Month in Review: April 2026

April 2026 in Review

April was a mix of small routines, kid chaos, and a few standout moments that made the whole month feel fuller than it probably looks on paper. Some things moved forward, some didn’t quite land where I wanted, but there was enough in between to make it feel like a good stretch of real life.

Month by the Numbers

Weight: ↓ 4 lbs Runs / Walks: 1 Migraines: 4 Books: 4

Blog Posts: 14 OMMs: 4 Savings: ↑ $350 Debt: ↑ $225.51

OMM = One Minute Memoir

Highlights

• Spring Break + April Fools: April kicked off with Spring Break. My mom took the kids to a hotel so they could swim, and I met them there after work. Since it was April 1st, I brought cookies designed to look like other foods as a joke. They were… not amused.
• Life with Holden: Holden had a busy month between a doctor’s appointment, weekly Lego Club at the community center, and a couple trips to Abbott’s for ice cream. He has also enjoyed "helping" me bake brownies all month for our extensive family brownie taste testing.
• Things we did together: The boys and I saw the new Mario movie on a discount Tuesday, went to our monthly Bingo night (Earth Day themed this time, complete with pudding dirt cups), and went to Get Air trampoline park on a random Sunday morning. Fun fact: Caleb has sprained or broken his ankle/foot twice at trampoline parks. No injuries this time. Holden, however, throws up after the trampoline park every single time… and did again. I think he just gets overheated.
• School + our first run: We had another school dance at Caleb’s school, and toward the end of the month, the weather finally cooperated enough for our first family run of 2026. Just a mile, mostly walking, but it felt like a start.
• A new musical: I saw A Beautiful Noise with my aunt, a musical about Neil Diamond. I liked it quite a bit and have found myself listening to his music more since.

What I Read

A pretty good reading month! A solid mix overall with one clear standout.

• Safe by Jessica Baum ★★☆☆☆
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans ★★★★★
• Conditioned by Amanda Russo ★★★★☆
• Death Row Games by Shade Owens ★★★☆☆

Favorite: The Correspondent
Yearly Progress: 13 / 100

What I Watched

A slower month for shows, but documentaries absolutely carried things.

Movies

• The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ★☆☆☆☆
  (Theater)
  Took the kids. They loved it. I did not.

TV Shows

• Full House
  (Hulu ◦ rewatch ◦ s:1 e:3)
  The slowest rewatch in history.
• Grey’s Anatomy
  (Netflix ◦ rewatch ◦ s:2 e:4–7)
  Still a slow rewatch.
• His & Hers ★★★☆☆
  (Netflix ◦ 2026 ◦ s:1 e:3–6)
  A small-town murder pulls multiple perspectives into the same story, with shifting narratives and secrets underneath the surface. This started strong for me but kind of fizzled out, especially because I read the book and it was way better. I finally finished it.

Documentaries & Docuseries

• Captive Audience ★★☆☆☆
  (Hulu ◦ 2022 ◦ 3 episodes)
  A family grapples with the long-term fallout of a highly publicized kidnapping. This was interesting but, for some reason, didn’t fully capture me. It was ultimately a sad and twisted story, but it moved kind of slowly.
• The Way Down ★★☆☆☆
  (HBO Max ◦ 2021 ◦ 5 episodes)
  A deep dive into Gwen Shamblin and the rise of her religious weight-loss movement turned cult. I thought this would be fascinating, but it really dragged for me.
• They Called Him Mostly Harmless ★★★★☆
  (HBO ◦ 2024 ◦ film)
  A mysterious unidentified hiker sparks an online investigation to uncover his identity. This was intriguing. It was a baffling mystery, and I enjoyed watching armchair detectives unravel it.
• American Nightmare ★★★☆☆
  (Netflix ◦ 2024 ◦ 3 episodes)
  A bizarre kidnapping case that initially seems unbelievable before the truth slowly unfolds. I knew a tiny bit about this well-known case, but never the full story. It was strange and interesting to watch play out. A little slow at times, but good overall.
• Trust Me: The False Prophet ★★★★★
  (Netflix ◦ 2026 ◦ 4 episodes)
  An inside look at a modern cult, following the people who infiltrated it and documented what was happening. I was completely obsessed. I’ve always been fascinated by cults and the FLDS, and this was so well done. I absolutely loved the couple who infiltrated the cult and filmed it. Christine Marie had a heart of gold and Tolga was absolutely hilarious. Well done, fascinating, sad, and crazy. I wish there was more.
• The Dark Wizard ★★★★★
  (HBO Max ◦ 2026 ◦ 4 episodes)
  A documentary series about climber Dean Potter, told through interviews, archival footage, and access to his journals. Another instant obsession. Fascinating, well done, excellent interviews, archival footage, and access to his journals. This stayed with me, and I was sad to see it end.
• Free Solo ★★★★☆
  (2018 ◦ film)
  Follows climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to free solo climb El Capitan without ropes. I first learned of him during the live Tappei climb on Netflix earlier this year and immediately started this older documentary about him, but never got very far. After watching The Dark Wizard, where he was featured, I went back to it. All in all, I enjoyed it. He’s kind of an odd guy, but very interesting and fearless.

