Day 8 - The "mbwngtm" challenge: We made it.

Arran and I have both been on an 8 day challenge. He doing the Great Southern Brevet (a couple of good photos of Arran riding in the snow today. Idiot). Me ensuring Aiden and Charlie survive the week while writing a blog update each day.  Not sure who had it the hardest but at least I had a comfy bed each night and easy access to wine. We both finished our challenges today.

Walking Aiden to day-care this morning and walking home again I wondered what I would talk about today. My last post of the "my brain will not go to mush challenge". I hadn't been inspired yet. I didn't have any "bad mummy" stories, as my sister puts it, nor any other amusing tales. Maybe my brain has gone to mush? As I sat down to write I hoped that something would come to me. And it did.

At the end of a project, or when a goal has been achieved, it's good practice to look back, to reflect, and to contemplate.  What did I learn? What could I have done better? I didn't know if I could write everyday. Would I have the time? Would I have the discipline? Would I have the material? Would I get bored of it? I used to hate writing. It didn't come naturally, so would forcing myself to do it everyday take the fun out of it?

So here it is:

• I can write a blog post about just about anything, or nothing. Not sure this is a great life skill, but there you go.
• The most popular posts are the ones where I tell you about stupid things I do or life happenings. The amount of people who make comments about these posts or tell me face-to-face how much they laughed makes me wonder if I should move into stand-up comedy. To tell you the truth sometimes I'm killing myself laughing, laughing at how dopey I am, while writing them.
• I still like writing and I like working out how to take photos that look good on the blog to illustrate what I'm talking about. I might need some new camera lenses. Just saying.
• It's easy to find the positive in most situations.
• I felt confident enough to enter a blog competition with this post here
• I probably won't continue to write a blog post everyday but will try to blog a bit more regularly
• I am actually a pretty organised person, despite what my family think. I'm able to achieve lots more than most people in a day. Cool.

I wonder what Arran would say he learnt on his 8 day challenge? Would he agree with this list?

• He still doesn't listen to what his body and his bike computer is telling him
• He missed the boys (and me hopefully) more than he thought he would
• It can be really cold in NZ in summer
• It's hard to sleep when your feet are cold and wet and you don't have a pair of warm, dry socks.
• It's not a good idea to ride into the snow in the middle of the night
• His Spot emergency beacon thingy actually works. Yes, isn't it nice to be called in the middle of the night by someone in an American call centre to tell you that Arran has activated his "Spot" and they can't contact NZ search and rescue? And I'm supposed to do what?
• He still loves Mountain-biking
• He owes his wife big time.