St. Matthew's MomCo Jax

For our first meeting in March, we played games. It felt so good to laugh. I mean like real, belly laughs. Kate had to wrap herself in toilet paper as a mummy for half the meeting. Jinny had to sit under the table for the other half. It was a great stress reliever!  For our second meeting of March we had Erin Roskelly from First Command talk to us about finances. We discussed one family checking account, saving for kids colleges, life insurance and all sorts of money issues.  There were lots of fun play dates enjoying the gorgeous spring weather. One Tree Hill is a favorite as is the zoo and lots of parks in the area.  We did a Monday evening family bowling party. It was a great turn out. The kids loved to bowl and some parents got a chance to get in there, too. It's neat that the dads were excited to hang out again, too. We cleaned out our closets to bring to a clothing swap moms night out at Khristi's. I left with a bag of goodies. All the clothes not claimed were donat...

Work it, girl! February was busy. There was lots of fun things happening in our group. For our first meeting of the month, Noelle Pomeroy came to talk to us about sex. The conversation got a little tense, there were tears, laughter and all in between. It was a gorgeous day to sit on the bleachers outside the church and work on improving our relationships.  We had a hot tub & s'mores girls night at Meghan's. The first one had to be rescheduled because it was too cold to get out of the hot tub! There were a bunch of play dates: the zoo, farm and parks! We did a MOPS & POPS Progressive Dinner Valentine's Day party. We were supposed to go by boat but the weather was nasty. We drove instead, first to Meghan's for apps. Next to Lucy for Haystacks. Last, to Kate's for dessert. It was neat to see the husbands making friends, too. Our second meeting in February was relaxed and casual. It was a gorgeous day to sit outside again. We traded mom hacks and recipes. No ne...

"Better Moms Make a Better World" is one of the MOPS tagline. We are all about you, the mom. That's one thing that sets us apart from other moms groups. You come to a meeting, drop your children with Carolyn, then come take a break and fill your soul. We are here to support you, make sure you are getting what you need so you can be your best self when caring for your family. We know you are carrying a lot on your shoulders. We are here to help. Our meeting topics are designed to strengthen your soul and provide you with content to be the best mom you can be. Let us know if you have ideas for topics or speakers. We still have a few spots to fill this year. For our second meeting of the new year, we had 2 meetings in one week. The first was a zoom meeting we tapped into with the St. Marks MOPS. It was a school choice panel. Kelly Risdon spoke about her experience with private school at St. Marks. Laurie Cutlip talked about homeschooling. Charlotte Joyce spoke about Duval co...

I was thinking I'd be blogging once a month and then all of a sudden, it's January. Please, feel free to take over the blogger roll as I am failing. Let's do a recap. Our first meeting in November was moved to Tillie Fowler Park. Our one and only nursery worker, Carolyn had a COVID scare so she stayed home to be extra cautious. There also happened to be a scheduling error so we took that as a God Moment and moved to the park. We wrote thank you notes and talked about all the things we are grateful for. It was perfect timing headed into the Thanksgiving holiday.  Kate has been awesome at putting together girls nights and hosting them at her home. She even has party cups for us and a neat air filter system in her house to keep the air circulating in these COVID times. After Halloween she hosted a movie night to watch Witches.  Anne has been putting together some play dates. A group went to the beach, Cummer Museum , zoo and the Jax Arboretum in November. There have been a f...

Strength is part of this year's theme in MOPS. This is a good one, especially during these crazy times. This was the theme we chose for the month, too. Our first meeting in October was a yoga meeting. Our very own, Danielle led us in a spiritual flow focusing on core strength. She spoke to us about diastasis recti (the separation of your "six pack" muscles after pregnancy) and gave some tips on fixing that with yoga moves. MOPS International sends us a bunch of meeting material. We used this (for the first time) for our second meeting of the month. We worked in groups to build a tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows then listened to Toni Greco talk about building mental stamina. Afterwards we had a really authentic conversation about how we are using these tools during this COVID pandemic. Kate put together a BINGO night at Lillians one night this month. We did not come home as big winners but it was still nice to have a night out and lucky to snag a table! We are stil...

You guys! Let's Decide to Rise! Check out this year's theme video here . It's going to be good! We've had some fun play dates- the beach, Reddie Point Preserve and the zoo.  We've had some fun girls nights- in the pool and watching Mulan.  Our first meeting was successful. We are in need of nursery workers, so if anyone knows of anyone who would like to come and help with babies for a few hours, please reach out! We talked about what kinds of meetings topics we'd like to hear. For our second meeting we did meal prep. We made 5 different freezer meals.       Be sure to take advantage of MOPS International. The perks of that membership are really great right now during a pandemic. They started doing Facebook Live meetings every Tuesday. Take a look here . I love the Tuesday texts. We have lots of fun coming up this fall. Come have fun with us!

We sure are in some odd times. The Corona Virus numbers keep going up, at some point Jacksonville was even a national hot spot! How are you? Are you okay? Are you taking care of yourself? "If Mama 'ain't happy, a'int nobody happy." It's been a struggle to find things to do with kids. Most camps are canceled. We had a water park play date scheduled but then canceled it when local numbers started spiking. People are scared. There is a lot of unknown. The good news is we have MOPS! We are good to go for year number TWO! We are officially registered with MOPS International and got the packet of goodies. The space is reserved for our meetings starting September 3rd at 9:30am. We are working on childcare details and hoping to have lots of outdoor time for the MOPPETS to help with social distancing. Stay tuned for more information. Get signed up with our group officially. Dues are only $30 to be paid to St. Matthews. You can pay by cash or check to the front office o...