December MOPS Meeting

Today's MOPS meeting was fun, fun, fun!! We did not have a speaker or Creative Activity this month, but instead enjoyed a more relaxed morning!

We started our morning off focusing our hearts on the reason we celebrate Christmas: Christ's birth. I was blessed to get to read, "Christmas Through Mary's Eyes" to the group. As mothers, it's very humbling to think of what that experience would have been like for Mary.

Next we did our White Elephant Gift Exchange! Look at all these awesome gifts!

There was lots of stealing going on! This gal was determined to walk away with this gift!

Time to open them! There were so many cute things everyone brought! So fun!

Score! Look at that adorable scarf!

We also squeezed in some Christmas trivia! And of course, ended with a prize! These ladies are thinking hard!

And thank you SO much to everyone who contributed to our donation collection. We gathered up many items to donate! Your Steering Team will prayerfully decide this week who to hand deliver this collection of goodies to.

Next on the calendar: Christmas Caroling! We'll see you this week ready to sing! Blessings!

November MOPS Meeting

This months MOPS speaker drove all the way from Kalamazoo, Michigan and are we so thankful she did! Sari Dolence spoke to us today about "Fearless Parenting," which continues our theme this year of "Be You, Bravely."

Is there such a thing as fearless parenting? Most moms can all agree that fear is an ongoing struggle in parenting. Sari shared Jeremiah 29:11 with us: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." This verse is a common one used to encourage us in our walk through the struggles of life. However, Sari went on to focus on the word "hope" in this verse. She explained how the original Hebrew meaning of the word used in this verse for hope can be illustrated more deeply in another part of Scripture. We read in Joshua 2 about a Gentile prostitute named Rahab who hid Hebrew spies so that they wouldn't be captured and killed. The spies whom Rahab saves tell her to put a scarlet cord in her window and to gather her family into her house. When the Israelites would return to attack, they promised that by seeing the red cord hanging at her home, they would spare her and her family. The word used for "cord" in this passage also means an "expected hope." Rahab hung the read cord, meaning "hope," with an expectant hope of the promise given to her by the spies. She clung to this hope, which ultimately saved her life. As mothers, we too must have an expectant hope for our children. We must hopefully cling to the promises God has given us over our children's lives and trust that even through our failures, God's promises will be fulfilled. Sari blessed us with a prayer card and rope to remind us of this awesome truth!

Tape that card up and hang your rope somewhere you will see them, ladies! We need a daily reminder of the expectant hope God has provided mothers who trust in Him!

Three more valuable points Sari shared with us:
1. Fear is not wrong...it can motivate us into action. God has provided ways for us to Biblically handle and deal with our fears.
2. You are going to make mistakes. God can work thru and use even your mistakes!
3. God made NO mistake putting your kids in your household with you as their parent and he has a plan and a purpose for you and them. "From one man (Adam) he made every nation, that they should inhabit the earth; and he (God) determined the times set for them and the exact places they should live. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." (Acts 17:26-27).

Our Creative Activity for the month were aprons! The ladies had lots of fun decorating them!

And our MOPS tees are in! 

It was a fun meeting and we are looking forward to gathering together again next month. Start looking for those White Elephant gifts, ladies! See you in December!

October 2014 MOPS Meeting

It may have been rainy and dreary outside, but it was a cheery and fun morning inside at our MOPS meeting this morning! We had so many new moms visiting MOPS today and so many adorable teeny tiny babies! What a blessed morning!

Today we were blessed to listen to Kim Swartz speak on the topic of budgeting. Or, as Kim put it, if the "B" word (budget) frightens you, refer to it as your "spending plan."

I love how Kim tied in our theme verse for the year: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:18-19). It doesn't matter what your finances have looked like in the past up to this point, today you can be intentional and make different choices for the future!!

I will sum up Kim's talk with the "10 Steps" she shared with us this morning. She draws her wisdom and insight from Dave Ramsey's Biblical approach to money thru Financial Peace University. So she has taken Dave's teaching and added some insight of her own in this step-by-step plan:

Step One: Transfer ownership of possessions to God. Give. Try it. You'll be amazed.
Step Two: Evaluate
Step Three: Save $1000
Step Four: Tell your money where to go (this includes giving plan)
Step Five: Pay off ALL debt with the Debt Snowball plan
Step Six: Emergency Fund of 3-6 months of living expenses
Step Seven: Invest 15% into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
Step Eight: College Funding
Step Nine: Pay off the mortgage
Step Ten: Then you can Eleven: Build wealth through mutual funds/real estate and BE READY always to give generously over and over again.

