MOPS’ 2nd Annual Workshop Day on March 25th was a hit. We started off the morning with laughter and friendship as one of our mentor moms, Rita Otth, spoke about Grace Notes.
Rita is naturally bubbly and funny, and her talk reflected her sunny personality. She started with a story about when she was a college student. She was on a plane and the lady next to her had a furry little animal on her lap. Rita couldn’t help but reach over to pet the precious little bundle, when the lady asked her, “what do you think you’re doing? That’s my purse!”
After the laughter died down, Rita explained Grace Notes. “God gives us grace notes: love, joy, peace, wisdom, forgiveness,” Rita said. “He gives us these notes when things are going well and when life gives us lemons.” These grace notes come in the form of sweet things like laughter, girlfriends, flowers, polka dot coffee mugs, and colored notepad and markers.
When you’re feeling down, fill your life with the little things that make you happy. Throw a party for any reason; find little ways to celebrate life, Rita advises. She even suggested putting a vase of flowers INSIDE the fridge, so that when you open your fridge, you’ll have a little laugh. One of Rita’s pearls of wisdom: “When life gives you $2, with one, buy bread. With the other, flowers. Bread fills your body, flowers fill your soul.”
And with that, we were off to our choice of workshops:
Safety
Some of our moms attended the Baby Ergonomics workshop, hosted by our own MOPS mom, Dr. Dene Schulze-Alva, PE, DC. Her main message stressed the importance of injury prevention to our backs through various means: exercise, diet to lose excess weight, good posture, and seeing a Chiropractor for pain relief and prevention.
Dene also spoke about the occupational hazards of parenthood (bending, lifting and carrying), abdominal bracing, general lifting safety, carrying your child properly, car seat instructions and lifting processes in diapering, bathing, reaching for your child in a crib or stroller.
The workshop group discussed the role of a chiropractor in the prevention of neck and back injuries. Dene also gave her opinion and experience of chiropractor adjustments for children and how it relates to their health.
Dene was an excellent listener to the moms who spoke of their individual back pain scenarios, and offered sources for help. If you have any additional questions, feel free to email her at
dr.deneschulzealva@gmail.com.
Decoupage
PazNaz’s children’s pastor Nicole Johnson wowed us with her creative talents as she hosted a craft workshop featuring decoupage. Moms chose one of two 8x8” square frames in natural wood or beautiful brick red. There was also a wide array of pictures for us to pick from, including adorable animé pigs, Japanese lanterns and vibrant rainbow flowers. Our challenge was finding a creative way of putting it all together in 20 minutes or less. That’s where Nicole’s artistic expertise came in, as she helped us with tips and suggestions to make our projects into individual works of art.
Perfectionism
Some of you may remember Jill Alonzo, LMFT, from our Health Panel meeting last semester. This time, Jill was able to go in-depth with her topic about Perfectionism vs. The “Good Enough” Mother.
Jill told us that when moms try to be perfect, they don’t teach their children the valuable lessons of overcoming mistakes and challenges. If we try to curtail our children from making mistakes, children cannot learn how to fix their mistakes. Life is not about avoiding mistakes, it’s about how you resolve it. By making errors and then addressing it afterwards (saying sorry, resolving arguments), that benefits your children in the future. You show them that it’s okay to make mistakes and show them how to deal with it when they do.
But it’s hard NOT trying to be perfect. When you’re feeling like you can’t do it all, surround yourself with people who care about you and who are uplifting. Tell negative people that you don’t want to hear their complaints about you. Look to God’s word to remind yourself of your self-worth. And consider entering into therapy if you need more support.
Jill said in closing, “We don’t need to carry the entire burden of raising children. God has his hand in it.”
Parenting
Parenting guru and Certified Positive Discipline Lead Trainer Jan Morris is always a welcome speaker when it comes to giving great and effective parenting advice. In this workshop, Jan spoke about autonomy, positive discipline tools, and teaching responsibility.
Autonomy is another word for "freedom". And it applies to your toddler too. Your child needs both autonomy and a healthy dependence on you too. But there must be a balance between this security and freedom. Some ways to develop Healthy Autonomy include “removing dangerous objects and creating safe boundaries; using distraction, redirection and kind, firm action to guide behavior; and allowing your toddler to be a child – to run, climb and develop healthy muscles in a safe place.”
Jan also provided a Top 10 List of Positive Discipline Tools for Children 0-3, which included teaching about feelings, showing how to do something, getting a child’s attention by either getting down to their eye level or putting a hand on their shoulder, and to involve your children in some decision-making.
Jan's final subject involved teaching responsibility to your children. The stress of this topic was that responsibility is an evolving lesson, like learning to speak. Keep teaching and model what you want your child to learn, and take in consideration their individual personality as well.
We want to give all of our experts a big Thank You for sharing their wisdom and experience. Every mom learned something valuable that day.
