Goal #2: Life Updates - April

Goal #2: Blog a personal/life update once-a-month for six months.

I thought our six-months of radical frugality was as good'a'time as any to write a life update once-a-month for six months. So to get us started, here is April:

Life Update 1 of 6: April 2010

April has been an intense month of emotional, spiritual and material purging. When I opened myself up to doing big stuff for God and living simply to give more, if was like Someone opened a floodgate. And I'm a little bit addicted to the change.

"I've learned that it takes faith to be a generous giver, it's not normal or natural. I have also learned that often people actually give before the joy comes. Once people experience the joy of giving, it becomes infectious and they look for new and better ways to give more." - Tom Conway

For starters, our apartment is a bit of a disaster right now because I been in a spring cleaning frenzy motivated by a "live simply" mentality. Our living room is half covered in piles of books, clothes and other hardly-ever-used-so-let's-just-get-rid-of-them items. Less stuff to clean, less stuff to pick-up and less stuff to move (when the time comes). Sounds great to me!

I found that in letting go of all this "stuff," I actually felt less burdened and more eager to give. I think that by removing "stuff" from my life, I realized how little I actually need, thus how much less I could live on and how much more I could be giving. Shoot! This applies not only to money, but to time as well. The less stuff I have to clean, more more time I can give to others, right? :-)

Goodness, there is so much more that I could say about this month, but I think that if you've been following my blog, you pretty much have a good gist of what has been going on in my life/head/heart lately. So for the sake of time, I'll give a bullet-pointed update on the remainder:

• I'm learning about freezer cooking. It. Is. Awesome!  (Feel free to share links to recipes that freeze well, I'll take whatever I can get.)

• I hosted "Girl's Night" this month at our apartment. My college girl friends and I all live in different parts of the city but try to get together and catch up every few months. Nothing like bonding time with old friends. We watched movies and played games and ate way too much junk food, all while wearing our PJs. It was fantastic. Much love to my incredible friends Julie, Jamie, Brittany, Megan, Rachel and Sus (who we missed this month).

• I heard Donald Miller speak and it rocked my world.

• I've had a lot of oppotunities to hang out with our new church family and it has been so wonderful to get to know these amazing people.

• Oh April 10th, Devin and I celebrated 6-months of being married. I can confidently say that I love him more today that I ever have before. Through all of the soul-searching, growth and openhearted sharing going on this month (on both Devin and my part), I think we've fallen in love with each other all over again. :-)

Q4U- What was the highlight of your April?