Who is up for a last-minute 30 x 30 challenge! There’s something about the beginning of September that feels like such a fresh start. It seems like a great time for a 30 x 30 challenge. Who would like to join me for some daily research (or organizing or doing whatever you want to commit to)? We typically commit to 30 minutes for 30 days, though your goal can be whatever you want.

Because of all that’s going on in my life, I haven’t been doing much genealogy research. I can now share that we experienced a life changing event: my husband had a heart transplant on July 29. He came home from the hospital on August 27 and my role now is primarily that of caregiver. Actually, that just means I’m fetching stuff for him, reminding him to take his meds, accompanying him on walks and generally being encouraging. He’s doing quite well.

Now that Barry is out of the hospital, I have more time at home and I would like to focus my 30 x 30 challenge on my genealogy paper files. I don’t have a lot of them, but I did move all of them in June without going through them. So this month my goal is go through all the files (they fit in one file box) and scan those for which I don’t already have digital copies. I intend to keep very few, if any. I’ll do it 30 days in a row, unless I finish the project before then.

If you’d like to participate, just comment below. I’ll post a mid-month check in to see how it’s going for everyone and then we’ll wrap up at the end of the month.

For those of you participating in this month’s 30 x 30 challenge, how’s it going? Were you able to put in 30 minutes a day toward your goal? If not, did you end up doing more than you would have done had you not been doing the challenge?

You’ll recall that my commitment wasn’t for daily genealogy research this month, rather it was to work on getting ready for my move every day. The move is now five days away (gulp), on June 21, and you can bet that I’ve been working on it every day for way more than 30 minutes. I have professional organizers (my team members) coming in to help me pack this week and unpack starting Saturday. So the days in the coming week will be full but they’ll also be very productive.

I’m hopeful that you’ve had a productive month as well! Please let us know in the comments how your challenge is going.

Sorry I’ve been writing so infrequently; I’m moving in (gulp) three weeks and have so much to do. But I realized today that I haven’t done a 30 x 30 challenge since January so I’d like to invite you to join me for one. Please comment below if you would like to commit to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research (or organizing or whatever projects suits you) for 30 days in a row in June.

Sadly, I won’t be joining you in the genealogy research. But I commit to putting in at least 30 minutes a day every day editing my belongings, finding homes for those I no longer want and packing those I do! It will probably be a lot more than 30 minutes a day, in fact.

Since I’m not researching as much these days, I used my move as an opportunity to get together with my genealogy buddy, Vickie Sheridan, and gave her my collection of National Genealogical Society Quarterlies and NGS Magazines. That felt great! I gave her a few genealogy books as well. It felt so good to find a good home for them.

Please let me know in the comments if you’re up for the challenge!