This week at MOPS we heard from our mentors, Barb Kelly and Catherine Barry, who reminded us how and why we need to share the gospel with our children (more than once) and how the gospel can shine through us especially when we mess up.

We also had the chance to make a set of Resurrection Eggs to use as a guide to teach our children about Christ's passion and what this week means for those who follow Christ. I took my set home and hot glued some thread on symbols inside the eggs and, using my thankfulness tree from Thanksgiving (a stick in a vase), everyday when we open an egg (or in our case three eggs) we could hang those symbols on the branches for my children to see all week. They love it and love to talk about what each of the symbols mean. 

In case you where not with us or need a copy of the list of items in the eggs, I will repost it here for you.

1) Green Leaf (ours is artificial): John 12:12-13
2)Nickel (or other coin): Matt. 26:14-16
3)Communion Cup: Matt. 26:26-28
4)Praying Hands: Matt 26:36- 39
5) Whip: John 19:1-5
6) Thorns: Mark 15:17-18
7) Nail: John 19:16-188) Piece of Sponge: John 19:28-30

9) Dice: John 19:24
10) White Cloth: John 19:40-42
11) Stone: Mark 16:3-4
12) Empty: Mark 16:5-6

Our last MOPS meeting, March 20, Barb Kelley, one of our mentors, shared her testimony of the importance of our life reflecting the right "God Story."  Anna Lynch, our coordinator, followed by sharing her story of God's faithfulness throughout her life. At this meeting we were encourage to discuss our own stories, why they are important, how they effect us as mothers, and what role faith has played.

These are the questions from our meeting:

1. Why is it important that we know what our own stories are?
2. Have you shared your own story with anyone else? How did it go? What was their reaction?
3. How does faith impact your story?
4. How has your story and faith impacted your mothering journey?

A great lesson in the importance of sharing our stories with others around us. Life stories can provide encouragement, strengthen faith, give roots and provide healing. How has another person story impacted you?

These are the notes from the February 21st meeting.

John Wesley, a great theologian, said, "Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can". Its just a reality that we have to have money to live, money isn't evil, money is neutral.  What people sometime do with it, how they react to it, what it does to marriages, how they hord it or how they sometime obsess about it. That is when it becomes evil or not honoring to God.

" For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1 Tim 6:10

SOME WAYS TO GET THE RIGHT MINDSET

1. Be on the same page with your spouse.
2. Have a Regular Budget.
3. Don't spend more than you make.

SIX WAYS TO GIVE YOURSELF A RAISE

1. Budgeting- Once you know where you money is going, you really feel like you have more money because you know where it is going.
2. Meal Planning- If you have a plan, you can plan to save.
3. Cut Up Credit Cards
4. Use an Envelope Cash System
5. Use Coupons- some coupon blogs: southernsavers.com, moneysavingmom.com, and penniesandblessings.com. 
6. Find Ways to Make Money at Home- Some ideas: Secret Shopping, My Points, Swagbucks, Online jobs, Freelance writing, Consulting (if you have a special skill), Blogging. Just do what you have the gifts and abilities to do. All of us have a different gifts and places to do these things. 

This meeting David Ellington came and share about discipling our children. Below are some points to take away.

1. You can't give what you don't have: Make sure that you are filling yourself up every day.
2. Keep your priorities straight. God first, Husband second, THEN children
3. Discipleship is the Husbands job...BUT don't be his mother. Encourage him and give praise, don't tell him what to do or how to do it.
4. Don't worry. How our children turn out is between them and God. Do life with your children, make time to be with them, no strings attached.

Maybe we could comment on something that you took away from this meeting. How did it impact or change the way you are currently doing discipleship in your home?

This blogger has been seriously remiss in keeping up this site and for that she apologizes. 

At Tuesday's meeting Josephine Haynes presented several encouraging thoughts on making it through mother hood. She talked about choosing three things to make as priorities during your day. Hers where: Taking a Shower, Preparing a Simple Dinner for her husband (and family), and finding time to spend with God everyday.... for whether length of time her children would allow. 

This blogger also presented some thoughts on the book, "Ten Habits of Happy Mothers, Reclaiming our Passion, our Purpose and our Sanity" by Meg Meeker.  I shared three tools that I like to keep handy during my mothering journey: Running Shoes, Elastic Pants and and an Oxygen Mask.

This book deals a lot with issues that are our oxygen masks as Moms. Too many times as mothers, we walk around without our oxygen masks on and if we want to reclaim our passion, purpose and sanity, we need to do a better job of putting on oxygen masks on.

The Ten Habits are:

1. Understanding your value as a mother
2. Maintain Key Friendships
3. Value and Practice Faith
4. Say No to Competition
5. Create a Healthier Relationship with Money
6. Make time for solitude
7. Give and Get Love in Healthy Ways
8. Find Ways to Live Simply
9. Let go of Fear
10. Hope is a Decision- So make it!

