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.

Today it was the day to go, drive some miles and watch Noddy and The Treasure Map.

Today we had high temperatures, we are used to have a fresh brise where we live so going to the interior made us have hotter temperatures and a dry air. The complex where the musical took place had no air conditioned so we were all sweeting during the show.

The show started half an hour after the established hour, this is something I really don’t like because the children become impatient and it’s a little complicated to control them.

When Noddy and his friends arrived it was a blast. My daughter was speechless and impressed with all those animated characters she’s used to watch everyday on TV. My son was also excited and participated in the activities that were requested from the stage.

The clues to find what the treasure was were English words (the show was in Portuguese of course). The words were: “to work”, “as a team”, “much better” and “together”. Putting them in the correct order:

“Much better to work together as a team” - the message was: when we get together and try to solve something as a team is much better than alone. Friends have to speak with each other no matter what is going on, even in bad days when we are not in the mood.

I personally found the musical very interesting, I really liked it and I’m happy that my kids were able to watch them live.

It was not allowed to film the show but I was able to film 15 seconds movies (my camera doesn’t allow more time) without a problem. It was not possible to get close to them, only at the end of the show we were able to go near the stage so no photos with my kids and Noddy.

Here are some photos I took during the show:

I tried to insert here one of the movies I made but it didn’t work out. This was the first time I tried so I have to check what am I doing wrong.

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.

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.

For quite sometime we have been thinking about getting a pool to our backyard. Size does matter and so does price. We will probably have to buy a car until October so we couldn’t spend a lot of money on a pool. We searched a bit and although we preferred other type of pool for now we have to take advantage of a smaller and cheaper one.

Yesterday I bought a average pool (366 cm x 91 cm - 12′ x 36″), it takes 6786 liters of water, it’s filled with air on the border and the walls just come up with the water. I was quite skeptical that the walls would come up but, they did. The walls are built with three layers of strong material and I hope the neighbor’s cats don’t put their paws in there.

Here is a collage of the several stages we went through this morning and part of the afternoon. Today it was a National Holiday so we could do this today, the kids were thrilled of course.

Soccer tournament is over after two full Saturdays in the local park for soccer matches. My son is a fed up of soccer right now and he doesn’t wanna go to another soccer tournament that will take place Sunday. I don’t blame him…I’m also fed up of soccer matches right now.

He’s not a real soccer fan, he just plays his game and doesn’t pay attention to other games. I guess he was there only for the medal. The season is ending and he already told me in September he doesn’t want to enroll again. I must confess, for me it’s a relief. Getting up early every Saturday to drive long distances with my daughter for a soccer match is not something I’m longing to.

Although I don’t want to interfere on his decision, I know he won’t keep up with a complete soccer season, attending two training classes a week and one game per weekend is too tiring for him. He says he likes soccer but to play when he wants not when he has to. I will support his decision no matter what he decides.

Talking about soccer, EURO 2008 started last Saturday with Portugal winning 2-0 to Turkey.

My daughter was once again removed from the Ballet class because of her bad temper. It is the second time this happens, the first time was two months ago and today it happened again.

She loves Ballet classes but, sometimes, she doesn’t want to do what the teacher says and really refused to do it. When the teacher calls her attention and says that she has to do what the others are doing and not what she wants she gets into her bad mood and makes a tantrum. Once she refused to do what the teacher requested she was sent away from class because, and I understand, if she doesn’t want to do things right why is she in class.

I really don’t know how to handle this situation because she really loves Ballet. I had a conversation with her when we arrived home and I told her if she wants to attend Ballet classes she has to follow the teacher’s instructions. I don’t think this is going to solve the problem because at school the teacher has the same problem with her.

She’s 4 so I hope with time, she will get it but believe me she really has bad temper from time to time.

Suggestions will be appreciated.

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.

We have a big back yard, the same dimensions of my neighbors, the big difference is that they have a swimming pool and we don’t. We have been giving a lot of thought to the fact that a swimming pool in the house would be a great help with the kids during good weather.

Although we live 15 minutes from the beach, spending an afternoon there is a little tiring. We have to carry all the necessary items for a good afternoon like:

• big sun hat
• towels
• bottles of water
• snacks
• ice blocks to keep yogurts fresh
• juice

take everything from the car, carry it to the beach and at the end of the afternoon the other way around.

