How MOPS changed my life... NOT!

So I was going crazy, I had just moved and as a stay at home, mom of two children under two I was very isolated so I gave  in and I joined mops. (you know mothers of preschoolers) MOPS is a non profit club that was started to get mothers of young kids out of the house, giving them a chance to meet other moms and make friends. Well, my first week was AMAZING I sat at a table with the women who seemed to run the club, I spoke up to cover the craft cordinator position and I felt like I was on the road to making some mom friends in my new town. I left revived.
When my second week rolled around I was so excited to get there a little early, drop my kids off at kid care, and go mingle. Boy, was I in for a surprise! Over the past week the ladies had decided that the table I was at was to crowded and I had been moved to a new table. This table seemed comprised of all the women the table leaders were happy to send off to the new table, two best friends who seemed erked whenever anyone else tried to talk to them, and two peopl who were actully kind of normal and nice.
  Weeks went by and I realized they must have decided they didn't need me as craft cordinator, since not only did no one give me a heads up or a schedual or anything that would clue me in on WHEN I was to cordinate a craft, but when we had a craft I wasn't the one cordinating it. Every week I felt bumbarded by one "direct sales" pitch or another and looked down on because I could not afford to attend every pampered chef and leah sophia party. To top it off every week someone reminded me I was the youngest ther by asking some rude question - "wow so you must have gotten pregnant in high school!" Um no I graduated at 17 and I was 19 when I had him can't you count? He's two! "So did you get married because you were pregnant?" What!?! We tried for a year after we got married to get pregnant before a special diet finally worked!
  Then when my husband left and the divorce started the few people who were there for me quickly faded away, quickly. I was removed from the facebook group and now I talk to two of the ladies and even that is very abreviated. I have to say that reading the MOPS mag that I would get in the mail was just as depressing, the stories and encouragment was never real it was always so light and airy. They never had a contributor talking about how she was close to locking the kids outside after they painted the house with poop or how they battled post pardum it was always about them finding freaking legos in there shoes. In the end MOPS did little to lift me up and to much to tare me down, I left the group at the end of the year with one real story of support, one mother who I felt like really wanted to be a friend, two moms who just seem to "keep in contact" with me, and a deeper feeling of failure as a mother.
  Why did I join that group again? Oh right, for support and encouragment and for the sake of making friends for me and my boys. Well, what a fail. I'm still the only person I know with kids at my age and I'm surly the only one with four! I still don't have much mom support really, but I do have some good single friends who are not judgmental and I am working on finding a nitch in the mom world.
Maybe it was just my group, I hope so! But what I found was a mix of stepford wives and keeping up with the joans's. Maybe I will try again at a differant group here in town, maybe somewhere there is a nitch just for me.

Getting to know me... I guess?

Here goes! I'm officially blogging!

  So a few months ago my two kids became four kids (2yo. boy, 3yo. boy, 4yo. boy- still potty training : / and a 5yo. girl who is 5 going on 15) and ever since then I have been scrambling to learn to do EVERYTHING in a new way! I am learning to improve my photography (and trying to go "pro"), organize, teach, grocery shop and cook for 6 on a budget- while catering to my son's gluten intolerance, and I'm always trying to go greener- just to name a few things I'm working on currently. My Pintrest addiction fuels my learning addiction. My love for DIY and up-cycling and recycling and just living in a way that I am learning to be more one with the earth every day (and i'm kind of a penny pincher :), makes things easier and more difficult at the same time. I promise I will try to keep things interesting or at least legible. 

                        

                               Thanks for reading-

                                       Mindy xoxo