I’m officially on vacation!! I still can’t believe it. I won’t be working tomorrow and the other 18 days after tomorrow. Uauuu!!!

Tomorrow my daughter is going to school as usual and my son is going to daycare. I’ll have a blood test done in the morning than come home to do some blogging. I want to take advantage of tomorrow morning to write a few posts and try to organize my posts schedule for a couple of days.

I know that my kids are going to request all my attention. I only have 25 days a year for vacation so this is something we long for for almost a year. I really want to spend time with them although I also feel the need to have my own time even if they are around. So, I’m preparing some children craft ideas, movies and other children activities that can keep them busy while I do some of my stuff.

Having the pool at home is lots of fun but also time consuming. When they are in the pool I have to be near to prevent accidents, I don’t want to be on the computer while they are in the pool, I want to keep my eyes on them.

I want to keep up my blogging but I don’t want them to feel that they are sharing my time with the computer. I’m going to try to keep the computer away from me as much as I can. Well…if they are watching TV I can be on the computer…

I thought about not blogging during the vacation but I like it and I don’t want to lose the rhythm of updating regularly. I don’t have scheduled posts, no extra posts to use so I just have to keep writing when I can.

My husband will be on vacation only next Monday so tomorrow afternoon, Thursday and Friday my kids will be all mine.

My daughter is afraid of all type of insects and animals, she just freaks out, screams and cries when she sees an unexpected bug. What happened today is hard to believe.

During break time in pre-school she saw a bee, a beautiful yellow and black bee, was she afraid? No. She tried to grab the bee with her hand and she got stung on one finger. I really can imagine the pain she felt because when I was younger I was stung by 3 or 4 bees. My poor baby…

The hand still hurts and it’s swollen, I just gave her some medication for the pain and to reduce the swollen, I believe tomorrow she’ll be ok.

Well, two days ago she hit a iron bar with her forehead and now she has a black spot.

Well, what can I say, growing up is having a lot of experiences, some good but also some bad, all together they will make my kids more alert and aware of what is going on around them.

• Worried about my son. Hopefully the node will return to its normal state, but I already schedule the eco (scan) for July 3rd (there are no appointments available sooner)
• The Noddy surprise was a real surprise. When I said I had a surprise they thought about everything but Noddy.
  School is over for Dani. The hard study and missing soccer classes gave good results and he really improved his grades.
• Soccer classes and tournaments are over.
• I might have sciatic nerve pain. The pain on my lower back is terrible (but nothing compared to the pain I feel for my son).
• I’m not inspired to write and blog but I know I can’t give in to the pain and worries I’m going through. I now what a depression is and I’m doing trying my best to not let me go down.

I read a post at The Domestic Diva called Parents tune into your Kids, this was an interesting post to read. Take two minutes and read it than come back please.

I agree with what is said by The Domestic Diva, completely, we must give our children our best attention and provide them with quality time. I couldn’t agree more.

Now talking about my situation and most full time working mothers with no one to clean the house, to help with the meals, to go shopping, how can we give our children quality time when, even on weekends we have the house to clean, shopping to do and we are so tired that we can’t even walk because our legs hurt so much.

I try to give my kids most of my free time but there are those days that, no matter how much I want to be with them. I’m not 100% with them. There are those weekends when I take them to the park but I just want them to play alone because I’m too tired to walk and play with them. However most of the times when my attention is requested, although tired and not wanting to, I manage to drag myself and play with them. Is it quality time? Maybe for them it is, they don’t even notice that I’m not ok, but that’s for sure not quality time for me. Do they deserve the effort? Yes, of course they do. They are away from me 10 hours a day and they surely deserve a mom that spends time with them and plays with them even if that’s not what she really wants, I mean, I want to, but the tired side says: go to bed, rest and let them play alone.

Most moms (not all of course) I know from blogs are staying or working at home mothers, although I know it is not easy to handle a house and kids full time, at least they are at home and they can prepare some house stuff during the day.

When I come home at 7pm I still have laundry, cooking and some cleaning waiting for me, besides all the other activities (baths, playing) that involve the children. Am I proud of being a working mom? Of course not, my dream (which is slipping through my fingers) has always been to spend more time with my kids, pick them up at school, do the homework with them but the reality is different, I have to delegate those tasks to other people because…I’m working.

