The One About Community

Have I ever said how much I love MOPs? Let me just tell you that if you are a mother with children younger than first grade, run, don't walk to your nearest MOPs group. If there isn't one near you, consider starting one. Seriously.

To say that life is a little topsy-turvy right now would be an understatement. We'll adjust, but I am not sure how I would have made the transition to this point with out all my friends. Friends who, not coincidentally, are mostly from MOPs.

From the moment we heard we might be housing this precious little baby, they have been praying about and for Baby D. When we had an arrival date, my friends started collecting the things he needed.

When Baby D came a week earlier than expected, my sister went to my cousin's house and picked up a crib, brought it over and helped set up his room. All that day friends showed up with clothes, toys, and even dinner for my family.

What a blessing to me to have such a community of friends who support each other in every endeavor. I am a rich woman indeed.

Do you need this in your life? Find a MOPs. Find a church. Find a group of women in the same life phase as you are in. Women need each other and we need community.

Parade 2010

What? Doesn't every one keep a stack of 5 gallon buckets on their porch?

Well, after the stack sat there for about a week, my husband started getting a little cranky with "the mess in the way," so I knew I had to move forward with my bucket stack.

I added support posts which gave me the right shape and something to staple my chicken wire to. I wrapped the top in some cardboard that a friend had on hand for various projects, and papier mached the bottom portion (Boy, if my husband hadn't liked the mess before, he sure hated it now!) to create...

a giant sized beaker! Actually, it's an Erlenmeyer Flask, but when you say that, people scratch their heads and say, "Huh?" If you say beaker, they know just what you are talking about.

This became the float for the parade in our small town. As the publicity coordinator for our MOPs group, it was my job to see to the parade float. MOPs International has given us the theme "Momology: The Art and Science of Mothering" which, frankly, I don't love, but I wanted to work with the theme.

Here we are all lined up for our parade on a grey and foggy Saturday morning.

We walked as a group with all the other MOPs groups in our area. There are now actually 4 groups in our town and neighboring areas. The newest group is MOMSNext, for moms whose kids have gone into elementary school.

We didn't have quite the turn out I wanted. The parade is always the first weekend in August, but a funny thing happened this year with Sunday being August 1st. I think people assumed the parade was going to be on the 31st of July, but it was actually on the first Saturday of August. Sadly, a lot of people already had other plans by the time they figured that out.

Any way, we got rained on, so I am sure a lot of people were glad to not be there.

And then my camera batteries died....

That's What He Said

Today was leadership clean up for MOPs leadership. While the care group leaders cleaned toys, the steering team cleaned out the MOPs closet. I was brutal. I made people get rid of all manner of things that I knew had only been used once and then languished in the closet for at least 5 years.
Jonah ended up in possession of 5 little globe play balls.
As we were leaving he discovered that he couldn't carry 5 balls with two little hands. I was helping him stuff two of the balls into his jacket pockets while he protested.
"No, Mom, people will think those are my boobs way down there!"
"Sweetie, every one knows that five year old boys do not have boobs..."
"Oh, right. We have nibbles."
"What?"
"Nibbles. NI-BBLES."

*pththfffheeheeheeHAHAHAHA*

Fish Wrap

Let's talk about what has been going on around here since Jonah turned 5, shall we?



We had our first snow Sunday night. Before Christmas.

There was no school on Monday, since our little town has NO way to manage the snowfall we get twice a year. The kids could have gone to school with a 2 hour delay since the roads were all bare by 9 am, but since the district put out their automated calls at 4:30 am, I guess they just didn't know that early. I am super glad that I went to the grocery store On Sunday. I didn't go anywhere on Monday except to take Abby to the doctor.



And speaking of Abigail-

Thursday night she fell off the guest bed. the lowest bed in the house. It also happens to have the smallest space beside it because it is tucked between the eaves and the half wall to the stairs in the family room. We have no idea what actually happened, but we think she may have hit her arm on the base moulding. It warranted a trip to the ER. She is such a dramatic child that when she gets hurt- and the drama stops- we know she is really hurt. The ER doctor said that her arm is *not broken* and that was confirmed by the radiologist the next day. However, on Monday she was still asking me for pain meds about 2x per day, and it hurts her arm to be touched or jostled. She is in a soft cast- splint, padding, ace bandage, and sling- which makes dressing an adventure. I had to take the side seam out of the arm of her long sleeve shirt so she could get it on since it hurt too much for her to try to push her arm through the sleeve. We will get a follow up appointment some time this week.



