April 2023 Favorites
April is always such a busy month in my household! Between all the birthdays, a holiday, and various events, we have no shortage of things to do. Two of my favorite writing events happen in April—National Poetry Month and Writer’s Digest Poem-A-Day Challenge—but I hardly have time to participate, unfortunately.
Still, April was filled with joy, togetherness, and fun. I read a bit this month, got back into exercise after hurting my shoulder (it finally healed!), and am looking forward to the weather warming up a bit as we head into summer in the next month.
Top articles, podcast episodes, and more that I enjoyed this month:
Parenting is challenging, and this crossover podcast episode between Good Inside with Dr. Becky and We Can Do Hard Things had me stopping what I was doing to take notes.
The show The Night Agent on Netflix actually held my attention, which is shocking for me. I have a bad habit of scrolling my phone while watching TV, but this show had my full attention, and I loved the whole thing from start to finish. One thing that stands out is I wasn’t familiar with most (any?) of the actors, which is always such a treat for me—I really enjoy watching new actors on screen instead of the same people over and over.
I Take My Coffee Black with Tyler Merritt, an episode of Wild Precious Life, was such a beautiful listen. I now need to read all of Merritt’s books and explore his work.
Off the Vine has become one of my favorite fun-listen podcasts, and the episode with Matt Rife had me laughing the whole way through.
My favorite books I read in April:
This month in music:
It looks like my top picks for the month were Insomnium, Children of Bodom, Ghost, Trivium, Moonspell, and Alcest.
I listened to several Spotify playlists this month (I love those Daily Mix ones they put together every day), and mixed in a few other things like soundtracks for Skyrim, Sims, and Minecraft. Overall, a great month of music.
My favorite songs from the month were:
My favorite Amazon purchases of the month:
This is such a pretty top, and as someone who wants to have more of a capsule everything-goes-with-everything wardrobe, I bought this in white. It’s light, breezy, and comfortable. Plus, it looks great tucked in with either wide leg pants or shorts.
Most of my skirts are patterned, so I bought this so I’d have a great skirt that goes with everything. It’s cute and trendy, but also feels like the kind of thing I can keep in my closet for years and it won’t go out of style.
Summer for me means minimal makeup, and this provides a layer of simple shimmer for a no-makeup look.
This is just as good as the real brand and so much fun to play with! My kids and I had an awesome time with this set, which comes with molds. Plus, the colors are so vibrant and fun—I just love this so much.
Mood rings are in! I saw that a big-box store had some in stock, but they were too costly compared to what I remember these selling for when I was a kid. So, I opted to check on Amazon and here they are, a whole set of mood rings for cheap. Plus, they’re adjustable so my kids can wear them without worrying about losing them.
