10 Things Motherhood Has Taught Me
What has motherhood taught you? Allyson Reynolds shares 10 lessons she's learned, and invites you to share what you've learned from motherhood.
How Can a Busy Mom Stay Focused? – Episode 53
Ever feel like you move from one task to the next, but never actually get the most important things done? We've been there, too. Join our conversation on how to reverse this . . . even as a busy mother.
The End Is Imperfection
A while ago, my teenager gave me my own “velveteen rabbit experience.” He made some poor decisions and did something that was very bad. My initial reaction, after coming out of a state of shock, was to wonder what exactly I had done wrong. Ultimately I learned some pretty important lessons about parenting.
Your “Personal Best” – Episode 49
What;s your Personal Best? Join April Perry and Andrea Davis as they discuss methods for focusing on our own "personal bests" and giving ourselves relief from trying to measure up to someone else's standards.
Keeping that Christmas Feeling
Last January, I set a goal to do some sort of community service each month for 2012. We didn’t. But we did do five more acts of community service than we had ever done before. So that’s success right? And now, for 2013, I'm trying again.
The Best Year of My Life?
This year has been good, but it has also been challenging. Then a friend of mine recently wrote on Facebook that this has been "the best year of [her] life, hands down." I thought about her sentiment and wondered if I could echo it. I wasn't sure that I could.
Ninja Mom: My Six Favorite Resources at The Power of Moms
Consider the similar skills necessary to be a mother and to be a ninja: focus, balance, strength, patience, flexibility, self-control...comfortable clothing. The Power of Moms provides me with some of the most useful resources to gain the skills I need to negotiate the martial art of mothering.
Spiritual Sundays: Grace or a Spotless Kitchen
How many times have you looked into pleading eyes, wanting to say no, but ultimately saying yes? How many times have you been glad that you did?
Big Things are Made out of Little Things
I love my kids and I'm grateful that my dream of having a family had come true. But when I was younger, mothering didn't come as naturally to me. Then, I read a quote by Mother Teresa that stuck with me and I realized that my purpose in life was under my nose. ...
Darth Mom
Sometimes the example of my personal character is a little closer to Darth Vader that I'd like to admit. I am learning that progress is not perfection. There is no completely “perfect mom” or wholly bad “Darth Mom.” There is just me--the woman, the mom.
The Tightrope Walker – Part 4
In this final installment of the High-Wires of Motherhood, we explore the tentative and ever-shifting balance required in our relationship with our children. We go to The Incredible Tightrope of Raising Children.
The Tightrope Walker – Part 3
Today’s post is the third in a four-part series by Amanda Hamilton Roos. We've talked about the fine mental lines every mother must balance within herself. This week we'll talk about The Death-Defying Act of Walking the Tightrope with a Spouse.
“Mom” Talents
Before children, I had a promising career in education. I was a talented and enthusiastic teacher. I had worked my way up and I knew I would put it all on hold when I had children. I wanted to be a stay-at-home mother, and once I was one, I felt lucky!
Invisible Growth
Ever feel stagnant? Frustrated that you are constantly running...but never making the progress that you dream of? Give yourself some credit. Maybe you are growing--it's just invisible.
Mommy’s Report Card: Five Ways to Gauge Your Progression
Motherhood is not a glamorous job. For myself, leaving behind the world of positive feedback and constructive criticism was one of the hardest parts of motherhood. Here are five ways I’ve discovered I can evaluate and gage my own progression as a mother.
Railroad Tracks
I wanted to be the farm-mother I envisioned—up early, making a hearty breakfast, children doing all of their chores cheerfully, all before 5:00 A.M. Laying down the railroad tracks of habit was harder than I anticipated. But, it's made a huge difference in our lives!
Six Reasons to Never Give Up on Motherhood
One June morning in Sacramento, I boarded a Greyhound bus with my five-month-old daughter to visit my parents for a weekend. We were with a rough-looking group of passengers. The drive was six hours. My baby needed a diaper change before we’d even gone 100 feet. But I was falling apart as a new mother,...
How to Make Progress Like a Spider
A woman progressing is like a spider molting. Her old ways don’t work anymore, just like the outer skin of a spider becomes too small for its growing body.Molting is a natural process, but it involves pain, conviction, and patience.
Getting Excited About Goals- Episode 37
Sometimes I (April) struggle to help my children set and achieve goals. I want them to be excited about life, and I want them to progress within their areas of interest, but the whole process can feel a bit overwhelming. So I teamed up with DeAnne Flynn, an inspiring mother of seven children (ages 8-22),...
