MOPS Mom's Night Out/Shopping Trip

What a busy month December is!!! Between shopping, planning family gatherings, trying to stay healthy & avoid the inevitable cold & snow.......We also had a busy December for our MOPS group!

We did a super fun craft at the meeting--creating custom glitter ornaments for our trees! They turned out so pretty! We also discussed our family traditions at Christmas and learned of other family traditions we may want to try!! A LOT of fun ideas and traditions were talked about!!!

We collected cash donations this month so we could do our 2nd annual "adopt a family" for Christmas!  Our group met for a MOPS Mom's much needed evening out to socialize at Hacienda. Our original date got snowed out so our last minute make up date and we were very pleased with our turnout considering! Here we are with full bellies and ready to hit the stores to shop for the precious family in need this Christmas!

We are ready to SHOP!!!! With all of the sales, coupons & cash back-we were able to provide an AMAZING Christmas for this family. God Bless all of those who were able to donate, pray and just be a part of this special event.

We dropped our wrapped gifts off at Holly's House. It was also fun to be able to get our children involved and getting them to understand the concept of charity! 

 I think the kiddos enjoyed the giant stuffed animals. :)

Baby Friendly Presentation

At our meeting today, Nicole Brungs, RN, BSN, IBCLC, came to speak with us today about nursing your newborn and the benefits of doing so. She works for a local hospital in their lactation department. She was very informative and had information that even some of the seasoned verterans at nursing their children didn't even know.

In addition to our guest speaker we kicked off several donation events at our meeting!

-We asked those that had extra Halloween candy to please bring it to the meeting so we could donate it to our local CHEMO BUDDIES organization. The patient's undergoing chemotherapy, enjoy various candies to eat due to the metallic taste the chemo leaves in their mouth! We collected a LOT of candy and were able to give them a very generous donation! If you get a chance, please click on their link to find out how YOU can help!

-We also asked our MOPS members if they had any non-perishable foods, toiletries, coats and other items to please bring them so we could donate to our local food pantry and other organizations in need for this fall/winter. Again-we have VERY generous members and had a LOT to take to these organizations!!

Describe Your Child's Personality...In ONE Word!

Happy Fall!!! We had a very interesting, eye opening & informative meeting today! We began with an ice breaker...."Describe each of your children's personalities...but only use ONE word! WOW. That proved to be hard for some of us. :)

We then took an assessment for each of our children CLICK HERE and discovered our child's personality type. VERY neat!! After we got our results we broke off into our discussion groups and discussed our children with other MOPS members....seeing if there were connections with their personalities and their birth order. I encourage you to take this. Give it a try! :)

If you enjoyed the assessment--check out Kathi's book HERE.

"Parents spend a good chunk of time making sure their kids are okay--they're getting good grades, doing their chores, and doing just enough cleaning that their rooms won't be condemned if the Board of Health happens to drop by. 21 Ways to Connect with Your Kidsoffers a straightforward, workable plan to create new avenues of connection between parents and their kids. This handy guide coaches moms and dads to do one simple thing each day for three weeks to connect with their kids.

Daily connection ideas include:

• planning a family fun night
• telling your child what you like about them
• developing a character growth chart
• writing a love note to your child
• working together on a family project

Written in Kathi's warm and compassionate but thought-provoking tone, this book will motivate parents to incorporate great relationship habits into their daily lives and give them confidence that they can connect with their kids even in the midst of busy schedules." -http://www.kathilipp.com/books/21ways/blogger_kit/

Check out 50 fun ideas to "connect with your son" HERE

Check out 50 fun ideas to "connect with your daughter" HERE

Kickoff Meeting-- A Beautiful Mess

We kicked off our 2nd annual MOPS year today!!! We had a fantastic turnout!! Our theme for this year...."A Beautiful Mess." Fitting, right? For all of us BUSY moms!!! I put together this little video of some of our steering team's beautiful messes.....turn the volume up and ENJOY!!

And how appropriate is this poem.....our devotional to start our meeting today. I think most of us can relate. :)

2013-2014 MOPS Year Schedule

The Turning Pointe MOPS Group offers care and nurturing to all mothers of preschoolers (infants through Kindergarten by working through the local Church (The Turning Pointe) to meet moms right where they're at. 

A typical meeting will include a brief opening, Encouraging Welcome With a Prayer, A Group Discussion, Refreshments/Appetizers, Creative Time (a project that we can all complete) or possibly a special guest speaker. Our goal is to make each mom feel like a welcome part of our community.

