The Mom Crowd

Earlier this week, McKenna gave excellent tips for giving gifts to your kids’ teachers.  It got me thinking about this time of year and how special gift giving can be.  Now that Black Friday is behind us and the holiday season is here, I’m getting things ready for the grandparents.

This is the second year that my sisters-in-law and I put together a calendar with pictures of our children for Grandmom.  There are four grandchildren, so we each selected three pictures of our children, giving us 12 for the year.  I ordered the calendar through winkflash.com, and with shipping included, each of us only had to put in $7!  Last year, the debut calendar was a huge hit, so I know this will be a tradition for years to come.  

Of course, photo calendars are just the tip of the iceberg; all the major photo processing sites offer great gifts using special pictures of your choice.  I have purchased magnets and coasters using special pictures as well.  Playing cards and jigsaw puzzles are also a cool idea.  If you prefer to go a bit more straightforward, a photo album or framed picture is always a hit.  In these penny-pinching times, I have gone for these gift ideas more than once.  I’m also fond of framing the kids’ artwork, but I’ll only do this as a gift idea sparingly.

What other ideas do you have for grandparent gifts?

Do you have a community where you can find friends who will listen to you vent or just watch your kids for an hour? I don’t know what I would do without my online community of friends and my friends who live near me. I need them to ask advice or have adult interaction that lets me think about something other than diapers and what is for lunch. We sometimes watch each other’s kids while we go to appointments. I got through my three months of extreme morning sickness with the help and kindness of my friends.

Creating a community for yourself whether it be online or physically in your local area takes work. You have to step out of your shell and possibly risk rejection. You have to keep up with people’s lives. You have to schedule playdates and make time for people. You have to watch their kids, if they watch yours. No matter how much work it is, the benefits of having friends and community far outweigh the disadvantages of not having a group of people that you can lean on.

Here are a few places to find community:

• Online 

There are forums, blogs (like ours!), and social networks. I love reading my friends’ blogs. Dawn is one of our writers here. I haven’t seen her in person in 10 years, but I feel like I have a good friend through her blog, Facebook, and our emails. I haven’t really gotten into forums. I tried Baby Center, but just never got into it. I like Cafe Mom and the Mom Bloggers Club. I just recently became active in my Facebook account. I have a Twitter account, but none of my friends use it so it fell by the wayside. I like that The Mom Crowd is a part of the Blogher community and I enjoy reading other moms in the Blogher Network.

• Groups Targeting Mothers

MOPS is an organization to help you find other moms in your community. Stroller Fit leads you in workouts while pushing your baby in a stroller. You could join a La Leche League Group for breastfeeding mothers or find a playgroup in your area on Meetup.com.

• Your Neighborhood

Meeting your neighbors can be tricky, because you have catch them while they are outside. I met one mom at the playground. I stopped another mom while she was out walking. I am sure some of them think I am nuts, but I know where I can go if I need just a teaspoon of vanilla to finish my batter (true story). Just knowing who our immediate neighbors are is helpful and may even help you find a babysitter if one of them has a teenager looking for some cash.

• Church

A local church can be a great place to find other mothers who live around you. I have at least 5 friends that I met at church within a five-minute drive from me that I know I can call on if I need some help. During Hurricane Ike my friend Kara came over at the last minute to help me clean my house to get ready for guests. Depending on the size of the church it can be hard to meet people on a Sunday morning and you may have to attend an activity, a class, a life group, or a small group. Going to a small group can be difficult with kids bedtimes and schedules, but making time for meeting and connecting with people is worth the effort to have community.

So where do you find community? Do you feel supported or this something that you have to work at?

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the things in our lives that we are most thankful for.  It is also a time to consider others who do not have as much as us and serve those who are in need.  Our sermon at church last Sunday was about serving the world around you, and I have been reflecting this week on ways I can serve those in need and how to teach my children to do the same.  While our family is not rolling in money, we have more than enough and more than we need.  We are truly blessed!

My children do not want for anything and it is important to my husband and I that our children are aware of the wonderful blessings in their lives and cognizant of those who do not have the luxuries and the necessities of life.  We very much want for them to have hearts for serving others and know that the best way to instill servant hearts in them is to have servant hearts ourselves!

There are so many people in our communities who are in need.  Here are some way you and your family can really make a difference in someone’s life this holiday season:

1. Visit with residents of your local nursing home or assisted living facility.

2. Adopt a family in need and make them a holiday dinner, bring their children presents, and give them a Christmas they may not have otherwise had.

3. Contact your local Ronald McDonald House to serve families of children who are hospitalized during the holidays.

4. Contact your local Pregnancy Crisis Center to serve pregnant mothers in need.

5. Bake cookies for your neighbors.

6. Serve Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner to the homeless in your community.

7. Pick a child from an Angel Tree.

8. Leave a really generous tip the next time you eat out!

9. Invite a family or someone who is not able to spend the holidays with their own family over to your house for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.

10. Take your family caroling to your local hospital, retirement community, or nursing home.

11. Make a shoebox of toys for Operation Christmas Child.

12. Sponsor a child through Compassion International.

13. Sponsor an orphan with Down syndrome through Reece’s Rainbow’s Christmas Angel Tree Project.

14. Contact your county for information on how to help foster children in your area this holiday season.

15. Visit members of your church who are in the hospital.

16. Offer to dog-sit for friends who are traveling during the holidays so they do not have to pay expensive kennel costs.

