Craft Day & Craft Night!!

It is so hard to believe that we are nearing the end of our MOPS year! Only one more meeting left. So just as a quick reminder, our last meeting will be this Thursday, May 5 followed by our end of the year get together that evening!

Last MOPS meeting, we enjoyed an awesome breakfast and then moved on to announcements! As the year ends, we were reminded to add something to our flourishing tree so we can see just how much we, as a group, have flourished.

We also heard from the local American Heritage Girl's group about how our children can get involved. For more information on the American Heritage Girls, head over here. Can we get a round of applause for Kelly and her sweet girl, Jillian, for an awesome presentation?!

For the main event, we enjoyed an awesome Craft Day put together by Gina Langford and Sarah Edens. Thanks ladies for all of your hard work to get this together for us!

We painted jars to turn into vases and then had a selection of various flowers to bring a little joy to our homes. We all seemed to have such a great time of crafting and fellowship.

That evening, we continued improving our crafting skills with an awesome craft night. We had such a great time filled with laughter, fellowship and FOOD. We had food brought to us from Sticks Kebob Shop! Yum! Then we were able to create a unique t-shirt bag, wooden signs, and coasters. A special thanks to Leah Turpin and Jenny Street for arranging all of this. And yes, I stole these craft night pictures off of Facebook as I was so busy having fun that I forgot to take any pictures :) Oops!

As a reminder for the meeting this week, we have our last service project that we are participating in for this semester. The First Baptist Church Spring Giveaway is collecting items starting this Thursday, May 5 at noon in the Fellowship Hall.  For additional info go here. Thanks Amy Vesser for getting all this info together for us! I look forward to seeing you ladies for our last meeting this Thursday!

MOPS Swap Day

Hey Ladies! I hope you all are looking forward to craft day this upcoming Thursday, April 28 as much as I am!

As far as a recap for last meeting, April 14, we had MOPS swap and other exciting events!

We started the morning off with another delicious breakfast and time to chat with others. We then moved on to announcements and a moving testimony from Danielle Schaeber. It's always great to hear from other moms and realize how much we can relate. Thanks Danielle for sharing!

For our MOPS market this week, Megan Carey presented her Norwex business. I know I am excited about these cleaning products and it appears many others are as well. If you missed her presentation, be sure to catch up with her next meeting to find out what all the buzz is about. Thanks Megan for introducing these awesome products!

Plus, we had a service project during this meeting where many ladies brought in pacifiers, teething toys, and gift cards for a "baby shower" for the Crisis Pregnancy Center. Thank you to all that participated. It is great to see our MOPS group giving to others in need.

And for the main event...MOPS swap! Many ladies brought in some of their gently used accessories to swap with other mom's accessories like scarves, jewelry, handbags and more. Thank you to everyone who brought in some of their items to swap with the other ladies. I think everyone was quite happy with their new finds!

Don't forget that MOPS is this Thursday, April 28 plus that evening be sure to sign up and join us for the MOPS craft night for fun and fellowship!

St. Patrick's Day & Easter Celebration!

After a relaxing meeting a few weeks ago, this past meeting we were back in celebration mode as our meeting fell on St. Patrick's Day and we look forward to Easter. Many were decked out in their finest green to celebrate! Thank you to the Teal and Silver tables for providing breakfast! Yellow and Pink tables, remember you have breakfast next meeting!

Our MOPS market this week wasn't an actual vendor, but rather a way for us to give back in service to others. Betsy Sauer spoke to us about her parent's organization in El Salvador that feeds and supports children who maybe don't have any parents or whose parents may work all day to support them. She gave moving testimony of how King's Palace is working to bring God's message to these children. If you are interested in learning more, you can go to http://www.kingspalace.org or email Betsy at betsy_sauer@yahoo.com. She is currently looking for prayer warriors to pray for the children and their mission in El Salvador.

Sherry Felker, who helps our group tremendously behind the scenes, was brave enough to give us her testimony this week. She told us of three people, her grandmother, her husband, and our own Nancy Ryalls, who have blessed her life by showing her God's goodness and how all things are possible through him. We appreciate your testimony very much!

Finally, we were fortunate enough to have Nancy walk us through a "Christian" Sedar. The Sedar is the supper that Jewish people share during Passover.  You can access the version of the Sedar that Nancy used here. It's something that you can share with your kids and they can be the ones to ask the questions! Thank you Nancy for sharing this with us!

A few additional notes from our meeting:

1. Momwise is next week at Nancy's house on Thursday March 24 at 7 PM. The topic is Raising Courageous Kids. Hope to see many of you there!