I hope everyone is now encouraged to BE BRAVE with your BUDGET!!

Our craft this month was budget envelopes! Everyone had fun cutting, folding, and getting creative making adorable envelopes, all the while getting to know some of the other moms at the meeting!

As always, there were lots of fun giveaways, yummy food, and fun had by all! We look forward to seeing everyone at the Pumpkin Patch for our group mid-month!

Semptember MOPS Meeting

The year has begun! What a fun first meeting to kick off the new year!

Can you see the excitement on these moms faces? They are about to eat food they did not cook without little hands grabbing at them! One of the many great things about MOPS!!!

And may I say the food was super yummy this morning?! I hope everyone got a taste of Deb's crepes because they are delicious!!

Our MOPS theme this year, "Be You, Bravely" is a great one for us moms! And one great example of a mom stepping out of her comfort zone by being brave is our awesome MOPS Coordinator, Adrienne Armstrong. We are so glad she has bravely taken this leadership role to continue our MOPS group this year!!

Veteran MOPS Mom April Whittaker shared with our group the way MOPS has blessed her over the years. One of the main missions of MOPS is that no mom mothers alone. April explained how MOPS brought fellow moms into her life who walk along side her in the adventure of mothering. She also challenged us with the question, "In the next year, what is that little voice inside calling you to do in bravery?"

Our Creative Activity for the month is a Courage Key Necklace. In our welcome packets, each mom receives a courage key. We had fun making necklaces, bracelets, and key chains.

We spent lots of time this morning getting to know each other and chatting! Don't forget to plan those mid-month activities together between our MOPS meetings! Looks like this group got theirs planned!

What else do we love about  MOPS? All the prizes and give-a-aways!!! These two gals scored some gift cards this morning!

At an upcoming meeting we will take orders for MOPS t-shirts for the year. However, until we get our local group tees ordered--MOPS International has tees available on their MOPShop site (http://co-store.com/mopshop). Lacy Sanford was sporting her adorable tee from the MOPShop store this morning!

Thank you to all the moms who made it this morning! We are praying for an awesome MOPS year! We continue to be thankful for the MOPPETS workers who love on our kiddos during our meeting and to the Mentor Moms who also give their time to minister to us mommies!

Here's to a great year of bravely being our authentic selves and bravely mothering together!!

April MOPS Meeting

For those of you who might have missed our meeting, here's a quick recap of our April MOPS meeting.

We were blessed to hear Kim Swartz speak on the topic of "Manners and Etiquette for Children." Beginning with the verse "just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them," from Luke 6:31, Ms. Kim reminded us that God is the originator of manners and etiquette. She shared four main reasons why they are important: 1. because God's word instructs us to use them; 2. it is a reflection of what's in our hearts; 3. it helps us from embarrassing ourselves or others and gives us confidence; 4. provides a way for our children to be respected. I love the verses from Philippians 2:3-4 she used to remind us of why practicing good manners is so important: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

What a blessing to hear all the wonderful suggestions Ms. Kim had on ways to teach our children manners and etiquette. From teaching them to using words, such as, "please", "thank you", "may I", "excuse me" and more, all the way to making eye contact, handshaking, and table manners--we were blessed with a wealth of great ideas in equipping and training our preschoolers in this area. So a BIG thank you to Ms. Kim Swartz for taking the time to share her words of wisdom with us!!

For our Creative Activity this month we assembled Resurrection Eggs for our kiddos. So cute and fun and I'm sure everyone will enjoy going through the Easter story with their families using these eggs.

And don't forget!! IT'S THAT TIME!! BE SURE TO REGISTER FOR NEXT YEAR!! We are SUPER excited about the upcoming MOPS year!! It's going to be a great year with great speakers and activities! You won't want to miss it!! Next year's theme is "Be You Bravely" and the theme verse is "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."  Isaiah 43:18-19   (NIV)

Let us know if you need a MOPS Registration Form or a MOPPETS Registration Form!

See you at our May meeting!