2011-2012 MOPS Year is about to BEGIN!!

Ladies! The 2011 year of MOPS will be starting Thursday, September 1st. Our monthly meetings are on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month. The meetings are from 9:00am - 11:30am and held in the main auditorium of Faith Community Church on Kettleman Lane (by Target).

You are invited to a fun filled year with other Moms in the Lodi area. We are all going through the same things you are going through. It's a time to get together with friends, rejuvenate, take advantage of free childcare for 2 and a half hours and relax!

The MOPS Book Club is also starting back up. The next Book Club meeting will be Monday, August 22nd at 7:00pm at Panera Bread. The meetings will be held at the same time, same place, on the 4th Monday of every month. Not a good reader? No problem. You can come to hear about the book that was read and sit and chat with the other moms. ALL Moms are welcome!

Mom's Night Out will also be kicking back into gear on the 4th Thursday night of every month. The next one will be on Thursday, September 22nd at 7:00pm at Panera Bread. Come and kick up your feet, eat some yummy carbs, or just enjoy a cup of coffee or tea and revel in a night of female adult conversation!

For more MOPS 'get together' information, log on to our meetup site: www.meetup.com/mopslodi

We hope to see you there!

Tea and Testimony April 21st, 2011

Our next MOPS meeting is on Thursday, April 21st. This meeting is a special meeting. It is our 'Tea and Testimony' meeting. It's when we all get dressed up in our Special Spring Attire (whatever that means to you, it doesn't have to be a dress or a skirt) and have a grown-up Tea Party!!

The MOPS leadership team will be providing the food and refreshments. The table leaders will have their tables all decorated pretty. It is a time of fun and reflection. Debbie Didreckson will be giving her testimony and there will be other speakers and topics to lift our spirits and fill our souls. You will NOT want to miss this meeting!

We look forward to seeing you there. May God bless you this week.

Early Literacy Links

As promised, the links for the Early Literacy talk that Lisa Hillstrom gave today at MOPS are below. Please leave us a comment if you have any additional questions!

Helpful Literacy Links:

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/37100
(environmental print)

http://www.readingrockets.org/shows/launching/toddling
(30min video)

http://bcove.me/5nzrez8u
(early reading video 4:58)

http://www.reading.org/Libraries/Parents/pb1070_ready.sflb.ashx
(early reading pamphlet)

http://www.reading.org/Libraries/Parents/pb1071_support.sflb.ashx
(supporting your beginning reader)

http://www.reading.org/Libraries/Parents/pb1072_activities.sflb.ashx
(writing)

http://www.reading.org/Libraries/Parents/pb1073_want.sflb.ashx
(what kids like to read)

http://www.brighthub.com/education/early-childhood/articles/107362.aspx
(Writing phases)

Welcome!!

Hello ladies and welcome to the new and improved Lodi MOPS Blog!! I am so glad you stopped by. We are very excited about the new blog and it's multiple possibilities. Thanks to your input, we will have a multitude of topics we will be able to cover in hopes to keep you all interested and coming back for more!!

This first blog will be about some upcoming MOPS Events and a couple of 'Spring Cleaning' tips because, yep, it's that time of year!

April 18th - MOPS Book Club
Our MOPS chapter has a monthly book club which meets on the 3rd Monday night of each month at 7:00pm at Panera Bread on Lower Sac in Lodi. Any and all Moms are encouraged to come! You can eat dinner at the restaurant, just partake in some tea or coffee with a pastry or simply come for the fellowship with other Moms!! It's an open invitation. You may come and go as you please. We would LOVE to see you there!

April 21st - Tea and Testimony
Tea and Testimony happens during our regularly scheduled MOPS meeting. We all get to dress up in our new Spring gear and have a grown-up tea party! For this meeting, we will not need to bring any food. The MOPS leadership team will be providing the tea, other refreshments, brunch and dessert! It's sure to be DELICIOUS! Debbie Didreckson will be giving her testimony and there will be a couple other speakers as well to fill our minds and soothe our souls. We are so excited! We hope to see you there!

Spring Cleaning Tips and Tricks:

1. Keep it simple. Don't overwhelm yourself by thinking you have to clean your entire house in a day. Take it one room at a time.

2. Open up the windows and/or play some music. There is not much more likely to get us up and moving than some fresh air and good music! It lightens the spirit and makes your task seem not quite so daunting! (Especially in the bathrooms when cleaning with bleach or ammonia, an open window will help save brain cells!)

3. Start at the top and work your way down. There is little more frustrating that having cleaned an entire room only to notice the cobwebs or dust build up on the light fixture or ceiling fan. Once you knock down the nastiness, now you have to vacuum or sweep again!

4. Keep a damp rag with you at all times. When you see that dirty hand print on the door trim or that sticky something-or-other on the light switch, you will be prepared! The fewer trips you have to make to the pantry for cleaning supplies, the easier your task will ultimately be.

4. Leave a nice scent in the finished rooms. You can make a simple air freshener right in your own home. Use a small spray bottle and fill with 1 part water, 1 part rubbing alcohol (to help it evaporate faster) and a couple drops of your favorite essential oil. When you have completed a room, spray a little in the air to put the finishing touches on your hard work!!