I sewed a new cover for Jonah's car seat. "They" say you should replace your car seat every six years to avoid obsolescence. I don't think it matters too much if you are driving a car that is twice as old as the outdated car seat...

Anyway, Jonah's cover had basically shredded under his tush, and he made matters worse by picking at it while he was sitting in it. I took the old cover, cut the seams out and used the pieces as a pattern for the new cover. I won't tell you where the boo boos are, you don't look too closely, and we will all pretend that this is a new car seat, K? K.

Besides, all the materials for a new cover were only $10. Have you priced new car seats lately? They start at 4x as much!



I got through the MOPs brunch. I put my MOPs newsletter out on the brunch day. Since we don't have MOPs again until January, I have a feeling that the next volume will be rather slim.

I also got to sing some special music and lead Christmas carols with some of my girlfriends. The Moppet Coordinator happened to be in the room to hear it and said, "G, it just doesn't get any better than that." Little did she know.... The Moppet helpers have their brunch after the moms, and we steering stay to help serve. We ladies sang our songs again, only this time we brought Mr. Five-Year-Old-Jonah in on the last song, Go Tell It On The Mountain. For weeks we have been singing this song together. I sing the verses, and he belts out the chorus. My little man brought the house down! I remember singing my first "Special" at a church picnic when I was 5- and I have been singing ever since.



I painted my kids' bathroom. I forgot to take a before picture, of course. The kids had been gone with their dad on a "snow hunt" into the mountains so I decided it was a good time. The bathroom had a wall paper border, but since the kids always forget to turn on the main light/fan combo, the paper was really peeling. I painted the upper section white and the lower section lime green. I also bought a new shower curtain and rug. They really liked the color I chose. I still need to hang the towel rack and I plan to run a flat, white moulding at the color change. Ugh, everything just takes so much time- and power tools. I will have to ask my husband to bring the proper ones home....



Of course there has been homeschooling, house cleaning, business running, bill paying, child bathing, tooth brushing, bed time praying, and clean head kissing too.



I guess that's about all the news that's fit to wrap your fish in.

You Did That How?

I always wonder about the injuries my kids get. Usually I start by asking, "Exactly what were you doing?" as I am reaching for the band aids and end with, "And you expect me to feel bad for you?" I know. I'm not big on sympathy for self inflicted stupidity.

But I expect you to feel sorry for me. You see, we were "Human Bowling" today at MOPs. I was the ball. I strapped my helmet on, knelt down on the skateboard, wrapped my fingers tightly around the board, and hunkered down for impact. And it hurt. Not the head. The fingers that I had wrapped around the END of the skateboard. The ones that got smashed between the board and the pin. Actually, just one. And it still hurts, and it is swollen and a little purple- but definitely not broken.

You would think that that would be bad enough, but no. When I hit the pins I just kept on rolling. Straight through the pins and then through the empty space between the pins and the food booth on the other side of the gym, and then through the caramel apple stand. Then I looked up. To see what I had hit.

It is definitely a shake your head and mumble under your breath moment.
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While you're at it, I hijacked my mom's 100th post. Go see what we had to say.

Lucky Me!

I have been having a hard time with my decision to step down from MOPS steering for next year. Not that I am second guessing the decision- because I still feel like it was the right thing to do- but because most of my close friends are going to be on steering next year and I was feeling out of the loop. Kicked out of the club. Call it either a lot of envy or a little jealousy. What ever. The hardest thing so far was that the steering team was going to Women Of Faith this year- and I SO wanted to be there. Well, lucky me! They had extra tickets and extra beds!!!!!!

I just got back from "The World's Biggest Slumber Party"!

Here are some of my girls, Terra and Tamara, who won't care that I got pictures of them in their jammies- BECAUSE THEY DON'T READ MY BLOG- at our posh Seattle hotel. Seriously, I slept like a queen!

And this is the closest I have ever been to a famous person before. I know I'm not in the picture. Frankly, it wouldn't have been possible to care less about standing next to Natalie Grant. But, I was close- behind the camera- while my friend Andreena got her autograph for her daughter.

