Meeting Recap 19 Nov

I'm so glad we had such a great turn-out for our meeting on Friday. The Moms Panel is always really helpful and this year was no exception. Buckle up ladies, this is going to be a long post.

. . .

Shannon Schlachter, Stacy Johnson and Christina Moreland were our panelists this year. Between the three of them, they have over 100 years of parenting experience (that may be an exaggeration).

Two words of wisdom from our esteemed panel were thus:

1. Never forget an anniversary and,
2. Let your children fail.

As the wife of someone who HAS forgotten an anniversary, I think this is very true. Even if there's no celebration, do SOMETHING. If you get a chance, ask Addie Delahoussaye (admit it, you're impressed that I know how to spell her last name) what she and her husband do for their anniversary every year. It's pretty cool.

As for the second piece of advice - I know this is hard. I don't want my kid to ever struggle with anything. I want her to be good at writing and reading and eating with a fork. I want her to be GOOD at everything, and I don't want her to ever feel the frustration of not getting something right the first time. But I know that's just silly. As someone who didn't have any major struggles with school, or making friends (or eating with a fork), I found myself lost when I couldn't find a job and the person with whom I spent most of my time pooped standing up in the corner.

Needless to say, I didn't handle it well.

But I've learned perseverance, patience, and another word that starts with P that I can't think of right now. It's important to learn how to fail, and even more important to learn how to pick yourself up after.

. . .

One of the first things we talked about was when we should stop taking responsibility for everything our kids need to take to school. Everyone agreed that teachers really help parents make that decision. Some 1st grade teachers require students to hand in their folders themselves. We can help ease that transition by handing folders to our kids, who then will hand it to teachers. It was also mentioned that by second grade, kids are given a lot more responsibility. Encourage them to take responsibility for their homework. They're told that they're in charge or getting forms signed, homework finished, etc, so hold them to the teacher's standards.

. . .

Scheduling was another topic that was brought up. How many activities are too many? In addition, how do you stay organized?

Christina said that in first grade, her kids get to pick 1 activity. In second grade, they get two. Shannon suggested that having her husband coach her son's baseball team helps them keep the number of practices down. She also insisted that you only volunteer for things that involve your kids. Christina mentioned that carpooling makes everything easier.
I think this is very dependent on your family. We only have one kid, so Claire could go to more activities than a family with 16 kids. It also depends on the timing of the activity. If soccer practice starts at 6, but it's important that your family sits down to eat together every night, soccer might not be the best sport for your family.
Look at the start times of all the things your kids want to do. Don't be afraid to tell them no. And don't hesitate to talk to coaches if they're insistent on practicing 5 times a week. These kids aren't in the majors. They're just having a good time.
That being said, I think extra-curricular activities are SO important for kids. Growing up, we were expected to do SOMETHING after school. It almost didn't matter what it was. You know, as long as it wasn't taking Dealing Drugs 101 or pole dancing lessons or something.

. . .

Having a three-year old is hard enough. Dealing with one who says "No" to everything is cause for a raise. So how do you handle a three year-old who refuses to agree with anything?
My new favorite quote? "God grant me the peace to deal with my blessings." Listen, I'm the first to tell you that kids kinda suck. They want things, SO BAD, but they can't articulate what they want. Everything is unfair and grounds for tears. Sometimes, you just can't convince them that playing with knives is unsafe. This is, obviously, a time where it's NOT a good time to "Let them fail" because you might end up with "Let them learn how it feels to get stitches."

However, if you're faced with a non-life threatening situation, have fun with it.
I refuse to take my kid too seriously. She's three. She doesn't know what she's talking about. Kids have short memories (thank goodness), and I can usually get Claire out of a tantrum by just changing the subject. Sure, she's confused for a second, but now she sees how I feel when I hear her talk about how how much milk she should be allowed to have now that she's awake and don't you think it's a great idea to give her an apple and wouldn't it be so much fun to go to the Stomping Grounds since she had four noodles because she could totally get another noodle if she puts her shoes in the shoe basket and did you hear about the time that Jane-Jane SQUIRREL.

I've heard that God gives us the kids we need to have. I think I got hosed since I'm convinced God gave me the kid JR's supposed to have and I'm the one dealing with it most of the time, but whatever. The point of all that is to have fun with your kids. Soon they're not going to want anything to do with you. Enjoy them now.

