August with Dad Down Under's 365 'challenge'

Recently Dad Down Under shared the monthly challenges that he is setting for himself over the next year and invited anyone to come along for the ride.  You can check out his challenge here...
http://daddownunder.com.au/2013/07/dad-down-under-365/

In need of some motivation to make some changes to my life I have decided to jump on board, possibly tweak the challenge here and there and drag the family along for the adventure!

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

This one may sound relatively easy.....but having homework to supervise, after school activities to get to, meals to prepare, dinner dishes to wash, uniforms and lunches to prepare for the next day, P&F meetings etc... I can't just pull up stumps at 9pm and go to bed to read.....so I tweaking this one and am going to aim for reading at 9.30pm and lights out at 10.00pm.....eeeek !!

I am really going to have to take a look at my daily organisation....or more so my lack there of.....to see how I can better organise my days to free up some of my night.

I am going to try to prepare school lunches and hubby's lunches earlier in the day.
I am going to stick to a meal plan in order to ensure that dinners are prepared, cooked and served in a timely fashion...and I am going to attempt to keep the kitchen under control during the preparing and cooking of said dinners to eliminate some of the time spent washing pots and pans after dinner.
I am going to review the week ahead each Sunday to ensure that I am on top of the weeks events to save any nasty little surprises or sudden late night trips to the shops for presents, supplies etc..


So here we are at Day 1....Thursdays are by far my worst night of the week as I run children to a multitude of activities starting from 3.40pm eventually picking up the last child at 9.10pm....returning home around 9.20pm.

I'm hoping that a calmer night will evolve over August as my evening organisation becomes better, I am hoping that the extra sleep will see me leap out of bed a bit more enthusiastically than my current efforts and I am hoping that I might even find some extra time in my day (which I will need when September rolls around and the exercise begins !!)

So our books are at the ready....

I have purchased "Three Hours Late" by Nicole Trope which I fear may be too good a read and I think I will struggle to put it down.
I am easing hubby back into reading with "The Happiest Refugee" by Anh Do
Miss 15 is reading "Angel in the Rubble"  by Genelle Guzman-McMillan (this was the book I purchased in eagerness for the August challenge...and I swear I was just going to read the first page....but it was quite compelling and was finished in two sessions reading!)
Miss 14 and Miss 12 are each trying to make their way through The Hobbit
Miss 9 has a selection of library books from school and 
Miss 4 has a pile of picture books 

So we are all set......let the challenge begin !!!!