Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This past Wednesday, the MOPS Moms met and had a themed celebration in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. We watched one of the MOPS curriculum videos and learned about the circles that influence our mothering.

Circle (noun): the people and networks who share in shaping your family environment


The acquaintances in our life include, but are not limited to, doctors, grocery clerk, pharmacist, neighbors, service providers, online forum members, and childcare providers at the gym. These people influence how we mother, and they help with the choices we must choose for our children and family, from what medicine to give our sick toddler to what groceries we put on the table.

We learned that it is very important to have friends in our middle circle, girlfriends we can call on when needed. They laugh with us, cry with us, and love us. Girlfriends help watch our children, clean your house when you are sick, and bring food when there is a sickness or surgery in the house. Girlfriends bless us and our families.
The most inner circle is our immediate family. This includes our children and husband (or parenting partner). Our husband (or parenting partner) helps with the day to day decisions that we make involving our children and their lives. They can help us spiritually as well, by praying for our children and modeling what a strong walk with the Lord looks like.

A circle that the MOPS curriculum forgot to add, but was brought to our attention by our Mentor Mom Leah, would be the core of our circles, our relationship with Jesus. Jesus is our best friend; He is always listening, always there. When we have a strong relationship with Jesus, our other relationships (circles) can be stronger than we ever imagined.

All of these relationships take time. We must invest in them. For some, we must force ourselves to step out of our comfort zone and take a risk on a friendship. For others, the task of making friends comes easy. Regardless of which group you are in, always remember that you must work on relationships, you must take the time and effort to make them work.

Our Momology book references 1 Corinthians 13, “This poetic description of love illustrates the actions and attitudes for not only a healthy marriage, but every relationship within our circle.”

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
~1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV)

I find it amazing that my devotional today from The Women of Faith Daily Devotional was on friendship (actually the whole month is!) but today’s was on building deep relationships with some friends. The reading was based on Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

“The kitchen of our souls is that place where we store the memories of life experiences that have shaped us into who we are.” ~ Carol Kaykendall, Kitchen Stories, MomSense, March/April 2011

Some verses for you to explore deeper:

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Matthew 7:16
Psalm 68:6
Zecheriah 8:16
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Proverbs 17:7
Psalm 38:11 (NASB)
1 Samuel 20:42
Psalm 133:1 (NASB)
1 Corinthians 13:1
Colossians 3:14
Proverbs 17:7
Ecclesiastes 4:11
Proverbs 27:9
2 Timothy 2:19

Finances and Budgets

We had a wonderful meeting this past Wednesday.

Our Mentor Mom, Leah, shared with us the importance of Praying for our children. Some verses she shared are John 16:23-24, James 4:3, and 1 John 5:14-15. There are important aspects of prayer and our children.

One~ we are to pray with them. You can never start to early when including your children in your prayer time. Some simple ways to include them are meal times. Give thanks for the meal and all God has given you, and include 1-2 short empathy prayers. (Leah reminded us never to pray long enough that your food gets cold :)!) Another great time to include your children is at bedtime. this is where you can spend more time praying over the concerns of yourself and others. Pray about bad dreams, fears your children have, those that may be sick or struggling. Also spend time reading the Bible with your kids. A great Bible to look into is The Taylor Bible (it is no longer in print, but you can search for a used copy). It is written in a way children will understand.

Two~ we are to pray for our children. You can start this before you even conceive, or after you do. Pray for their future spouses, their lives, their health, their salvation. Pray out loud so your children hear you praying for them. Prayer can sometimes be our only defense as a parent. A very scary prayer that we sometimes need to use as a parent is "whatever it takes".

When praying for or with our children always remember to pray in God's will.

Leah gave us 31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Children by Bob Hostetler and suggested that we put this somewhere we would see it daily and then speak out loud these prayers for our children.

Where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20)

We then had Julie Munyan from Eliot Baptist Church talk to us about budgeting and finances. Did you know that God talks about $ about 200 times in the Bible? Some verses that Julie shared with us were 1 Timothy 6:6-8, Mark 12:41-42, Proverbs 21:20, and Proverbs 22:7. We need to give with our whole hearts and do it willingly and happily. If we aren't giving this way, then we shouldn't give! We need to fully lean on God with our finances. Julie shared some wonderful tips about how to eliminate our debt and gave each of us a wonderful packet with a budget sheet, ideas on how to create a budget, and much more. If you missed our meeting let Jenny know and we can work on getting you a packet. A very good resource for finances is http://www.crown.org/ and http://www.daveramsey.com/eramsey.com/.

