Friends, how is it possible that July is already OVER??!?
At the beginning of the summer, I was feeling incredibly weary. I was feeling incredibly frazzled and very short-tempered with my kids. One of the best ways I’ve found to cope with these situations is to sit down and make a list of everything that I am doing/involved in. EVERYTHING goes on the list. Housekeeping, child-rearing, marriage, church volunteering, blogging/writing, book editing, IG Story Watching, Running, Doing puzzles, reading books…everything! Then, I look at the list and ask myself what I can take off the list.
Simplicity, if you will.
Obviously, I cannot take my children or my husband off the list (nor do I want to). We aren’t in a place financially to outsource much of our household tasks/chores, so that has to stay on the list. And I would really like to get my book finished, so that is a HUGE task on the list.
During the month of June, I took the entire month off of social media. For some reason I thought that would free up a lot of time in my schedule, but it actually didn’t. It did, however, leave me feeling so much more fresh-brained and less distracted. I did get some editing done on my book. This time not on social media gave me the chance to do a lot of personal reflection (without the noise of all those other opinions). During this time, I decided that I wanted to do a daily challenge in the month of July. This challenge was designed for me to help me be more intentional with my children and spend more time enjoying them.
I wanted to share the entire challenge here on my blog. I know that many people have participated and several have even asked me if I will be publishing this in some form or another. I think that I would like to turn it into a short book/printable PDF– but I first want to finish writing my book before I embark on this project. So for now, here is the list.
Day 1: Greet your child with a smile and a hug when you first see them in the morning
Day 2: Write down one way your child brought you joy today
Day 3: Play for ten minutes WITH your children- doing their activity of choice
Day 4: Talk to your child about your country
Day 5: Read a book together
Day 6: Say yes to something you want to say no to
Day 7: Pick someone to write a card to
Day 8: Spend one on one time with each individual child
Day 9: Give your child at least five hugs today
Day 10: Do a chore with your child
Day 11: Clean up a mess for your child
Day 12: Write your child a love letter
Day 13: Buy your child a gift
Day 14: Plan a field trip with your child
Day 15: Pray over your child
Day 16: Listen intently while your child tells you a story
Day 17: Go phone free for the entire day
Day 18: Praise their Daddy
Day 19: Call/text/skype their grandparents
Day 20: Have a race with your kids
Day 21: Let your child choose dinner
Day 22: Play a game with your children
Day 23: Take silly pictures together
Day 24: Eat a meal/snack WITH your children
Day 25: Have a dance party
Day 26: Tell your child about they day they came into your family
Day 27: Make a rainbow meal
Day 28: Do a workout together
Day 29: Do a Random Act of Kindness with your Child
Day 30: Watch their show WITH them
Day 31: Start a journal for each child
The intent of this challenge was for it to be simple! I wanted small daily tasks that I could implement without a lot of extra supplies or time or creative energy. Honestly, if I hadn’t been leading this challenge I would have probably thought “nah” for some of the challenges. But the beauty of a challenge is that some days I really had to dig deep and make myself complete the task. And I was ALWAYS glad when I did. My challenge to myself is to take just one of these challenges and implement it as a daily habit. Obviously, I can’t buy my kids a gift every single day, but I could make evening dance parties a thing! Or I could make sure that I am intentionally taking the time to write down or tell my kids one thing I enjoyed about them each day.
And just for fun, here are some of the photos that I’ve taken during the challenge!
Have you done the challenge? Are you interested in trying? I would love to hear any feedback from you! Would anyone be interested in possibly doing a marriage challenge or a household challenge next?