Sharing what we’ve loved in April just a way to show our gratitude for all that’s good and positive. It helps us to count our blessings rather than to dwell on the things that are negative. If we all adopted this approach, I truly think we would all feel happier.

It doesn’t mean we won’t take stock of the negative things. We will, but we won’t dwell on them. We will deal with them, learn from them, and move on in our growth. Do share with us in the comment section, some of the things you enjoyed in the month of April. Our favourite is always left for last.

By the way, if you prefer to WATCH this post rather than read it, there’s a video below. Do check it out.

A special Birthday

Our Julie-Ann turned 18 this month! She wanted a girly pink day and she got just that. As we aren’t allowed any indoor celebrations at the moment, it was a low-key day at home and at college.

She got her requested caterpillar cake and also her french fried chicken and potato wedges for dinner. The cake only cost £6 and was well below what we would have spent on a cake for the 18th birthday.

I am also sure that she loved her gifts too. Bless her, she’s always grateful for everything. We are happy to have raised a positive young lady who is polite, respectful, helpful, and kind. Cheers for many more happy years.

Reading more

We are very pleased to say that we have spent a little more time reading than we have done for many years. What we decided to do was to set aside one hour after lunch to focus just on reading. It was enjoyable but the books we chose had stores that were a bit slow in the engagement sphere. There wasn’t much in the way of cliffhangers so we basically had to push ourselves to read.

Leisa was reading Honey and Dust while I read Little Soldier. They are both very inexpensive on Amazon especially if you have a Kindle reader. Little Soldier is the story of a refugee boy who is rescued from a war-torn country and taken by some church folk to live in England. He finds life here so different and all he ever dreams and daydreams of doing is to go back to his country and to continue fighting in the war. It is interesting reading although, for me, not very gripping. Honey and Dust is the story of a man who had an accident and during his recovery, someone introduced him to beekeeping. He was intrigued by it and so started to travel in search of different types of bees and honey.

Gardening

We have had some beautiful weather and lovely sunshiny days in April. This has made us feel really reinvigorated and energised. The front and back have benefitted too. So they are looking more fresh and green with new plants and flowers that Leisa and I bought.

We even got some hanging baskets from Poundland for £1 each and then added our own soil and petunias to it. We love them with their purple flowers and to protect them from frost we have taken them into the front porch every night. I think the last date for frost is some time in May so we will be able to leave them out overnight after then.

This way, we won’t have to spend money buying new ones until next year. And Leisa has also bought some pink ones and is currently trying to propagate them to add to the purple baskets.

So we are definitely springing into spring around here.

Decluttering

We are slowly but surely doing more decluttering so that we live with less stuff! This month we focused mostly on skirts and winter clothes. During the process we found so many pieces that we didn’t even remember that we had!

We have kept about half of them for the charity shop and left half to put away for whenever we start going back to church (that’s mostly where we wear skirts to). I don’t think we will be back at church any time soon, so it might be a long way away in the future. In the meantime though, we are happy that the clothes will continue to be loved by others rather than put into the landfills.

We considered selling some of the pieces on Depop but when we thought about it we decided against it. Leisa already has a Depop shop but she doesn’t do well with clothes on there.

Also, in order to sell them, it would mean that we still have to keep them somewhere at home ready for whenever the items sell so that we can put them in the post. Well, we decided against that hassle and also, decluttering is what we really want to do.

Entertainment

Despite the lockdown (although things are slowly easing), we have decided that we will make time for ourselves to be entertained and to enjoy life. These are some of the things we enjoyed without spending much money at all!

• Youtube has kept us entertained in the evenings. We’ve been watching a lot of Jamaican YouTubers which has left us feeling quite nostalgic and longing for even a mini holiday back home. Our favourite recently (in case you want to check him out is Colaz Smith TV. So much fun and nice vibes watching 4 young men climb trees, go fishing, swimming, and cooking outdoors. The channel is growing really fast too and we are so pleased to have found them.
• We have also enjoyed watching The Syndicate on BBC 2. It’s set in the UK and also takes us on the highs and lows of 5 poor friends who pool their money together every week to buy a lottery ticket. One day they actually won the jackpot of 27 million pounds but the shopkeeper tells them they have only won £500! Of course, they are happy with that amount until they find out the truth and goes after him when he runs away to Monaco. It is such a gripping watch and we have one episode left that we can’t wait to see. You can catch it on BBC IPlayer too.
• Our next entertaining feature is the Great British Sewing Bee which features some amateur sewers, both male and female trying their hand at different challenges that are set each week. The host is very funny and the nerves are real when you watch this.

Looking forward

Some of the things that we are looking forward to in May and beyond:

1. Wednesday Day Date: we’ve been locked in for so long and as Julie-Ann is home on a Wednesday, we’ve decided to get our work done by lunchtime and then go on a little date in the middle of the day. It might be to lunch, or shopping or even a picnic in the park. It is something to look forward to.
2. Holiday! We have managed to book something national and we hope it will be allowed to go ahead.
3. Home improvement: we have decided to do some more bits around the house ourselves and this includes redoing the doors in the house. It is a way to keep us occupied but also one of the ways to maintain our home, something that we love to do.

And that’s it for what we loved in the month of April. We hope you’ve enjoyed our highlights. Let us know what yours has been.

Here’s the video version as told by us:

 

I’m linking up with  Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.