Recap of September 6th Meeting

Hello lovely ladies!  It is so good to be back!  Thank you Steering for the wonderful breakfast (especially Liz who was going to get us those casseroles come hell or high water!)

 

 

 

Our Coordinator, Liz Brown, got the ball rolling by introducing us to this year's theme: A Beautiful Mess.  I think most of us can relate!

 

The fabulous Cintia Listenbee then led us in prayer and devotion.  She reminded us that God wants to be involved in motherhood, even in the mundane tasks, minor annoyances, and small victories.  For those of you new to MOPS, Cintia has a wonderful blog that deserves a shout-out here:

http://www.simplycintia.com/2013/09/devotional-god-wants-to-be-involved-in.html

 

 

Liz Brown then walked us through what it means to be a part of MOPS at CUMC.  We constantly strive to fulfill the MOPS purpose, "The purpose of MOPS International is to encourage, equip and develop every Mother of a Preschooler to realize her potential as a woman, mother and leader in the name of Jesus Christ."  Amen to that!

 

Instead of everyone being assigned to a committee this year, we are asking everyone to volunteer where they feel called.  This includes not volunteering if you feel you are not up to the task.  If you did not get a chance to sign up for a committee at the meeting and you would like to, please see Liz.

 

Announcements from Steering:

 

Publicity: Be sure to join our Facebook page so that you can stay connected with everything we have going on throughout the year.  Search for "Christ United Methodist Church - Sugar Land MOPS" and any Steering member can add you.  The calendar, blog updates, play date info, mommy advice and much more awaits you!

 

Care Team: Congrats to Anne Leder and the entire Leder family on their newest addition!  Be on the lookout from Leah Hammonds for the Sign-Up Genius for Anne's meals.

 

Social: Our first MOPS social is the PJ party on September 20th at 6:30pm at Liz Brown's house (4410 Balboa Dr., Sugar Land, TX 77479).  This is such a great evening, you do not want to miss it!  Pizza and soft drinks will be provided, if you would like to bring a dessert that would be most welcome!  Definitely get into your pjs and come ready for some fun girl time!

Park play dates will begin next month!  On Tuesday, October 1st and Wednesday, October 2nd, we will meet at Castle Park from 9:30am-11:30am.  Castle Park is located at 4909 Commonwealth Blvd., Sugar Land, TX 77479.  Rain contingency plan is to meet at the Sugar Creek Playscape located at 1333 SW Frwy, Sugar Land, TX 77478.  Check FB on those days for confirmation. 

 

Fundraising: On Wednesday, October 9th at 6:30pm, we will host our second annual auction at Shelli LeBret's house.  Meredith Canny is currently collecting items for the auction through October 4th.  Dig through those closets, ladies.  We are looking for gently used or new purses, clothing, jewelry, kitchen gadgets, etc.  Then, on October 9th, bring your checkbooks and come shopping!  If we can raise $600 from this event, we will not need to do another fundraiser all year!  Shelli LeBret lives at 6427 Crystal Point, Missouri City, TX 77459.

 

Missions: Amanda Gates gave us a brief intro into Young Lives.  Next week we will hear much more about this so stay tuned!

 

September 22nd the MOPS hubbies (or the FOPS, if you will) are going to meet at Stadia in Town Center to watch the Texans game at noon.  Daddies need a support group too, encourage your hubby to come out and make some friends!

 

The Fall Couples Social has been moved from November 8th to November 15th.  The calendars in the folders have the incorrect date!

 

The rest of the meeting was spent decorating our journals that our wonderful Mentor Moms are going to use to communicate with and support us throughout the year.  We are so lucky to have these wonderful women as a part of our group!

 

Finally, meet your 2013-2014 Steering Team:

 

Top Row: Meg Ruffing (Crafts), Kathie Kelly (Publicity)
Heather Lovell (Coo-Chair), Julia Steinhaus (Membership), Liz Brown (Coordinator), Cori Atkins (Social) Leah Hammonds (Care Team)
Amanda Gates (Missions), Kathleen Randall (Finance), Catherine Kubala (MOPPETS Crafts), Meredith Canny (Fundraising)
Bottom Row: Cintia Listenbee (Prayer), Renata Smith (Hospitality)



Who are we kidding?  We all know it's more like this:

 

That's better....


 

 

Next meeting is September 20th.  Red Table is bringing breakfast!  See you there!



 

January 11th Meeting

Welcome back MOPPERS! It was so great to see everyone on Friday! Many thanks to our always marvelous Mentor Moms for the fabulous breakfast. You guys take the best care of us!

