Challenging Challenges during the Challenge

I mentioned in my first post that I have some challenges coming into the Read My Shelves Challenge, and I most certainly do. Some of them I can control and some I can't, but I think it's important to recognize them so I can plan for them and how to work around them if possible. So here are my top 3 challenges.

Challenge #1: The Toddler
I'm a mom. I have a two and a half year old little girl who takes up most of my time. There's not really any planning around this one. Children need you when they need you and you just kind of have to go with it. She is on a pretty regular schedule as far as nap times and meal times and such go, but everything is changeable depending on what she needs at the time. I'll have to make the most of nap time and any quiet moments I get after shes in bed at night.

Challenge #2: My Family is Messy
That's right, I said it. We're messy. We live in our house, and as such it requires frequent cleaning. I've been working on upping my house keeping game (That sounds a lot more lame than I thought it would), so I have a cleaning routine that keeps the house clean and the time I have to spend on it to a minimum. However its does take up a good chunk of my day, which cuts into my reading time, but again theres no getting around this one. Could I let my husband and daughter wallow in filth so I can read? Sure. Am I actually going to do that? No. I could never concentrate knowing there was a huge mess waiting for me when I put my book down.

Challenge #3: I'm really bad at reading challenges.
I am. I've done the Goodreads Reading Challenge for a few years in a row and I've never met my goal. I start out with a really high goal (high for me, anyway), like 50 books. And then I lower it through out the year as I get farther and farther behind. And then I stop caring. This year I started with a lower goal (30 books) and only lowered it once (to 25) and I'm only 2 books behind right now. This is one of the challenges I have some measure of control over. I have to stop spending so much time on Pinterest for a start. Being intentional with my reading and my time will help, I think, as will sticking with my routines mentioned in #2.

There they are. The top three problems I foresee during the RMSC. I think with some good planning and sticking to established routines (which I am notoriously bad at) I should be able to work with them.

Next post; Ways of Keeping on track (or something along those lines...) I'll go over some methods I'm thinking of using to keep up with the challenge, besides blogging.