In related news, someone asked what to do with time-outs don't work. Claire was in time-out for most of last year. But, I used to tell her she was allowed out of Time-Out when she could figure out how to do whatever it was that she was supposed to do. There wasn't a set time for this. In fact, one day she sat in Time-Out for 4 (that's FOUR) hours until she could figure out how to say she was sorry for hitting me. I read an entire book while she was sitting in the corner. To say it was ridiculous is a massive understatement. She hated it, I hated it, but she finally said she was sorry.

For older kids, it was suggested to ask them what's important for them to lose. If they're favorite thing is to play outside, that's the punishment. No playing outside if they get in trouble. Take away TV, desert, electronics. Just remember that you have to be the one to enforce it. So, if the only way you can cook dinner without "help" is if the kids watch Phineas and Ferb for half an hour, think long and hard about using television as a punishment.

. . .

So how do you keep your kids from getting frustrated with they don't get something right the first time?

A lot of people suggested extra work, after homework. Make it a game, and encourage kids to come up with things they can do to improve. They'll be more receptive if they think the extra practice is their idea. I've found the same works for husbands.

Most importantly, be an advocate for your kids. If there's a problem with a teacher, talk to him or her. However, don't assume your kid is right. Listen to their teacher and work together to find a solution.

. . .

A few of the books mentioned during the meeting were:

The 5 Love Languages and

The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman

Strength Finder by Tom Rath

. . .

I hope everyone got as much out of the panel as I did. Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments!

See you Friday!

[cori]

Meeting Recap 5 Nov

Hey everyone!

I think we had a great meeting on Friday. I know we only got to two of the Convention Share Sessions, but I'm planning on putting the notes from all three on the Nesting site so everyone can have them available.

Here's what we did Friday:

Kathleen reminded everyone about the Thanksgiving Food Drive to be held at our next meeting, November 19. Don't forget the things EFBHNM needs the most -
Canned meat
juice
jelly
crackers
mac & cheese
flour
rice
corn meal
toddler sized diapers
toilet paper
sample size toiletries

Also, we're going to be going out to EFBHNM on November 22 to hand out Thanksgiving food. I went last year and it's a lot of fun. Childcare is $3/child, and they need a lunch. Let Kathleen know if you're interested in coming and didn't get a chance to sign up. We're meeting at the church at 9 and heading over soon after.

I've had a few requests for the recipes of the things everyone is bringing to the meetings. Post them on the Nesting site (we have a thread for recipes already), and I'll put some on the blog too.

Charlotte talked about Matthew 7.20 at the meeting too. She asked us to think about what we're praying for. Don't just pray for the big stuff, think about the small details too.

My favorite part? "Children are a gift from God. They are His reward."

We started praying for our kids last week too. Colin and Benjamin Shearer; Jackson Dias; Luke and Mackenzie Harrison; Madeline, Chloe and Mason Hill; Kendall, Hailey, Austin and Travis Merkel; Hailey and Mason Nuno; Sarah Steinhaus; Austin Stump; and Aleah and Andrew Thummel.

Don't forget to send me pictures of your kids. I only have about 10 people who've sent them in. I need them asap! My email address is CoriAtkins@gmail.com if you don't know it.

Hope everyone has a great week. See you next Friday!

Introduction

Hey everyone! I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself, so you get an idea of the person behind these posts.

My name is Cori Atkins. I've been married to JR for five and a half years and I have a three year old, Claire.

I have my degree in English, and I love to write. We moved to Houston two years ago and when we lived in Austin, I was a wedding coordinator. I loved it and would love to get back into it once things settle down here.

I also love taking pictures and messing them up with photoshop. I almost always have my camera with me.






This is my second year in Mops and I just love it. I go to as many socials and playdates as I can. My advice for new members? Engage others. Meet people and plan to hang out outside of the meetings.

I can't wait for the next meeting. We're going to have a blast doing some yoga!

[c]

Oct. 8 Meeting Recap

Following the "Coreology" theme, Lauren Merkel assisted us in determining our MotherStyles personality, based on the Myers Briggs Personality Test. To discover your MotherStyle Personality, you can take the quiz: http://quizzes.familyeducation.com/motherstyles (FYI, for those of you who attended the meeting, this quiz is more in depth than the one we took at the meeting. I came up with different results for both tests.)
If you are interested, there's also a book called MotherStyles: Using Personality Type to Discover Your Parenting Strengths by Janet Penley.

Tile coasters craft:

I'm not the least bit crafty, but I really enjoyed making the stamped tile coasters. They were so easy to make, and a lot of moms talked about how great these would be as Christmas gifts. Thanks, Jennifer, for organizing this great craft!

