Monthly Progress - March 2024

It's been a busy month, despite working less hours at work. I seem to have found ways to fill the time available. Unlike in previous months, I haven't done much scrappy sewing work, which I have missed, and I can feel the urge to work with fabric scraps coming around again. Maybe I'll get the chance in April.

In March, I've been much more focussed on a fabric stash re-organisation and count and on progressing with my Hexi Star patchwork quilt, which is now much nearer completion. The fabric count has been an interesting experience, lets put it that way. I really don't need to buy any more fabric for a long time, save for possibly plain fabrics I might need for specific patchwork projects. I have very few plain fabrics in my stash and I use these to contrast with the patterned fabrics in my quilts. 

I may slow down on the patchwork front in April though and try to do something different, just to mix things up, although patchwork is very easy to pick up and put down, which makes it very convenient to work on whenever you have a few spare minutes.

We've fitted in a visit to Yorkshire this month, which made a nice change. I always find getting away from home to be inspiring, as you can step back from things and refocus, which helps me to identify my priorities, and since getting back, we've got on with what is the main priority, which is the garden. 

We definitely made progress with the garden renovation, with our neighbour and OH completing the new fencing on one side of the garden and with OH taking down the shed and the rest of the fencing in readiness to replace it. 

Getting rid of the debris, plus lots of unused and no longer wanted clutter from the shed on the last day of the month brought about a big sigh of relief. Giving us some space back to be able to get out and work in the garden, which was wonderful.

In April, I'm hoping that we can progress further with the garden renovation. The new fence panels and timber to build new fences have now been delivered and I'm hoping it won't take OH too long to get them up, so that we can move into the next phase of the renovation. In the meantime, I need to do lots of pruning and tidying in order to facilitate this.

I've also started to try to regularly feed the birds this month and encourage them into the garden. It seems to be going reasonably well so far. I began by cleaning all of the bird feeders and then buying and putting out some bird food. More feeders will be filled with snacks and put out as we progress with the garden renovation. 

In other areas, my fitness journey has been slow this month. I did lose a couple of pounds over the month, but Easter weekend may have seen a bit of weight going back on. I can see my progress in the way things are fitting or should I say not fitting me any longer, so that is encouraging. We also managed to acquire some better weights too, that weren't too expensive, so that should help with progressing in this regard.

Other fitness progress, involved finally starting the Couch to 5K app, although I only did one run in March. OH signing me up for a 5K run was the main motivation for this, plus better weather towards the end of the month.

My walking challenge has gone well again this month with 141km of steps taken, which is more than the monthly 135km needed to keep on target for the yearly distance of 1,000 miles. If I continue with the running, this should help to boost this total in April.

I'm going to have to be a little more self motivated with regard to exercise in April, as there are no free classes and gym sessions available until the end of the month, so I will need to book and pay for gym sessions and classes each week until then. It doesn't cost much though, so this won't be a problem.

Work wise, I feel like I've made progress this month in terms of getting more of a work/life balance. Working less hours on my new permanent contract has meant that I've had more time to spend doing other things. My hours have increased around Easter though, and I have some extra shifts scheduled as we go into April, so we'll see how that goes.

Although I've not set myself any decluttering challenge this year, I have decluttered quite a bit in March. We parted company with quite a lot of the unused contents of the shed this month and I also decluttered quite a lot of clothes after going through my summer wardrobe and discovering what still fitted and what was no longer going to serve me. 

There may be more things decluttered in April, once I start to put away my winter clothes. I may part with some of them if they are now way too big for me or no longer inspiring me to wear them. I'm kind of undergoing a bit of a style change alongside my weight loss and the things I wore to hide the weight I'd put on are being replaced by things that are a bit more fitted, as the weight gradually comes off. We'll see where that leads as time progresses.  These changes are being introduced to create a wardrobe that fits my new frame and healthier lifestyle, but I'm making sure not to take for granted how far I've come and that I may slip back, although I'm hoping not to.

Despite all of the progress made in March, there are many areas where I haven't made progress, probably the main one being keeping on top of the housework and cleaning. I probably need to focus more on this in April and I've decided to use a 10 minute daily speed clean strategy to try to keep on top of different areas of the house. I'm hoping that short bursts of cleaning will help to motivate me more to keep on top of things.

I'll keep you posted with how this goes and what progress we/I make with regard to our other goals in April. 

Whatever your goals are, have a good month.