August comes to an end with Dad Down Under's 365 'challenge'

So here I am at the end of August in Dad Down Under's 365 'challenge'

The challenge for August was to read for 30 minutes a night and lights out at 9.30pm.

So armed with books I jumped in and took the family along for the ride as well.  

So how did we go..??

Well for me it meant I had to work more efficiently during the day to ensure that dinner was prepared and served in a timely fashion to allow for dishes to be washed and the kitchen restored to some form of normality each night.  I had to have lunches prepared, blouses ironed earlier to free up time.  And I had to better plan my weeks to avoid last minute chaos.

Well it was all fun for a week or so...setting myself a personal challenge to have everything under control with the pleasure of reading at the end of the day as the reward .....that was until I realised that this level of dedication and organisation was pretty much what was needed on a daily basis....for the REST OF MY LIFE.....!!!!

Despite this epiphany I soldiered on....most nights of the week making it into bed by 9.30 pm to start my half hour reading....and off to sleep around 10.00-10.15 pm....an improvement on my usual bed time of anywhere between 10.45-11.15 pm.  And in all honesty I did feel a lot better for it.  I challenged myself to be out of bed by 6.30 am ....an improvement on my usual sluggish starts of around 7.00 am which then threw the household into chaos!!  This half hour earlier out of bed in the mornings has seen me showered, dressed and ready for the day before I wake the girls....some mornings I have even managed a load of washing too !!!

Weekends I relaxed the routine a bit...Friday and Saturday nights I spent with a bit of television and a bit of knitting.  I made sure Sunday nights I got back into the swing of things with an early night.

I read "Three Hours Late" by Nicole Trope which I found hard to keep to the half hour...just a little bit more..just a little bit more.....I love a bit of suspense and it was a great book...easy to read and with a twist at the end!

I also read 'The Happiest Refugee" by Anh do which was also an easy read, inspirational and had that bit of Anh humour to it which was great. I realised how little I knew about Anh' s personal life so I learnt a lot.

Hubby also read "The Happiest Refugee" which he really enjoyed too but he is more of a day time reader and still prefers to wind down of an evening with a bit of television.

The girls took to the challenge at the start....

Miss 15 was reading "Angel in the Rubble"  by Genelle Guzman-McMillan 

Miss 14 and Miss 12 were trying to make their way through The Hobbit

Miss 9 had a selection of library books from school and 

Miss 4 had a pile of picture books plus each week we borrowed a book from the book basket at preschool.

Whilst homework and assessments did get in the way for some of the girls to finish their books they have made a good start.  Miss 9 and Miss 4 have made their way through quite a few books each which is great.

So now we move into September with 30 minutes of 'rigorous' exercise 5 days a week....boy are the girls excited about this one...NOT !!