Swmo Moms |

Mom Talk: 10 ways to enjoy being a mom

June 21, 2017 By: admin

Let’s face it moms, this job is hard! How can we balance work, kids, dinner, after hour activities and still maintain our sanity?

Some of these tips might be silly, but just go with us. They will help make motherhood more enjoyable:

When you’re tired, hand your kids a brush, point to your head and tell them to play beauty parlor. When you’re really tired, pretend you’re sleeping beauty.
Invent a house fairy. Give her a name, and tell your kids that she is always watching them and counting up their good deeds. (kind of like an elf on the shelf)
Give your kids quite time EVERY DAY! Let them learn to be by themselves with books, crayons or blocks.
Take your kids to live performances from a very early age. Cheap, outdoors ones are great to start with. Plus if they are whiny, no one can hear them. 🙂
Let the entire family take a day off and hang out in pj’s, eat junk food and watch old movies.
Take that extra minute to snuggle up with the kiddos at bedtime. I know, some days you are so done, but trust us, you and the kids will remember these moments as some of your most favorite.
Plan some fun. When your kids least expect it, do something out of the ordinary. It can be as simple as dying all the food green for St. Patty’s Day and turning the chairs upside down as if the leprechauns have just ransacked the house.
Stop comparing. Yes, this one is hard, but probably the most important. Stop comparing yourself to the “Pinterest Mom”. Yes, she appears to have it all together, but I assure you, somewhere inside she doesn’t. Just be present in every situation.
Stop saying “run along and play.” Go run and play with them. Kids love this so much! Embrace your inner child.
Most importantly, don’t sweat the small stuff. Sit back and look at the little lives you’ve help create, and enjoy the small moments!

Five minutes with local mom: Melanie Stinnett, owner of Theracare

June 9, 2017 By: admin

Kid’s names and ages: Ethan 6 years old, Evan 4 years old

Where are you from and how long have you lived in Southwest Missouri? For most of my life, I lived in a suburb of Houston, Texas. In 2006, I moved to Springfield to continue my college degree at Missouri State University. My husband grew up east of Springfield and has family here. We loved the area and new it would be a wonderful place to raise a family, so we stayed.

What is your favorite family activity in SWMO? Our family loves anything outdoors. From the Springfield Nature Center to the Zoo, and even fun things like ArtFest.

We understand you are the owner of TheraCare. Tell us about it! What inspired you to start your own business? As a speech-language pathologist employed by a clinic, I saw a big need to provide more services for the children in our communities. There were waitlists at other clinics that were long and a lack of some specialty services that I knew I could provide.

How do you balance being a business owner and a mom? It is a daily challenge. On a weekly basis, I am reviewing business and home calendars to make sure I do not miss out on any important moments. The nice thing about owning your own business is that you can take off easily for things like Christmas parties and Easter Egg Hunts. The downside can sometimes be that taking off for things like that can mean a late night at clinic catching up on some things. However, I think it is great for my boys to see me working hard and putting my heart into something that makes such a difference in the lives of the people we serve.

What is your biggest challenge being a working mom? Keeping track of all the schedules and who needs what on which day. Snack days, birthday parties, random days my kids are out of school…the list goes on and on. I love all these things but making sure they all get translated on the calendar can sometimes be a challenge.

Describe your typical day. I am not really sure I have a “typical day”. I get up early, often leaving the house before my kids are out of bed. I either get started at the clinic or at an off-site place where we provide services (like a private school or preschool). I work together with my administrative staff to make sure there is not anything they need from me each day. I still see clients 2-3 days a week in the clinic. Often in the afternoon, around 4:30 or 5:30 you will find me at the gym, CrossFit Provision. I made a commitment late last year to make sure I got active and stayed active. The community at Provision has been a wonderful addition to my routine. After that, I go home, eat some dinner with my family, and then go through the nighttime routine with my kids. If I have some energy left I will watch a little bit of TV or read a book.

How do you relax at the end of the day? I read a good book and take a long, hot bath.

What’s something your friends might not know about you? When I started college, I was a print journalism major and I wanted to own my own newspaper someday.

One word to sum me up: Driven

Mom talk: Ten tips on how to avoid mommy burn-out!

