Take the Plunge, Because Mothering Matters - September 13th, 2012
T O DAY ’ S M E E T I N G AG E N DA
ST EERING T EAM
TOPIC: Plunge! SPEAKER: Tiffany Carlson FOOD/CLEAN-UP: Steering Team
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Plunge Into Friendship Since our theme this year is "Plunge, Love as if your life depended on it" I thought I would kick off the year with some WOW's (words of wisdom), but not necessarily the ones that you would first think of. We ALL know how important our relationships are with our husbands and kids and with our God. But something that I feel is equally important (and truly the main reason I came to MOPS for the first time sooo many years ago) is friendship. And I'm not talking any kind of friendship. I'm speaking of the 'woman' kind, cause let's face it...if you really pay attention to friendships, with your hubby and his friends, or your kids and theirs, it's not the same. We women are natural nurturers (say that seven times fast...lol) and it carries over outside of our parenting. We nurture each other without even really realizing it! Sure we have, what I like to call, surface buddies. They make great shopping partners or someone to talk small talk with at the neighborhood block party, but what I want to touch base on is those heart friends, you know the ones I mean....I know you do. Not the "I’m-just-friends-with-you-because-of-your-rich-hotbrother/awesome-parties/loads-of-cash/sweet-ride” friends. I'm referring to the "friends-who-love-you-despite-your-crazybrother/non-existent-social-circle/fine-dining-lifestyle-of-Kraft Dinner/bus-vs-bicycle-transport-system/wear-your-jammies-tothe-grocery-store-with-you" type friends...the ones that not only love you despite your quirks, but maybe because of them too. ...continued on page 6
NEXT MEET ING: September 27th TOPIC: Kids & Money SPEAKER: Gigi Kan FOOD/CLEAN-UP: Yellow Beach Beauties
MOPS Birthdays Donna Segobia 7/10 Hannah Segobia 7/18 Tina Schill 7/22 Megan Flynn-Raab 8/14 Leah Carthum 8/15 Karina Dunlap 9/1
MOPPET S Birthdays Klayton Manning 6/15 Moses Breece 6/30 Jake Roth 7/1 Landon Raab 7/28 Landon Segobia 7/31
MOPS Anniversaries Reesia & Adam Roth 7/15 Susan & Jeff Meinert 7/16 Leah & Rob Carthum 7/26 Kim & Steve Butterfield 7/31 Stacy & Ryan Hershey 8/4 Becki & Jake Breece 8/4 Megan & Andrew Flynn-Raab 8/10 Karina & Dave Dunlap 8/22 Kimberly & Kelly Kalin 8/24 Martha & Leo Blodgett 8/28 Holly & Jeremiah Steen 8/28 Brenda & Jacques Tibeau 8/31 Anna & Brandon Burt 9/18
“You will never have this day with your children again. Tomorrow they’ll be a little older than they were today. This day is a gift. Breathe and notice. Smell and touch them; study their faces and little feet and pay attention. Relish the charms of the present. Enjoy today, Mama. It will be over before you know it.” -Jen Hatmaker
Women’s Bible Study This Beth Moore study is titled "The Law of Love". It runs 6 weeks from 9/28 to 11/2 on Friday mornings at Wabash from 9:30 to 11:30am. The cost of the study book is $10 and can be pre-purchased online at lifeway.com OR by rsvp'ing to Carol Perlot: xxx-xxx-xxxx. Child care is free, but requires sign-up to reserve a spot. We can also accommodate homeschool kids, but also need to know ahead of time to provide enough supervision for them.
Sunday School Parenting Class This parenting class will study the DVD series "Grace Based Parenting" by Tim Kimmel. Sunday church service at Wabash Presbyterian Church is 9:30a-10:45a, and the parenting class runs during the kid's Sunday School hour of 11a-noon. The basic message is "Parent your kids the way God the Father parents us - with Grace". It is also a support group where we share ideas on parenting and provide coaching for how to be the primary source for kids' spiritual training. Contact Carol Perlot for more information: xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Mentor Moms Not Published
MOPS Registration & Dues One time $23.95 MOPS International Membership Fee $5 Fee per MOPS Meeting Your registration reserves your childcare spot and requires that you pay whether you attend or not as we must pay the teachers regardless of attendance.
