Stephanie

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Hello there!  Welcome to my blog- Perspectives of a Mommy’s Heart!  I am Stephanie.  I am a loving, thoughtful, compassionate and dedicated 40 something gal who lives my life with my heart as my compass.  I am married to my wonderful high school sweetheart, Mike, and we have 4 SUPER awesome sons; Ben, Sean, Nate and Seth.   I am a special education teacher by trade and  I taught students with moderate to severe disabilities for over 10 years.  I am currently a full time mom, entrepreneur, and now blogger =)  I am a busy body who LOVES time with my family and friends, words, photography, the great outdoors, gardening, decorating and “party” planning (filling our home with fabulous people gives me great joy).

 

The inspiration for my blog (of course I didn’t know it at the time) began 8 years ago when I transitioned from my full time position as a professional in the teaching world to a SAHM.  As soon as our first son, Ben, was born and further fueled after the birth of our second son, Sean, I aspired and longed to be a stay at home mom.  When we become pregnant with our third child I was SO excited to resign from my  teaching position and become a full time mom for our 2 boys as well as caregiver for my dear friend’s 3 little ones  (YES, 5 kiddos 5 years to 3 months)! What I didn’t realize was that the transition would be much harder emotionally (and psychologically) than I thought.  While I loved being home with my kiddos I missed having professional goals, work friends (over the age of 5) and, let’s be honest, adult conversation. Sadly I was allowing myself to define my days by meal prep and clean up, dirty diapers, baskets and baskets of laundry, etc instead of focusing on all the amazing sights and sounds going on around me. I began to notice my normal positive attitude fading and being replaced by depressed feelings.  I decided I needed what I now call a “perspective spin.”  

 

Up until then spinning had a negative connotation.  My co-worker and now dearest gal pal, Stacey, and I used to use the word spinning to refer to holding on to something and “spinning” it into an even deeper stressor that made us feel stressed, crabby, worried, and mostly overwhelmed!  This negative spinning was affecting my attitude as well as my family’s and I knew I needed to change.  I felt like I was at a fork in the road and needed to decide to keep spinning downward or make a positive change.  I am SO thankful for choosing to spin positive because I LOVE (I use this word to its greatest depth) being a mom.  I can’t imagine all the awesomeness I would have missed out on with my kids had I not made a change!

 

I don’t recall how I learned about it but the book “The Uncommon Woman” by Susie Larson was brought to my attention and when I read the description I knew it was what I needed.

“This book is for the woman who longs to rise up out of the stereotypical behavior of gossip, insecurity, pettiness, and small dreams. She has an unfulfilled desire to be someone who goes against the grain of the common for the sole purpose of living a life with conviction. The woman who reads this book is ready to believe in her deep value, ready to accept her high calling, and ready to make a difference in a world in need of her influence.”  Honestly I did not read much of the book- a little too “heavy”- but the small 3 paragraph description, first ½ of the book and simply the title were exactly what I needed to read. It put into words exactly what I was feeling and desired to do with my life for myself and more importantly for my family.   

 

I have spent the last 8 years “spinning” my thoughts and perspectives in positive directions.  My family was in need of my positive influence and it is that constant spinning that guides me to be the positive, loving, dedicated mom, wife and friend I am today.  I am proud to be raising kiddos who are positive and loving as well!

 

And now I revisit that book description and am inspired by the short phrase “ready to make a difference in a world in need of her influence.”  I strongly believe in “God’s purpose” and deeply know that my purpose is to bring positivity and love to other’s lives.  It is not a flashy purpose but truly believe it is an incredibly important one; especially when raising children and “mommying” with my dear friends.  I believe the world is in need of positive, loving influences and so thus my blog is born!  My “spinning journey” coupled with my love of words has led me to look at and take in the world from an entirely different view and the view is beautiful!  My hope is to inspire you to start spinning and soaking up all of life’s blessings and messes with a positive outlook. I look forward to sharing the perspectives of this mommy’s heart!

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lots of love!

Stephanie

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