June 7, 2017 By: admin

Hey mommas! Ok, this mom-thing is hard work!! I don’t know about you, but I feel exhausted all.day.long! Don’t get me wrong, being a mom is my greatest joy in life, but my hardest job by far. We need to keep ourselves energized and on-point each and every single day. This is why it’s so important to find time for yourself.

Mom time is so crucial to re-energize your batteries after day in and day out of trying to take care of everyone else. But you don’t usually put yourself high on the list of priorities, do you? That stops now after you find out why mom needs time to herself every day and how to get those minutes in every day.

Mommy burn-out effects everyone in the entire family. Here are some of our favorite ways to avoid mommy burn-out:

Find your “tribe.” Get a group of your mommy friends to just “hang” out. You don’t have to anything, but take the kids to the park and let the kids run wild, while you sit back under a shade tree and enjoy some adult conversation.
Let Dad do some of the work. I am blessed with a hands-on dad. But sometimes I’m so guilty to just take over and do the tasks myself. I sometimes have the attitude that I will just do it so I know it’s done. However, I need to let go more, and let dad do some of the mommy duties!
Stop feeling like you’re a failure! Stop it! Right now! We all feel like a failure at some point in time during motherhood. Stop worrying. It’s bad for your health, and guess what, it’s ok if our kids have frozen fish sticks for dinner. They will survive and still go to bed full and happy!
Let your children do things for themselves. Yes, let go and let them do it. Yes, they might make a mess, but how will they ever grow up if we keep doing everything for them.
Take a day for yourself. Yep, I said it. Leave the kiddos with dad. He can handle it. Go for a pedicure, a girls lunch, whatever makes you happy go do it.
Go grocery shopping by yourself. This is a challenge. I have three kids, and going to the store with all three is quite the nightmare. For working moms, try and go on your lunch break or right after work. It’s like a 30 minute vacation! For stay-at-home moms, ask one of your mommy friends for a play-date and tell her you will repay the favor!
Put the kids to bed early. One or maybe two nights a week put the kids to bed about 30 minutes early. Then put your feet up, turn on Netflix and relax. The housework can wait until tomorrow.
Create a schedule. This is especially helpful for Summer. Kids thrive on routine, I do too quite frankly. Involve the kids when planning, they will take pride in helping and knowing what is expected of them. For example, they will know that after a fun activity they have quite time to read or rest. This is my favorite part of the schedule. 😉
Let your kids be kids. We are all so worried that our kids will mess up, fail, the list goes on and on. Let them be little, let them make messes. I know the mess part is easier said than done. But this can also be a teaching moment for them. They make the mess, they clean it up.
Talk about your feelings. So often we mothers and women keep our feelings inside. We say things like “I’m fine,” or “sure I’ll do that.” Speak up, say no to an event if your not feeling like going, tell your spouse you need more help, take help from others when they offer it. Sometimes this is extremely hard, but we all need a little help every now and again.

Motherhood is such a beautiful and full-filling adventure. If we don’t take time for ourselves we will miss so many of life’s littlest, most important moments.

Have a great mom-tip? We’d love to hear from you. Send us your tip to info(at)SouthwestMissouriMoms(dot)com.

5 Minutes with a Local Mom: Leslie Jones, owner of Musical Bridges Musical Therapy

May 26, 2017 By: admin

Kid’s names and ages: Juniper, 2

Where are you from and how long have you lived in Southwest Missouri?

I was born and raised in Springfield. I moved to Kirksville to attend Truman State for a few years and lived in San Diego while completing coursework for school, but always wanted to come back home, so here I am!

What is your favorite family activity in SWMO?

My family loves outdoors and though we don’t have much time for it these days, we use our time together to go hiking or on a long walk on the Springfield trails or the neighborhood.

We understand you are the owner of Musical Bridges Music Therapy. Tell us about it! What inspired you to start your own business?

In Springfield there are very few music therapy positions available. When I decided to move back to Springfield from California I knew that I wasn’t going to have many options on where to work and came to the conclusion that I would create my dream job. This included working at the hospital, teaching at the university, working with individual clients, providing workshops and classes as well as having my own private lesson studio. I knew I would never find a job to provide all of those things at once, so creating it on my own was the only option. Over the years I placed my focus where I wanted to work and began my private practice Musical Bridges Music Therapy in 2011. I am now to the point of looking into the hiring process and expanding further so I am so thrilled to have made my dream a reality.

How do you balance being a business owner and a mom?

