and windy and springing from hot and cold in all of its edging in coming.
The violets have sprung up in the woods and daffodils and tulips delighted us with their blooms.

Here are a few of the things catching my attention in April……..

Delightful Incidentals

So delightfully adorable ~

“10/10. Would recommend baby ducks in your kitchen sink.”

This little guy and his laughter.

One of my favorites…………..my Grace Case subscription. It lands on my doorstep once a quarter ~ four times a year. I anticipate tearing it open and unwrapping the lovely artisan pieces inside. I’m always so curious what it will hold each time. The best part is it helps provide sustainable jobs and fair trade living for other people/image bearers. I believe I’ve been part of this subscription since 2019.

Love this Deep Waters sticker on Etsy.

I pulled out my reading journal and did some updating last week. I *hope* to record every book I start reading this year. I don’t always finish books. I interrupt books by beginning other books and then finish the first ones quite a long time later. Haha. I sometimes choose a book because I do want to finish it up. Other times the book I pick up to read is completely about what I feel like reading right then.

These mesh laundry bags are my favorite.

I ordered this dress from Old Navy and it will be a delightful piece for my spring wardrobe.

My dearie daughter gifted me with a chocolate bunny. I was delighted! It occurred to me that I believe in all my forty-odd years of walking around in my life, this is the first chocolate bunny I’ve ever been gifted with. 🙂

LISTENING

READ

BOOKS

Half-Baked Harvest Every Day Cookbook
I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet by Shauna Niequist
Good Money Revolution by Derrick Kinney
As We Lay Dying by Amy Clarkson

Jesus stepped out of death back into life.
In a moment, a breath, a rising and falling of the chest.
There’s much in this magnificent story cloaked in mystery. Unfathomable for our minds alone.

We cry “Holy!” and Jesus steps wholly into the very places we need Him, need His healing, His hands and heart understanding our humanness.

He breathes grace and beckons us to step into it.

“I am with you always.” He affirms it again. Loneliness may lay in your soul, your life, perhaps even suffocating the air in your lungs.
Yet, there it is. The promise.
Emmanuel. God With Us.

Jesus is risen!
He’s risen indeed.
May we be steeped in His Spirit this spring and step into the beaming sunshine of the love He has carried for us all since the beginning of time. ~ DJF

In a last-minute decision, my dear farmer man drove me to Austin for a Living Proof Live event. I’d seen it announced at the beginning of the year and knew it’d be one I would love to attend. I didn’t give it serious thought as I’m not much of a navigator of big city driving and it was a bit of a long drive and other various details.
Everything fell into place on the Tuesday before and on Thursday we found ourselves trekking toward Texas. I’d long wanted to visit Fabled bookshop in Waco, along with Magnolia. Since our route fell right along here, we spent the night there. It didn’t disappoint.

Fabled is lovely and the children’s room is adorable, complete with its own wardrobe entrance.
Open the wooden door and step into an actual lineup of winter coats. Couldn’t be more fun!

The chapel on the grounds at Magnolia is gorgeous, white spire reaching for the sky, rich woodwork and pews inside.

There was traffic. Lots and lots and lots of traffic. Teehee. These two midwestern, dirt-road dwelling, small-town living humans looked at each other and said, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore!!!”
We further deduced Wichita traffic would not seem busy to us at all when we returned to the Sunflower state.

I was grateful x 1,000,000 to have been in attendance for the LPM Live event. It will sing as a high note in this chapter of my life.

I’d love to hear ~

What brought you delight in April? Where did you sit with tears? How have beauty and truth woven goodness and hope into your life?