Should I have gymnastic classes or swimming classes to easy my stress? Of course I should, but when do I have time, when I should be asleep?

Of course I’m aware there are full time working moms in the US, moms with a career, with high status inside a company, but do they have time to blog? Probably not. The reality I see on blogging world is about moms that follow their kids, who have the computer on all day, who have time to socialize, to participate in forums. I tried to do that but I’m going down the drain, I’m tired because I can’t put up with that because I have little free time.

I’ve been blogging less lately because I’m so tired I can’t stay up everyday until 2-3am and get up at 7am in the morning.

Do I want to be a full time mom? Yes I would love to, but European reality is much different from US. Even if I blog for money, the reality is not good, two years ago if I earned 300US$ I would earn 300€, now 300USD$ means 192€ and it’s getting worse.

Do I want to work from home? Yes, I would love too but in Portugal there are no companies providing that type of work.

If there is a US company that wants to offer me a job I can do from home I will be pleased to accept! ?

I’m not criticizing anyone, on the contrary, I would love to hear from working moms to know how they manage time. I want to improve my parent skills, I’m always looking for ways to be a better mother, that’s why I sometimes instead of writing my own posts I read other mom’s blogs because I learn so much from them.

Are you a full time worker? Leave me your blog URL and I’ll be please to read about your daily life, I’m sure I will learn important lessons from you.

Before the pool I had little time to blog now, I have less time. Let me explain.

Before the pool:
We usually arrive home at 7pm, the kids watch some tv while I prepare dinner, just before dinner is ready there are the baths and then dinner. Afterwards some TV for the kids while I blog a little and than bed.

After the pool:
We arrive home at 7pm, it’s hot therefore the kids want to go to the pool. Once my husband only arrives home at about 7.40pm and I don’t leave the kids without supervision, I have to stay by the pool and dinner is postponed. This means we have dinner too late and later I’m so tired I can’t look to the screen.

Today my son had a birthday party so no pool. They are both asleep now while I’m updating my blogs.

My son and daughter are my priority so I want them to have fun in the pool especially when we have good weather. I could take the laptop outside to the garden table but they want my attention and they sure deserve it after spending 10 hours away from me.

I guess spring, although still shy, is finally arriving. I’m really tired of rain and cloudy sky, I want to get out and be able to walk without worrying about carrying an umbrella or getting wet shoes. It has been a hard spring for the kids because the weather is never good for them to play outside. Most of their free time is spent in the computer, video games or TV.

My daughter likes to color and draw so it’s easy to keep her entertained inside the house, my son, well is a boy and therefore likes to play soccer and more outside related activities. With the weather change and bigger days we will be able to play more outside. Although we arrive at home at around 7pm we still have daylight and if the weather is warm than they can play in the back or front yard.

I’m not that kind of mother that worries about dirty clothes, dirty faces, dirty hands, everything can be washed so I just let them play outside freely. My daughter loves to catch bugs and worms (ugh! yes worms), one day she even arrived at daycare with one on her hair, a black one, she didn’t noticed and she must have touch her hair while having a worm in her hand and it just stayed there.

One thing I don’t like is when they come inside after playing and wet the floor or forget to rub the sand away from their legs and feet. This is something I have to start imposing once they start playing outside for good.

For those wanting to spend some time outside, in the nature, in the backyard in the woods the book i love dirt! is the right book for you to buy. It shows activities we can do outside no matter if we live in the city or in the country.
Quoting:

I Love Dirt! is a call to parents, educators, and caregivers to help children recover one of the great joys of childhood. Through fifty-two activities, readers will find a wealth of creative ways to actively engage children, ages four to nine, in nature. Each project is meant to promote exploration, stimulate imagination, and heighten a sense of wonder.

Organized by season, and appropriate for both urban and country settings, each activity is accompanied by a fun fact to help further a child’s understanding of the natural world and open up a conversation.

We must be aware that in outdoor activities we must protect the children’s body: appropriate clothes for the weather temperature and a sun protector. Be careful with sunburns.

