Live Brave: April 2014

I can't believe that this month has flown by so quickly. March has been a really productive month in many ways, however I haven't been able to achieve all of the intentions that I set for myself. While a lot of that was due to some of the other intentions that I had going on as well as work and travel, I want to be more intentional about achieving my intentions in April; meaning I am will need to come up with a bit of a plan.

For now though, lets look at how I did against my March intentions:

Intention to complete home projects – Have a look for inspiration and ideas for my garden. Decide on the desired end result.

My garden needed a lot of work. I knew that I wouldn't be able to do it all this month but I wanted to have a plan and to make a start. March has seen me mowing the lawn, getting rid of the weeds in the two front garden boxes and planting brand new flowers which are hopefully going to look beautiful in a few more weeks.

I also have a plan for the back garden. I want to get rid of the weeds in there, paint the fence, clean and re-stain the decking, put down grass and hang some fairy lights.

Intention to connect more to God – Do a daily devotional.

OK, so I have sort of done this one. Did I start a daily devotional - yes! Did I manage to do it daily - nope! I have been doing A Confident Heart and that days that I have done have really spoken to me.

Intention to get God’s word into my heart – memorize a new bible verse.

This verse has been a very powerful one this month. I love that I have been able to use it several times and that James 1:5 has brought me strength and peace.

Intention to improve my physical fitness – Sign up to a race.

Now this one didn't happen at all. I did however manage to get in 11 gym sessions....and I'm pretty proud of that number.

Intention to change my body and my health – Focus on clean eating throughout the month and take part in Lent.

The clean eating went really well this month. I even managed to lose 6 pounds - that's 3 and a half pounds more than February. My original plans for lent didn't end up being what I thought it would. Instead, it became a professional base gesture rather than a health based one.

Intention to create and learn – Complete my One Little Word project for March and my second TMA.

My One Little Word March prompt has been done and completed, and while at first I wasn't sure if I was going to like doing it, it slowly grew on me. I also managed to complete my second assignment for my Social Psychology course. It was a tough one for some reason but I did it!

Intention to comfort my soul – Create a personal mission statement following journal prompts.

I did not get around to doing this month, and if I am being really honest then I would be telling you that this prompt didn't even enter my mind. Not good.

Intention to live a life of gratitude - Complete my gratitude journal for March.

This project is turning out to be one of most favorite that I am doing this year. I love that it allows me to capture the day to day blessings in my life and that I will be able to look back at it on years to come.

All in all it has been a good month and while there are things that I have learnt in March that I want to implement in April, I am very pleased with the progress that I have made.

Ever since I bought my first home back in August, I have been dreaming about what my first garden will be like come Spring and Summer. Before I bought my house I lived in a little flat with no garden, so one of the requirements while house hunting was a definitely a garden.

One of the first things I feel in love with when I drove up to look at the house was the front garden. Two big birch trees out front, flower baskets underneath and a brown picket fence. It immediately felt like home. The only problem was that the garden hadn't been worked in for at least eighteen months and needed a lot of work doing to it.

Finally, with the weather warming up and with spring just starting, I decided it was time to take action. My front garden has two of these boxed, both of which looked like this.

Now this is where I need to tell you all that have zero gardening knowledge or experience, other then the sunflowers I grew in primary school. So I picked up my big fork (I'm sure it has a proper name but that's just what I call it ) and begun the huge task of ridding these baskets of all the weeds, grass and whatever other odd things had made their home there. There was so much work, it took me four and a half hours to clear them both out.

Now came the fun part - shopping for new flowers which will hopefully make my garden look gorgeous in a few weeks time.

With my limited gardening knowledge, I knew that whatever I got I wanted them to be perennials, so that I wouldn't have to buy new ones each year. So I found the perennial section and simply picked one of each flower that looked pretty on the flower card that came with the plant. To be honest, I was expecting it to cost me about fifty to seventy pounds however I got a great deal and only ended up paying twenty six pounds for all the flowers in my shopping trolley above. Now my flowers are planted and I am eagerly waiting their bloom.

I am so pleased with how my garden has turned out so far and I can't wait to see it in full bloom. As you can see, my back garden still requires a bit of work but I will get there in in the next few weeks. Hope you are enjoying the warmer weather as much as I am.

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