MOPS Christmas!

Our MOPS Hospitality Leader, Sherry Crossley,
did a fantastic job with the decor for our last meeting! 

We were whisked away to Hawaii for a fun island themed Christmas!

Mele Kalikimaka!

The moms were all treated with a little gift at their tables, 

sunbathing gingerbread people!

It had been awhile since our last meeting, 

everyone was catching up & enjoying each other's company!

Our Christmas ornament exchange was fun as always! 

Our Coordinator, Tracie Sexton, read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to us, 

and with each "right" or "left" mentioned, we passed the ornaments around! 

We all ended up with a different ornament to take home.

All of our moms participated in the Christmas cookie exchange,

there were so many yummy treats!

We closed our meeting with a devotion read to us by our Coordinator, Tracie. 

The devotion was a reminder for us to slow down this holiday season, 

to seek His presence and give Him praise! 

After all, He is the reason for the Christmas season, our hustling & bustling can wait!

We wish all of you a blessed Christmas with your families, see you in 2013!

November 8th Meeting

Our November meeting was a lot of fun!  We had a much more relaxed atmosphere and lot of time to visit and get to know each other.  Melissa had a great fall votive craft for us to do.  Below you will find a tutorial if you missed it, or would like to make more at home. A big part of our meeting was letting all of the moms know what is coming up for the rest of the year.  We do not have another meeting in November and there is only one meeting in December (December 13th).  This will be our Christmas Luau.  If you are planning to attend the Luau, remember the following:

Cookie Exchange:  Please bring at least one dozen cookies of your choice.  You may bring more if you want, just remember to take the same number that your bring.  Please bring a separate container to take your cookies home in.  We will have zip loc bags if you forget. 

Ornament Exchange:  Please bring a wrapped ornament under $5.  There will be extras in case anyone forgets.  

Brunch:  Everyone (except steering because they brought the food to the last meeting,) is bringing food.  Specific lists went around the tables, so if you weren't there, please get with your table leader to see what you should bring.  We always look forward to this meeting to see what everyone brings to eat!


The table leaders are organizing activities with their individual tables this month since we only have one meeting and we don't have a scheduled Mom's Night Out in November.  This should be a good way to get to know each other a little better in the small groups. We hope you can attend! 

Fall Votive Holder Tutorial:


What You Need:

Glass Votive holder or you could use a jam jar or other small glass jar

Lace, Twine and an assortment of faux fall leaves, pumpkins, flowers, etc.

Hot Glue Gun (hot melt will stick better)

Votive candles


Step 1:

Attach a length of twine around the rim of the votive holder or jar.  Use enough twine to wrap around several times.  You can either secure the twine with hot glue, or tie it in a bow. 


Step 2:

Add your choice of leaves, berries, pumpkins, etc to embellish! This is when you would use the hot glue to attach the lace all the way around if you wish to use the lace.  

The finished product!  Aren't they adorable? 

Community Leadership Training

On November 1st, our MOPS group hosted a community leadership training for all area MOPS leaders.  This event was coordinated by our very own, Melissa Molchan, who serves as a MOPS Field Leader.  

Melissa and Michelle trained local MOPS leaders on topics such as Investing In Our Leaders, Team Management, and Leading Through Conflict.  There was also plenty of time to break into small groups and network with other moms in similar roles.

The event was a big hit and we look forward to hosting something similar in the future.  Please enjoy some photos from the event. 

All of the delicious treats our moms provided for the training

Examples of our past crafts and all of the cool door prizes.

Our beautiful fall table scapes were used for this training too.  They looked great!

Krista handing out tickets for door prizes

Tracie (our Coordinator) and Melisa (Field Team Leader and our Creative Activites Chair)

Tracie, Kim Heavey (Moppets Coordinator) and Kim Talmadge (Mentor Mom and DGL Mentor) 

Krista Wiechart (Discussion Group Leader)

Melissa!

Michelle talking about leading through conflict

September 27th Meeting

Our second meeting of the year revolved around a very dynamic and entertaining speaker: Mrs. Julia Jenkins. Julia is a wife, a mother of 8, and a grandmother of 5. She has a degree in nutrition from Western Michigan University and she came to talk about body image. She shared her very personal struggle with anorexia and how she found strength in the Lord, to overcome it. Julia's talk was moving and really made us all take a look at own body image and eating issues. If you missed the meeting or would just like to delve deeper into the subject, below you will find a list of scripture references Julia provided, and links to some of the books she recommended regarding food, nutrition and body image.

