What kind of mama are you?

I just finished taking the Mothering Styles personality quiz. Not surprisingly, I was an INTP (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving) or as they described it "The Love of Learning" mother.

Its always surprising to me how close these tests come to describing me and this test was no different. The results describe me exactly as a mother, even a brand, spankin' new mama!

So what does a "Love of Learning" mama look like? She:

* fills her house with books and directs her children towards them for answers.
* encourages her children to discover their world on their own terms and lets them build confidence by making their own mistakes and discovering their own solutions.
* enjoys watching her children grow into emotionally intelligent persons and learns as much from them as she tries to impart to them.
* does not handle the craziness and confusion that frequently comes with family life very well.
* frequently struggles to maintain a routine or build the consistent structure needed in a family life.
* loses herself in her own INTP needs and worries that she is distant or detached from her children.

The tips they gave for INTP mamas were spot on.
1) set aside regular times for "mind time' doing things you can lose yourself in, like, knitting, reading, thinking, etc. This time is NOT a luxury but instead a necessity. It's what recharges and INTP mama and enables her to give to her family.
2) Many INTP mamas need to get up earlier than their children, stay up later or use nap times for this necessary recharge time.
3) Most INTP mamas feel they are very different than traditional mothers so need to trust their instincts and simply enjoy the relationship they have with their child.

Wow! This is me to "T"! Many of these very things are struggles I've had recently and am trying to implement solutions for right now.

Take the quiz and let me know what you get!

Happy Valen-Birtha-Versary!!!!

Today is my birthday. Yesterday was Valentine's Day, next week is my husband and my's 3rd anniversary. We call this busy time of year "Happy Valen-Birtha-Versary"!!! It's full of kisses, hugs, and a few sneaky tushy pinches.

Today my hubby went out of his way to make sure he gave me a nice day. Since Abraham woke up several times last night he skipped this...



and let me do this...


And then he bought me one of these:

And he made me one of these:



I think it's going to be a good day!

Love, Love, Love...

We've been working on getting Bram to sleep through the night (or at least longer!) for the past few weeks. Last night, we put him to bed at his new official bedtime of 8pm and he fell asleep very well. But at 11, he was back awake and trying very hard to stay that way.

So I climbed into bed with him and tried to nurse him a bit, hoping he would fall back asleep soon. He did, and what happened next is one of those wonderful "mommy moments" you will never forget.

He was sleeping, snuggled next to me and he began to stir like he was dreaming. And then he reached up and signed "mama" several times! My heart melted! It was the sweetest thing I had ever seen. He was "talking" in his sleep!

It was especially wonderful for me because although I knew he knew the sign for mama, he never signs it around me, only with Chad when he wants me.

So wonderful!
(While I never see Abraham sign my name, I managed to get a picture of him signing "daddy")

Grocery shopping- my way.

I wish I loved grocery shopping. I really do. I wish when I walked through the store I looked happy, relaxed and stress-free. Something like this:

Instead, it takes me days to complete a menu, scour the internet for the best possible deals, and assemble the shopping lists to the various stores. By the time I get to actually do the shopping I feel more like this:



(I love the eloquence of Fry!)

I guess I just wish there was a better system. One that involved unlimited cash and home delivery. But until that magical day comes, I'll have to keep doing it the best I can.

Practice makes it possible

Oh dear.

My very first post after making my "resolutions" is about how I'm not doing as good as I hoped. I was afraid this was going to happen.

BUT... then again I'm a frustrated perfectionist so I shouldn't be surprised. This is why I evaluated and picked the resolutions that I did. So when the inevitable happened and I became sidetracked, I could look at them honestly to see if they were the right ones to start with.

When I started to beat myself up for not following through (again!), this time I tried to re-evaluate instead. Did I need to do something different? Did I need to look even further out of the box to accomplish my goals? Did I need to break the goals down even smaller? And instead of just feeling angry with myself, I came up with a couple of do-able solutions.

1) The places I scattered my devotionals are not necessarily in plain view so I'm going to make little reminder signs to help me out.
2) Even though I haven't posted twice or even once a week, I HAVE done a lot of behind the scenes work on it, finished up some old posts, and worked a lot on my other blog.
3) And housework- the bane of my existence! I've haven't followed all of the reminders the FlyLady send me but I have shined my sink most nights and I'm learning how to make better use of my time through using my timer!

As I was thinking about all this, I realized anew the problem with New Year's resolutions- you fail before you even begin by expecting perfection just by making the resolution. I've done this to myself so many times before. Attempts at piano lessons come to mind. But we really don't work that way. We need time and lots and LOTS of practice.

I also have to remind myself that the goal was to get better at all of this by next year, not be perfect next week. (It begs to ask the question if it really was the goal, if I'm frustrated already!)
So I'm going to give it a go again with more patience and permission to take time to build these habits in my life. I'll also keep you updated how I'm doing.

Here's to making our Timer our Friend in 2010!