Recently I went to a workshop put on by my friend Tenille Cundick, who used to be in our ward. She has been involved in an organization called The Power of Moms, which is now all over the U.S. and has even spread to other countries. Their slogan is "A Gathering Place for Deliberate Mothers." I love that because to me it means that as mothers we can take life by the horns and decide for ourselves how we're going to live, take care of our children/families, our attitudes, etc. I haven't know about this for very long, but I've been reading things on the website (www.powerofmoms.com) and have been getting really excited about it!
The workshop was just a bunch of moms that met together with varied life situations (different ages, number of kids, experiences, religions, etc), and we discussed a number of things that we deal with every day. The title was "Boundaries, Balance and Becoming - Taking Care of the "Me" in the Mom". So we talked about taking care of our physical appearance, our diet, exercise, replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, how to take a little bit of time for yourself every day, and more. We met in groups for part of it to discuss some specific ideas and share thoughts, which was my favorite part. I've only been a mom for a couple of months and I already need a support group! I loved just being able to share our feelings with each other, even if we didn't end up finding some miraculous solution to a challenge, etc. I loved seeing that most of the other moms felt the same way I often do.
I just wanted to write about this to encourage any moms reading this to check out Power of Moms and get involved if they're interested, because it seems like a great organization. Every month they have a "power" to focus on (12 total). For example, October's focus is on the power of FUN. I can't remember all of them, but December's is the power of moments, others are the power of patience, the power of love, etc. What a cool idea - to focus on something specific for that month. And they have articles on that subject and suggestions for things to do with your family, etc. Then each month I get together with a group of other moms at someone's house to talk about the article and share ideas/experiences. Anyway, I'm sure this doesn't motivate everyone because we all have different needs and learning styles, but for me it is great!