Best Thing This Month

Feeling genuinely appreciated and valued at work for Administrative Professionals Day. It wasn’t just the lunch or the cake or the card... it was the feeling behind it (and the fact that they got me a McDonalds gift card because they know me).

Worst Thing This Month

Dealing with an ongoing skin infection that’s been stubborn and slow to heal. It’s been frustrating. Weight loss also wasn’t where I wanted it to be this month. Still moving forward, just not quite at the pace I had in mind.

Coming Up in May

A family night at Caleb’s new middle school as he gets ready for 6th grade. Monthly Bingo. Hopefully another movie night with the kids (The Sheep Detectives is on the list). And hopefully some warmer weather so we can keep up with family run/walks. June is already looking busy, so I’m hoping May brings a little bit of calm before that.

See you next month.

Read More

Unsold Inventory (One Minute Memoir)

A Memoir on Family Entrepreneurship, Profit-Sharing Negotiations, and One Unsold Balloon Dog

Setting: March 2026

The idea started casually.

One evening, I suggested that maybe Caleb could try selling some of his 3D prints. Not as a serious business venture. Mostly just so he could learn a little about money... and maybe cover some of the cost of the filament I keep buying.

Just a balloon dog to start.

But the conversation escalated quickly. Different colors. Different models. Maybe a whole little product line.

Caleb thought about it for a moment and finally agreed.

Holden reacted immediately. He jumped up and grabbed an axolotl—an earlier print we had made—and suggested we sell that, too.

Then he disappeared into his room and came back holding a toy airplane.

Not a 3D print. Just a random airplane.

He asked if we could list that for sale as well.

But before anything could be sold, we needed photos. Holden volunteered for the job and took the balloon dog to the windowsill to photograph it.

The lighting was terrible.

So I sent him to the kitchen for a quick lesson from my dad, the actual photographer in the family. After a little coaching about lighting, Holden came back with better pictures.

Meanwhile we still had to work out the financial structure of the operation.

Caleb pointed out that he was the one printing the items. I pointed out that I was the one paying for the filament. Holden felt that photographing them counted as work.

Eventually we reached an agreement: Caleb would receive seventy-five percent of any sales and Holden would receive twenty-five percent.

The photos were taken. The listing was posted.

And then we waited.

After all that planning and negotiation…

...no one bought a damn balloon dog.

This post is part of my One-Minute Memoir series — short reflections on small moments that still manage to say something big.

Read More

Things I Loved This Week (1)

I’ve been wanting a space to capture the smaller things that make up a week... not full stories, not full posts, just moments, favorites, and little pieces of life that felt worth keeping.

So this is the start of something new. A weekly gathering of the things I loved. A mix of anything and everything, from shows to small wins to random moments that stuck with me. No categories, no rules. Just a running list of what made the week a little better.

Administrative Professional Day (continued)

The celebrations carried into this week, and my team went all out for me and the other admin on our team. They brought in a full taco bar, cake, and a card filled with genuinely kind messages. There was cash tucked inside, and a McDonald’s gift card specifically for my daily Diet Coke. I mean… talk about feeling seen.

Finally getting back to running

We’ve been saying we were going to start running again for weeks. This week, we finally just did it. Warm evening, shoes on, no overthinking.

It didn’t go as planned. Both tracks we use were occupied, so we ended up on a trail instead. But even with that, it felt easier than our first time running last year. That alone felt like a win.

