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Name: Nancy Donahue
Kids: daughter, age 7; son, age 5
Works: SAHM
Favorite part about being a mom: Watching them try new things for the first time.
Least favorite part about being a mom: Telling them that life isn't always fair.
Famous for: Running five minutes late.
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
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.
Mothers & More Milwaukee has had a very busy last 3 months. The latest events I have attended was:
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 3rd, 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!
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.
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
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
Come and join us for a meeting. I will be there and would love to meet you!
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
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