January 7th Meeting

Our first meeting of 2014 was last week.  Many of our moms were out either sick themselves or with sick little ones, so it was somewhat of a quiet meeting.  But winter seems to always have these quiet meetings with the cold weather and all of the illnesses that go around. 
We started out with announcements.  The biggest announcement was the new Parents' Day Out at Grace Church.  It will be Mondays and Wednesday from 9am-1pm.  They will allow drop ins if space allows.  If you want more information, you can email us or contact Grace Church directly.  We also passed out the Spring schedule with the basics - play dates, meetings, and steering team meetings. 
After announcements, we did Mom of the Day and then had brunch.  One of our new moms was the Mom of the Day winner!  While we ate, we watched a segment from MOPS.org about motherhood comparisons.  Shauna Niequist went into how we all tend to cry to compare ourselves with others.  But, if we focus on lifting someone else up and making them feel better, we will feel better too.  She also went into how we all have a purpose, but that purpose may only be for a season.  For her, her purpose recently has been to say "no" and focus on her kids.  Although things like packing the bag for school, making the perfect lunch, and keeping a clean house are "good" things, spending time with our kids should always be a focus.  Here is the link to her blog.
After the video, we moved on to craft.  Amanda had a fun trash-to-treasure project using empty wine and beer bottles.  We wrote on them with hot glue and then painted them to make fun works of art.  Here are some of the projects:

Since so many moms were missing, we skipped small group time, instead spending time as a big group just chatting after finishing the craft. 
The kids had fun learning about being thankful.  The story was about the 10 lepers Jesus healed (Luke 17:11-19).  Although all ten men were probably thankful for the healing, only one went back to tell Jesus himself.  We need to remember to thank God for everything He has given us and not take anything for granted.  So, the kids made thankful journals so they could write/draw the things they are thankful for.  Hopefully you can use this to help them to remember to be thankful for all things.
Our next meeting will be January 21.  We hope everyone is well by then and can join us!