Special Event!!!

September 21, 2012  (This Friday Night!!)

Steve Richard Concert and Christian Family Night at the Race Track

Come join us at Tri-City Speedway for a concert from Steve Richard, fun for the kids with a bounce house, face painting. a slot car race and fun games Then stay and watch some great car racing! .

All of this is a part of Parkway Baptist Church's Global Impact Celebration and children under 12 ARE FREE!

Concert starts at 5:30 (gates open at 5:00pm)

Tickets are $10 and must be purchased in advance through the church office.

Call 314-434-2310

Come for the concert and stay for the races (6:30pm)  it will be an exciting night for everyone in the family.

 

 

 

Come in. The water is great!

We had our first meeting of the year.

Finding new and fun ways to help Moms. Popcorn Questions.

We  meet new moms, returning moms, new babies, and caught up with everyone. 

Thanks to everyone that attended. 

We got to know our leaders for the year and each other through a BINGO Ice Breaker.

Everyone was out of their seats talking, laughing, and having  a super time. Then we made smoothies, which was a great opportunity to try something new.



You did what!??!!?!    Everyone has a few surprises!

 


 
 

Smoothie Time!

 
 
 
 
 





 We meet again next week!!!

 If you didn't make to the first meeting don't worry we would love to meet you next week.  Give us a call at 314-434-2310  if you are planning to attend so we can have childcare ready. 

Yes, it is a kid free time!

Time for Mommies to recharge and get focused on what makes them great women.

 

 

Come see how MOPS and MOMSNext can change you for the better.

Wednesday Evening Meeting                        Friday Morning Meeting

September 19 at 6:30 pm                                September 21 at 9:00am

Summer is over time to take the Plunge into MOPS and MOPSnext.

Hope everyone had a great summer !

 

Ready for a picnic.



Resting at the Butterfly House.

Enjoying a great day at Creve Coeur.

 

We had some MOPS outings this summer to the Botanical Gardens, Creve Coeur Splash pad, Aquaport, Butterfly House, and a few Moms Night Outs.

 

 

 It was a great time and we are looking forward to even more fun this year.



Fun with furry Friends.

Our first meeting of the year is Friday September 7  at 9am. If you haven't let anyone know you are planning to attend please call 314-434-2310.



Bugs anyone?!?!?!

 

Then get ready to Plunge into a new MOPS and MOPS Next year.

Get ready to explore your relationships in a faith and community. We are ready to see old friends and meet new ones.

As all Moms know you can’t do this alone and we are here to help and support each other.

Botanical Gardens day.

The more the merrier invite more moms to join MOPS. If you have someone who is interested invite them to come to a couple meetings.

TAKE THE PLUNGE !!!

Don't worry we won't let you sink.

Easter Recipes

Many of you have probably heard of both resurrection cookies and rolls. But in case you haven't here are links to recipes for both.

The resurrection cookies are really meringue cookies which are naturally hollow after baking, so they are like the empty tomb! Note that they will need to stay in the oven overnight, so plan accordingly.  Click here for the recipe and related scriptures.

Resurrection rolls are similar, but can me baked and eaten the same day. It's fast and simple enough that I do it every Easter Sunday in class with my kindergarten Sunday School students. Do you know what happens when you bake a marshmallow inside a crescent roll? You are right if you said that the marshmallow "disappears", creating another empty tomb of sorts. The recipe can be found here. 

I found this on the Rhode's Dough site "...Marshmallow - the body of Jesus Melted Butter - the oils for embalming Cinnamon/Sugar mixture - spices used to anoint the body Roll- the wrapping of Jesus' body Oven - the tomb Cavity in roll - the empty tomb after Jesus has rise." 

Remember, there will be no meeting this week  March 30 (5th Friday) or on April 6 due to Good Friday. I'll miss you guys, so someone plan a playdate/outing, OK? That's too long to go without seeing one another!

Spring Fever

It seems like the winter that wasn't may have passed and now it's time to really get outside and enjoy God's creation. (Or as one member put it "Operation Exhaust Child So He/She Will Nap!") Our group and Parkway Baptist both have lots of great things coming up on the calendar. Take a moment now to write them down so you won't forget!

Welcome to new members Molly, Melissa, and Patricia. We are excited to have you join our group.