2. Jenny shared The Legend of the Dogwood with us. You can find a copy of it here.

3. Jenny also shared two different Easter related activities to do with our children. You can find a copy of those here and here.

4. Finally, a list of descriptions of Leadership positions for next year were available on the tables this past week. We will put those out again at the next meeting. If you are interested in any positions for next year, Jenny will be sending out a form that you can complete. Look for it soon in your inbox!

See you at our next meeting on March 31st!

Spa Day!

Our last MOPS meeting, March 3 was Spa Day! Ahh, Spa Day! This is the MOPS meeting we look forward to all year! Rest, relaxation, pampering and FOOD, what could be better?

First, a BIG thank you to our Mentor Moms for the awesome food from Chick-Fil-A and much more! We don't get to enjoy Chick-fil-A much without the kiddos so this was certainly a welcome experience! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Next, we all had the opportunity to get a fabulous massage. I can vouch that they were excellent and very relaxing.

There was also a nail station to sit, relax, talk and give yourself a manicure. With that said, thank you to Melissa Walsh, a former MOPS mom, for bringing in her Jamberry nails to add a splash of color to our nails! If you missed out on ordering and would like more information, check out her site here.

As far as the MOPS market last meeting, we had Art in Real Life. What adorable, unique finds like paper-mache boats and other vintage pieces. She even had bracelets made just for our group this year with reminders to flourish.

As a new treat this year, ladies also had the opportunity to get a consultation and a quick trim to their hair from Thairapy. Awesome! Plus, they had awesome goodie-bags for all the ladies with special products for our hair.

If all that weren't enough, we even had a craft to create a wonderful-smelling lavender tub tea bag to take home and help us relax even after spa day was over.

What a wonderful meeting that truly seemed to help so many ladies with some much-needed relaxation!

Newsletter March/April/May

The last newsletter of the year can be found here

Watercolor Craft!

What an exciting meeting this was! First, thank you to the Pink and Silver tables for providing breakfast. Next meeting on February 18th, the Yellow and Orange tables will be providing breakfast.

Some items that we discussed at the start of the meeting:

• During our next meeting, we will be creating Urgent Care Bags for People Places. These bags are given to children after they are suddenly removed from their home. They include comforting items like blankets and stuffed animals, as well as practical items like clothes and personal care items. The table leaders will be sending out sign ups for your tables. We will then assemble the bags at the next meeting (just like we did the shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child).
• Welcome back to Carin! We're so glad you could join us and we continue to pray that your baby girl comes home soon.

We had an inspiring testimony from Amy Vesser. Using her Wonder Woman skills, she was able to share with us about when her relationship with Jesus began, and the difference in trying to live according to the law, and there after, according to the will. Thank you so much Amy for sharing!

We ended with our awesome watercolor craft! Thank you again so much to Gina for sharing her skills with us. 

She showed us how to first paint basic triangles to get a feel for watercolors and then we graduated to painting a flower or flowers on a card. We definitely have some talented ladies in our group! Below you'll find information about the materials we used during our craft:

1. Canson Watercolor Paper (this is what we used when we painted our triangles) 
2. Strathmore 41-Pound Palette Paper (this is the palette paper we used for our paint)
3. Strathmore Watercolor 5x7 cards
4. Reeves Intro Set of Paints (from Michael's)

Hope to see everyone on the 18th!

Postpartum Depression Discussion

Hi moms! Just a quick recap from our January 21st meeting.

First, thank you to the Yellow and Teal tables for providing breakfast! It was yummy as always :-)

One of our mommas, Carin Sweeting, had her little girl, Julia, on January 20th. Julia is still in the NICU at UVA. We ask you that continue to keep Carin, Julia, and their whole family in your prayers. We hope Julia will be home soon!

Our favorite things bag this meeting was provided by the Pink table. It was an awesome bag!

We had a beautiful testimony from one of our Mentor Moms, Lee Sadler. It's hard to say thank you to what God has given us in those tough times throughout our lives, but Lee gave a very moving testimony about her struggles. Thank you Lee!

Finally, Tracey Young, one of our Moppet workers who is also a social worker, discussed her struggles with postpartum depression and shed some light on what got her through. Sometimes there are clear signs that what women are dealing with after having a child are more than just a passing phase. If you or anyone you know might be dealing with this, we encourage you to reach out to your table leader, or anyone else that you might feel comfortable with from our group. We will try to help you in anyway we can!

Thanks for a great meeting ladies!