Being a business owner and a mom is definitely not an easy task, but I am very fortunate that I can incorporate my work into playtime with my daughter which definitely helps out. I push her in the laundry basket filled with instruments back and forth across the house while I’m packing and she thinks it is the best thing ever! I’m big on multi-tasking 🙂 I can also practice new songs I have written with her to get the Toddler approval before I use it with clients. The biggest help is my amazing family who constantly watches her when both my husband and I are working which has been the biggest blessing.

What is your biggest challenge being a working mom?

The biggest challenge about being a working mom is not being able to spend as much time with my family as I would like to. With the growth of the business, I feel I may be able to bring on more help to lighten my load, but to give it your best you really have to work hard. Time and Balance are definitely hard to maintain.

Describe your typical day.

I’m not sure if I have a “typical” day. Each day of the week I do different things at different places. Once a week I spend most of my day at Drury University teaching the music therapy students, but you can also find me in music therapy sessions ranging from childhood to eldercare, early childhood development classes, with oncology patients at Mercy or downtown at the RareBreed. I definitely play the guitar, sing and work on the computer every day. Those are always constant. I never stop moving and I love the variety in my daily routine. It’s one of the reasons I love my job so much!

How do you relax at the end of the day?

When I’m not working up until bedtime…You can find me doing yoga in the front room or watching Netflix most likely. I need to end a stressful day with moments of peace with yoga, but other nights I just want to be lazy! I guess it just depends what kind of day it was! Though usually there’s no time to relax until sleep!

What’s something your friends might not know about you?

My friends probably have no idea that I have a spot on Louis Armstrong impression. I’m not sure if I’ve ever done it outside of a session or not!

One word to sum me up

Determined

5 Minutes with a Mom: Suzanne Bradshaw

May 8, 2017 By: admin

Name: Suzanne Bradshaw

Kid’s names and ages: Sophia (12) and Catherine (22 months)

Where are you from and how long have you lived in Southwest Missouri?

I was born in Southwest Missouri (Houston, then moved to Mtn. Grove when I was 13). I’ve lived in SWMO my entire life, other than about 8 years (3 for college in central Missouri, and 5 of those living out of state). We have lived in Nixa for 10 years.

Describe your typical day.

It’s probably not too different than any other stay at home mom, just with a few more appointments scheduled in. Catherine receives three therapies weekly, and one therapy is twice per month, and has several specialists that she sees. I was a counselor before I went on maternity leave (which has been indefinitely extended), so I guess that has prepared me for having my day arranged by appointments!

We understand May holds a special place in your heart because it is Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month. Tell us about your daughter and her story with pediatric strokes.

I didn’t even know Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month existed before 2016. Which makes sense I suppose, since pediatric stroke did not impact my life at all before September 21, 2015.

On that day, Catherine had a stroke. We didn’t know that at first. She started having seizures while in the doctor’s exam room, and they called for an ambulance to take her to the hospital. After some initial tests that didn’t show another cause, I was signing a consent form so the ER doctor could do a lumbar puncture to see if she had bacterial meningitis. The results from that take time, but they get some initial impressions fairly quickly. Due to this, she was sent to have a CT scan, and then later an MRI. It was the next day we found out the infection had caused a stroke.

I didn’t even know babies could have strokes. I know am not the only one that is surprised by this. Even emergency responders and medical professionals overlook stroke as a possibility in children and teens. But it’s not as uncommon as we think. Which is why it is extremely important to share this information with people, even medical professionals.

Here’s a short video with some helpful information, including signs of stroke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcfKq9AqTmA&feature=share

When your daughter first suffered from a stroke, where did you turn for help?

Our situation is probably a little different than others, as Catherine’s stroke was caused by an infection, and getting rid of that was the focus at the time. She was already in the hospital when she had the stroke. We found out when the results of her CT scan and MRI came back, both scans were done because of the meningitis. She was extremely sick and had so many other things going on, the stroke wasn’t really at the top of the list. Once she had improved some, we were able to start processing the fact that our baby had a stroke. Since we were still in the hospital, we were never very far from someone we could ask a question (or 20!).

Catherine had regular follow up appointments with her neurologist once she was discharged, and she has several therapists, all of whom are a great help. Personally, I have also found a lot of support and help in online groups and with some of the awesome organizations raising awareness for pediatric stroke.

How is your daughter doing now?

