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  Your Other Mother – a wide range of support for mothers of all aged children

also

  BankWhitt – homeschool, faith, design, quotes, organisation, places

Join the inspiration!

Something Old Something New

Two of my computers ‘fried’ in the last week or so. Can you believe it?!

Sadly my collection of writing, articles, and graphics of the last ten years are no longer intact. Trojans and worms from my kids games computer (it’s a long story – this is the Reader’s Digest version here), where I stored my MOPS ‘stuff’, nibbled through the documents – sniff! wah!! I’ve regrouped some folders and files from older back-up disks and hope to get more from the office computer, but there’s holes that I guess will be noticed for some time yet.

What a character-building month … Give me a break!!

But there is a happy ending … I have a new computer (to me) with plenty of RAM ROM disk space and other important computer bits!

Anyway, spent a bit of time in the last 24 hours putting updates and essential programs in, and I have some lovely friends extricating files off the other pakaru disk, so I have hope – and now I have a new thing to try out with WordPress – post by e-mail. Could this get better?

Holding onto hope!

It Makes Sense

For MUMSense Magazine, NZ, (c) April 2009

Living Each Day of Your Life

“What a wonderful world!”

“Life is for living.”

It’s a great day, a beautiful day;
The kind of day that makes you want to say
“I’m glad that I’m alive”,
I’m happy to be me,
and that’s the way to be … (thanks, Barney).

As much as I liked my children watching Barney, that purple dinosaur on TV and videos, sometimes he and his singing-dancing friends were just too chirpy and cheerful.

At least once in the days when I was surrounded by the never-ending piles of laundry and the cleaning, wiping burping cycle of existence, I said, “I hate my life”.

I didn’t feel blessed with a home, a committed supportive husband and two lovely little cherubs. But after some hugs and kind words about being a good mum and wife from my husband, I got better, well, saw life differently.

I changed some expectations I held, especially as they really belonged to other people.

So, my house wasn’t a picture out of “Our Home and Garden”, at least the lounge had clear seats to sit on. So, shirts didn’t get ironed more than once a month and DH had to iron his own, they had been washed and hung up.

To remind myself of what I had achieved in the roundabout (or was it a Trabant, that twirling roundabout you get strapped in to that goes up and down as well!), I jotted in my diary the things I did do. There was a repetitive pattern to them with nothing noticeably startling like from my working days. But there was sufficient in those daily notes to remind myself that I was a ‘good mum’ of littlies – cleaning, playing, book time “reading”, feeding, visitors, and – a highlight in my social calendar – going to MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers).

Life changes over the years – so do our children. And so do we as mums.

Choosing a healthy and positive perspective helps us get through.

Do what you can. Enjoy your days!
Johanna W
President, MOPS (NZ) Inc.

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MUMSense Magazine is a great little publication. 16 pp. NZ$6 at present for 4 issues per year (for NZ addresses only).
Enquiries: info@MOPS.org.nz    ~   http://www.mops.org.nz/mumsense/ 
Or post with subscription form to : MUMSense, P O Box 12-307, Hamilton, NZ

WW : Parts of Me

Here are the various parts of my life:

www.lapbooking.wordpress.com – Lapbooking – presentation folders for school projects or unit studies. Also www.lapbooking.tumblr.com resources and webquests.

www.nzhomeed.wordpress.com – general homeschooling info for NZ

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MigraineHealth/ – forum for women who have migraines

My Husband’s site:

www.2restore.wordpress.com

My children’s (neglected) blogsite:

www.kiwikids.tumblr.com

I’m president of MOPS NZ:

www.mops.org.nz
mother organisation’s huge website: www.mops.org

MUM-e-Mail – free twice-a-month encouragement for mothers of under 6s and their supporters: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MUM-e-Mail/

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This is gathered with some other interesting sites I like
at Crayon “Banquet Times”  – click items down the LHS

Create your own newspaper : http://www.crayon.net/scripts/login.cgi?mode=create

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Keeping occupied!

MM : I Love MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers)

Handy Home-made Toys – bottles, shakers, books, shapes

Terrific Tips

Children and Chores – teaching responsibility. Start as you intend to carry on.

The MOPS Story – where it started

off the website: “What MOPS has provided for me… is a welcome break; a chance to make new friends; the opportunity to know I’m not the only mom who goes through the struggles and joys of raising young children…”

“If I had 30 minutes to do anything I liked, I’d …” – aah! Scroll down for more responses to different situations.

Resources for mothers provided by MOPS.

When stressed, women “Tend and Befriend” whereas men “Fight or Flight” – is there life after MOPS?

Is there a MOPS group near you?
Visit www.mops.org and search for a group in LHS box.
In New Zealand, check out : www.mops.org.nz/groups/.