Our next meeting is March 16, 2010 at 9:30am. We are in desperate need of MOPPET workers. If you know someone who can volunteer every other Wednesday from 9:30- 11:45 or even once a month or as a substitute, please contact Becca Bannon or Carrie Terry. Without our MOPPET workers we are unable to have our MOPs meetings! Our workers are such a blessing to our MOPs Moms and we are so thankful for them!

Check out the MOPS website.

Pie Making

After over a month of bad weather and storms, we were finally able to meet once again! With the need to reconnect with one another, it was decided that instead of the regular structured meeting, the moms would make and bake pies! There was lots of peeling, slicing, kneeding, crimping and mixing going on with apple, cherry and chocolate pies being made. It was a great time to see one another and relax to the yummy smell of pies cooking in the oven!

This coming meeting, March 2 @ 9:30 am, we will have a guest speaker talking to us about budgeting and frugality. So please join us, and if you are able to bring a food dish to share or a snack for the Moppets!

Mom-processing (noun): decision making based on information from multiple sources

(Momology by Shelly Radic)

MOPS is Cancelled Today

Unfortunately, the ice means Dover schools are delayed 2 hours today, so we won't be meeting this morning. I will miss seeing everyone! Be careful on the ice if you have to go out, and we'll meet again on February 2.

Cozy Winter MOPS Meetings

It's wonderful to be able to encourage and hold each other up through difficult situations and seasons. Last week we had a smaller group than usual, but we enjoyed some great conversation. We missed those who were sick, and we hope everyone is feeling 100% next week! If you have been thinking of joining us, go ahead and brave the cold, get the kids out of the house, and come join us on January 19th!

Join us for the first MOPS meeting of 2011!

What better way to kick off the new year than with great friends? The Dover MOPS group will dive into 2011 together this Wednesday at 9:30. As always, child care is provided. We'll have some good food and conversation and maybe decompress a little after the busy Christmas season. Come meet some new friends who won't mind if your living room floor is still covered in pine needles!

Christmas Party!

Wednesday is our Christmas Party! (and it's Jodi's birthday!) We'll be doing a cookie swap, so bring a batch of your favorite Christmas cookie to share, and take home an assortment of wonderful Christmas goodies. Our Mentor Mom, Leah, will be sharing some thoughts on this season. If you've been thinking of coming but haven't made it to a meeting yet, this is a great week to come and meet some new friends.

Come and join us, and enjoy some time to catch your breath during this busy Christmas season!

Pancake Breakfast

We had a blast Saturday at the pancake Breakfast. We were able to tell a few moms about mops and think we might have encouraged a few to join us. We got to face paint the children and they got to decorate foam pumpkins. We are thinking of doing it again in the spring. Thank you to all who helped.

UPDATE!

Hi all. Let me fill you in with what has been going on with MOPS so far this year.

We have had three meetings so far this year. We have been studying the core of who we are as women and how it effects the way we mother our children, how our emotions play out in our role as a mother and how they effect our children. Today we took personaility tests and split up into small groups to discuss with each other how our personalities play out of who we are. It was fun to see who you share same personalities with. :)

This Saturday our MOPS moms will be going to the Seymour Osman Community Center in Dover NH, to serve pancakes to the community. We will be face painting and the kids will be painting pumkins. I will keep you updated on how it goes.

WOW what a great first meeting! It was so nice to get together and see everyone after a long, HOT summer. Everyone’s kids are getting so big. We meet the first and third Wednesdays of the month from 9:30-11:45. We want to give a big thanks to the MOPPETS workers. While we are having mommy time, our children are having a blast playing with other children their age and learning a Bible lesson. We are all so excited for this year.

There are 5 weeks in September, so we'll have our first Fifth Wednesday event next week. We will go find our way through the Coppal House Farm Corn Maze on September 29th at 10am. For more info about the farm, visit www.nhcornmaze.com Join us!!

Veggie Tale Super Sale

All DVDs and CDs are marked down 40% for FIVE DAYS ONLY!
Sale ends 8/24/10 or while supplies last!
*Excludes Personalized CDs - but seriously, that's it.
All other CDs and DVDs are 40% off! Really!

Our 2010-2011 MOPS Theme!!

MOMOLOGY "THE ART AND SCIENCE OF MOTHERING".

Mothering is both art and science. It combines all of who we are to shape healthy, resilient kids. Mothering is so complex it requires both sides of our brain – not to mention our hands and feet, eyes and ears, mouth and (sniff, sniff) unfortunately, sometimes even our noses!

Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. (Psalm 139:10)

Anywhere we go, God sees, knows, and guides. So we can lead - and love - knowing God will get us through all the hard spots, all our decisions, all our roles, all our times we can't hold open our eyelids and the times we're bursting with joy. God's hand guides us as we guide our children. As we study Momology together to become better moms making a better world

Dover Baptist Summer VBS

This years summer VBS is coming up!

