We had a great response from our MOPS End of the Year Survey and enjoyed hearing all your comments on how we can make next year even better! If you ever have ideas, suggestions, etc. please feel free to post a comment on the blog, add a note on our Facebook Page or send an email. We always love to hear from you!
Now, the much anticipated announcement….
Hi Ladies! Looking for a little freebie? Here’s a great one! You can take our MOPS End of the Year Survey, in under 5 minutes,and you’ll be registered to win a free MOPS membership for 2009-2010!!! That’s a $50.00 value!!
So, why wait?
Just click the picture below and get started… and Don’t Forget to add your name and contact info in the final comment box so we can let you know if you’re the winner!
WOW! I can’t believe it, but we are about to have our last meeting for the 08-09 year!
Our Mentors will once again be sharing their wisdom with us and answering some of our questions. I hope you will be able to join us.
Thursday, May 7th
6 – 8 pm
February’s MOPS meeting was a blast! We had delicious food, great conversations, lots of laughs and an awesome time with our guest speaker Mrs. Gwen Diaz!
She shared with us the value of making sure we don’t become remote control Mamas! How easy it is to stuff our Mommy bags with all the things that the world desires to see, but yet in the process to somehow forget that God really does remain in control. By handing over the remote and allowing God to take the lead, we start to become the mother’s God has always intended for us to be, our children start to flourish and we begin to change our perspective- recalling that God sees all and knows all- in fact, He alone knows the very best for our children!
Thank you so much to Mrs. Diaz for coming and sharing her heart, her stories and her wisdom! If you would like to learn more from her, please check out her website: www.gwendiaz.com
Mrs. Diaz also had her son Jonny’s music available at our meeting and we even had the treat of listening to his newest CD while we enjoyed our dinner. If you are interested in hearing more of his work, please visit: www.jonnydiaz.com
Don’t forget to check out the February Newsletter by clicking here
And….
we’d love to know what you learned or have applied since our meeting. Leave a comment and fill us in!
See you in March!
Our next MOPS meeting is THIS Thursday, February 5th from 6-8pm.
Author and speaker, Gwen Diaz will share her heart and wisdom with us at the upcoming meeting. She is the mother of 4 boys and has been married for 37 years. To find our more about Gwen Diaz, visit her website. www.gwendiaz.com
Just a few months ago, we heard Cherie Miller give us wonderful tips about creating a special “Stay-Cation” with our families. This month, the magazine Family Fun has an entire article devoted to this very same idea, entitled “Winter Stay Cation.”
There are tons of creative ideas within the article, written by Catherine Newman. Here are a few tid bits that I thought you might enjoy. Be sure to pick up a copy or read it at the library, as I didn’t see an online version of the article available. I’m positive you’ll find something you can use to have an incredibly fun time with your family!!
1) Book a room at your own Home-tel: This includes cleaning off your bathroom counter to house only lotions and soaps, folding down the kids sheets before bed and leaving a small chocolate on their pillows and creating a menu for breakfast that they can select items from and hang on their door handle before hitting the sack.
2) Create a little night life- This idea includes having a picnic supper by the fire (or in Florida, maybe in the backyard), having a family fondue party, an all-family board game or jigsaw puzzle evening or ordering pizza and renting an old movie you enjoyed as a child, but your kiddos have never seen.
3) Act like a tourist- Check out the chamber of commerce, take public transportation and visit the library.
4) Pick a theme- Ideas for theme day stay cations included dinosaur day, beach day, international day, spa day and olden days day! You can strech this ideas as much or as little as you desire!
Hope this spurs some great Stay-Cations!! If you’ve tried this idea already, leave a comment and let us know how it went!!
It’s hard to believe that the new year has already arrived! Our first 2009 MOPS meeting was spectacular!If you weren’t able to attend, here’s a quick recap of the evening’s events.
We enjoyed delicious food provided by the steering team, fun games and intriguing conversations, but I’m sure it was the Mentor Panel that had the biggest impact on our night! Combining all of their personal experiences and knowledge, the mentors shared a great deal of wisdom with each of us. Questions from sibling rivalry to prayer time with little ones comprised the question and answer session which truly provided insight into some difficult topics. One thing rang loud and clear, that we need to know our children and praise them for who God has created them to be, but we must balance that with loving discipline so that we can teach our little ones to respect others and the Lord.
If you haven’t considered chatting with one of our awesome mentors, this blog post is the perfect way to start!! Post a question you have here and we’ll work on getting some interaction and answers for you!