When Then Syndrome
We’ve been waiting for this day for a LONG time. In less than three weeks, my family will be moving into the home that will serve as our final resting place. So now that I finally get to settle down l, I can’t help but ask myself the question: Now will I be satisfied? ...
The Swing of Summer
Now that summer is in full swing, I’m guessing most mothers already have a game plan in place for the upcoming months. But before you fill your calendar to overflowing with every summer camp available, I have a few thoughts that I hope will get you excited about this rare time when you get your children...
Moms’ Body Image – Part 2
Our Power of Moms Community has incredible advice for any mom struggling with her body image. It's completely turned my life around. Join us!
Motherhood is Movement
Last week, as I picked up the SAME clutter around the house for the umpteenth time and made the SAME meals and did the SAME laundry, the repetitive mundane aspects of motherhood started to get me down. But then this poem came to me...
Motherandering
We've all had those days, right? The ones where we manage to be busy all day without actually getting anything done? Author Christine Granados has just the term to define the phenomenon--and a hilarious illustration of it.
A Thick Skinned Mother
I went to bed shedding a few tears of frustration. Why? Because sometimes I get tired of being "The Bad Guy". It would be easier to let them eat Cocoa Puffs in front of the TV every day this summer. But, we all want more for our children, don't we?
Progress: 4 Simple Keys for Moms
in our lives as mothers, a sense of progress can be evasive. As we meet the needs that pop up right and left from our kids, much of our "to-do" list remains undone at the end of the day. But we CAN progress. And we CAN feel the joy of moving forward and learning at...
Moms’ Body Image
One day I heard my daughter compare my body to Winnie the Pooh's. Most days, I make negative comparisons of my own. Join my journey to discover how to appreciate and care for our bodies.
Spiritual Sundays: Be Really Good at Being You
Why am I always noticing what other mom's look like? Do you ever envy the “supermom” next door? Well, it is time to stop! You are amazing. You are the only you that will ever be, and YOU are here to find out why!
Discovering Your Passions – Episode 32
Do you have a passion that inspires you to get out of bed in the morning? Join us for our first international podcast, featuring Saren, April, and four powerful mums from Australia.
Can the Process BE the Accomplishment?
“The biggest mistake I made as a parent is the one that most of us make. . .I did not live in the moment. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get to the next thing. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a...
Dropping Out of the Mommy Rat Race
I attended my first yoga class years ago. It was at 4 pm and I was specifically looking at a girl in the front row who could easily touch her toes. And I wasn’t just looking. I was trying to catch up to her. Just then, the instructor said, “Do not compare yourself to your...
Overcoming Family Labels
I just spent the last two weeks visiting my family in Iowa. Like every family, we have similarities in opinions as well as differences, things we get about each other and things we don’t, and specific ways we enjoy spending our time together, avoiding other activities entirely. And it’s always interesting to see how everyone...
Mastering the Art of Starting Over
I am a group exercise instructor and see this in my clients all of the time. They have great and hefty 90-day transformation plans or a race training calendar in hand. Then, one busy day turns into another and the training stops. I tell them that the smallest deed is larger than the greatest intention....
Domestically Disabled (but Learning)
I have been a wife for almost 13 years and a mother for almost 11, but I admit that I am "domestically disabled".
Mothering Lesson From an Orphan
It’s one of THOSE days. You know the kind--we’ve all had them. Rushed breakfasts. A child whose selective deafness results in everyone being late to school. New cavities at the dentist appointment. Three little boys running wildly away from you in Target while everyone stares at the crazy lady who can’t handle her kids. ...
Can Mothers of Infants Make Progress?
We’re going to be talking a lot over the next month about The Power of Progress, but before we get too carried away with lots of pie-in-the-sky plans and goals, I wanted to address a special group of mothers that often have a hard time feeling like they are making any progress: the mothers of infants....
Book Summary: Don’t Set Goals
This is an older book that kind of jumped out at me at my local library. “Don't set goals?! Now that sounds like something I could really be good at!” In reality, the author doesn't have anything against goals, just the way that we tend to go about them. Instead of setting a goal,...
Little Kids, Little Problems
It used to drive me crazy when mothers of older children would say this to me. All I could think was how easy it was for them to say that when their children could bathe themselves, dress themselves, feed themselves, entertain themselves, get in and out of the car by themselves, wipe their own noses...
The Inadvertent Athlete
Could 2011 be the year you take the first steps toward starting a new sport? For me, it all started casually enough three years ago. I was bored with my boot camp workout classes and my husband suggested I join him in taking tennis lessons. Have you ever thought of doing something totally new? Something...
