Welcome to the first week of the End 08 Great August Challenge: Face Time With The Kids.

If you are new to Happy To Be At Home, allow us to give you some background information of the End 08 Great challenge.

Do you spend the first half of each year trying to keep up with resolutions or promises you made to yourself about how “this year will be different?” Then do you spend the second half of the year planning what you will begin doing next year to finally get everything under control? It’s a vicious cycle, isn’t it?

Well, we are here to challenge you—and ourselves—to put a stop to this vicious cycle. The last six months of 2008 starts tomorrow. So are you ready to END ‘08 GREAT?

During the next six months we will be hosting a carnival of sorts. Each month for the next six months we will present a challenge to help us all get our homes and lives in order. Then every Monday we’ll post links to your blogs, as well as our own personal blogs, where we can share what we’re doing for that month’s challenge. Our goal with this challenge is to inspire and encourage one another to reclaim all areas of our lives at home.

We’d love for you to join us in this challenge. If you’re ready to END ‘08 GREAT, you can add our END ‘08 GREAT button to your own blog using the code on our right sidebar.

August’s challenge is all about spending some real, quality time with our children. It is so easy to get caught up in all of our day-to-day duties that sometimes spending time with the kids can get pushed aside. So let’s take this opportunity throughout the next month to put our children front and center in our everyday activities. Let’s build some memories and tie some heart strings.

If you do not have children, we encourage you to join in also. Surely there is someone in your life who would greatly benefit from some quality time spent with you. This month, we challenge you to make them a priority.

Here are some fun ideas to get you started:

• Take the afternoon off with your children. Begin with a picnic lunch, either at a park or just in your backyard. Then spend some time lying on the picnic blanket watching clouds, telling stories, or reading books out loud.
• Build something with your children. Maybe a sand castle, an outdoor fort or even an indoor tent. When the building process is over, keep playing with them.
• Let the children see you throw away your to-do list for the day. Then, turn to them and say, “I don’t want to work today. What do you want to do instead?” Then, try to be accommodating, within reason of course.
• Do something to make your kids feel extra special. Spell out their name in pancake batter, cut their sandwiches into fun shapes, let them stay up a little later and do something fun with mom or dad.
• Take your children on a one on one “date.” This could be something as simple as a trip alone to the library with mom, or a $1 ice cream at McDonalds.
• Have a family slumber party. Bring out the sleeping bags and smores and camp out in the living room for a night of flashlight fun.
• And there were lots of links for inspiration in Joy’s Super Surfing Saturday post this week too.

Won’t you join us this month as we challenge you (and ourselves), to spend some quality face-time with our children? To join, simply write a post on your blog about what you will be doing this upcoming week in an effort to fit in that special quality-time, or let us know what you are already doing. Then come back here and sign up with Mr. Linky so that we can all follow along with your progress.

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