The Dover Baptist Church VBS is at the Seymour Osman Community Center this year (40 Hampshire Cir., Dover. )!  The VBS will take place from July 11th - July 16th with family night celebration and ice-cream social on Friday the 16th with Annabelle's Ice-cream!

Join us for a family dinner every night at 5:30 PM, VBS starts at 6 PM.

Sign up to volunteer or register your child(ren) online today!  

Mops Easter Brunch

The Mops Easter Brunch was great! It was relaxing time to enjoy friends and watch our children play together. We had a wonderful aray of yummy foods and lots of Jelly Beans. "Yeah the kids were a little hyper" but hey it is Easter! :) We got to hear a wonderful message from our mentor mom about why Jesus died for you and for me. Then we headed up the stairs for the egg hunt.. WOW! That was fun!

Easter MOPS Brunch

Please come and join us for an Easter Party on Wednesday, March 31 at 11:30. We'll have brunch, an egg hunt with the kids, and we'll take some time to discuss and celebrate the beautiful victory of Easter. Bring a breakfast/lunch/brunch dish to share and egg-collecting baskets for your MOPPETS. If you have one, bring a Bible, too.  Feel free to bring a friend!

Also mark your calendars for our next MOPS meeting which is on April 7, 2010 at 9:30. We will be having a garden day and planting some seeds. Virginia Claus will be sharing with us about gardening, farmer's markets, and organic stuff. Virginia is on our steering team and she also have an amazing blog with tons of information on it. Here is the link for her blog; http://livinglocalnh.blogspot.com/.

We look forward to seeing you all there.

Next MOPS Meeting

Mark your calendars and join us on March 17, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. We will have a special speaker coming to talk with us about Navigating Unsafe Relationships. Bill Welte is the President and CEO of America's Keswick in Whiting, NJ. Keswick is a Christian Conference Retreat Center as well as the Colony Of Mercy which is an addiction recovery program for men. http://www.americaskeswick.org/. He is also the Dad to one of our steering team members, Laura Groen. Come and join us for a great time of food, fellowship, and enjoy other moms that share the same thing in life as you.

This past MOPS meeting (March 3,2010) we had Pastor Ken Monahan came and talked on discipline. He taught us what is the right and wrong way to discipline your child and gave us some very helpful tips. We had a great discussion time with him and enjoyed chatting with each other about things we deal with in our everyday lives. I know I walked away with lots of tools to help me in the discipline area of my life. Pastor Ken is the senior pastor at Dover Baptist Church. http://www.doverbaptistchurch.org/

We also have a 5th Wed this month so check back here to see if we will be doing something fun together.

We look forward to seeing you soon!!

Veggie Tale Combo Pack, $25 Shipped!

Get the newest Veggie Tales, a second DVD plus two CDs for $25 shipped!  A great deal for the kiddos and your sanity!

Get FOUR products plus FREE Shipping!** This includes Pistachio: The Little Boy That Woodn't, Silly LIttle Thing Called Love, Christian Hit Music CD and God Made You Special CD! Enter Coupon Code DEALS2BUY at checkout. Your order will ship to arrive by the Pistachio release date of 2/27/10. Offer valid while supplies last!

Goodwin Update 1/11

I am closing down the ChipIn widget and getting ready to deposit funds for the Goodwins.  If you're still looking to donate monetarily, they have accounts with Holy Rosary Credit Union or Northeast Credit Union. Please make your check payable to “The Goodwin Family Fire Fund”.

They are still in need of temporary housing, preferably in Strafford so their kids can continue to take the bus to school.  A few more tall bureaus are also welcome donations as are gift cards and groceries.

Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

12/30 Goodwin Update

Hello everyone!  I hope the end of December finds you and yours in good health!  Here's an update on the Goodwin's.

Needs:

• Home to rent in Strafford while rebuilding
• Still need a couple of bureaus
• Non-perishable groceries
• Prepared meals
• Gift cards

Monetary donations are still greatly appreciated.  They can be made securely online through the ChipIn widget on the right of this blog (utilizes Paypal). You can continue to send monetary donations to Holy Rosary Credit Union or Northeast Credit Union. Please make your check payable to “The Goodwin Family Fire Fund”.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2010!

Thank you!

I wanted to pop on here and thank everyone for the amazing support and blessings that you all have sent the Goodwin's. In five short days we were able to raise over two thousand dollars. Collect enough gifts for the kids to have a great Christmas and clothing for everyone. GOD is so amazing. Thank you again and please remember to keep praying for them as they start to process of looking for a home to rent and rebuild the home. Jodi Decker Mops coordinator.