Please join us in the warmest of welcome to our new members:

Aleini Lacombe (Red Table)
Ashley Lynn (Orange Table)
Pamela Robinson (Orange Table)
Chasity Henderson (Yellow Table)
Chrisanna Mooney (Blue Table)
And...returning member Alison Makhlouf (Blue Table)

Also, help me to welcome our newest Mentor Mom, Jennifer Wells!

Thank you to Kelly Otero for organizing the Chuck E. Cheese playdate on the 14th and the 15th. Our mommy social this month is on Thursday, January 24th at The Glazery on Dulles and Cartwright. We will meet at 7pm. If you plan to attend, please contact Kelly (theoteros@mac.com). There is no need to pay in advance; you will simply pay for whatever piece you choose to paint. Feel free to bring an appetizer or sweet to share! (www.theglazery.com)

Our next meeting on the 25th will feature another fun craft that will involve a few items from home. Keep an eye out for an email from Cori Atkins with further instructions.

Many thanks to all who participated in the diaper drive during the meeting. Thanks to Shelli LeBret and Meredith Canny for overseeing the delivery of the diapers to the next Young Lives meeting on the 24th.

Lauran Helms reminded us that it is time to start gearing up for VBS! Mark your calendars for June 24th - June 28th. The website should be up and running by the next meeting so volunteers can sign up. If you and your children have never participated in VBS at CUMC, trust me, you are not going to want to miss out on all the fun!!!

Kim Garnett reminded us that our MOPS Favorite Things meeting is coming up on March 22nd. Start thinking of some of your "favorite things" to share with the group. Your favorite thing can be anything (food, apps, workouts, underwear, mommy gadgets, household items, etc). Be on the lookout for more info from Kim.

Get out your wedding dresses!  For our Valentine’s meeting on February 8^th, everyone is encouraged to wear your wedding dress, a favorite/awful bridesmaid dress, your veil, etc.  If your dress doesn’t fit exactly as it did on the day, who cares???  We’re all among friends and it’s all in the name of good fun!  Email your wedding stories to Lauran Helms (lauranhelms@gmail.com).  Email your funniest wedding pic to Kim Garnett (khgarnett@gmail.com).  Bring your wedding albums to that meeting and we will all swap and reminisce!

Remember to bring any unwanted/outgrown baby/kid/mommy items to meetings and put them on the piano.  Anything not claimed will go to Young Lives.

Black MOPS t-shirts are still for sale for $10.

If you have a home-based business, remember that we have a table set up for you to use during meetings to let our members know about your business.

The rest of the meeting was spent getting to know one another with ice breakers.

Lauran Helms closed us out with an awesome devotional on resolutions.  She read to us from Psalm 90 on how we cannot keep our sins a secret from God.  She also read to us from James 4: 13-15 which cautions us about boasting about the future.  Finally, she encouraged us to make Philippians 3:3-10, which encourages us to deepen our relationship with Christ, our motto for the year!

Next meeting is January 25^th.  Red Table is up for breakfast.  Prayers for everyone getting healthy and staying healthy with everything going around. See you then!

Welcome Back MOPS!!!!

It is so good to be back!  The lovely CUMC MOPS had their first meeting of the semester today, and as usual, laughter, chatter, prayer, and food were the order of the day!

Our fearless new coordinator, Constance Ritter, got us started by reminding us why we come to MOPS.  While having fun is a huge part of MOPS, we are an organization rooted in faith and we should always remember that the purpose of MOPS is to "encourage, equip and develop every Mother of a Preschooler to realize her potential as a woman, mother and leader in the name of Jesus Christ."

This year we will introduce a "Member Covenant" that each member will need to read and sign.  We are a vibrant group with a waiting list of mommies who would like to join, so attendance must be a priority for the group.  Obviously, absences due to illness (yours or your children), emergency, family crisis, etc are absolutely excusable.  However, in the event of an absence, communication with your table's Discussion Group Leader (DGL) is essential.  After two uncommunicated absences, we will be forced to give your spot to one of the mommies on our waiting list.

CUMCSL will offer a FREE workshop about introducing issues of sexual morality with your children.  The workshop will be on Sunday, September 16th from 4-6 in rooms 210/211.  Registration is required and childcare is limited so if you are interested, sign up soon!

http://www.cumcsl.org/details/AnnounceDetails.aspx?AnnounceId=3977

Announcements from Steering Members:

Melissa Gisler gave us a run down of how our outreach budget was used last year to benefit our community.

Leah Hammonds appealed to the group to sign up for a Care Team meal at least once a semester (more if you are able--we have LOTS of babies this year!)

