Desk job for a day

I don't really want a desk job. In fact I don't think I've ever had a desk job, unless you count one week of taking phone surveys during an election year. I've worked as a TA (teachers assistant), videographer, Challenge Course leader, teacher, choir director, accompanist, worship leader and youth leader. Now I find myself with a challenging and demanding full-time position; momma to my two darling pre-schoolers.

Most days I really love being a mom, my kids are full of energy, healthy and growing fast, love cuddles, snuggles and playing with me. They also love each other and I can't keep them apart (try as I might to distract them with different toys). Unfortunately they don't always have the maturity to play together and there are lots of tears at times.

The kids have been home with me all month, as Lucas had a month of holidays from preschool. It has been a challenging month! We've had a different routine and some days have been great! And others have me craving a desk job. Wishing for some peace and quiet. A couple of hours to sit down after frantically running around, trying to get things done and keep the kids from killing themselves. And I began to wonder why that was. I know plenty of moms who stay home with their 2, 3 or more kids and seem to have it all together.

How I imagine a desk job. Clean, white, quiet....

I'm not sure what got me thinking about personality types, but after a particularly stressful day, full of discipline struggles, kids demanding attention and a few too many potty accidents, I facebooked, "some days it's hard to be a full time stay at home mom when you're an introvert..."

Then a blogging friend wrote about her own introverted-ness, and I found myself identifying with so much of what she wrote. Somehow I had never really thought about how being an introverted person would impact my parenting. I find it tiring to be around people all the time, definitely prefer small gatherings to big parties and absolutely need alone time to recharge. So I guess it is perfectly natural to feel tired out after spending the whole day around little people who require a lot of attention.

This photo has been going around, and it's a shame my kids can't understand it.

I was chatting with my hubby about my personality/introversion thoughts and he commented that instead of following these ideas, our kids have the tendency to do the exact opposite...

Examples
1. Respect their need for privacy: Can't remember the last time I went to the bathroom without one or two shadows following me.
2.  Never embarrass them in public: Um, only EVERY time we all go shopping together. Ok, maybe that's a tad exaggerated, but here's a doozy from this week: stopped by the Subway at the mall to pick up lunch and while I was paying, both kids made a beeline for the nearby elevator. While Lucas pushed the buttons, Elena just about stepped inside and I had to drop my wallet, phone, bag, everything and sprint across the food court to drag my two escapees back to the Subway stand. Just a little embarrassing...
4. Give them time to think. Don't demand instant answers: I have a very talkative little boy who asks a lot of questions. We'll just leave it at that, shall we?
5. Don't interrupt them: I have stopped counting the number of adult conversations that have been cut short and interrupted by a question or comment from my talkative toddler.

I'm sure I could think of examples for all of the rules above, but nap time is only so long, and pretty soon my two bundles of energy will need some love and attention.

Any other introvert mommas out there? How do you find time to recharge?

Linking up with Monday Mom Musings

A pretty perfect day

It started off as a perfect day would, enjoying a hot shower in our newly fixed bathroom while my little cherubs slept peacefully in their beds. The sun only just starting to stream through the living room windows as the coffee maker brewed its sweet nectar and the washing machine whirred with the first load of the day.

Soon a sleepy little boy made his appearance in the hallway requesting snuggles and cereal. Since we are in holiday mood an extra backyardigans episode was allowed as we waited for our little sunshine to wake up. After a leisurely breakfast we headed off to the weekly feira* to stock up on fruits and veggies with the promise of a hot pastel* if the kids behaved themselves.

Despite several attempts at escaping the stroller, we managed to fill the bags with fresh tomatoes, carrots, bananas, grapes and more, and savored a hot cheese pastel with strawberry juice.

Enjoying our treat at the feira. 

Then we headed to the mall to take Elena's photos for her school registration. Lucas and Elena enjoyed some time at the play place and I got to pick up lunch from Subway, one of our favorites.

This is the best. idea. ever! So helpful to have a place to put one child while the other is busy. 

The kids were cooperating most of the time, but there was still quite a lot of wrangling to keep Elena close by. The thing about having a pretty perfect day is that somehow the imperfections don't seem to be such a big deal.

After all it's perfectly reasonable to expect two toddlers to take off running for the elevator (and nearly lose one inside it) and for a little girl in the beginning stages of potty training to mess up three pairs of pants in one afternoon, and for said girl to try to eat several small rubber wheels....

So it definitely wasn't a "perfect" day, but it was close enough and I will enjoy being able to tackle all the small problems easily because when it's a bad day, those small problems can seem mountainous.

After a successful dinner (mostly), and a calming(?) bath, both kids seem to be asleep. Now for some down time, oh...and off to clean those dirty pants!

* feira = farmers market
   pastel = a deep fried pastry with a (usually) savory filling. It's very good when eaten hot and is a traditional feira food.