A Happiness Project?

A couple weeks ago I read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, and although it seems a bit vain to focus on my own happiness, I do like some of the ideas she has.



Rubin focuses on making tangible resolutions to - in essence - be a more pleasant person to be around. She also forces herself to accept her preferences without giving in to the need to feel legitimate (An example she gives is her love of children's literature.) and to make time for enjoyment.

After reading it, I'm feeling motivated to work on my own character.

I am a perpetual critic. Perhaps it's because I like to feel superior to others - no, wait, it definitely is because I like to feel superior to others. It's terrible. I hate it. I've been "working on it" for a while now.

Philippians 2:3 says "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Knowing this, I despise my critical heart. I despise the part of my nature that insists on being self-important. But hating this part of me just isn't good enough. I realize that I need to make tangible efforts in "counting others more significant." Of course, praying for change is just as--if not more--important.

Enter Rubin's "Resolutions Chart," as mentioned in her book. The idea is to write down specific resolutions and measure how you are doing with each resolution every day. I think I will start doing this, and we'll see how it goes. I also like her idea of writing a novel in a month. I might just try that one, too.

My main goal won't be to become happier, per se, but rather to be more intentional in my pursuit of good character.

I'll let you know how it goes.

My Secret Garden Dream

Watching, and then reading The Secret Garden as a kid sparked a desire to create secret garden of my own once I grew up. I love flowers and enjoyed playing in our backyard growing up. I wanted the same experiences for my children. The problem with this desire is that I'm not very good with follow-through. I start things and have a hard time keeping up with them through completion.

I started a vegetable garden in our backyard this year in hopes of being able to live off of our small plot of land a bit. It's a 12x4 raised bed garden that I planted via the Square Foot Gardening method. Unfortunately some of my older seeds didn't take, so only about 75% of the garden yielded anything. I was pretty surprised with myself that after planning it out all winter I actually managed to build and plant it. That's exactly the sort of thing that I would start and give up before any real progress had been made.

My husband owned this house before I met him, and the yard wasn't exactly something he focused on. There's a raised garden bed lining the front and side of our house, and it was overgrown and a bit scary when I came around. I spent a year or two planning out what I'd do with the garden and weeded, trimmed, and planted it last year. We also started utilizing our yard last year, enjoying our make-shift fire pit and playing lawn games with friends.

The thing is, we have all this lawn (that's mostly weeds) that neither of us really like to mow, so (after reading two books) I've decided that I'm going to replace the entire front lawn with a cottage garden. But maintaining a garden is a lot of work. I barely have energy to maintain my vegetable garden. 

I read Eco-yards: Simple Steps to Earth-Friendly Landscapes earlier this year, and I'm sold. The author encourages people to use native plants in their landscapes to encourage healthy eco-systems and help the environment.



I also read The New Low-Maintenance Garden, in which the author argues that filling your yard with hardy plants and architectural elements will allow for more enjoyment and less upkeep.



I like the ideas that both authors present - I desire to have a positive impact on the environment without putting in too much effort. I found a few native plant nurseries in my area and hope to start working on this project in the next few years. Question is, is it an investment that I'm willing to make? We'll see.