Now, if it had been Sheila Walsh, I probably would have fainted. But that's just me. If I ever grow up I want to be Sheila Walsh.

Sorry I don't have a bajillion pictures for you, but I was busy being wrapped in Infinite Grace.

Public Speaking Makes Me Want to Barf

I promised more on this subject so here you go.
At the end of every Mops brunch we have a sharing time. I call it the "Kiss and Cry" time. Really, it gets sappy. I try to avoid it altogether. It makes me uncomfortable. But this time I had to say something. Now that you've read the last post you have a little perspective on what I said. It went like this:
"We always get a bunch of cards from our friends at the end of the MOPs year. I am amazed by how many said I was strong. I'm not really. I'm a mess. But through the grace of God I can be strong enough.
All of my best friends either came from MOPs or I drug them to MOPs with me because I believe in the program that much.
This year I was struggling with some rough stuff. My friend had to literally hit me over the head with the truth. The truth that I didn't want to face. But as my friend she has earned the right to tell me things the way they are.
My hope for you is that through MOPs you can find these kinds of friends. The kinds who know your heart and love you anyway. The kind who think you are strong and help you become that."

My voice was breaking. I was sweating, and near the end I was in danger of crying.

Why? Why can I sing a song and not miss a heart beat, but speaking about myself in a transparent way makes me want to barf? Even typing these kinds of things gives me the shakes and the stomach wobbles! Why?

Exchanging A "Good" Thing For A "Better" Thing

I alluded a while back to the fact that I was giving up steering in order to do something else. It is finally time to tell you about that something else.
We have a unique situation at our house. We have a 10 year old who is finishing 6th grade. He won't be 11 until August. What that means is that even if he was in 5th grade this year he would still be almost a year younger than a lot of the kids. In 6th grade he is almost 2 years younger.
He's young. I actually prefer that to being too old for your age. But middle school has exacted a high price this year on our family. It has been a really rough year for Jesse, and by extension, the rest of the family. We have thought, discussed and PRAYED HARD about the decision that we have made. Next year Jesse will homeschool. We haven't yet figured out the logistics, but I know in my heart that it is the right decision.
I have actually wanted to do it again (Jesse started school at home) for about 2 years, but it has taken this long for God to align my husband and I in the same desire. That's what I was waiting for. If (when) all goes well this next year, I will bring Caleb home the year after that. Once the boys are running smoothly we will evaluate what we are going to do with the girls. I would like to school them all, but I realize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution and that we will have to examine this decision on a case-by-case basis.
Anyway, I covet your prayers for this next adventure in my life!

So Much To Say!

I have been trying to figure out how I was going to post all the stuff running around in my head. I think I will do a series of shorter posts. So, Here goes:

The Last Day Of MOPs

It went by like a blur, actually.

First and foremost, Andreena graduated from MOPs this year. That meant that she got to walk across the stage and receiver her "Mommy Diploma" and wear a diaper on her head- actually a pull up with a mortar board attached to the top. I promised her (Threatened?) that I was going to post this picture. It is conspicuously missing from her blog post on the same subject.

I sang a song with two of my friends. We sang "Dwell In Your House" by Hillsongs. It was beautiful if I do say so myself!

We had another lady sing a song. At this point I was able to close my eyes and relax a little. I started thinking, "Haha. Heehee. I'm done with steering. I'm done with steering." But that quickly turned into "Oh. My. Goodness. What. Have. I. Done? Why did I quit steering?!" I had to remind myself that it was for the right reasons. I hope to be asked back to steering someday, but if I don't, I know that it was God's will for my life that I let go of a "good" thing for a "better" thing.

We also got to sing our song for the Moppetts (childcare) Brunch. It was fun. I haven't had the opportunity to do that in a long time. Too long. I love to sing- actually I love to perform, too.

I got to the church at 9 am and left at 3 pm! Where did that day go?

I Will Sing!

Sing praise to the LORD,

you His godly ones,

And give thanks to His holy name.

Psalm 30:4

I told you, she gets it from me.

The video is much edited, but you get the idea.

Ok, I have a question for you:

Why is it that I can get up in front of 100+ women

and sing to them and to my Lord,

but when it comes time to "be real" and just talk,

I can barely string together a coherent sentence?

