Challenge #1 - Blog Every Day of the Week - Daily Posts

Day 1 - Jonathan
I'm online in the morning rather than night because Erica took Henry for a play date. Lucas is napping and I had some time to get on my computer (after a lengthy Windows update). I made a quick grammatical correction and updated my time worked last night. I actually spent extra time getting the naked domain name to work.

Day 1 - Erica
I'm online quick during nap time. I want to use this challenge to find the best time of day for me to work online. Is it in the morning before the kids get up at 7:30? Is it in the evening after I finish exercising but before bed? My personal project is a "mom" blog. I try to do at least one post per week on that blog, with pictures. Also, as part of that project, I read several mom blogs and comment on posts. Time always goes by much faster than I anticipate, so I'd also like to be more productive. But now the dryer has stopped so it's laundry time instead.

Read on...





Day 2 - Erica
9:06 p.m. To do... Write an introduction to this project. Outline project guidelines. Write a personal bio. Read Jon's bio. Brainstorm artwork/pic ideas to make it prettier.

Day 2 - Jonathan
10:15pm. I had to work tonight so I'm on really late. I wrote a first-draft of a page explaining what this blog is all about. I'm sure Erica has a lot to add.

Day 3 - Jonathan
9:20pm. Finding the time to blog each day isn't easy. After a day of work and being a parent, it's a challenge finding the time to get on and write. I suppose that's the whole point of this challenge.

Day 3 - Erica
9:31 p.m. I did very minor editing to Jon's page about the project, mostly just calling it a project lol. I wrote my "about me" page and published it. I also worked on some pictures for my mom blog and read some more about minimalism. Minimalism has been one of my interests as of late. I finally finished The Minimalists documentary available on Netflix while I biked this evening and may look into one of their books to read. I've read Marie Kondo's Book about deciding which items spark joy and it didn't really speak my language. Although I did like her folding technique for organizing clothing in drawers. My socks are at peace now, Marie.

Day 4 - Erica
9:08 p.m. Hmm, not doing well with determining if I'd rather work online in the morning versus at night. I have 2 more workdays left, will attempt to get up and do some work in the a.m. Jon watched the Minimalists doc and seems more receptive than anticipated to the idea. I believe challenges are forthcoming. In the meantime, I worked on several posts for my mom blog today but am having trouble focusing my thoughts into an interesting and coherent post.

Day 4 - Jonathan
9:24pm. Had to work again tonight, but lighter duties so I have some time blog while waiting on someone else to finish their part. Today I signed us up for Gmail and Instagram accounts just to have those ready in case we want to use them. I watched more of The Minimalists movie on Netflix and I predict that Erica will try something like the Project 333 challenge for clothes. I also wonder if we can instill a bit of this philosophy in our kids even from a young age so that they don't grow up craving and overvaluing so many material things.

Day 5 - Erica
6:50 a.m. Woke up at 6:30 and pulled myself out of bed at 6:35. Got dressed cause working from home that only takes a moment and I know 7:30 is going to creep up quick and the kids will be up and ready to get out of their cribs. I started the computer with no intention of getting myself breakfast, but hunger prevailed. I made my meal, with the dual intention of getting a photo of it to use on my mom blog, only to discover my camera which had been in the diaper bag since Henry's play date on Sunday had accidentally switched to "on" (ironically I didn't even take the camera out of the bag on Sunday) and of course the battery was dead. Jon will not be happy to hear that as he's warned me before about letting the battery get completely drained. So, here I am typing (and eating) sans picture. This morning, I set up a Pinterest account for this project. Ideally, I'd like to create a board for each challenge which we could pin relevant articles to. Overall, I prefer being on the computer in the morning. Because it's summer there is the added bonus of it being light outside already and my eyes are significantly less tired than they are at the end of the day, making computer work more enjoyable. I also just feel fresher than at night after my workouts. Perhaps one day I'll be able to switch it all around and exercise in the morning to free up more of the my evening after the kids go to bed, but with breast-feeding a 4 month old that is currently a no go. TMI, right :-)

Day 6 - Erica
6:51 a.m. Grabbing breakfast for myself - and I'm not even cooking here! - is really cutting into my morning blog time. I need to either get up by 6 or delay breakfast until 8 if I want to get on the blog before work. I see Jon didn't blog yesterday. That doesn't bode well for our inaugural challenge...but perhaps I am mistaken on the rules?

Day 6 - Jonathan
9:54am - Damn! I missed a day already! I completely forgot to get on last night and write something. I got so consumed with watching (the first half of) a movie that I forgot about blogging. I don't know if that means I lose, or failed, or just let the team down. I suppose the point of this challenge is to prep us for being more active about blogging as we engage in other challenges, but clearly I will have some difficulty in getting online and getting my writing done every day. And I'm definitely "cheating" by doing this during work today... I think I'll need to add a daily reminder for myself to keep up the activity. I've actually been using an app called Strides recently for tracking my flossing and pushups. I guess I'll need to add blogging to my trackers. If you're interesting in checking out the app, it's completely free to track up to 10 different habits. Alright, back to work.

Day 7 - Jonathan
9:00pm - Well, it's officially the end of the week but what a busy day it's been. I got Henry up, made his breakfast, went to the grocery store, but not before researching infant eczema. I took Henry to the swimming pool, had lunch with him, then put him down for a nap just in time before our friends starting arriving. We played a few boardgames, grilled some meats, and had a nice dinner together. Everyone left around 7:00 when we promptly bathed Lucas, got him and Henry down (though Lucas took much more work), cleaned the house up and prepped for tomorrow's guests. Now I'm finding some time to blog. Long story short, it's hard to find time to blog, perhaps even worse on the weekends. If this week has taught me anything, it's that finding the time is going to be difficult unless we literally schedule and make the time. Otherwise, days will get missed (like Thursday). If Erica and I are going to be successful with this blog, we'll have to make a better habit of it.

Day 7 - Erica
9:11 p.m. - Perhaps this is the beginning of a great idea, blogging right after each other. I think not, but it's an idea. I think this week taught us that daily blogging will be difficult. We need to discuss challenge formats and flesh out the project a little more. At first, I was attached to the idea of doing weekly challenges starting on Sundays but that doesn't allow us time to reflect or plan the next and ultimately I think we will feel too pressured to have fun with the challenges, which is after all one of the main functions of the project, it is supposed to be fun.