I was very involved in extracurricular activities in high school and college. Volleyball, basketball, track, class president, prom committee, yearbook editor, Wendy’s employee, Pac Sun employee, church volunteer, student senator, student body VP and president…I did a lot and was busy all the time! But busy didn’t seem to bother me. Busy was a good thing for me. It helped me develop some awesome time management and people skills, and maybe most important, a strong work ethic…all things that are very important and beneficial in my life today.

My extracurricular activities quickly dwindled once I graduated from college in 2008 and it was welcomed change for my new life in the real world with my new husband. I have picked up a few activities (like the biz and being a mom) since then and feel like I’m almost back to my old school days of being busy. And that’s a good thing. 🙂

One thing that has kept me busy, besides my business and near 2-year old daughter, is MOPS. I was just a member last year, but stepped up to the steering team this year as “fundraising leader”. We held a small fundraiser at the beginning of our year, but tackled a HUGE event just last month. We put together a fall vendor open house for the local community and it was a HUGE success! I was a little worried that it would be too much work and that we wouldn’t be able to raise a lot of money, but I was so very wrong. We had over 40 vendors, over 50 raffle items and raised over $1000 for our MOPS group! It might not seem like a ton, but for our group of 80-100 that has never been allowed to do fundraising, I’d say we did pretty well! I was so proud of our efforts and very impressed with how our steering team and MOPS members came together to make everything happen. They donated baked goods and drinks, helped set up and tear down, communicated with and organized vendors, and spent their time shopping and supporting during the event. We seriously made a great team!

I was a little hesitant about being part of the MOPS steering team because I didn’t want to get too busy. But after the success of our event and witnessing so much genuine support and hard work from our group members, I’m happy to say that being the “fundraising leader” has been a wonderful “extracurricular life activity” for me. I have made so many great friends through the group and have been able to practice the skills I developed while being part of extracurricular activities during my school days. I was so much busier back then, but I really enjoyed responsibility and working with people. I was successful with that kind of lifestyle so why not continue it now? I definitely don’t want to be that busy, but being busy seems to help keep me “on-track” where I have less chance to slack off and get lazy. It’s a good life practice for me…how about you? What “extracurricular life activities” are you involved in?? None? Maybe think about adding something. Volunteer in the kids’ programs at your church, join a local interest group, get a part-time job at your favorite store, or join a MOPS group in your area. You may gain some new skills, meet some new wonderful people and you’ll get time for yourself outside of your regular time at home or job. It’s quite a refreshing, rewarding and beneficial thing most times, so give it a whirl! I highly recommend signing up for an “extracurricular life activity”!

Take a look at what our MOPS group was able to put together!

Before the vendors and shoppers arrived…

I bought a custom purple cat hat for Ally from this vendor!

Cool story about the ladies on the right…I was at Oakland, MD’s Autumn Glory Festival back in October and chatted with them at the fresh air market. One makes barn quilts (and we’ll hopefully get one for inside our new home!) and the other makes scarves. I remembered them from Autumn Glory and invited them to join us for our event…and they did!

There’s my friend Lauren selling Premier jewelry! And check out those tu-tus!

So many bows and pretty things! It was certainly little girl heaven. 🙂

We had a pretty packed house! Thanks to everyone who shopped and helped! Hopefully we can have another open house next year. 🙂

P.S. Did you know “extracurricular” was one word?? I didn’t.