Missions:

Kathleen is planning a day for us to volunteer at the East Fort Bend Humans Needs Ministry food pantry on Monday, November 22 from 9am-Noon. Childcare will be available upon request at CUMC for $3 per child. More details are to come.

Pajama Party:

Jill passed around a sign up sheet for those who are interested and able to attend this year's pajama party, held in Rms. 210/211 at Christ Church from 7-10pm. There will be a chocolate fountain, pizza, guac and chips, salad, etc. Come in your comfy PJs for lots of food, games, and fellowship!

Play Date at Sugar Land Memorial Park:

Tentatively planned for Monday, October 18 or Wednesday, October 27

Dewberry Farm:

We are planning on going to Dewberry Farms on Monday, November 1 at 9:30am. The group rate is $6/person. Children 2 and under are free.

Charlotte led a wonderful devotional focused on God's personality. Through scripture, she showed us how God is:

• Knowable (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
• Approachable (Matthew 7:7-8)
• Creative (Psalm 147:5 and 121:1-2)
• Forgiving (Romans 3:22-25)
• Honest (Psalm 119:105)
• Capable (Ephesians 3:20)

If you missed our meeting, I recommend spending some quiet time reading and meditating on these scriptures. Even if you did attend the meeting, reflect on some of these scriptures. God will be delighted to spend this time with you.

What else?

We voted in Julie Chance as our Outreach Fund Coordinator for the year. Congrats and thank you, Julie!

Next meeting (Oct. 22):

We'll be doing yoga, so wear comfortable clothes, and bring a yoga mat if you have one.

Have a great week!

Thoughts from Kim Garnett...

Hi girls!

Cori wanted the publicity members to start posting on the blog, so I've been thinking all week of a good topic to blog about. After talking with Missy at the meeting today, it appears that I was overthinking it :) So, for my first entry, I'm going to share a few things I learned recently.

To give you some background on myself, I've been clipping coupons, etc. as a hobby for the last two years. Don't get me wrong - my family certainly needs to stay on a budget if I want to continue being a stay at home mom. However, I've found that budgeting and seeing how much I can get for my money is a fun challenge for me, as well as helping my family save money. My family calls me the "crazy spreadsheet lady", and I'm proud of it, as my spreadsheet has told me how much I've saved in coupons this year ($400)! I will now stop the spreadsheet talk and step away from my control freak ESFP "Happy Together" mothering profile that I discovered today to tell you...

I've been subscribing to some recently discovered mom-blogs (frugal living and crafty ones) just for the tips other moms have shared. I've also been trying to make a lot of our foods/cleaning supplies, etc. at home which combines my two blog interests. As a result, I found out about a few things that you moms might like to know.

1. Clorox Anywhere Spray. It's almost $3.50 a bottle in some places, and here's the recipe: 1.5 teaspoons of bleach, 22 oz. of water. THAT'S IT!! Can you believe it? My parents have about 6 half used bottles around the house for various dog accidents, etc. I should make it for them, and sell it for half price!

2. Fruit Wash spray. Not sure how many brands there are, but the ingredients on the one I have state "surfactant, water, citric acid". According to the dictionary (and my chemical engineer husband), the definition of surfactant is 'a chemical agent capable of reducing the surface tension of a liquid in which it is dissolved'. Basically, this is soap. As for the citric acid, this acts as a rinsing agent. So, keep your fruit wash bottle, pump a few squirts into it, and dilute with water and a teaspoon or so of lemon juice. I do recommend using scent-free soap, the flowery palmolive I just tried makes the grapes smell weird :)

3. Along the same lines, Bath and Body Works (B&BW) is making a killing on their foaming hand wash. Foaming soap is WAY easier for the little ones to use, so I keep it in their bathrooms for easy, quick hand washing. We ran out of our B&BW brand soap the other night, so I added 10 pumps of Dial liquid hand soap into the bottle, carefully topped it off with water (so as not to foam it up too much), swirled lightly, and voila! Foaming hand wash! Can you imagine how many B&BW bottles I can refill with my liquid Dial?? I must say that I am quite fond of the B&BW pump. It seems to keep working for a long time. No sticking like the other pump bottles (including Dial's version). So, I will continue to buy an expensive bottle of B&BW soap at least once a year, just for the bottle.

There! I've saved you $15!!! :)

To wrap up, I had a great time visiting with some new ladies today, and I'm hoping to get to know more of you soon. So far, I'm really enjoying this great group of women! I just hope that my kids stop clinging to my leg when I leave them in Moppets so I can relax while I'm with you :) See you in a couple of weeks!

