Resource Page

Come to this post from time to time to find links to resources for your family

Online fun for the kids:

• www.starfall.com
• http://www.handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/manuscript/bibleschool/index.htm This is a site that has tools to help children practice their handwriting. The page that is linked will print practice worksheets that are from the bible: The Lords Prayer and the 10 Commandments.
• www.pbskids.org
• http://www.scholastic.com/parents/play/

Recipes & Food Shopping:

• http://www.preschoolsnacks.blogspot.com/

• Share Florida is a non-profit organization where you can get groceries at 50% off or more. It looks easy, one of our Moms has used it for a few months and has been pleased. Check it out.http://www.shareflorida.org/

• The Grocery Game: for a minimal fee you can get a list of the best deals in town to match up with the Sunday paper coupons. Visit the site for a trial and get more details. www.TheGroceryGame.com

Entertainment & Dinning:

• For a fun evening with your husband, or the girls; lunch in the afternoon or quiet tea time along, visit Infusion Tea. Their site lists events such as Tea Tasting, Entertainment and more. http://www.infusiontea.us/

Travel and Vacations:

• Trying to go on vacation or need to book your plans to visit the family. Try this site, we've heard good things about it. http://www.travelzoo.comm/ or http://www.aaa.com/

Wiser Older Women

Thank you SO much to our amazing guests last night. Adele, Cari and Vandie. Your advice and support is very appreciated and so valuable to us.

Our Wiser Women shared tools, resources and ideas to help us as we journey through the toddler and preschool years. I'm glad MOPS is one resource that can help. All of the Moms reminded us how important it is to surround ourselves with other Mothers so we don't feel alone when we face challenging days with our kids. That is what we are here for, to help each other.

We all know how many parenting books there are out there. These Moms have read them all! Here is a list of the books that really helped and continue to help as their children go through their teenage years:

• How to Discipline with Love by Dr. F Dodson
• Discover Your Children's Gifts by Fortune
• The Power of a Praying Parent

We also discussed a number of programs and classes:

• Growing Kids God's Way
• Boundaries

Check back with here for further information on where these programs can be found. We may be looking into hosting one at MOPS. Many of these programs are offered for both Mom and Dad.

Other suggestions:

Divide ownership of parenting or household activities. For instance, if your husband has offered to do bath time, let him do it his way, don't correct or offer suggestions. Simply accept his offer for help and allow yourself the time to work on something you own.

Get on your child's level when talking to them. Try to take the focus off them and direct them to think of how their actions make other's feel. "How do you think that makes Mommy feel?" This is a suggestion by the Becky Baily program, Loving Guidance. For more information visit http://www.beckybailey.com/

Timers. Depending on your child's age, you may find it helpful to use a timer to help them get tasks done. One of our guests suggested a unit that has three timers on one base so you can use it with more than one task or child. I found one on Amazon you may check out. This may not be the exact one suggested by our guest.

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-LER6999-Time-Tracker%C2%AE/review/product/B0012OI6J0/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

I'd like to close with a scripture shared by Adele:

Isaiah 40:11

He tends his flock like a shepherds: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

Outreach Night!

Our October meeting was our month to do an outreach project. We helped the FUMCO sewing ministry prepare clothes and blankets to go to children in need. Thanks Ladies, job well done! October was also breast cancer awareness month. We hope you made a breast buddy! A friend you will call each month to remind her to do a self breast exam or to schedule her mammogram. This disease touches everyone, don't let it touch you.

Happy Thanksgiving

MOPS @ FUMCO wishes you and your families a veryHappy Thanksgiving.

While listening to Z88 a few days ago, I heard a story about a mother who is facing the same challenge I am dealing with: Teaching her young children the importance of being thankful. I thought her idea of how to get them thinking about it was worth passing along. Each night she has her children reflect on the day and asks them what they are most thankful for that day. I've been doing it with my kids (ages 6 and 4) for about a week now. Tonight I was thrilled to hear their answers finally seem though-filled. My daughter was thankful for "searching for sharks teeth on Venice Beach" and my son was thankful for "fishing on the pier". I felt teary eyed that those were memorable moments for them too.

Each holiday season our children are inundated with ideas for "things" to ask Santa to bring them. My family has a tradition of picking names off the giving tree at Chick-fil-A or at our church and buying gifts for a less fortunate family. Unfortunately, that seems to slip out of mind during the rest of the year. Maybe this mother's idea, if used somewhat regularly, can help our children realize what wonderful things they already have instead of getting caught up in the toy isle of wonder!

God Bless

Creative Budgeting

What a great meeting tonight. We shared ideas on saving money in our households. Below are some links to some of the sites we discussed that help save money.

The Grocery Game: for a minimal fee you can get a list of the best deals in town to match up with the Sunday paper coupons. Visit the site for a trial and get more details.
www.TheGroceryGame.com

Share Florida is a non-profit organization where you can get groceries at 50% off or more. It looks easy, one of our Moms has used it for a few months and has been pleased. Check it out.
www.ShareFlorida.org

Trying to go on vacation or need to book your plans to visit the family. Try this site, we've heard good things about it.
www.TravelZoo.comm or www.AAA.com

Some other great tips shared:

• meal plan by type of meal you want. For example: Monday/Mexican, Tuesday/Italian. It is easier than trying to plan based on the main food ingredient.
• opt out of "point" programs on your credit cards and tell them you want cash back instead.
• shop thrift stores, a great place to find children's clothes and most Goodwills carry return items from Target, often still in packages never used.
• Costco pharmacy is available to non-members and they have the lowest price on prescriptions
• use Quicken or Quickbooks to track your spending, you can take a quick glance at a pie chart or detail every penny

If you have any you would like to share, please do so.

MOPS Night Out

Ladies come and join us for an evening of girl time, girl talk and maybe some vino...

Thursday November 13th 7:00 pm

Infusion Tea Room in Urban Think at Thornton Park
625 East Central Blvd.
Orlando 32801
http://www.urbanthinkorlando.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp
http://www.infusionorlando.com/
For questions or concerns contact Barbara Shortal @ 407.256.3326

A Must See Movie

If you haven't already heard of Fireproof, visit the link below

http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/

This is a movie all should see, married, divorced, single, everyone.