17. Contact your local ARC and see how you can help make the holidays extra special for people with disabilities.

18. Offer to run errands or drive an elderly or sick neighbor to doctor appointments.

19. Keep packed snacks in your car for those who are asking for money or food at street corners. {I got this idea from our church}

20. Next time you’re at drive-thru, tell the cashier that you want to pay for the person’s tab behind you as well as a gift…even though you don’t know them!

21. Have your children decorate cards, ornaments, or cookies to send to our military troops overseas.

What are some ways you plan on serving others this holiday season?  How do you instill attitudes of serving others in your children throughout the year?

Last week I shared with you how I prepared myself for a 13.1 mile race.  Then, I did it! Here are a few things that caught me by surprise:

• I wasn’t anywhere near as nervous as I expected to be.
• I was literally the last person running for the entire first mile (slowest starter).
• Overall, it was easier than I expected it to be.  Oh trust me, it was still hard, but it was manageable.

I wrote a detailed post with more specifics on my personal blog, so I’ll link you to that, if you desire to know more.  Thanks for sharing in this experience with me, and if you participate in something like a half marathon, a 5 or 10K, or any other major athletic triumph, be sure to let us know in the comments.  Accomplishing a major physical goal is something to be so proud of! Have a great weekend, all! 

Tomorrow, I am hitting the pavement for a leisurely 13.1 mile run.  :)  Wow.  You can’t see me, but I am totally turning into the fetal position as I write this.  I am nervous!

We’ve talked before on The Mom Crowd about running races.  Amanda, McKenna, and I have all run 5Ks this year, and it was a great experience for each of us.  Over the summer, I realized that I prefer slower distance running over trying to beat my time in shorter races.  So when I read about a half-marathon that starts and runs through the area right around my neighborhood, I knew I had to give it a shot.

My first step was to look for a training schedule for beginners, to see if it was something I could feasibly accomplish.  I found this through my local Fleet Feet, and I was excited to learn that the largest sacrifice would be in carving out 2 hours or so each weekend to do the long run (and longer towards the end).  The weekly short runs were already the same amount of time I was taking during the week to run for exercise anyway.

Next, I needed to ask my husband for his support in this endeavor.  Since our children are so young, I knew I’d need him to watch the kids for many extra chunks of time.  I knew the training would also keep us from family time, somewhat, so I wanted to be sure that was okay with him.

After he gave me the thumbs-up (what a guy!), I thought about it for a few more weeks (I had room in our calendar to do this).  I didn’t just decide overnight that this was my goal; I spent lots of weeks stewing over it.  I liked running the other races I’d done earlier in the year.  Ultimately, I knew it was exactly what I needed to do for myself this fall.  We have a treadmill and lots of local greenways for running, so I knew I’d be able to incorporate the runs into our family’s schedule without too much stress.

I had good running shoes, the appropriate attire, a fantastic, ever-changing running playlist on my iPod, and the desire to make it happen.  There wasn’t much else to do but get going on the training.  At first, I decided to keep quiet about it, but after a couple of weeks, I knew I needed to share my goal with as many people as possible.  I created a special page on my personal blog to get the ball rolling and keep a little journal of my highs & lows.  I also kept a written log of each run on a clipboard.  In addition (because I am a list checker-offer), I made little signs of each week’s training so I could “X” them off after completion.  It’s these little things that served as fun rewards for me.

Throughout the past 3 months, I have experienced injuries and illness, though not related to my training.  I dealt with debilitating neck pain for about two weeks, which forced me out of running for awhile.  I read that it was best not to run while ill, but to get back in it when you’re ready.  So that’s what I did.  And my body quickly got back on track, even with a missed run here or there.

Once I hit the 10-mile mark, I got cocky.  I started thinking I was unstoppable, and lessened my commitment level.  I even tried to get away with skipping short runs in general and just running on Saturdays.  (You don’t need to tell me what an idiot I am – believe me, I figured it out just fine on my own! )

Despite all of my highs and lows, successes and mistakes, I think I am ready to take on the big 13.1 tomorrow.  There is more I could read online or in magazines to prepare, but I don’t want to psych myself out with too much info.  I know I’m a little out of my league, but that’s okay.  My goal is to make it across the finish line in 3 hours.

Last week, I asked my husband if I was a moron for thinking I could or should do this back in August.  He said I wasn’t.  He reminded me that this was the right choice for me because:

• I wanted to do it.
• it gave me tons of self-confidence.
• it was good for me, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

I share this with you because you might need a new outlet for stress or a new hobby.  Maybe you’re struggling with your weight and you need to feel like a rock star a few times a week.  That’s how I feel when I finish – most of the time, anyway.  Maybe you just want to have bragging rights – to say, “Yes, I ran a half-marathon.”  These are all the reasons I decided to give it a try.  Let me encourage you by saying, GO FOR IT.  You never know unless you try.  And to quote my friend Jan, who did this last year: “If I can do it, anyone can.”

I’ll be back next Friday with the full story.  Keep me in your thoughts & prayers this weekend!  Thanks!