Fish. In the Crock Pot. Now I've seen everything.

For those of you who don't know my husband, let me wax some poetic. He's a meat eater. He once told me that if I had been a vegitarian when we met, he wouldn't have dated me (no no ladies, he's all mine). This man needs some sort of meat product in every meal I make. And don't even think about trying to sneak ground turkey into a burger. He knows that's not ground beef and he's not very happy about it. He is the pickiest eater in my house, which is saying a lot since I have a three year old.

So I was really pushing my luck when I decided to try this fish recipe. It could have been terrible. The only thing I was banking on was the fact that he HAS to try everything on his plate to set a good example for Homeslice. Heh, sucker.

And seriously? He LOVED it. He's even requested it! This was the gateway drug to the grilled bell peppers I made last night (which, by the way, he also loved, ThankYouVeryMuch).

So, if you're the mother (or wife) of a picky eater? Try this. I think it'll go over pretty well!

From A Year of Slow Cooking:

Ingredients:
-- 3 or 4 filets of Tilapia (or other favorite white fish)
--1/4 cup mayonnaise
--1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar. I've made it before with Parmesan and it was amazing. If I was planning a trip to the store specifically to get ingredients for this dish I would pick Parmesan.)
--juice of 2 lemons
--4 chopped garlic cloves
--pinch each of salt and black pepper

The Directions:
--mix all ingredients (except for the fish. definitely not the fish.) in a bowl
--lay out a piece of foil
--rub sauce mixture on both sides of fish
--fold foil over and make a little packet for the fish
--put all the packets into the crockpot
--cook on LOW for 2-4 hours; fish should flake easily with a fork

PLEASE take care when taking the packet out of the crockpot and when opening it. It will be hot.

Meeting Recap - 17 Sept

Hey hey hey!

So sorry this meeting recap has taken so long to be posted, but dudes. There's a lot of new TV that I'm already invested in. Can anyone say Glee?!

Anyway, another good meeting! A lot of information was out there so I'd like to put it all here, just for reference.

Kathleen mentioned that we're going to start accepting things to trade at each meeting. If you're anything like me, you have a year's worth of Real Simple magazines just sitting in your bookcase that your husband keeps giving dirty looks to (so grammatically incorrect. I apologize, Addie). Bring your magazines, books, (unused) toothpaste, formula, coupons, etc to the meetings. One man's trash and all that.

[change for change]
Empty out those change purses at each meeting into our Change for Change coffee can. We collected a ton of money last year, and I know we can do the same this year. Even if it's less than a dollar, every bit helps.

[East Fort Bend Human Needs Ministry]
Connie spoke to us about the EFBHNM at the last meeting too. We love working with them, and now we have a TON of ways to help. The resale shop is open Monday-Saturday and is always accepting donations. In fact, I have a trash bag full of curtains that I got from my Mom's house when I went to help her move last weekend. We mentioned setting up one meeting for everyone to bring their stuff so it can be dropped off all at once, but until then, take it over to them. They're located at 435 Stafford Run.

We'll be doing a holiday food drive, and I know we'll be going out there to help out once in a while so keep them in mind. Also, if you shop at Randalls, you can get community bucks to give to them. See what I did there? I have NO idea what community bucks are, but I totally acted like I did. Impressive, no? ; ) If you have any questions, email Connie - connie@humanneeds.org

[Just Between Friends]
The Just Between Friends sale is the first weekend in October which is...Wow, this weekend! Head out there to pick up some winter clothes for those growing kids. If you want to sell, don't forget the perks: 65% back, or 70% back if you volunteer. They're accepting items on Wednesday the 29th from 6:30 - 9 and Thursday the 30th from 12 - 2. The website is a wealth of knowledge, plus there's a really cute baby on the first page. Check it out and let us know what you scored (or how much you made!)

[Pumpkin Patch at St. Catherines]
Elizabeth Hendrie mentioned that there would be a pumpkin patch at St. Catherine's starting October 11 from 10a - 7p. There will be storytime, photographers and games. Plus, pictures of kids in front of pumpkins are adorable! There's no website for information, but Elizabeth knows a lot about it so if you have questions, email her.

[Charlotte]
Finally, Charlotte talked to us about Matthew 5:5. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inhearit the earth."
One thing she said really stuck with me: "You're blessed when you're who you are, no more, no less." What do you think about that verse?

So that was our meeting. Did I miss anything? Keep any eye out for a new post with my new favorite fish recipe - cooked in the crock pot. That's right. I said crock pot. Seriously. It's delicious.

[c]