April – Gracious Rain

January 15, 2026January 19, 2026

Brave Girl

Once upon a time, there was this cute girl who played soccer. She play so much soccer that one day, she totally tore her ACL.

Fast forward and here we are. She was called in much sooner than expected, for repair surgery because someone else canceled and she got their spot. Brave girl, Lil!

Back at home now, she is loving fruit smoothies and sitting back in the recliner…exactly like she’s supposed to.

And her mom’s a pro at adjusting her brace…

and unwrapping…

and unwrapping her leg…

to see what a good job the doctor did! And what a great job Lily is doing too. Not much bruising, so far.

She’s even mastering crutches like a pro….something I never did figure out.

We’re so proud of you honey!! Rest and keep healing. We love you!

December 17, 2025January 3, 2026

My Sweet Advent Calendar

On the last day of November–alllll those weeks ago- haha– April and Lily came over and gave me an amazing surprise.

Ok, yes, they brought me a yummy cinnamon roll that Lily made and some hot chocolate, but the REAL surprise was…..

this beautiful box…

with all it’s mysterious littler boxes….

that April’s family filled up with…

all kinds of magical Christmasy things!

There were candy canes and water bottle stickers and brown sugar fudge…

yummy lip gloss…

a soft, fluffy wash cloth…

and even a ridiculous Perfect Man made of chocolate.

Ohhhhh Aprilllll. Hahaha.

One box held heavenly soft plaid socks…

another had a chocolate marshmallow Santa–that only April and I truly appreciate. Heh.

There were lovely ornaments…

chocolates and more ornaments…

and MORE chocolate!!!

I especially loved the teeny, tiny Mrs. Claus cup ornament.

You know, I always wanted to be Mrs Claus when I grew up.

I’m not even kidding.

Best of all–each of those different boxes came with a sweet little note from Hazel, Lily, Beckham, Jacob or April that I will love and cherish forever.

Thank you so much my sweethearts.

You made it like Christmas every single day.

December 8, 2025January 5, 2026

Grampa’s Honeycake by April

This, my friends is Honey cake. And to be honest, it’s still hard for me to see this dough…

and smell these spices…

and watch the process…

and see some of the old tools…

without looking around to see if my cute little Daddy isn’t somewhere close by.

April, probably more than anyone, watched and helped with the process right at grampa’s side. She knows all the little secrets to make the Honey cake now–so it’s wonderful to watch her do it.

It warms my heart and helps me when I’m missing him particularly at Christmastime.

When she’s finished, it looks the same. It smells the same. It tastes the same.

I get the feeling that he is very close with that twinkle in his eye…

smiling.

Thanks April for saving this for all of us.

I miss you Daddy.

Grampa Was the Gingerbread Man lyrics by Light Shine University

September 1, 2025October 19, 2025

Road Trip- Day 4 Monday

Since you can’t really come to this neck of the woods without finding some dang good food, we hunted out a RIB place called Penguin Ed’s.

No earthly idea what the penguin thing was all about…

but I digress.

After lunch, it was here that we had to say good-bye to April’s family.

They made a fast trip here and had to make an even faster trip back home.

Ahhhh…the busy life of a family of soccer players.

We even found a stray cat that came to say…

good-bye.

Safe travels Rosenthals! See you at home.

On the way back from lunch, we took a detour to see Dane’s school.

He showed us where some of his classes are.

The stadium…

the fan store…

the fountain–seriously guys–what is with all the HOGS?!!! Why would you pick that?! Haha.

We even saw the creepy old…

people-who-shall-remain-nameless House Museum.

Museum?! Really?

Blaugh.

It’s always better for this mama heart to be able to picture where my cute, wandering boy is hanging out…

if he’s not going to be with me, that is.

He has his nerve.

Heh.

February 28, 2025April 22, 2025

This sweet project was truly a labor of love that took nearly a year to complete. It was April’s turn to choose an afghan and she chose the pattern and all the colors. She really has the best eye for all that, so I was thrilled that she didn’t tell me to just wing it. That would have gone badly!!

I stitched the squares together with a simple single crochet. I know there are fancier ways to do it but this worked just fine.

The edge came from the deep ridiculous recesses of my brain and I’m sure I couldn’t do it twice–Haha. I just kept going around until it looked like I wanted it to.