For those who missed today, Becky Lazalier of KS Counseling shared some ideas to help us practice more Godly parenting. A few big take-away ideas:

• Your child's behavior isn't a reflection of your self-worth. They are their own people and contrary to what we may feel, most of the time they don't do what they do to embarrass or frustrate us.
• Every parent brings emotional baggage to the family. Do you see your not-so flattering behaviors reflected in your child? Take care changing you first, then work on your child.
• Love is more than just kindness. It is also desiring and helping to bring out the best in someone.
• It's not our job to protect our children from every hardship. Difficult experiences help them learn to rely on God.
• Above all, do your children know you love God? How does He apply in your daily life? Remember, this is more than church attendance, Awana, Bible studies......
• Check out the following passages: Proverbs 3:1-8; Ecclesiastics 3:1-8; Deuteronomy 11: 18-21; Ephesians 6:1-4.

Additional reading recommended by Becky: Love and Logic by Foster Cline & Jim Fay and Personal Growth: Inside Out by Larry Crab.

One off topic reminder - if you left a dish at the Latall's home recently, check the MOPS closet. For those of with children home this coming week, enjoy the time off! Looking forward to seeing many of you next Thursday and Friday. I'll bring my camera, but someone remind me to actually take some photos!

A New Year at MOPS

Here we are at the end of January already!  We have had some fun times in MOPS this month, as well as some serious discussion about our heart health.   In our first meeting of the new year we heard from Ellen Abramson about heart health.  She shared her personal story of turning a heart attack into an opportunity to help others and gave us some very good information on heart health and warning signs of concern.  She has written a book titled "Live to Dance".  
In our second meeting for January we heard from Delana Mazdra about photography.  She gave us some great tips to help us take great photos at home of our sweet little ones!  She gave us much to remember, but if you missed it, the biggest lesson I can pass along is, turn off your flash and use as much natural light as possible!  
Our next meeting will be about Love Languages. (What else could be better for the month of Love!) 
I will leave you with this last thought... As we talked about photography in our last meeting, we talked about leaving pictures for your children that they could look back on with sweet memories of their childhood.  Each picture tells a story, evokes an emotion, a memory.  As we think about how our children will remember their childhood, let's remember that God tells us in Deuteronomy 4:8-10 to teach our children His word, that they may learn to fear Him and then they will teach their children as well.  The things we teach our children now will have an affect on generations to come after us, and what better could we leave to them than God's love!?!  

Finding Direction

This morning as I was coming home from dropping the kids off at preschool, the traffic report came on the radio.  As I listened to the person rattling off locations, I thought about where they were, and I could picture most of the places in my mind.  I thought back to a year ago, when my family first moved to St. Louis, and I remembered how terrible it felt to have NO CLUE where I was at most of the time.  I never knew if I was going east or west,  north or south, and I hated that feeling.  I like to have a sense of direction.  I like to know if I'm looking north, south, east or west.  I don't know why; it just really bugs me if I don't know.  And today as I was driving I felt peaceful knowing that I knew my direction.
I started thinking about my direction in life, and a year ago, I was not only frustrated that I had no sense of direction in terms of physical location, but I was also very unsettled with my direction spiritually.  My life as I knew it was turning upside down with so many changes, and things I thought God had planned for me and my family were not His plan at all.  I'm sure many of you have experienced this in life as well.  Maybe you are going through this right now.
This lack of spiritual direction was not as easily fixed as my problem of not knowing where I was physically.  There were a lot of tears, a lot of struggles with God, and a lot of hours spent reading His word.  But I finally found my direction in this new journey He has sent me on, and there is a lot more peace now that I am trusting in God to guide my days ahead.  The road has not been perfect, and I have not been without fault, but knowing my direction makes life so much more peaceful.  It makes the little hiccups less dramatic, and it grounds me in those hard times.
Being a wife and a mother brings so much joy, but it is not an easy task.  If you've ever read Proverbs 31, you know that the virtuous woman God calls us to be requires a lot of time and energy, and it's easy to get lost in the laundry and the lullaby's, but realizing that God has a direction for our live's as a women of God will go a long way in making us better at that highest calling He has placed on our life.  
If you haven't already, I hope that in this new year, you will seek God's direction for your own life.  He tells us in Isaiah 55:6 to "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near."  He has a purpose and direction for each of us... All we have to do is seek Him. If you know God's direction for your life, don't stop being faithful.  The devil is always right there, waiting to pull you off course, get you down.  Be encouraged that others around you want to see God succeed in your life, and find friends that you can pray with, read scripture with, share with in the good, the bad, and the ugly.
And let's as a MOPS group, remember to encourage one another, be there for one another, and help each other on this journey of motherhood and life!