Having a pool at home would allow us to stay at home and at the same time we could use the pool for fun. I’m sure the kids would forget about the beach in no time.

We decided to take a look at the several type and shape of pools available as well as a pool with low maintenance, so that we don’t have to spend a lot of time of our days taking care of the water, pool filters and other necessary duties.

EcosmartePool is the best company I found while looking for pools systems. This company has four products available: Pool system, Spa System, Pond System and Filter Glass Pack. Right now I’m interested in the pool system once it is completely environment friendly.

I had already put away the idea to buy a pool where I had to use chemicals because they are chlorine generators, they are toxic and are a threat to the environment. My neighbor had one pool with chemical system and her son started having ear and skin problems. Salt pools are not a good choice either, salt generators just create chlorine therefore that’s not an option.

Ecosmartepool only uses no-toxic systems that are not harmful for us or for the environment, they are completely chlorine and salt free.

Having two small children, their health is my priority. Both had asthma until a couple of years ago and they are very susceptible to allergies so Ecosmartepool systems is the right one to use on my case. With their system I don’t have to be worried with burning eyes, dry skin, damaged hair and also I’ll be free from that annoying chlorine smell.

Ecosmartepool system also increases the durability of pool equipments once there are no harmful products present.

The treatment they use in the water pool is 100% safe and it’s based in Copper Ionization. What I’ve leaned while looking for what is Copper Ionization is that copper ions are safe and essencial for humans, plants and animals but really harmful to bacteria and virus. Of course this treatment is a good add on to our pool.

This company donates 5% of its profits to environmental charities so besides using friendly products they still help the environment through donations. Wonderful!

What about you, are you a lucky pool owner? What cleaning system do you use?

Today we had a perfect summer day. In the afternoon we went to the beach, although we thought it would be windy and a little cold, we were completely wrong. The weather was excellent, the sea, although a little wild, rolled out along the beach giving the opportunity to wet out feet.

Our intention was to drink a coffee, play a little in the sand and come home. All plans were not accomplished. The coffee shop was closed and instead of playing in the sand, once the weather was so good, my kids ended up playing in the sea in their underwear. First it was just to wet our feet but the water was so good, that they start wetting the shorts/skirt/shirt and well, in a few minutes they were playing in their underwear. I was wearing jeans, I rolled them up above my knees but I end up with wet jeans.

We ran, we laugh, we played in the water, my kids were so happy. My DH, has usual, not very fond of this type of fun (arhhh!!) stayed up in the hill while we were down there in the beach having fun.

I wish I had taken my camera but well, what matters is the photograph memory we have of these beautiful and happy moments .

Yesterday I thought I was going to have a relax day although I know with all the housework and kids to take care is a little difficult to accomplish that.

Today it was an important holiday here “Carnation Revolution“, and although I already knew my son was having a birthday party in the afternoon, I thought I was going to have a calm day. I was wrong.

The news came when I picked up my son yesterday at soccer class: Your son has a soccer tournament tomorrow and he has to be at 9.30am in the local park field. The tournament will last until 12.00. What?? This meant I was not getting a calm and relaxed get up the next morning.

Today, my husband went to work early in the morning, I got up to prepare a few snacks, woke up the kids and got into the field. Fortunately the tournament took place in a park where besides, tennis/soccer/basketball fields there is a play park so my daughter could be busy. The problem was that I couldn’t rest a minute. Catherine wanted to swing and swing and swing and I had to push her in the swing all the time. Of course watching a soccer game bothers her so she refused to get near the field. Fortunately I was able to watch my son’s goal.

I went home already tired but I had to cook lunch. At 12.30 Catherine was asleep in the couch, I was cooking in the kitchen. Lunch ready, time to eat, Catherine continue to sleep, at 15.45, Dani and I left home to the birthday party, Catherine was still asleep. I left Dani in the birthday party and I met my best friend who was in the park where we had been in the morning and we spend a few time talking there, this was the only relax moment of the day (beside now).

18.30 time to pick up Dani, I took Catherine with me and I didn’t expect what was about to happen. I ate something at the party, Catherine too but Dani and her didn’t want to leave because all the other kids where still there. I’m not going to enter into details but at 21.05 I was able to grab them back home.

Baths and movie watch ended the day. We had started to watch the “Enchanted” movie the day before and we watched the rest. Excellent movie.

Now, the big moment of the day, everyone is asleep and I’m in the computer all by myself. I needed this!!!!