We’re looking forward to an awesome meeting in February, mark your calendars and invite a friend!! You won’t want to miss Mrs. Gwen Diaz, who will be joining us to share her heart regarding parenting with a purpose. As the mother of 4 boys, I know she has lots of experience and helpful information to pass along to us! You’ll be sure to laugh a lot and to walk away with a new perspective. You can visit her website by clicking HERE.
Finally, to view the newsletter for January, which includes a calendar with important dates, please click HERE.
Hello Ladies,
Thanksgiving is almost here! Have you ever stopped to think about Thanksgiving. I’m not talking about the day, but the word itself. When someone says “thanksgiving”, what images pop into your head…maybe a big turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie…maybe family or maybe football. I’d like you to stop and think about the word again though…maybe break it down. “Thanks” and “giving”. Not that we shouldn’t be thankful and show our gratitude all year round, but Thanksgiving is a day set aside for us to stop and give our thanks. So I encourage you to take a little time, and think about others in your life who you are thankful for. Then take it one step further and make sure they KNOW that you are grateful for them. But most of all, we need to give our thanks to God who gives us all things. Lynn has passed along a passage for me to share with you. My hope is that you will read it over and that you will reflect on the goodness of God.
Psalm 100 (NASB)
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us,
And not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture,
Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
And His courts with praise
Give thanks to Him; bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting,
And His faithfulness to all generations.
What a great promise from our God! J
The world tells kids, “You’re special if…. If you have the brains, the looks, the talent.”
God tells them. “You’re special just because. No qualifications necessary.”
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This Friday November 14th at 3pm, The Temple Terrace Library Creative Arts Theater
is presenting the puppet show: “You are Special,” based off of Max Lucado’s charming children’s book.
As of about 11:30 am, there were still tickets available.
For more information contact the library at 813-506-6770
For more information regarding the book, click here.
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Wow! If you weren’t at this month’s MOPS meeting, you really missed out! We had such a great time mixing things up, starting with our discussion groups, which were focused around specific moments in the life of a mom. It wasn’t surprising that the most popular table happened to be, “Moms Dealing with Attitude Issues!” I bet the discussion at that table was great!
Our speakers were so enthusiastic about Playing with Purpose, the theme of the evening. During their presentations, I thought about a quote I recently heard: “A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine.”
Jenny Phillips shared creative ways to take the interests and imagination of your child and mold them into fun, but teachable moments. She suggested that before we say those dreaded words: “No, not right now,” to the bright eyed toddlers standing at our feet requesting another round of dress up or doctor, that we look at life with their perspective and utter these silent words in our minds “Why not?” Jenny encouraged us to think of how to expand moments, how to make them full of learning, laughter and love and mostly, how to cherish them! Childhood comes only once and if we open our hearts and our minds to the possibilities, we can create some priceless moments that our children will remember for many years to come. After all, who in Jenny’s home will ever forget the cat’s birthday party, the drive in movie in the back of their van parked right in the drive way or the drumming of pots and pans from her little boy? How exciting that in the midst of fun, they were all achieving developmental milestones!
Next, Jennifer Penoyer approached the same theme of playing with purpose from an educational perspective, focusing on fine motor skills. As a preschool teacher, she shared the importance of practicing basic competencies like cutting with scissors, holding crayons and pencils correctly and even the dreaded buttoning and snapping of clothes! Jennifer provided some awesome handouts (see the bottom of the post) with fine motor development skills broken down from 0-3 months all the way to 6 years of age. She encouraged all moms to monitor the progress of their children, to provide age appropriate challenging activities and to seek help if they are concerned their child is falling behind. Some simple ideas to promote fine motor skills in the midst of play are through the use of playdoh, lacing beads, using 2 inch pieces of sidewalk chalk and even commercial games and toys like pick up sticks and pegboards.
We ended the meeting by collecting Operation Christmas Child boxes and followed by some fun discussion time with our new “table group” friends. We are already looking forward to what’s ahead for December!
In case you missed out, click the links below to access:
Important Dates to Remember:
November 11th- Toddler Time 10am-Noon FBCTT Gym
November 13th- Mom’s Night Out 7pm-?? Panera Bread on Bruce B. Downs
November 20th- Toddler Time 10am-Noon FBCTT Gym
December 4th- Toddler Time 10am-Noon FBCTT Gym
Don’t forget, we’re still looking for lots of moms to contribute to the blog, by posting comments below and to the newsletter by offering recipes, testimonials, great books and other fun preschool ideas to newsletter@fbcttmops.org!
If you need some help starting out your first comment, then try answering just one of these questions:
What was your favorite part of the November MOPS meeting?
How are you making changes to have intentional playtime with your children?
What age appropriate fine motor skill are you going to start working on with your child? How?< ><–>