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Full Steam Ahead! I seem to be on a roll from the last challenge, so here goes to staying on track. My birthday is also in the middle of this challenge, and we'll be going on a steam train ride to The Berg (Drakensberg) for the day! Any train pictures are welcome to keep us (the boys and I) going. Otherwise walking is on track, shooting club is steaming ahead on schedule, gardening is tut-tutting along. I am just going to focus on those points I struggled with last challenge, then setting morning and evening routines. Also continuing with Self Defense with the boys, as they'll be earning money alongside me to keep this habit rolling along. 1. WATER: Drink at least 2x500ml bottles of water a day. Hit 23/28 days -> R50 prize. For every bottle water (or part thereof) above 2x, R1 extra. 2. UP ROUTINE: 5h30 Make coffee -> Prayer/Bible study -> 6h15 Out of bed (5min. grace - and Sundays don't count) I've joined a friend in doing a 40 day prayer group for firstly our husbands, but secondly for the family. Over and above this I do a very short verse and explanation bible reading in the morning. That is my "food" to stay on track during the day. I have to be out of bed by 6h15. It is very difficult on mornings after a late evening. Hit 20/24 days -> R50 prize. 3. LATE EVENING ROUTINE: 20h00 Boys to shower/bed, Mom to her room -> Me shower -> Kitchen routine (meat for next day to defrost, clean up, dishwasher, water bottles, etc.) -> Devotional reading Hit 23/28 days -> R50 prize. 4. SLEEP TIME: Be in bed by 22h00 (5min. grace) Lights out, latest 22h30 to unwind, and shut my mind down. Hit 23/28 days -> R50 prize. For every 5 days I manage in a row, R10 extra. 5. SELF DEFENSE: Self defense with the boys once a week. Hit 3/4 days ->R50 (they get R5 each per session)

Balsquith brings back the routine My last challenge was rather amusingly titled ‘Balsquith doesn’t give up’ and saw me disappear from the face of the earth after barely 2 weeks. The challenge itself wasn’t badly set up and I will be keeping parts of it here. This time around I will have 1 key goal, 2 goals to support it and a couple of additional goals. Key goal: Get up to my alarm everyday This goal is the key to everything, it is less about me being a heavy sleeper and groggily hitting my alarm clock and more about me already being mostly awake but just not wanting to get up, due to having no desire to and no plan. As such, success in this goal reflects me having actually got my life a little bit in order. Supporting goal 1: Morning routine. In order to give me something to get up for, I want a little bit of a plan. As such I want to re-establish a morning routine. I have many plans for this, but for the purpose of this challenge I will keep it very simple. Every day I will do the following upon getting up: 1. Say ‘Today will be a great day’ 2. Drink a glass of water. Supporting goal 1: Evening routine. As with the morning routine I have a number of ideas of how I want this to be, but will start by ensuring that I have a nice tidy place to live in. So every night before bed I will do a least a bit of tidying (no minimum). This can be clearing the table or doing the washing up. This will settle me down in the evening and ensure that I have a nice clear space to wake up to. Fitness goal: Exercise 3 times per week. I started going to a crossfit-esque gym recently and have spent much of the time recovering from muscle soreness (even with almost a week between sessions). Hopefully this will get better enough that I can do 3 sessions in a week. Money goal: Create weekly budget and stick to it. In a previous challenge I started recording my daily expenditure, which is great except for the fact that I haven’t changed how I actually spend my money. In this challenge I will set a reasonable budget and stick to it, allowing me to actually have some money to put in savings at the end of the month.

I'm on here sporadically, so by way of introduction I'm a single mum to an energetic and incredibly sweet 12 month year old. I've just moved house and I'm going through an acrimonious divorce, with a court hearing this month, so I don't imagine I'll be updating much. But I always appreciate any well wishes! My last challenge, the main thing was moving house and (to cut a long story short) it was a really complicated move, with lots of uncertainties all over the place. Anyway, on the last day of the challenge I went to collect the keys to the new place - hoorayish!....except the keys didn't work, but the landlord sorted it out by the next day. As of today, I've just got some new furniture assembled, so my main aim is to get the house in a condition where it's actually pleasant to live in, for both me & baby. Game on! 1. Eat healthier - diet I don't have much time to cook at the mo, so: evening meal is one of: tinned healthy soup, tinned beans, or omelette. If enough time, pasta & beans is fine.sort out obtaining food for healthier breakfast (porridge, cinnamon powder & a certain favourite cereal) Additionally: Once I have burned through all my house move stuff that's taking up soooo much time, I need to start easing off the biscuits. I don't know when this will be, but I will aim to cut back to 3 biscuits a day initially, with a view to reducing that progressively. 2. Improve bedtime routine - general wellbeing Wanted! Missing: sleep. Reward: $5000 Part of my bedtime issue is that I feel overwhelmed at how much I have left to do and start procrastinating about doing the remaining evening tasks... thus leading to a later bedtime. This time: do all the necessary household maintenance tasks once baby is in bed/after dinner as the FIRST thing. This is stuff like washing up, clothes washing, cleaning kitchen floor (someone drops a lot of food on the floor every meal!) etctrack how long it takes to do each particular task 3. Start using baby sling - fitness I just got a beautiful baby sling that is supposed to be the best for your back, and importantly, also looks pretty. It cost a load too, so I had better use it! Plan is: View instructions of how to use it (one-off)Adjust sling to size and practice putting baby in/out (a couple of times)From next week, aim to go outside (if not raining) 3 times a week for at least a 2 minute walk, wearing the sling Life Quest With so much going on, I HAVE to do more than I want, but I tell myself it's a temporary state of affairs. 4. Sort house move CleanTidyUnpack bags and boxesEnsure utilities are working as requiredOrder more necessary things (the place is unfurnished and I didn't have much), especially furnitureUpdate addresses from spreadsheetRemember other accounts not listed in spreadsheet and update addresses with them, tooI want this to be DONE by end of Jan! 5. Keep on top of solicitor requests Take action within 24 hours (aim for same day) of receiving an urgent request from herTake action within 3 days of receiving a less urgent request from herIf unable to achieve the above, plan when I will make the time to do itThis will be ongoing, but is very necessary so may as well make it an accountable quest.