Thankful for MOPS

November was a good month for us! Our Take Over Tuesdays are in full swing with each mom tagging the mom for the next week. It's a neat way to follow along and get to know each other. Our first November speaker was Ashley Holt, from J. Ashley. She brought along her closet and more and we talked about fashion, style and keeping your closet organized. It's easy to get in a slump when surrounded by kids who are spitting up on you. Ashley gave us some great tips on how you can stay in style through motherhood. I totally added boots and a jean jacket to my yoga-pant-tshirt uniform this week and looked and FELT great!

Our new sign is quite an improvement

We had to dress a mannequin

Talking about fashion

We had a Blessing Way to honor one of our members, Lynn. Erica hosted the lovely party. It was neat preparing her for the birth of her 5th baby!

Honoring Lynn

Going into the holiday season it was nice to have Erin Pruett, licensed mental health counselor talk to the group. As always, things discussed at the meeting stay there so protect the privacy of the group. Erin is currently working with Rethreaded, an organization that provides employment and healing therapy to women who have been involved in human trafficking. It was powerful.
We had to cancel our moms night out at Creative Grain, but there was a last minute one at La Nap. Lots of play dates all over, too- MOSH, playgrounds, each other's houses, the library, etc. If you haven't made it to anything yet. Let us know what works for you and we can plan something around your schedule!

Kids got in free many places this month! It was fun to explore new ones!

Weekend play date at MOCA

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Our speaker series has begun. Dr. Mae Barker was our first speaker talking about parenting solutions. A few good take aways that I have are that "As parents we basically regulate sugar and technology." That's so true! I asked about my negative child. Mae suggested making it fun and turning it into a game. Picky eaters? Check out this book. I also use Positive Parenting a lot if anyone wants to borrow it. That's another Mae suggestion.

"If two children are having an argument, and mama is not in the house to hear it...did the argument happen?"

Getting down and giving practical tips to Alison

Hand out on reward system (zoom in)

SLEEP!

We had a bunch of pop up play dates to parks, the indoor playground and the zoo. We also had a weekend play date to Amazing Grace Crop Maze. The play dates are a great way to get to know other moms and have your children make friends, too. 

For our second meeting in October, we had Onie Lee talk to us about spirituality. I just love Onie! She's an amazing woman and gave us wonderful information and challenged us to be the real spiritual coach for our families and friends. One thing I'm going to work on (in addition to praying MORE) is to get a spiritual dream team for each of my children. I love that concept!

Onie Lee, executive director of RISE UP

Here are a list of apps she recommends:

Word Among Us - 

This is the daily scripture reflection app I use.

Focus Equip- 

Focus is a college ministry but this app has small group bible studies and good video reflections.

Busted Halo - 

Busted Halo is a unique media resource that utilizes a relevant and accessible voice to help people understand the Catholic faith, put it into practice in their everyday lives, and share it with others.

Pray As You Go-

“Pray As You Go” is probably my favorite for any woman who struggles to find dedicated, quiet time in her life. The 15 minute (or less) segments are a perfect way to start my mornings as I drive to work. The music is always wonderful and the reflections are encouraging and thoughtful without being too deep for a 6:30 a.m. commute. “Pray As You Go” also offers audio prayers, Imaginative Contemplation Exercises, an audio Rosary & Stations of the Cross, and an audio Examen.

Reimagining the Examen

“Reimagining the Examen” is an interactive App that leads you through a series of Examens, encouraging you to sit in prayer with God each day. You can select an examen (relationships, habits, fears, etc.) and select your own background music. This would be the perfect app for someone needing guidance during evening prayer or reflection during Adoration.

Laudate

“Laudate” is the classic, all-encompassing Catholic app. It offers daily readings, the Liturgy of the Hours, a Confession app, prayers, links to the Catechism and other Church documents, and so much more. It is a useful tool for any Catholic wanting just about anything related to your Faith at your fingertips.

Formed.org

“Formed.org” is like Catholic Netflix. It offers studies, videos, audio recordings, ebooks, and a range of materials for kids. It is the perfect app for media-loving Catholics who really want to help their media consumption be more fulfilling and spiritual. While “Formed.org” does require a monthly fee for access to all the materials, check with your parish, as many offer their parishioners’ free access to all the wonderful content.

Relevant Radio

“Relevant Radio” is essentially Catholic podcasting in an app. This is a free app that grants access to all the shows produced by Relevant Radio, available in live streaming or downloadable content. It also includes audio prayers, a Confession “helper,” and Catholic news from around the world. It’s perfect if you’re looking for ways to fill long commutes or travel with something more uplifting.

