Thoughts from MOPS | Current Projects

  Today was our last MOPS meeting of the year.  Please let me shed a tear.  For those of you who don't know, MOPS stands for Mothers of Preschoolers and is a weekly get together for moms who fit that category.  They provide childcare and every other week we have a meeting in which we talk about issues that pertain to raising preschoolers, and then the other weeks we are able to have a "freestyle friday" and drop the kids off and do whatever the heck we want with those two hours.  It is a pretty great set-up.  I left a great MOPS in Bellevue and before we moved down I had already been in contact with the MOPS peeps down here, it was just that important.

  Since this was the last MOPS of the year, they had an open mic session.  Women got up to share all sorts of things and it was encouraging and inspiring.  As more and more moms got up to share there was a theme of anxiety, depression, etc.  Mom after mom reported feeling loss of oneself and ultimately a sort of emotional or mental health issue.  Sharing those struggles is so good for the person, but also for others that might be going through the same thing and feel alone.  It was so sad to hear what so many women were struggling through, but they all were so thankful for this group.  Eventually, a doctor got up and actually responded to what everyone was sharing and mentioned some things that are very helpful for those that have symptoms of depression and anxiety.  3 areas:  physical, mental, and spiritual.

Physical: get enough sleep, eat well, and exercise.  Duh.  But do we do it?

Mental:  Activating the right side of your brain which is the non-thinking side.  Some examples she shared were cooking, gardening, crafting, drawing, painting, doing things with your hands, exercising.  Let your mind rest and unwind and reset by turning the non-thinking side of your brain on and take over.

Spiritual:  Being connected with your spiritual self.  That means different things for different people, but for me it means going to God.  Going to him when things are perfect and fine and happy and going to him when things are overwhelming and burdening and not good.

  I really started thinking about the mental part and my life.  I often beat myself up for being so selfish in doing crafts.  I mean, my desk is always (!) an eye sore, I sometimes run myself ragged trying to do projects, it costs $$ that we don't have, I'm always wanting to try something new so I have a lot of stuff, I always think I can do it on my own, the list goes on.  But then, and it happens every now and then, someone tells me that it's good and beneficial and stress relieving and healthy.  And all is right in my world again.  My creativity in all of the above (minus the drawing and painting, not so good at those), is healthy, necessary, and possibly saving me from mental breakdowns and the like.

  I am still far from "World's Best Mom" (as realized in my lectures out of frustration in the car ride home from MOPS today :/ ), BUT I am working hard on being the best I can be.  And part of that is unwinding and doing my blog and the following:

My current-ish projects in no particular order.

Animal name stamps for my kids and available in the shop.

 Or fruit name stamps.  What can they be used for?  I don't know... stationery, bookplates, on cards.

Teacher's Appreciation gifts.

 Other personalized stamp options.

Been working on my hand lettering and am pretty happy with this one at least.

 Some Mother's Day projects.

  My sister got me the most awesome paper flower book for Christmas and I've been trying really hard.  Paper flower making reminded me that I cannot do all things crafty.  But I did make some poppies here and handed them out to my mama friends at church on Mother's Day.

  I've also still been carving a lot of faces, my number 1 seller in the shop.  And oddly enough, I've done more guys.  I think because girls shop on Etsy and don't buy them for themselves.

Did you know that you can turn this picture...  (Aren't they cute?) 

...into this?

  My sister does all of my photoshop work and so I pay her in dried mangos and free stuff from the shop like this stamp.  And she's having a baby in September (yay!), so baby Candy, as we call her, will probably also be all set with personalized notecards, etc.  (Cortney + rANDY = Candy for those of you who aren't as talented in name combining like my sister. lol.)

   And on the off chance that your daughter bites your custom stamp and ruins Randy's perfect hair...

Aaaaahhhhhh!!

I can kinda fix it.

  I must be honest though and say that these stamps don't always come easy.  Sometimes people send crappy pics and it makes it hard to carve, but sometimes I just mess up and have to redo.  It's the eyes that are super hard to carve!  Sometimes the stamps have got lazy eye going on and I'm sure that's not what people want adorned all over their wedding invites and programs.  :)

  I don't know where all of you are at.  Some of you have dealt with or are currently dealing with anxiety and depression, some of you haven't, and some of you might in the future.  I don't have all of the answers, but I do feel strongly about what the doctor said in taking care of yourself in those 3 arenas.  As moms I feel we tend to take care of our kids in those areas, but not ourselves.  So my encouragement to you is to evaluate how physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy you are and allow yourself to do those things that might seem selfish, but are actually really healthy.