Catherine is amazing! It’s sometimes hard to see the progress she makes because I see her every day. When I look back at pictures or videos, or posts I’ve made on Facebook, I can see it. Or when one of her therapists come and they see her do something she wasn’t doing the previous week and mention it. It’s like, “oh yeah, she started doing that too!”

She has global developmental delay (which means she is delayed in every area of development that is measured – speech, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, etc.), some vision issues, several sensory issues, and still eats all of her meals through a feeding tube, but she really has come a long way.

We are working on helping her progress in these areas daily. Although she has speech, occupational, and physical therapies weekly, and vision therapy twice per month, every day we do activities to work on the areas in which she is delayed. Fortunately most of them are disguised as play, although she doesn’t always want to do them. She’s a little stubborn! Right now we are working on many things, but some of the bigger things are walking unassisted, managing the sensory issues, and eating by mouth. Feeding issues are tough!

What has most surprised you after your daughter suffered the stroke?

I am really surprised at the things people will say to you about your child and how badly some of those things hurt. People you know, people you don’t know. It doesn’t matter.

I remember reading some posts on Facebook groups I am a member of, and being amazed at the things that were said to the other moms. I truly believe that most of the time, people mean no harm. That being said, just because you think it or are curious, you don’t have to say it!

I recently read a great blog written by a mom whose daughter has a serious skin condition. Something she said really resonated with me. “Yes, adults want to know why because they are curious, maybe even concerned. But the hard truth is that they then choose to ask why immediately because they place their own curiosity above another person’s feelings.” Like she mentions later in the blog, most parents don’t mind educating others on their child’s condition. For the most part, Catherine looks like typical toddler, so we haven’t received a lot of comments, other than being told she’s cute, or has a lot of hair. The ones we do get typically come in regards to her being tube fed.

Now that she’s getting older and should be walking, we are starting to get comments about that. From complete strangers out in public. I don’t always let it upset me, but sometimes it catches you off guard because it’s been a particularly rough day ( I mean, I do have a toddler AND a tween!), or I haven’t had enough sleep, or for whatever reason it might be. Do they really think I am not aware my almost two year old should be walking by now? Like that thought never crossed my mind? I think we all could do a little better at remembering to filter our thoughts before they become words. Even if what we think isn’t necessarily hurtful, is it helpful?

Here’s a link to the blog I mentioned: http://www.courtneywestlake.com/why-question-daughters-appearance/

What would you tell a mother or a family whose child has recently suffered from a stroke?

First, this is scary. The questions start coming, the emotions start surfacing, and you are wondering what the future holds for your child. You will get some information from the doctors, and you will get more information (probably more than you need) when you start searching the internet. That can be scary too.

The important thing to remember is to not put limits on your child from the moment you hear the diagnosis. The truth is, we don’t know what they’ll be doing in the future (which is true of any child). It’s hard to let go of the expectations you had. Reality may differ from how you pictured your child before you knew they had a stroke, but no one has a crystal ball. The brain is amazing and can truly overcome many things (read about neuroplasticity, it’s fascinating!).

Second, it’s okay to feel grief and anger. This truly sucks. The grief will probably pop up at random times, and you won’t always understand it. Same with the anger. It’s also okay to ask for help processing what you are experiencing. Seeking wise counsel from someone not directly affected by the situation (counselor, pastor, etc.) is a good thing. You don’t have to try to figure it all out on your own.

Also, get a notebook and keep it with you. Write it all down – what you’re told by doctors, questions that come to you in the middle of the night, all of it. You’re probably going to get a lot of information that you won’t be able to process all at once, especially in the beginning!

Here are some wonderful organizations to check out:

There are others, as well as diagnosis specific closed groups on Facebook, but these are a great start.

What have you learned about yourself during this journey of helping your daughter?

I’ve learned that I really have no control over this journey. The healing process is slow, and not my idea of slow. Slow in my mind meant a few months! I also learned that I can get caught up in too much research. Researching a problem is a good thing for the most part. You can spend way too much time and energy on it, and either scare yourself because of the stories you find, or find too many therapies and treatments. They may be wonderful treatments, but that doesn’t mean they are right for your child, or your situation, or need to happen right now. You can definitely overschedule your child with therapies and appointments. They still need time to be a kid, and you all still need time to be a family! This is something I struggle with, as I’m always on the hunt for something that will help Catherine heal.