Scripture References
Psalm 139:13-16
II Corinthians 5:17, 10:12
Ephesians 4:15-18, 22-24
Romans 12:2
I Peter 3:4-6
Hebrews 12:1

Press Pause Before You Eat
Making Peace With Your Thighs
Do You Think I'm Beautiful
Made To Crave

Julia left us with the lyrics to the song, A More Beautiful You
by Jonny Diaz.  Here is the video:

Please enjoy a few photos from this meeting.  We really had a great time! Please join us on October 25th for our next speaker - Judy Warmington.  Judy will be giving a talk entitled "How To Eat An Elephant, Getting Organized." 

Love the new lanterns in our room!  Photo by Ashli McCune

Thanks to Sherry Crossley and the hospitality team for our beautiful "Plunge," tablescapes!  Photo by Amy Haight

Beautiful "Plunge," themed cookies by Becka's Cookies and photo provided by Amy Haight

Are you pregnant or the mother of a child in Kindergarten or younger?  Would you love to have two hours of "me time," twice a month?  Than MOPS is for you!  If you are interested in attending a meeting, please call our Coordinator, Tracie Sexton at 269-200-3035/  We would love to have you!

Mom's Night Out at the Spa

On September 21st we had our first Mom's Night Out event. It was a spa night and Melissa Molchan was our gracious host.  We had lots of fun trying on make up, satining up our hands, painting our nails and soaking our feet.  Mom's Night Out (MNO) events are usually held monthly and are a great way for our moms to get to know each other better, relax, and have some great conversation!

 Here are some photos from our spa night - complete with silly faces and poses!

Ashli waiting for her lip mask to dry.

Tracie trying on a new shad of lip gloss

Melissa guided us through and gave us great tips on color and application

Foot soak!

Left to Right: Ashli, Kim H., Kim T., Tracie and Crystal

After soaking and putting on a mask, we wrapped our feed in plastic bags.  Are you jealous yet?

Please join us for our next MNO: Appetizers at Applebee's on Gull Road.  It is this Friday, October 19th at 8:45 PM.

Plunging In!

Our first meeting of the year was a success! It was wonderful to see so many new faces, we hope that everyone had a great time & will be back for more! 

To kick off the meeting, the Steering Team introduced themselves & their positions, while dressing up for their part.. silly girls! 



After breakfast & announcements, Melissa got us started on some pampering crafts!

Working hard on making sugar scrubs:



Having fun making lip gloss!

If you would like to re-create these crafts at home, here are the instructions!

Sugar Scrub
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Mix together.
Add scent (peppermint, almond or whatever extract you wish).
Package into jar.


Lip Gloss
Melt 1/2- 1 tablespoon Vaseline
(Melt in microwave in 30 increments. Stir each time until melted).
Let cool few minutes until mixture starts to look slightly cloudy.
Quickly add flavoring (cherry kool-aid, cocoa, peppermint.. etc).
Mix until dissolved (about 30 seconds).
Pour into lip gloss container and allow to cool into solid before closing lid.

Thank you Melissa for the fun crafts!

Don't forget about our first MNO coming up on Friday, Sept. 21st- Spa Night at Melissa's!

Hope to see you there!

(FYI: We will be sending out an evite for this MNO and future get-togethers. It’s important that you RSVP so we know how many people to expect! An event may be canceled if there's not enough people that plan on coming. If you are not receiving evites, please contact us to make sure we has your correct email address and/or check your Spam folder. We do not send evites for MOPS meetings.)

See you at our next MOPS meeting on Sept. 27th!

Welcome!

Welcome to the gracespring MOPS blog! 


We decided to create this blog as an overflow from our meetings and hope that it will be a tool to encourage, inspire, and even entertain you.  We plan to post recipes, craft instructions, pictures from the meetings, and stories from the group. We invite you to interact with us in the comment section. Enjoy!

Don't forget about our summer playdates, every Thursday morning at Kindelberger Park.. (10:00, or whenever you can make it!) Hope to see you there!

Also, registration has begun for 2012-2013!

Please contact our MOPS Coordinator, Tracie Sexton at 269-200-3035 or tlsxtn7602@sbcglobal.net to register!