May Challenge – Wakey Wakey!

I didn’t set myself a challenge for April but I did achieve quite a lot. I kept up with my reading list, I crossed the finish line of the London Marathon and I almost walked head on into Will Young (no really, I actually did).

This month though I am back with a proper challenge. And trust me when I say this is a PROPER challenge. I am already cursing myself for it – this one is going to take will power.

I am not a morning person. By this I mean in an ideal world I would remain in bed until the morning had gone away however I have two small creatures who disagree with this thinking. The world in general also seems to have issues with it if I’m honest and so my challenge for the month? Be out of bed and downstairs by 9am at the latest. There are of course limits to this – if, for some reason, I have a very good reason *not* to be out of bed by 9am (such as not getting into my bed until very shortly before that time) then I am allowed a lie-in. But only if it is a genuine excuse.

This counts on days where the kids are at their Dad’s house and can’t bully me out of bed. I still have to be up.

I am dreading this challenge so much because, basically, I am lazy. BUT hopefully, come the end of the month, I will have developed a new habit and might actually have got into a sleep pattern that isn’t silly. Quite possibly I will make it to the end of the month grumpy and even less of a morning person than I was before but we shall see….

Got a personal challenge or aim for the month? Go link up with TiddlyOmPomPom’s Personal Challenge for some support and encouragement!!

May Challenge – How Did It Go?

I just noticed that it’s June and I haven’t done my round-up post about my May personal challenge – oops!

Well, it was a partial success. Sy and I did manage to go out for two Alphabet Dates (‘A‘ and ‘B‘) and spend some quality time together but I failed pretty miserably at the eating round the table properly thing (still working on it though) and utterly failed at keeping up with my 80k in 80 days challenge. I should have a word count of about 34,000 by now. My total is nearer 7,000. Which is rubbish. But I have at least started it and written a chapter plan and a plot outline and some character profiles – it is now a WIP that I can plod through when I find time rather than just a vague idea at the back of my mind.

I am also pleased to say that we have planned Alphabet Date ‘C’ too, so that will be happening soon. It is good fun coming up with ideas around letter themes and even though some of our dates involve the kids it is great to have some time spent together doing things that aren’t just every day.

Did you have a personal aim or challenge for May? – Blog about how you did and then link up over on TiddlyOmPomPom’s blog by clicking the button at the top.

 

May Challenge: The Alphabet Edition

In April I challenged myself to focus on me – something I regularly forgot to do anyway, even more so now I’m a Mum-of-Two. Having succeeded in that I am now setting a similar, but less ‘selfish’ challenge for May.

Obviously it’s not just me that is having to adapt to this new bigger family and since the arrival of Arthur there has been distinctly less Sy-and-Carole time. This was inevitable but I think we’ve fallen a bit into a routine where we don’t spend enough time together at all. My challenge this month is to fix that a little with two things.

1) Make sure we sit down properly together to eat most evenings.

We have a habit of each sitting in front of our respective computers and munching on a rushed dinner. I’m going to try and cook some proper food and get us sitting at a table together more often.

2) Start out on an Alphabet Date journey together.

I read about Alphabet Dates over on Liberty’s blog and thought it was a brilliant idea. As a couple you take it in turns to organise a ‘date’ corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. It can be weekly, fortnightly or monthly – whatever you want – and doesn’t necessarily have to be wildly extravagant so long as it matches your letter.

Granted there is a high chance several of our dates will involve one or two extra small people but it will still be fun to spend time together and be a little silly. I have formulated a plan for date ‘A’ already so will put that into action sometime soon.

Hopefully doing these things will help us bond more not just as a family but as a couple again – we can stop ‘coping’ as a family of four and start really ‘enjoying’ it – and each other – instead.

As a second challenge I also aim to keep vaguely up to date with my 80k in 80 days challenge, which started yesterday. By the end of May I should hopefully have written 31,000 words. I should technically have already got 1,000 under my belt yesterday but I forgot. Not a great start…

Do you have a personal aim or challenge for this month – Something you want to get done or a target to reach? Why not blog about it and then link up over on TiddlyOmPomPom’s blog by clicking the button at the top – moral support is always good!