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.

Daddy Panel Key Points

Please forgive us for the delay in posting an update from our September meeting's Daddy Panel. As you know, motherhood can be time consuming! We had a wonderful group of Fathers share their thoughts with us on Daddy-hood and parenting. It was a fun and educational evening.

Some thoughts to remember from our Daddy Panel:

• Don't criticize their interaction with the kids, they don’t need our "directions" on how to handle their children
• Stand behind the answers they give to the kids
• Words of affirmation letting them know how we see them: "You are a great Dad", "I appreciate you"
• Give them suggestions on how they may handle a situation AFTER the kids are out of ear shot, not in front of them
• Remember what is always on their minds: "How will I provide for my family"

Sometimes it is hard to bite our tongues when we see Daddy tossing the baby up to catch her, or solving a tantrum differently than we would, but we must learn to. God gave our children two loving parents to learn and grow from and with that comes two different ways to learn. The amazing Dad in our children's life needs to be encouraged just as much as we do. Plus, it will lift you up and make you feel wonderful to praise the extraordinary man that your child calls Dad.

Free Fun

Hello Mothers,

I realize this is short notice, but the Orlando Musuem of Art is free on Thursdays from 1-4 pm and we are planning on attending this Thursday. They are highlighting the works of William Joyce, a children's book author.
Let me know via email if you can come.
Barb

Meet the Steering Team

We'd like to introduce the women who make our meetings happen, you may contact any of us with questions or comments at any time.

Molly Culley Coordinator molly_culley@bellsouth.net
Barb Shortal Discussion coordinator bshortal@cfl.rr.com
Karen Sunar-Waters Finance cdnsunar@aol.com
Delaina McElroy Creative Activities delaina@cfl.rr.com
Sarah Zabukovec Hospitality zabukox@comcast.net
Christina Cowhart Publicity otowntea@yahoo.com
Vandie Loper MOPPETTS vandie@fumc-orl.org

2008-09 Meeting Schedule

Join us on the 2nd Sunday of each month at First United Methodist Church of Orlando. Room 311 of the Wesley Building on the corner of South St. and Rosalind. We meet from 5:30 P.M. - 7:30 P.M. Each meeting includes dinner and free childcare. See you there!
September 14
October 12
November 9
December 14
January 11
February 8
March 8
April to be announced due to Easter
May to be announced due to Mother's Day

Stay tuned for meeting subjects and projects.
God Bless

Welcome!

Welcome to our MOPS at Fumco Blog! The place where you can stay up to date with our group! Not only will we keep you posted about meetings, but this is a place where you can come to for resources, advice and friendship. Enjoy...more to come soon!