Mothers & More

Mothers & More Seasoned Moms Group

2009-04-01T14:59:45Z

I had a fantastic seasoned moms group last week and I am so excited. First of all I should say what a seasoned mom is. It's basically a smaller group of women in Mothers & More with school-aged kids. Some have teenagers and young kids, some have babies, and an older child, and I have two elementary aged kids. We get together and share our experiences, and sometimes it's a set topic like "How to handle bullies.", and sometimes it's all about the mom.

Right now I joined a group of seasoned moms that get together every two weeks to go through a book by Cheryl Richardson called "Life Makeovers". I like the way the book is set up. You read a chapter every week, and you have homework from the book. Week 10 was "Stop Juggling and Start Living". Our take action challenge was to consider all the "balls" you are juggling in life and pick one to "drop". Then look at how it impacts your life. In other words, it 's a way to drop an activity that is not a priority, but sucks time from the activities you really want to focus on. The book gives us permission to "Drop the ball" on an activity that is keeping us from focusing on our family or ourselves. Life won't end if I don't volunteer for every field trip at school, or every art class.

This week is "Check under the Hood" week. In previous chapters we have identified our goals. Now we need to check under the hood and find out what kind of person we need to be to accomplish that goal. She breaks it down into 4 steps:

1.Identify someone doing what you want to do successfully: For me this is a person juggling a career and family.

2. List 3 qualities that contribute to that person success: I am thinking of: 1.organization, 2. supportive husband, 3. a calm cool and collected personality.

3. Pick one of those qualities that you need to develop. Well, I think I need organization, and calmness....

4. Look for practical ways to develop this quality. I need to develop the systems to handle the kids schedule as well as my own, with back-ups in case of emergencies.

This week's homework is a tough one for me. As a stay-at-home mom of 8 years it's difficult to imagine what systems need to be in place to handle all the kids school work, play dates, and extracurricular activities, as well as a career. I am concerned that I will fail my family if I go back to work. I think it's mostly the fear of the unknown though, and perhaps if I worked on organizing how this would work day to day, I might ease my mind.

Well, time to get organized!

Nancy Donahue

Date Night Ideas-Mothers & More Meeting

2009-03-05T15:31:38Z

Date Night Ideas-Mothers & More Meeting Feb 3rd You know I have only lived in Milwaukee for 2 1/2 years. So I welcome any date night ideas, just to get me out of the rut of the same restaurants and movie places we always go. So it was nice to get a lot of ideas from other women as to what they do for date nights. Here is my list of ideas that I thought were great:1. Visit the Art Museum - They have a really nice restaurant there! 2. Geo-caching - It's a treasure hunt, hike and a date.3. Wine tasting4. Couples Massage - someone mentions Massage Envy runs specials.5. Darts and Drinks6. Planning date - This is were we spend the evening mapping out our next vacations for the next year or even the big cruise in the next 3 years.7. Tosafest or going to listen to a band8. Game Night9. Making dinner together at home alone10. Dessert at the Melting Pot11. Working out together and then doing lunch alone.12 Bowling13. Carriage ride14. Dance lessons15. Steak Dinner (Someone recommended Jake's)

We have already done the planning date, and I grabbed some wine and cheese to add a little more "date" to the night. But we talked a ton and I had fun planning and dreaming of fun vacations! The Art Museum is next on my list.

Rock Climbing, Candy Cane Lane and more

2009-01-30T07:13:00Z

Mothers & More Milwaukee has had a very busy last 3 months. The latest events I have attended was:

Rock Climbing for kids ages 5 and older
Candy Cane Lane - The big family Holiday Party
Whole Family Outing at Country Springs Water Park

Both of my kids Colleen and Garrett are over 5, so the rock climbing was awesome. We had 30 kids show up and take-off up the climbing walls with the greatest of ease! In our group we have 158 members. Over half of our members have children 5 and older. So we decided to sponsor more activities for the moms with children 5 and older. So we sent out an email poll and Rock Climbing won! Here are a couple of pictures:

In Mid December we had our annual Holiday Party. Candy Cane Lane was the theme. We had over 163 persons (adults and children) attend this year. It was so much fun! We had potluck and Mothers & More bought all the ham and turkey a person could eat. The members brought side dishes to share. I ate so much. We also had a craft table for children 3 and older, and a holiday picture taking area. A member's mom volunteered to come and take family photos. I manned the printer and managed to print everyone a copy of their special holiday party memory. Here are a couple photos:

Our Most recent event was our family outing to Country Springs Water Park! It was fun for the whole family, and we had 5 hours to play in the water! My kids and I stayed the whole time and our fingers and toes were so pruned up. It was so nice to see everyone having fun with their kids, and it was nice to share a table with another mom, and just hang out with everyone and their families. Check out some photos:

The past few months have been a blur, but a lot of fun. I am looking forward to our next Mothers & More Meeting.

