How to Fight Evening Exhaustion

Note to self

When feeling extremely drained after the supper hour, plus depressed about the massive mess that surrounds you, here's what you do (as experienced this very evening):

Announce to the children that Mommy needs to lay down.

Lay on the couch.

When the children begin to climb on you, announce (loud enough for your husband to hear):

"I'm going to my bedroom, because I have a feeling this is not going to end well."

Turn a 30 minute movie on for the kids (or just walk upstairs and let your husband to do it, because he's tired too and just wants to veg on the computer).

***By no means are you to feel guilty that they are watching (another) show, as they'll (probably) still turn out fine when grown-up.***

Lay down in your room for 15 minutes. Maybe even lightly snooze for 5 minutes. This ensures you won't have that icky heavy-tired-groggy feeling from sleeping too long that only serves to make you crankier. 

When you wake (because your husband barges in and lays down beside you and begins to immediately snore), make yourself a tea. But ensure you sneak to the kitchen so the kids don't know you're 'awake' yet.

While drinking your tea (or maybe wine if you have any just laying around, since it's faster than tea), think about all the things you did right today. Here are mine:

When my 2 year old was having a massive, over-the-top, sorta-kinda-scary toddler tantrum, I calmly told him to go to his room. When he said no, I calmy put him in his bed with his blankie and closed the door. While listening to his screams, I said to myself, "Be the one in control." And I was. I entered the room 5 minutes later and told him he could leave his room when he was done crying. He decided he was done crying when he heard that. And we concluded the moment with Mommy not joining his tantrum!

Or there's this:

We made polka dot wrapping paper for my niece. And it turned into polka dot water painting on the deck! 

Okay, confession. We didn't actually do this activity today. We did it two weeks ago. But it was a good moment. So it's okay to reflect on it two weeks later.

We try to make all of our own wrapping paper. We got a roll of paper from the local paper mill (it's called a "Butt." True story). It pays to know people who work there. And then we cut strips off and paint it any way we like. Super cheap. Super personal! Super fun!

We like to paint the deck with water using regular paintbrushes too. I use my no spill paint pots so my 2 year old doesn't promptly dump it out. This is PERFECT when trying to accomplish something in the kitchen. 

Okay. Where was I. Oh! Right. 15 minute rest and reflextion.

By this point, you will be 100%!!!

You will have enough energy to put the children in the tub, in bed (hair braided), clean kitchen, sweep floors vacuume rug and even blog!

How to survive Motherhood: Always revert to the 15 minute rest in the evenings!!!