Usually I cut my hair once or twice a year. I don’t have the patience nor the money to go to the hairdresser frequently.

Since October 07 that I hadn’t had an Haircut so yesterday it was the day, I had a totally different haircut. My co-workers, my son and daughter and my DH were amazed and said I looked like a different person, more beautiful and young. What can I say…I was totally flattered and happy with the compliments.

It’s amazing the impact a new look can have in our lives, it seems people look at us in a different way. Now I need to buy new clothes to match the look.

It seems I only have bad things to write about on this blog, but life is what it is. Again I haven’t updated it for a few days due to health issues. Do you remember my tooth removal? Well the pain didn’t go away and it was unbearable. I held on with all my strength and tried to “swallow” the pain, it wasn’t easy. I decided to wait until Monday to see a dentist but now I know it was a mistake.

I had an appointment scheduled to remove the stitches tomorrow but yesterday I called the clinic and asked to be seen my the present dentist, just to check if everything was fine. I went there and as soon as the dentist saw my mouth she start talking to her assistant requesting anesthesia, needles, scissors, and other materials I don’t even know the name. I asked: is there something wrong? The dentist said: yes, you have a serious infection, you shouldn’t have waited so many days to come. I can’t imagine the pain you went through, I’m going to remove the stitches and clean all the area including the bone once the infection has spread out.

Well, the gum was so infected that she had to give me several anesthesias in several places to put my gum and mouth to sleep. After all the work she had to do on the gum and tooth hole she told me I was going to have a lot of pain the next couple of days because the antibiotic she prescribed me takes 2 days to start doing effect, however she put a smelly product inside the hole where the tooth was to help fight the infection while the antibiotic is still trying to work.

Today I feel much better although the jaw is hurting a lot and I have difficulty in opening my mouth. The wound looks much better now but I still have some pain. Tomorrow the antibiotic will be working “full time” so I hope this all go away soon. That’s enough…go away pain.

Fortunately no payment was necessary for this urgent appointment.

Yesterday I wasn’t in conditions to update my blogs. The tooth issue was resolved. The tooth couldn’t be repaired and was removed. After several failed attempts, the tooth had to be broken in two and remove each part separately.

Once the hole was very big the dentist had to sew me, yeap, I have 4 stitches on my gum. After the effect of anesthetize went away the pain started really hard. I still went to the office after the tooth removal because I had a lot of work but I was feeling real bad.

At night I went to bed at 20.30 with ice on my face. Today the scenery is the same, while the pain killer effects is on I’m more or less, when it goes away I’m full of pain.

I’ll return next Wednesday to the dentist office to remove the stitches and fix another tooth. There goes all the money…

Yesterday (Saturday) I had a rather calm day. In the morning I cleaned my kitchen while the kids where playing around, we got out to buy food for the turtles and some plastic curtains for the kitchen door. I want to keep flies away…

In the afternoon my kids and 4 more neighbours spend the afternoon playing in the garden, in the computer, PS2, etc. while I chatted with a neighbour about…blogging and other gossips :). I wasn’t able to blog in the afternoon so here I am at 02:00am writing a few posts.

I was tagged a few days ago and I have to take a little time to write 2 memes…sorry Tina and Crissy for the delay.

Sometimes there are good news, fortunately, and regarding my old car issue it seems that my mechanic who happens to be my FIL can fix it. We have 5 more months to decide what we are going to do regarding buying a new car. We hope to get it fixed next week and I hope it will last fixed for a few more months.

A tooth that I recently fixed broke Friday while I was eating ice cream. I can’t eat using my right side teeth because I’ve got a lot of pain and I can  make the situation worse by breaking the rest of the tooth. I contacted the dental clinic but they only had an appointment for today at 12.30. DH was working so I couldn’t imagine myself at the dentist with my two kids… I hope I can get an appointment tomorrow so…I’ll be in pain until tomorrow.

Also, Dani’s tooth just lost the “bulk” it had inside (it’s been fixed) and I have to schedule an appointment for him too. He’s starting to feel some pain already.

I hate dentists and the extra bills!!!