The Turning Pointe Church 

Meetings are the 1st Thursday of every month 2013-2014 school year

Starting

9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Sept. 5, 2013
Oct. 3, 2013
Nov. 7, 2013
Dec. 5, 2013
Jan. 9, 2014
Feb. 6, 2014
Mar. 6, 2014
April 3, 2014
May 1, 2014

Contact: 

LHape04@gmail.com

Cost for Membership: $40.00
FREE Childcare at MOPS Meetings

MOPS SUMMER PLAYDATES

Please join us for a monthly summer playdate!! We will also be accepting memberships at these playdates. Please click the JOIN NOW tab above for more information on 2013-2014 membership.

See you there!!

**In case of rain-we will be meeting at McDonald's Playland on the west side.**

Nutrition

During our February meeting, we did a survey for all of you MOMS. Based on the results, we scheduled the remainder of our meetings on the things you would like to get out of MOPS. Nutrition was the most popular request. At yesterday's meeting, we had the pleasure of having Bonnie Schnautz as a guest speaker. She is a certified health practitioner here in Evansville. She discussed healthy meals & kids snacks on the go. There were a lot of eye openers for us moms at this meeting. Especially seeing Bonnie's "unhappy meal"....which was a 4 year old hamburger from one of those restaurants we've probably all been to.... The frightening thing was-her hamburger in her sealed container was 4 years old. It looked maybe a week old! YIKES!

What ARE we putting into our bodies & what type of effect is it having on not only our health, but our children's health?  Please check out Bonnie's Facebook page HERE where she provides useful nutritional information/tips.

Bonnie provides private consultations for those looking for natural options for their health as well as various group coaching programs. Please feel free to contact her.

We would like to congratulate 2 of our MOPS moms! They will be welcoming baby girls into their families soon! We can't wait to meet them!! :) 

All About Love

When you think of the month of February...you think about- LOVE. Right? Well, our steering team thought it would be appropriate to discuss The 5 Love Languages this month. A few of us just finished this book along with our husbands in our church small group - it was a huge success.  (to be honest-a couple of the husbands were skeptics and didn't want to read the book in our small group-but once they gave in and did....they were so thankful for doing so!) EVERYONE can benefit from reading this book from dating couples, newly weds, couples having problems or couples that have a great marriage. Every person can learn something from this book!

If you weren't able to attend yesterday's meeting-please consider going to the website HERE and taking a very short quiz. Have your spouse take the same quiz. Once you get your results-you will then know your love language. Click HERE to read a brief description of your love language. Obviously, the book goes into much greater detail on each of the love languages.

Falling in love is easy. Maintaining healthy relationships is a daily, lifelong pursuit. But it doesn’t have to be that hard. Once you know your “love language,” you’ll understand why some attempts at romance work while others fall flat. Dr. Gary Chapman’s perennialNew York Times bestseller, The 5 Love Languages® is full of “Aha!” moments that make expressing love easier and more desirable. You’ll find yourself more motivated and more confident that you can succeed in having the relationships you've always wanted.More than 8 million copies sold!

We highly recommend you and your spouse reading the book. I admit, I am not one who enjoys "reading"...gasp...I know...but I actually read this book in 2 evenings after my kids had gone to bed. My husband read it fast too- it's a really easy read. Amazon has the book for less than $10.00 HERE or I bet you could rent it at the library. :) They also describe love languages for your kids! That's right, they have their own love language too! I have not read the book yet for the kids-but based on what I learned from reading the book for adults-I already know what my kids love languages are...and they are both different. It's really neat how this book has opened my eyes in not only a new way for my marriage but for my parenting as well!

Words Of Affirmation, Acts Of Service, Quality Time, Physical Touch, Receiving Gifts

Which love language are you?

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Holly K. Dunn-Stories of Survival & Success

We had the pleasure of having Holly K. Dunn Pendleton as our guest speaker this month. Holly is also one of our coordinators for MOPS! 

For those of you that missed this month's meeting, Holly gave a very emotional & inspiring talk today about her story. She is the only known survivor of the Railroad serial killer. She has been featured in People & Glamour magazine as well as an interview on 48 hours. Her testimony was powerful to just how awesome our God is. She just wants to spread awareness to others. If you would like to learn more about her please check out her  website or find her on Facebook here.

Thank you so much Holly for touching our lives yesterday at the meeting. You are an amazing woman & I am proud to call you a friend!