Meeting Dues can also be paid by semester or year: $50 1st Semester and $45 2nd Semester or $95 Full Year
Scholarships are available to those in need.
Sept. 16 - Sept. 22 is National Child Passenger Safety Week
Car Seat Safety Tips
Grocery Bucks Fundraiser One of our biggest fundraisers for MOPS, we purchase grocery gift cards in bulk at a discount and you can buy the cards from MOPS at face value. There is no extra money out of your pocket than what you normally spend on groceries. Funds raised go toward paying our MOPPETS teachers, meeting supplies, and operating costs. See Stacy Hershey to support MOPS and buy your gift cards today.
MOPS Consignment Sale Fri. Oct. 26 9a-8p Sat. Oct. 27th 9a-6p (1/2 price sale) $8 Consignor Fee w/ 50 tags Extra bundles of 50 tags $1ea 70% profits consignor 30% profits Wabash MOPS See Stacy Hershey to register.
MOPPET S Corner Do you have a mom, dad, or friend who would like to volunteer in our MOPPETS classrooms at each MOPS meeting or even once a month? Please pass along their information to Whitney Humenik, MOPPETS Coordinator. MOPPETS needs snacks! Please bring donations of animal crackers and goldfish crackers to Whitney for MOPPETS.
Use rear facing car seats for babies under 2 and the maximum height or weight allowed by the manufacturer. Rear-facing occupants are safest. Be sure the harness is tight, so you cannot pinch extra webbing at the shoulder. Position the shoulder straps through the slots at or below your rear-facing baby’s shoulders and at or just above the shoulders for a forward facing child. Adjust the chest clip to armpit level. Use either the car’s seat belt or LATCH system to lock the car seat into the car. Do not use both systems at the same time. Your car seat should not move more than one inch (1”) side to side or front to back. Grab the car seat at the safety belt path or LATCH path to test it. Be sure all occupants wear seat belts correctly every time. Children learn from adult role models. For questions or carseat inspection contact your local CPS Technician: Enumclaw Fire/KCFD 28 360-825-5544 (By appointment only.) East Pierce Fire and Rescue 253-863-1800 (By appointment only.) Auburn Regional Hospital 253-372-7729 (Regular inspections) For more information and CPS Tech locations: www.nhtsa.gov/Safety/CPS
Dear Sweet Mom W ho Feels Like She Is Failing... You're not. If you and I were sitting in Starbucks and you had your favorite drink and I had my Caramel Macchiato, I'd look at you, and I'd tell you the truth - you're not failing. I know. I'm guessing you'd wipe away the tears, and look up, and try to nod your head, but inside, inside well, you'd think that those are nice words but seriously she has no idea. You know why I know? Because I've sat in a coffee shop, across from a friend, a friend who looked me smack in the face and told me that I wasn't failing and that I was doing a great job. I wanted to tell her about the dishes from yesterday sitting on my counter. And how the pile of storybooks wasn't read again. And that I'm a week behind in laundry. And that I got really really irritated at the mixture of 13 toys all dumped in a pile that two days ago was sorted into 13 labeled boxes. I wondered if she knew that some days, some days I get up and just go through the mom motions without even really finding much joy. It felt like drudgery. How could she tell me I wasn't failing? Yet, I wasn't. Somehow in the mixed up media world we've got these thoughts of moms being perfect. Society doesn't give us a break. I mean read this article in the New York Times about the pressure on moms to look a certain way after they give birth. And then? Then we're to be ultra creative, crafty, humorous, happy, chipper, up before dawn, to sleep after dark, with our sinks shined, and the laundry folded, and tomorrow's breakfast in the crockpot, with tomorrow's dinner - pulled from our once-a-month cooking thawing in the fridge, while we work out for 20 minutes on odd days and 40 minutes on even days, and our hair is always done, we're makeup ready, our fridges are stocked, and the craft closet bursting with ideas for that quick perfect afternoon art project that we'll place on our recycled wood and mod-podged adorned hand painted chalkboard. And, in reality, it's 8am and we're just getting up. The baby was up all night, or the toddler sick, or honestly, we were just tired. We get our coffee and flip on facebook and our stream is flooded with stuff people