I then focused on four of those habits that really spoke to me.

 Understanding your Value as a Mother:
          There are two keys to this habit. You must know why you are valuable and you must like who you are.

Keys to making this habit stick:
1. Make a List of things that you are good at, that make you special and valuable.
2. Live to impress no one (except God)
3. Write down what goes in the box (when you die)/ How do you want to be remembered?

Say no to Competition:
        Everyone competes. Our culture tells us that we should always be improving ourselves and our families, to            
        be better, do more, have more. In order to reclaim our passion, purpose and sanity we must root this out.

Keys to making this habit stick
1. Recognize Jealousy and don't be fooled. Some symptoms of jealousy are twinges of irritation, anger, annoyance and a desire to gossip or criticize.
2. Head Jealousy off at the Pass. You must initiate and internal dialog.
3. Give Verbal applause to the one who you are jealous of.
4. Focus on Your Fullness and not on Your Emptiness
5. Be deliberate in Kindness.

Create a Healthier Relationship with Money:
        Very important. Money has the power to control us and never fulfills the emotional need that we want to 
        fill.

Keys to making it stick
1. Grab someone's hand- find your importance and fulfillment in relationships and not stuff.
2. Ask why we are opening our wallet.
3. Look closer to home for our contentment.

Live Simply
         We need to strive for both inner and outer simplicity. Not living organically, but living with less. For inner simplicity, we need to find our true purpose and not be flashlights but laser beams. For outward simplicity, we need to rid ourselves of unnecessary busyness and focus on what is really important. What can you let go of?

Keys to make it stick
1. Identify and live your real priorities.
2. Change the way you talk to reflect those priorities
3. Loosen your grip and let go.

I hope that these things encouraged you to find (or re-find) your purpose and passion and maybe bring more sanity to your life.

We dropped off our children with some wonderfully talented childcare workers.  (Yes, our children are in great hands.)

Door prizes were given away and we ate.  And, ate.  The food was amazing!  We had quite a spread. 

We enjoyed a wonderful devotional from Catherine, one of our mentors. 

We relaxed spending time chatting with other moms and got a little crafty creating our name tags.  And, we even played a fun ice breaker to get to know everyone. 

Then Anna, the 2011 MOPS coordinator shared about our theme for the year, CommUnity Matters.  It really does matter!  I can't do this mommy thing on my own.  Can you?

If you missed the first MOPS meeting of the year, we missed you too! Just because you missed our kick off meeting doesn't mean that you can come to our next meeting this month.  Join us Tuesday September 20 for our 2nd meeting of the year.  Get out of the house, let someone else watch your kids (our Moppets workers), have a nice breakfast, and get in some good adult conversation. 

Or, leave the kids with dad and join us for our mom's night out on September 15th at Beef O' Brady's at 7pm (in the Walmart shopping center). We have a side room reserved where we will eat, enjoy each other company and then walk down to Sweet Frog!

We can't wait to see you!

Come get refreshed. Blue Ridge MOPS is starting it's new year on September 6th from 9:30am-12:00pm. Come, grab a cup of coffee and relax (while your kids enjoy playing in the next room in our MOPPETS program).

This year we are trying something new and adding another way to de-stress. Mom's Night Out. So leave those kiddos with Daddy or a babysitter and come out for some unstructured hang out time. It will be a great time to meet other women and have some much needed girl time. Our first Mom's Night Out will be THURSDAY, September 15 at 7:00pm.

This month (on the 15th) we are meeting at Beef O'Brady's at 7pm in the Walmart shopping center.  We hope to see you there! Drop us a comment if you plan to attend so that we know to keep an eye out for you!

The summer is ending. Kids are getting ready to go back to school and it is about time to grab your cup of coffee, relax and catch up with your favorite mommy friends.  That's right it is about time for MOPS to start! Where else can your kids have a good time (without you!) and you get a few hours to let your hair down and find out that you might be completely normal after all.   

The steering team has been working hard on our theme this year, CommUnity: Relationship Matters. We hope that this year you will gain a deeper understanding of the many facets of relationships that are important to the overall health and happiness to you as a Mom. Ok maybe deeper understanding is too much for that early in the morning, but we do hope that we will learn a few new things about ourselves and our relationships with those around us that will make us better Moms, Wives, Sisters and Friends.


Blue Ridge MOPS will kick off this year on the first Tuesday in September, (thats the 6th) at 9:30 in the morning in the commons of Alliance Bible Fellowship. If you are new this year please check out these directions to help you find the location of our meeting. We will meet every first and third Tuesday (Lord and snow willing) each month until May. 

We look forward to see you here!!