April Highlights 2017

I'm back again with yet another monthly highlight post. April slowed down a bit, but not by much! I can't believe we are a third of the way through 2017! Where is it going?

~Summary~

Our "new" suburban.

As some of you are aware, about six months ago our car started to need significant mechanical attention. As bills continued to build up and the main apparent problem still wasn't fixed, we started hunting for a new used car. After multiple disappointments, we finally found and bought a Chevy Suburban that will be great for all my family's trips, etc. I'm looking forward to creating more memories in this car as we did in our previous van. Thank you to everyone who loaned us cars during this time and to all who prayed for us.

The rest of the month went by in a blur of days spent fixing fences, clearing up our property on burn days, and a trip to each of my grandparent's houses in Los Angeles and Pacific Grove.

One of my friends played the Mad Hatter!

I also got to go with my dad and a friend to watch an "Alice in Wonderland" play some friends starred in. (Great job, you guys!) Easter was a good day, starting out by celebrating our risen Savior at our church service, but turned out rather unusual since it rained and we were out fixing a fence in it! :) That was fun. I ended the month by serving at a local community fundraiser.

April was also a rather difficult month, in that there was quite a bit of stress trying to find our new car so we'd have a reliable vehicle, and several of our friends spent the majority of the month in the hospital.

In general, it was a good month even through the difficulties.

~Reading~

This month was a bit of a slower month as far as books goes, but once again, those I did read were very enjoyable! I'm in the middle of two other books that will get added into May's list. For April, my total pages is 1,283.

1. Ranger's Apprentice: The Icebound Land, John Flanagan (266 pages)
2. Red Rock Mysteries: Hidden Riches, Jerry B. Jenkins and Chris Fabry (249 pages)
3. Red Rock Mysteries: Dead End, Jerry B. Jenkins and Chris Fabry (235 pages)
4. The Blades of Acktar: Deliver, Tricia Mingerink (239 pages)
5. Ranger's Apprentice: The Battle for Skandia, John Flanagan (294 pages)

Without a doubt, my favorite book out of that list is Deliver. I wrote a post on its release day that you can read by clicking HERE.

Also, I finally finished reading the Red Rock Mysteries series. I was a little disappointed with the ending of the last book, but overall it was a great series and I spent many pleasant hours reading it.

~Writing~

I participated in Camp NaNo, a virtual writing camp, and had a wonderful time. Even though I didn't begin to approach my goal, I enjoyed getting to know everyone in my wonderful cabin. It was an experience worthwhile, even if I only made 8,600 words. But as a friend reminded me, every word you write is a word you didn't have before. :) In that case, I'm content with my word count for this month. The best part of writing was the friends I made through Camp, and the satisfaction of pushing through some difficult spots in my story.

Also, another thrilling side of writing through April was when I managed to make my current WIP my longest story yet! It's now sitting at around 26K. :) Click HERE to read my post about that, and at the top of my blog I have added a page about the Arkinland Chronicles with stats, the summary, and a few exerts. Check it out!

~Photography~

Rather than post multitudes of pictures here as I've done in the past, I'll only post a few since I already shared most of my good photos for April in a previous post, called Springtime Photos.

At the beach in Pacific Grove.

~Great Quotes~

This month, I've been keeping my eyes out for good quotes to share with you, and I've discovered quite a few that I love!

This has become one of my all-time favorite quotes!

~Blog Posts~

It seems that I've already linked to most of my more popular posts of the month, so if you missed any of those, you can find them above. My personal favorite was the post about Deliver, since I love sharing about my favorite books. (I couldn't call myself a book lover if I didn't!) Besides, I got to do an author interview with Tricia Mingerink, and that doubled the fun!

A great blog post that I read this month was done by Jonathan at Fishing For Ideas. Here's the LINK to his post about putting your faith into your writing.

~

That's all folks! Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear about your April highlights!