The Dark Wizard

A new HBO documentary that dropped in April, and I’m fully pulled in. It follows rock climber Dean Potter, who I knew absolutely nothing about going into it.

He’s one of those people who’s hard to look away from. Brilliant, complicated, a little tortured. The kind of story that sticks in your head long after you stop watching.

The final episode drops next week, and I’m already planning to rewatch the whole thing. I’ve been deep in research rabbit holes about him all week.

Also, the theme song When I Was Done Dying by Dan Deacon has been playing on repeat in my car. It’s one of those songs that just takes over your brain.

Rebranding my blog

I’ve been working on a full blog rebrand all week. New header, new logo, and slowly updating all of my post graphics.

I wanted something more refined and polished, and I love the direction it’s going. It’s going to take a while to fully update everything, but it already feels like a reset. Like a fresh start without starting over.

Caleb at the school dance

We went to a school dance this week. Holden… had his moments. Caleb, though, had the best time.

The funny thing is how much he’s like me. Quiet, observant, a little reserved.

Except for this one thing.

At school dances, he dances. Fully. No hesitation. No worrying about who’s watching. He just goes out there and does it, even if he’s the only boy on the floor.

I would never.

And I loved watching him do something I wouldn’t. Completely happy, completely in it.

My 3D printed Kindle holder

I’ve been seeing those 3D printed steering wheel Kindle holders all over lately, and of course I immediately wanted one. So I asked Caleb to make me one, and he actually did.

I’ve been using it to read in my car before work, and it’s been one of those small things that makes a routine feel better. Slightly ridiculous, completely useful, and very on brand for me at this point.

✦ ♡ ✦

A quiet kind of good week.

Read More

The Space Between Head and Heart

On living between instinct and evidence

People often talk about it like there are only two kinds of people in the world.

The ones who follow their head.

And the ones who follow their heart.

I’ve never been entirely sure which one I am.

For most of my life, it has felt less like choosing between the two and more like living with both of them in constant conversation.

Sometimes they agree.

Often they don’t.

The heart usually speaks first.

It notices when something feels meaningful. When a relationship shifts. When a moment lands heavier than it should. When something matters enough that it refuses to be ignored.

But my head rarely lets the moment pass without inspection. It wants structure. Order. Evidence. This is the part of me that tracks everything.

Spreadsheets for my finances. Budgets down to the dollar. Reading logs that record every book I finish. Blog templates that organize my writing before the first paragraph exists.

It is the part of me that responds to chaos by building systems.

Even my writing works this way. Most essays begin with something emotional, a feeling I can’t quite ignore. Before long, I’m shaping it, editing it, turning it into something structured enough to understand.

The same pattern shows up in bigger decisions too.

There was a job I once wanted badly. The kind of work that would have felt meaningful and alive. But the numbers didn’t make sense. The salary was too low, and the practical reality of my life would not bend enough to make it work.

My heart wanted it.

My head closed the door.

Relationships are where the divide feels loudest.

I care deeply about connection. About feeling chosen, understood, prioritized. But once something unsettles me, my mind goes to work. I replay conversations. I study tone, timing, patterns, inconsistencies. What begins as a feeling can become hours of analysis.

There were times I wanted connection badly enough to ignore what was obvious.

And there were times I protected myself so carefully that nothing could reach me.

Both felt reasonable at the time.

That same pattern appears elsewhere too. Sometimes something about myself clicks into place emotionally, a recognition that feels true before I can explain why. Within hours, I’m deep in research. Articles, studies, assessments, pages of notes.

The heart notices first.

The head asks for proof.

But the longer I’ve listened to both of them, the less certain I am that either tells the entire truth. Sometimes I call it logic when what I really mean is fear. Sometimes I call it intuition when what I really mean is hope.

Looking back, I can see both voices shaping almost every major decision I’ve made.

There were times I stayed longer than logic suggested I should, because emotionally I wasn’t finished trying yet.

There were times I left while my feelings were still tangled, because reality had become impossible to ignore.

I used to think decisions came from clarity. That one side would eventually win and the answer would feel obvious.

More often, decisions come from exhaustion. I stay in the debate until standing still becomes heavier than being wrong. Then I move.

The conflict sounds noble when written down, like wisdom in progress. In real life, it can be exhausting. I have lost time to indecision. I have mistaken analysis for progress. I have waited for certainty that never came.

For a long time, I assumed I would eventually become one kind of person or the other. Practical and sensible. Instinctive and brave.