Please be sure to stop by again soon for our next post! We hope you have a great week!

A fun link you've just gotta hear....

So, evidently tomorrow at the meeting we are gonna hear The Toy Packaging Song! It's good enough that everyone will want to share this with friends...so follow this link to http://saragroves.com/lyrics/o-holy-night/toypackaging/ Gotta love all the cool stuff we learn at MOPS!

MOPS Meeting December 16th, 2010

This coming MOPS meeting is sure to be cram packed with lots of fun! We have an Ornament Exchange for which we will be playing "Eskimo Bingo". If you would like to participate, bring a wrapped Christmas tree ornament $5.00 or under. It will be lots of fun!!!

Please remember that ALL tables are to bring food for this meeting. It's almost Christmas and we need to be ingesting as much yummy-ness as possible!! HA!

As always, please be sure to check out our Meetup site for meet ups with Moms in between MOPS meetings. The link is: meetup.com/mopslodi. We have many fun things going on like Mom's Night Out, Book Club Meetings, Playdates and much, much more. Check it out!!

Hope to see you next Thursday!

Holiday Bazaar at MOPS

For those of you who didn't get enough shopping done on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, we now have Thrifty Thursday for you! Ok, I don't know how thrifty it will be...but I couldn't think of anything else to go with it, unless we go with Bizarre-o MOPSday! Either way, it's going to be a fun shopping day! This may be the only day you and your friends can shop together without having to move heaven and earth to arrange it. MOPS moms, crafters, and other local businesses will be set up in the back room to show ya what they've got! Bring money for shopping and hopefully you'll be all finished prepping for Christmas when you go home on Thursday!

MOPS Meeting, October 21st

Yes, It's that time again! We are having our second meeting of this month on Thursday the 21st from 9 - 11:30! We will be having our Second Annual Clothing Exchange (OK, so its the first clothing exchange...last year we did the coats...so we expanded it a bit! Yea!) Please bring any clothing, coats, shoes, etc...that is in GOOD condition (We are not the dump!) Make sure everything is clean. You can bring adult, child, baby - whatever you want. We will have a rotation set up so it is fair for everyone to "shop" Anything left at the end of the day will be hauled off by the Lodi House Thrift Store. This is a win-win-win! YOU get rid of stuff that you don't want. YOU get to shop in a comfortable environment. We get to DONATE to a worthy cause when all is said and done! How awesome is that?!

Impact Sports Playdate!

On Tuesday, October 26 at 10:00 a.m. we are having a MOPS playdate at Impact Sports in Lodi! The cost is $5 for children ages 3 and up. There is lots of room for them to run and play while mom's chat...or even join in with them! If you are looking for something to do to get ya out of the house, this might just be what you're looking for! Go to the Lodi MOPS Meetup to RSVP!

Our first official meeting of the 2010-2011 season is this Thursday, September 16th from 9 a.m. to 11:30! It's going to be a great year as we take on the theme.."Momology...the Art and Science of Mothering" It is a delicate balance between the two, but everyone has their own style and combination of Art and Science when it comes to our kids. If you know anything about science, you know that variables change all the time...and when those variables have personalities we have to change our methods in order to be successful! Some days are like a wildly painted Monet and others like a methodical Escher. If you want to find out your mothering "style" as it relates to this year's theme...follow this link and print out the test. You may be surprised with what you learn! www.personalityprofiles.com Be sure to bring your results with you to MOPS and we can share what we've learned! See Ya'll Thursday! ....and don't forget there is breakfast!

MOPS Kick-Off/Registration Party!!!!

We are so excited that it is "that time of year" again! Thursday, September 2nd from 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. we are having the 2010-2011 MOPS Kick-Off Party at Katzakian Park. This is the one by Wine and Roses, on Turner Avenue. Bring the kids and bring your checkbook, if you haven't already registered for the year, in order to secure your spot! It will be a great time to catch up with friends you might not have seen over the summer, and a chance to reach out and make new ones...as we're always inviting mom's to MOPS! Who knows...maybe some poor, unsuspecting mom will wander into the park with her kids and we will all meet-n-greet her that way! What a story she'll have later when she's asked..."And how did you end up in the Lodi MOPS?!" Anyway...mark your calendars and see us there! It will be great to catch up!

If, by chance, you've gotta go to the dentist or something equally unpleasant, remember that our first official meeting is at Crossroads-Heartland Better Together on the 16th of September from 9 - 11:30. See ya there!!!

Save Your Money!!

School is starting soon and the kids need clothes. Bring your kids useable but unwanted clothes and swap them at a clothes swap!
Wednesday July 21st, 2010 from 9:30am – 11:30am
For Location and more info Contact:
Elsa Hillstrom 209-367-8799 casahillstrom@yahoo.com or
Autumn Frazier at jadyns_mommie@yahoo.com

Help out and Hand down..
*Please bring clothes clean and ready to put on sorted tables.
*All sizes of clothing welcome, including adults
*Everything will be donated that afternoon
*Kids are welcome to attend