have already done {I always tell myself -- different time zones} and we're racing to catch up with this never before except for the last hundred years perfect never feel like you're failing mom ideal that is exhausting. You know what my friend told me? She told me to slow down. Slow down? How in the world when I felt like I was failing was I to slow down? I had way, way, way too much to do and I needed to read that parenting book to work on my attitude and, and, and...and. And she told me enough. And that I was a good mom. You know, you're not failing. You need to start to see all you do accomplish in a day. All the smiles of encouragement, meals made, clothes changed, books read, and more. Just like I wrote yesterday - we make mistakes - we just need to learn from them. We're out of breath, racing, and exhausted, but truly not failing. Failing means stopping. Not getting up, not trying, not giving. That's not you. I want you to stop telling yourself you're failing. Instead I want you to replace it with I can do this. YOU CAN DO THIS! Those soundtrack words and feelings about failing are just feelings. Don't let them define you anymore. If you hear I'm failing replace it immediately with I can do this. If you were across the table from me that is what I would tell you. And, of course, I'd tell you do one thing. I'm going to write and say it again and again and again. Write your list of things you want to do, need to do, and would love to do today with your family. And then, do one thing from each list. If you stumble, brush yourself off, and start again. Don't worry that the neighbor across the street seems to be doing twenty or the pinterest pin tells you that the perfect home can be achieved in 6 Easy Steps. This is your life and you - you are the perfect mother for those children. God knew when he blessed those kids to you. Remember that. You are a good mom. You matter. You are making a difference. You can do this. One step, one day, at a time. From me, one mom in the midst of motherhood, to you. http://rachelmariemartin.blogspot.com
Risk. Real. Relationships. The emphasis is relationships and hope. MOPS communicates a message of hope and creates an atmosphere of supportive relationships that moms need to survive a world of constant change. Taking the plunge in relationships is being authentic and going deeper. In a MOPS group, relationships offer hope to moms, especially as moms go deeper and take risks to create authentic community. All facets of relationships can be strengthened through taking risks, going deeper and showing authentic love – neighborhood, friendships, marriages, extended families, the world around us and ultimately relationship with God. Throughout the year, groups can focus content on these different types of relationships and equip moms to be relationally healthy and thriving.
Theme book: Mom Connection: Creating Vibrant Relationships in the Midst of Motherhood by Tracey Bianchi. The essence of the book is that moms need to be connected in relationships in order to be better moms. The content includes an emphasis on finding your rhythm in relationships, in terms of family, marriage, friendships and broader community. Theme devotional: Always There: Reflections for Moms on God's Presence, Susan Besze Wallace General Editor. Organized around the times of a mom’s day, and the truth that God is always present, a relationship you can count on. This book is a compilation of many voices and will affirm a mom’s relationship with God and the fact that she can count on God throughout her mothering experience, with the daily joys and sorrows of mothering. Theme Verse: Verse: 1 Peter 4:8-11 (The Message) Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!
Focus verse : Love each other as if your life depended on it.
Her first meeting is F REE!
P l u n g e I n t o F r i e n d s h i p …continued from page 1: I mean the friends that you can call at 3 a.m. when you’re having an anxiety attack over what to bring to MOPS because you accidently signed up for a main dish instead of dessert, which you could do with your eyes closed (ok.... that might have been a personal example, but you get the picture). Or that friend who will drop everything and help you, without you having to ask, when life throws you a whopper. These types of relationships are so important. To me, they are the closest example of the relationship God wants with us. A deep, heartfelt, honest, bumps and bruises, jam-on-yoursweater, salad-in-your-teeth and they still love you friend. I have met so many women in my life. Some have stayed, and some have gone by the wayside....but the ones who are still with me I met right here.... at MOPS. I thank God all the time for MOPS, and all the wonderful women I get to meet and cherish because of it. My hopes for you this year is you meet some of "those" women.. the ones that will be around for a life time and then some. If you do... count your blessings, because they truly are one of God's greatest gifts. Enjoy your year!!! Barb Johnson, Mentor Mom - Sacred Heart MOPS & Former Wabash MOPS Mom
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