More on that later, I promise.

Special Tuesday, Part 1

This is my most recent Special Tuesday. We had a spring tea with a spring clean theme. This is the one that we did the closet redo at, as well.

On Special Tuesday it is my job to:

Arrange the decor

And the food

And the entertainment/ guest speaker.

It is a HUGE job. Luckily for me I have a great committee. We did 4 Special Tuesdays this year. The first was a harvest party at the beginning of October. On Veteran's Day in November we did "The Bite of MOPs" with the theme being the 50 states. Each small group picked a state to represent and then prepared food and decorations to go with it. In December we had our Christmas Brunch (Not my job) and our Christmas break. In February we had a "Death By Chocolate" day all planned out and then the power went out! If there is no power, there is no MOPs. Well, we just had to eat all the yummy food and go home. Then we had the last one on April 1st. This one. In May we will have our Spring Brunch (Again, not my job.) and then break for the summer.

Enjoy the pictures of Special Tuesday.

Hope you had fun!

Special Tuesday, Part 2

April first was my last Special Tuesday. I had decided at the beginning of the year that I was going to do a closet make-over. Because, really, who couldn't use a few pointers? Even if you generally have tidy closets (like me), you can usually still pick up a tip or two. Don't get the wrong idea, I have my major trouble areas, too. They're just not my closets.
So, here is the closet we redid for MOPs.

WOW! I couldn't believe all the stuff in there!

We took everything out of the closet and removed one shelf and hanging rod.

The heavy duty wire unit was purchased from Lowe's and cost only $130. It also has a long hanging rod that we didn't use because 1) We didn't need it, and 2) There wasn't space.

The dresser was one that I got for free as a part of a bedroom set but just doesn't fit in our house. It was free. If you need something, don't be afraid to ask. Institute the rule of "First Right Of Refusal". It basically says that if someone gives you something and you are going to get rid of it, you give the original owner the chance to take it back first.

The top picture is our MOPs organizer extraordinaire, Cindy and her daughter, standing in the finished product.

The next picture shows the owner's shoes. Obviously.

Then a picture showing the original hanging space being put to good use. The shoe organizer is going to be used for hats and purses. The husband's military uniforms hang out of the way because he is retired and doesn't use them much.

Last is the owner's daughter who wandered in to have a look at our progress.

Remember, we went from this:

To this:

The total cost was about $200 dollars (we also bought some storage bins that you couldn't see). The closet took about 9 man hours to finish- 3 people, 3 hours. You could do this!

Growing Pains

I once read a story about a little girl who LOVED her strand of Mardi Gras beads. She called them her pearls. One day her daddy asked her to give him her pearls. Of course these were her prize possession and she refused to do it. Her daddy kissed her and then let the matter pass for the day. Each day, though, he would ask her once for her precious treasure, and each day she refused. Sadly, she did not know that her daddy loved her so much that he had bought her a strand of real pearls to replace her bauble.
How often do we do that? We refuse to let go of what we have for God when He asks us because we do not know what He has in store for us.
So, as much as I love it, I am letting go of my leadership position in MOPs. I have an idea what I am going to do instead, but I'm keeping that close to the cuff right now. I will say that it will not be an easy thing for me to do. It may be downright painful at times. But I believe it will be the best thing for my family. And they are my first priority.

Post MOPs Letdown

Well, today was my second Special Tuesday. I feel like it went very well.
Today was The Bite of MOPs- much like The Bite of Seattle only on a much smaller scale. Our theme was the 50 States. Each of our small groups picked a state to represent, and decorated their area to match. They also made and served food from their state. Yum!
Because today was the first Tuesday following Veteran's Day, I gave the event a patriotic spin. I decorated all the tables with red, white and blue tablecloths. Each table had a flag standing in the middle of it. The podium was wrapped in a patriotic bunting and there was a display of flags in front of it.
We started our morning with 4 of the cutest boy scouts presenting the colors. After the morning business items were taken care of I gave a short history on Veteran's Day. I had a guest speaker today also. He is an area business man who is recently retired after 25 years of service in the Navy. He spoke about supporting the "Home front", wives and families left behind while the soldiers are on deployment, and how much it meant to him to know that his family was looked after while he was gone.
Then it was all food and a trivia game!
After all the preparation for these mornings and the buzz of activity, coming home to my (relatively) quite house makes me want to put on my jammies, drink some hot chocolate, and go to sleep until tomorrow! I wish.
What I actually do is: change my clothes, call my friend Kelly, drink more Coke or coffee, and start to clean my sadly neglected house.
I just called our self appointed official photographer and she assures me that I will have pictures for you soon. I will post those as soon as I get them so you will have a reference to all of my ramblings.
OK, gotta go. There's a stack of dirty dishes and a can of Coke calling my name....