But the older I get, the more it seems my life has been built in the space between them.

One still moves by instinct.

The other still wants evidence.

I’ve spent years living between the two, waiting for them to agree.

More often than not, they never do.

And still, this is where I live.

Read More

Heaven Has Pizookies (One Minute Memoir)

A Memoir About Shared Bites, Shameless Mooching, and a Dessert Worth 10,000 Helpings

Setting: June 2025 — The summer we discovered Heaven on Earth in a pizookie pan.

It was our first time at BJ’s Brewhouse, and I was mostly there for the Pizookies. But before dessert, we had to do lunch.

Halfway through his chicken tenders, Holden slid his plate toward me. “Can I have your ranch? I ran out.” I handed it over, and soon he was asking for a bite of my sandwich, then a few of my fries — despite having plenty of his own.

When the Pizookie finally landed on our table, he took one bite and froze. “How’d they make this so good? This is better than anything I’ve had in my life.” Another spoonful: “Gordon Ramsay definitely made this.” A few bites later, between exaggerated “mm mm mm” noises, he declared, “So good and tasty.”

By the time the skillet was nearly empty, he sighed. He hadn’t just liked it. He had declared it worthy of the afterlife. “I wish I could keep eating it. In heaven, I’ll eat this 10,000 times.” 

On the way home, we stopped at McDonald’s for a Happy Meal for Caleb and a sundae for my mom. Despite already eating his fries, and mine, he tried to mooch more from his brother. And even though he had just had ice cream on the Pizookie, he went after my mom’s sundae, too. Earlier, when I had snapped a photo of his empty plate and two drained ranch cups, he just grinned. “Aww. I’m cute.”

Cute — and apparently, still hungry in heaven.

This post is part of my One-Minute Memoir series — short reflections on small moments that still manage to say something big.

Read More

The Sunday Reset (1)

I’ve been wanting a weekly space to reset, regroup, and pretend I have life more organized than I sometimes do, so welcome to the first Sunday Reset. Last week was one of those weeks where something was happening almost every night. Good things, mostly. But by the end of it, I was ready for the couch and a suspicious amount of silence.

This week looks calmer. The calendar has finally loosened its grip.

A Look Back at the Week That Was

Word of the Week: Full

Did: Saw A Beautiful Noise (the Neil Diamond musical) with my aunt, went to our monthly Bingo night at the community center, took Holden to Lego Club, and spent time at Get Air trampoline park.

Accomplished: Survived a busy week without forgetting anyone, missing anything major, or needing to fake my own disappearance.

Loved: Leaving work early to pick up the kids and watching Holden run out of school thrilled because someone in his class had gifted him a package of mac and cheese. Childhood is weird, generous, and undefeated.

Hated: Ongoing struggles with a skin infection and misplacing my license.

Read: Conditioned by Amanda Russo and Death Row Games by Shade Owens, both on Kindle Unlimited.

Watched: The Dark Wizard on HBO Max, a gripping documentary series that just dropped. I'm looking forward to the last two episodes being released.

If the Week Were a Book Title: Booked Every Night

Looking Ahead to This Week

What’s on the Calendar

• Holden's final Lego Club at the community center.
• Taco lunch at work, a belated celebration for Administrative Professionals Day.
• A school dance.
• My cousin's bridal shower.
• Hopefully seeing the new Michael Jackson movie at some point this week.

To-Do List

• Go to the library to return some books and pick up holds.
• Get to the Dollar Store for some cards.
• Continue to work on some minor blog rebranding by updating more images.
• Order and bake more brownies for my ongoing taste tests.
• Finish my current book.
• Find a new documentary series to dive into or finish season two of The Pitt.

Looking Forward To

• A slower week in general with a few open evenings.
• A possible return to family running. Holden is ready. Caleb has not yet signed on.

Not Exactly Looking Forward To

The possible return to running after a five-month hiatus (the Turkey Trot was our last run). I support the idea more than the experience.

Main Focus

Choosing discipline over convenience this week: fewer impulse buys after a spend-y week and choosing to go out and move our bodies instead of sitting on the couch, even if it's just for one night.

One Thing I’m Keeping in Mind

The things that help most are rarely the easiest in the moment.

♥

Here’s to doing a few things I don't feel like doing this week, then being glad I did.

Read More