Kathleen Randall and Leah Hammonds are heading up a bible study on off MOPS Fridays.  They will start on October 12th and the first one is on patience.  If you are interested, contact Kathleen (kltx@hotmail.com) to sign up.  They are able to offer limited childcare and if more people sign up than they can accomodate, a drawing will be done to keep things fair.  There is no limit on how many people they can have in the study, so if childcare is not an issue for you, feel free to sign up!

Kelly Otero announced the social outings for September:

Thursday, September 13th at 6:50pm: Mom's Night at the Movies!  We will see Hope Springs at the Star Cinema Grill on Hwy 6 in Missouri City.

Monday, September 17th from 9-11am: Playdate at the Sugar Creek Playscape.  Free admission!

Friday, September 28th from 6:30-8:30pm: MOPS Couples Night.  Bring your husband so we can all get to know each other! Dinner will be catered at CUMCSL and childcare will be provided.  $30 per couple.

Shelli LeBret introduced our new Missions project: Young Lives, a division of Young Life that services pregnant teenage mothers.  Stay tuned, we will have a speaker from Young Lives with us at our next meeting on September 21st.

Meredith Canny introduced our coin can that will be passed around at all meetings.  Proceeds from the coin can will be donated as a part our our outreach ministry.  She also introduced the 9:30am drawing that will be done at each meeting.  If you are present before 9:30am, you get to put your name in for a chance at some fabulous MOPS prizes!

Melissa Treadway explained how we can change any of our membership information at https://cumciahtx.infellowship.com

Committees were announced and committee members met briefly to discuss responsibilities for the year.

The rest of the meeting was spent getting reacquainted with old friends and meeting our fabulous new MOPS and Mentor Moms.  We really have a great group this year!

The rock star award goes to Breanne Ward who STILL CAME to the meeting today even though her baby is scheduled to arrive via C-section this evening!!!  Talk about commitment!  Breanne, you and your family are definitely in our prayers today and we can't wait to see your beautiful new addition!

Lauran Helms closed our meeting with a reflection on Matthew 9: 1-5 when Jesus forgives and heals a paralyzed man.  She gave us a poignant reminder that what we get out of MOPS is contingent upon the commitment that we put into it.  Great advice!

And finally, meet your Steering Committee!

Back Row: Melissa Treadway (Membership), Leah Hammonds (Care Team), Meredith Canny (Fundraising), Kathie Kelly (Publicity), Lauran Helms (Prayer), Melissa Gisler (Finance), Shelli LeBret (Missions), Cori Atkins (MOPS Crafts), Kim Garnett (Hospitality)
Front Row: Kelly Otero (Social), Liz Brown (Co-Coordinator), Erin Reed (MOPPETS Crafts), Constance Ritter (Coordinator)

It's going to be a great year!  See you September 21st!

Welcome to Planet Mom!

On behalf of the CUMC MOPS Steering Team, let me extend a warm, sunny, welcome to each and every one of you! We are so happy to see familiar faces and equally excited to see new faces in the room on Friday mornings.

This year is going to be out of this world (I wonder how many solar system references I can sneak in...just to see who is paying attention, post a comment with how many you count!)! The members of the steering team met over the summer to plan social events, fundraising activities, a curriculum for your children, our mission project, crafts and a galaxy of other fun events and adventures.

In case you were too tired, dreaming of starry nights or just too plain excited to catch the explanation of this year's theme during our first meeting, here's what MOPS International has to say:

The MOPS Experience equips women for the joys and challenges of their lives as moms. One key factor in the MOPS Experience is the relationships built within a group. Time and time again, MOPS moms share that the friends they make in MOPS are significant for this season of their life and on into their future. God created us for relationship! It’s one of the defining parts of being human.

However, when you become a mom, all your relationships change. It’s like you have landed on a different planet—Planet Mom—and the relationships on Planet Mom don’t look like the ones on your previous planet. Your relationship with yourself is different—you are a mom! Your relationship with your husband, girlfriends, extended family, community and God have all changed. Many of these changes are positive, some are not. Even positive change requires adjustments on your part.

During the 2009-10 MOPS year, we will explore how to thrive in relationships Together on Planet Mom.

I'd say life as a MOM is like living on Mars sometimes (or should I say Jupiter as a shout out to my table!). I'm so excited to jump on this rocket with you girlies (equipped with plenty of Purel, lots of sunscreen and some goldfish...)!

This year you will be receiving periodic (probably twice a month) postings to the blog instead of a hard-copy or emailed newsletter. I encourage, no implore, you to post some comments. Share with your fellow earthlings your stories, thoughts, ideas and oops moments. That's how we learn!

Remember....we're together on Planet Mom!