Magnificat

“Magnificat” is the app from the same company that brings us the monthly Magnificat Missals. It gives you access to the daily readings along with various articles, Hymns for the Month, Lectio Divina, and resources for blessings and prayers. One of the great things about this app is that you can set alerts to remind you of morning, evening, and nighttime prayer. This is not a free app, but the low cost gives you access to a wide variety of materials. There is a free trial month when you first download the app!

Mass Times for Travel

“Mass Times for Travel” is the perfect app for any traveling Catholic. It allows you to find a Mass nearby, wherever you are. It often offers additional information on availabilities for Adoration and Confession. The app also provides directions to help you fulfill the Sunday obligation while on the road.

Click here for Onie's Power Point Presentation

We had our October girls night on Monday night in Meghan's hot tub! It was rainy that evening so it was a perfect, misty night by the time we got in. I love the kid free convos! Thanks for hosting, Meghan!

Official Kick Off!

Yay! St. Matthews MOPS has begun! We had a meet & greet on Tuesday where moms could come and see the space, meet the nursery workers and let their kids play for a bit. Sharon, from the church office came to visit. Personally, I'm a visual person so I would like to see where I'm going before the first day.

 Our first meeting was a success! We had an excellent turn out. We just went over the basics, rules and brainstormed ideas for meetings. We did an icebreaker I call, the chair game. You have to get up and find another chair if the question applies to you. We ran out of questions after a while and just sat around and talked. It was nice. I think we have a great group! Breakfast was delicious, too!

MomCon 2019 Orlando, Florida

MomCon is an International MOPS conference. For the first time this decade it was right here in Florida! Hurricane Dorian gave us a fright and moved a few things around, but moms made it happen regardless! I went down with a group of 25 moms from Jacksonville. Most of them from the St. Marks group and a few joining us in the St. Matthew's group. This was my 3rd MomCon, and by far, the best one! A bit of a back story: at the last meeting at St. Marks we did a flash mob dance from a girls night. We went to 1Vibe, a Hip Hop class and did the dance for the group. A video was taken and posted on a MOPS Leadership page. The CEO of MOPS, Mandy Arioto asked us to dance on stage at MomCon! We got a choreographer and practiced all summer! Fast forward to this past weekend and WOW! I am so impressed with us! We definitely fulfilled this year's themes of MOPS which are to LIVE TO THE FULL, FEAR LESS and FIND YOUR TRIBE! It was an amazing weekend! MomCon will be in Denver, CO next year. We should try to make it happen!

Green room and stage selfie before and after our dance!

Anne, Noah and I soaking up all the wisdom to bring back to St. Matts

Relaxing in the pool before the first session

Sushi and Karaoke

Meeting Mandy in the hotel lobby

Face masks and swapping mom stories

I went to a session on starting a new group

We took up more than a whole row!

This was my favorite session. Ugh. Controlling my anger is a tough one for me when parenting.

Talking about breathing room

Our MC was awesome (and a magician)

MOPS is all over the world!

Yes! Peace!

Serenity

Mandy, the CEO with her mom, sister in law and brother right in front!

Google Bob Goff! He is amazing!!

First Summer

We don't have regular meetings over the summer, but we still need support and help momming. So, we try to get together for play dates and girls nights. All the kids are out of school so it's not just about the preschoolers. Although, we have a bunch of homeschool moms in our group so I think it's going to be like this all the time. The more the merrier, right!?

Play Dates!

Adventure Landing water park, Murray Hill Splash pad, library, Sweet Pete's and the skyway, the Cummer Art Museum, zoo, parks and each other's houses- we had lots of play dates and got to meet a few new friends. We're always looking for ways to keep cool with the babies in the Florida heat!

Pool Party Girls Night

I've done some MINGLE MONDAYS on Facebook to try to get the group "chatting" so we can get to know each other a little bit. It's been fun reading some of these answers.

MINGLE MONDAY

Registrion is Ready!

Yay! Our registration is live! Please click here to join our group!

We Are Live!

It's official! The new MOPS group has been started! Technically, I have to complete a bunch of training courses before we can be listed as a group on mops.org. But we are rockin' and rollin'! We have space reserved for the fall, nursery workers committed and a few leadership members brewing. This is going to be good! Please stay tuned for registration information in the next month. In the meantime, check out the new theme video for this year.