It's All About ME!

So, who am I? What makes me tick?

At this point in my life I am "Mostly Mom." I have 5 children. Jesse, my eldest, is 10. He is in 6th grade, and he loves to cook. That's great for me, since I strongly dislike it. Caleb, child 2, is 8 years old. He is in 2nd grade. Caleb is all about order and routine. This is particularly challenging for me. Elizabeth, the first girl, is 6 3/4 and also in 2nd grade. She is our mother hen. When she was barely toddling she would keep her eye on her older brothers at all times and gently correct them if they began to step out of line. Abigail is 5 1/2. Abby is stepping out into the world of kindergarten this year. There is not a stage big enough for the drama that comes out of this child- and not all of it is bad drama either. I have heard that 5 is the number of God's grace. I can easily see how this could be true. Jonah is my baby- even though he turns 3 in 24 days. He is the sweetest child I have ever met. He speeks the language of love that I "get." We both love quality time. I'll do a more thorough introducton to my kids in a later set of posts.

I am married to Sebastian. We met on New Years Eve of '95/'96. We have been married for 10 1/2 years. Wow where did those years go?! I can't imagine my life being any different than it is now.

Our household, in total, consists of 2 gravely outnumbered parents, 5 young children, 3 goldfish, and one semipermanant houseguest. We are large and we are loud! Shopping for a dining room table that could seat 8 every night raised more than a few eyebrows!

I am all about MOPs (Mothers Of Preschoolers). MOPs is a church based community outreach program that caters specifically to women who have children that are kindergarten aged or younger. The immediate goal is to give these women a sense of community. We are all women in the same stage of life. We all have potty issues, children who take so long to tie thier shoes, discipline issues- that kind of thing. Of course, the long term goal of MOPs is that every woman would be brought into the famly of Christian believers. The normal format for a MOPs morning at my MOPs would be: snack and fellowship, announcements, teaching time (all mothering/ womens issues), small group discussion time, craft and fellowship time. All of this fun is crammed into 3 hours. Of course while we are having all of this fun, our children are in thier classes having fun, too. The children's classes are set up in a Sunday School format and include music, gym, snack, story, and free play time- at our MOPs group anyway. By the way, if this sounds like something you would be interested in checking out you can. I go to Camano Chapel MOPS. We are one of the few groups that meets every week in the state of Washington. The Chapel even has a night MOPs for women who can't make it durring the day. Anyway, as you can see, I fully support MOPS.

This year I am the Special Teusday Coordinator at MOPs. I believe it is a leadership position unique to our group. I am in charge of the nonformat days (the SUPER fun ones). I am doing The Bite of MOPs on November 13th. Be looking for a post on that.

If I only had to look after me I think I would probably live on sugared cerial for two meals a day and starbucks coffee for the other. I guess it's a good thing I have to think about good nutrition on an ongoing basis! I also love taco salad- but it has to be made with Doritos, 1000 Island dressing, and lots of Ketsup. And Coke.

I love to play games. I like word games and I like card games. My current favorite card game is Phase 10. I am teaching my 10 year old how to lose like a good sport. We throw in an occasional game of Uno for the littler kids who would cry if they had to play Phase 10 with me. Jesse and I also like to play Scrabble- but it's not much of a challenge to play with him yet. Since English is my Husband's second language he won't play word games with me. I do like to play games with my dad, though. He almost always beats me.

I like to read, although I don't get much chance. I love to sing- I think I'm good, too. I have a huge collection of decorating magazines. I live in the typical mom uniform of a t-shirt, blue jeans, a zip front sweatshirt, and tennis shoes.

In a really small nutshell- that's me!