Feb 3^rd, 2009 7-9pm

Valentine theme - St. John Vianney Room P209

Date Night Ideas/Chocolate Potluck- Has your relationship with your man become mundane once you had children? Is it in need of a date tune-up? If so, this meeting is for you. Please join us February 3rd for a fun, relaxing night as we will be discussing Date night ideas (just in time for Valentine's Day) that will help you and your man bring some excitement back in your relationship and rediscover each other.

I will update you with any good tips for date night!

Member Appreciation Luncheon

2008-11-18T16:54:25Z

I can't believe it. We hosted a luncheon for Mothers & More and bought everyone a free lunch, then we gave gifts to the people who have volunteered throughout the year. I remember when I first joined Mothers & More 2 years ago, and saw the luncheon on the calendar. I was very excited and thought "Great, free lunch & adult conversation!" I was shocked when I got a present to. It's strange to get recognized and given gifts for volunteering. Usually, it's a thankless job. We held it at Country Springs Hotel, and here is a picture of the event.

Next month, I am organizing Rock Climbing for children ages 5 and older at Adventure Rock. We are covering half of the kids admission price, plus we get a group rate.

Also, our annual Holiday Party is Dec 16th! We have crafts, and a potluck, and desserts galore! Fun for the whole family.

Book Club Discussion

2008-09-12T16:32:00Z

Shannon, Nancy, Sherry, Maureen, Carolyn, Amy, Jenni, and Pamela (not in the picture), were all there to discuss the book.

We had a great time discussing the "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. It was a memoir, which was a little different, but everyone agreed it was a captivating book.

Here is a quick synopsis to give you a background: Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict."

This book touched off a variety of discussions on

Do some people choose to be homeless?
How to teach your kids to be self-reliant and responsible like the Walls children, but without their intense experience.
What do parents owe children? What do children owe parents?
Different parenting techniques like "Love and Logic"
Age appropriate responsibilities

This book really highlighted the struggle that most parents have with assigning the right level of responsibility to their children. I would highly recomend this book!

Next month we are reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Mothers & More Intro

2008-09-10T14:17:07Z

Mothers & More is an awesome group of women with the common bond of motherhood. Some of us work outside the home, others stay home with the kids, but we all come together in one group. Our group locally has been around for 15 years. We have 151 members, but don't let that throw you off. It's really a bunch of small groups bound into one. We have Special Interest Groups or SIG's. These include:

Book Club
Game Night
Wine Club
Seasoned Moms - I have to explain this one. Its moms of school ages kids sharing info on topics like peer pressure, bullying, sex education, learning problems, chore charts, and the list goes on.
Cooking club
Craft club
Fitness club
Gardening club
Movie club
My Two Jobs - working moms social group
Playgroups
Secret Pals
Home Based Business

I really love Book club. I read books I would have never tried. This month at Wine club, I am hosting a murder mystery party. I also go to Movie club because it gets me out to a recent movie. I'm told our playgroups are awesome, my kids are in school all day (sniff, sniff), and I am going to get myself a workout partner in the Fitness club. We also have two meetings a month (1st and 3rd Tuesday) at St. John Vianney (SJV) in Brookfield (7-9 PM) with a huge range of speakers. Topics like Women's Health, Finances, Fitness, and Money Saving Tips. The Next Meeting is Sept 16th, SJV 7-9 PM - Updating Your Resume - Even if you have no intention of searching for a new job right away, it's important to take a regular inventory of your marketable skills and to have everything together in one place for future reference "just in case". Join us for a fun evening exploring our hidden talents and putting our accomplishments on paper. Bring your most recent resume to share! Our Next Open House is October 7th, at SJV from 7-9 PM. We have a fantastic speaker! Special guest speaker Janet Levey will speak to the group about women's health issues. Her lecture, We are Not All Nuts; Hypothyroidism and other Hormonal Imbalances in Women, will be the focus of her discussion. Levey is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Alverno College. She holds a B.S. from De Paul University and a M.S. in nursing education from Concordia University. She has over 26 years of nursing experience in pediatrics, family care, and urgent care.

Come and join us for a meeting. I will be there and would love to meet you!

Click Here for Our Website.

Coming up next! I will give you the details about the upcoming book club - we are reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I will also let you know how my murder mystery wine club went. It's based in Chicago at a Blues Bar. I get to be a "Barfly" in the mystery. I'm trying to decide if I want my husband to dress up at a country singer or a bartender.

Nancy Donahue- Mothers & More Co-leader