Monkey Bar Moms
Have you ever been to a playground? Of course you have, you're a mom. You know your children will have a fun time but you also know a few tears might be shed.
The 15-Minute Makeover
It doesn’t involve lasers, chemicals, pills, or suction, you don’t have to make an appointment with a professional, there are no unpleasant side effects, and best of all? It’s free! In fact, this makeover can be done right in the privacy of your very own home, any day of the week, whenever you need it....
Self Reliance = Self Esteem
Boy, Megan’s article was outstanding, giving great ideas for this wonderful and very important value of self reliance. We feel so much the same regarding this that I will not re-write the concepts, although I want to add a couple of other thoughts. When I was a young mother, I was so eager to help...
You’ll Be A Woman Soon
You know that annoying song? We sing it to my oldest daughter, Cope, every now and then because it’s so funny and awful. She always exclaims, “Mom! Dad!” and then we all laugh. She’s so excited to grow up. And I keep chanting, Slow down, slow down… The other day, Cope had her 11-year-old doctor’s...
What have you changed in your mothering?
One part of mothering that is just now dawning on me is the continual progression of motherhood. A woman does not instantly become the mother she’s always dreamed of being just because she brings her newborn baby home. A mother must learn and grow, sometimes through painful experiences, many times caused by her own mistakes....
Just Begin
How many mothers have big projects they want to accomplish? My guess is that you’d be hard-pressed to find a mother WITHOUT a big responsibility or goal. Maybe it’s getting the emergency kits together. Maybe it’s writing a book or planning a vacation or figuring out a way to totally organize the house once and...
The Evolution of Enthusiasm for Doing the Dishes
Image from Shawni Pothier Listening to Grace teach Claire to do the dishes the other night made me smile. After they got all the dishes crammed in there, detergent loaded in and door closed, Grace wrapped her arm around her sister and pointed out that although there are a lot of buttons on...
What Surprises Me About Being A Mom
I am utterly shocked at my confidence in motherhood…five years later. And three children. When my son was born I could barely put on his clothes. I knew I would break him. And his chicken legs were the smallest I’d seen. Wait, had I even held a newborn baby before? I was dumbfounded going to...
What I REALLY Want for Mother’s Day
I look back at past Mother’s Days and realize that what I usually want and expect is basically a day off. A day off from mothering. Ironic, isn’t it? I’ve decided to change that this year. What I’ve decided that I want more than anything is to somehow craft a day where I can...
A Lesson From a 7-Year-Old
My 7-year-old Eliza is a great teacher. She can teach her little brothers in a way that really works for them – and for her. Check out this spontaneous shoe-tying lesson she offered yesterday morning (I always mean to pull out my camera when she’s doing stuff like this – finally I caught it on...
Facing Your Fears
Can any mother ever forget that feeling of absolute panic the first time she was tipped out of her wheelchair into the big, wide world with an infant in her arms? Sheer terror. I remember looking around at the nurses and other hospital personnel, wondering if there wasn’t something else they needed to tell me,...
S.M.A.R.T. Goals – Episode 2
Do you know what a S.M.A.R.T. Goal is? Using the letters of the word SMART, you can see what we are talking about: S = SPECIFIC–Pick a goal that is something you can “pin down.” M = MEASURABLE–You’ve got to have a way to measure your progress or you will never feel like you’ve accomplished...
Celebrate your Kids’ Talents
One of those things I remember was the way my Dad would sometimes tuck us up onto his lap as kids and talk to us about what we were good at. He’d ask us what we thought our talents were and each time we suggested something he’d wholeheartedly agree, and write the first letter...
Defying Gravity…Every Day
When my husband was three or four, he climbed up onto the top bunk bed in his room and jumped off—fully expecting to fly (though he admits he kept his legs under him…just in case). Unfortunately, no flight took place that day, poor guy. I bet everyone has a story like that—a yearning to fly,...
Which Way Do I Go?
Moving into a new era of life can be a bit daunting. You don’t know what to expect, you don’t know how you will manage, you don’t know where to turn. Then somewhere in the back of your mind you realize, that’s all part of the journey, right? My children now, 8 & 11, are...
From Princess to Queen
“Mommy, why do we have to eat healthy food?” my wide-eyed eight year old asks. “Mom, why do we have to have lights out at 8 o’clock?” my curious ten year old sighs. “Mooooooommmmm,” bellows my six year old son, “why do I have to stop playing Star Wars and practice my reading?” Grouch, grouch, grouch,...
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