MOPS Monday- An Introduction

I've decided to pick a topic to post about each Monday-Friday. You got your first glimpse of it when I posted Foto Fun Friday on Saturday of all days! These should be fairly self-explanatory since I included a description with each daily picture, but I'll use this week to explain each day. I may not post them every single weekday, but I think it'll help give me direction when I'm not sure what to talk about. And, hopefully, it'll add some diversity and interest to my blog posts.

Mondays are MOPS Mondays. MOPS stands for "Mothers of Preschoolers". I heard about the group a few years back from online friends who attended in other parts of the country. With Josiah being so young back then, I didn't think I fit the criteria for joining, and I also had no idea how to even get started. When Josiah turned two, someone brought it up to me again and I was very interested in  I ended up googling it in my hometown and then emailing the contact person on the site. I was then referred to the person who was in charge this year and found out the information for joining. It was perfect timing because the group was about to start for the year just a few weeks later. At the very first meeting, they announced that several of the leadership positions were unfilled, and a friend of mine strongly encouraged me to step into the craft coordinator position. I knew nothing of the group, but was excited to be a part of it and figured that if God gave me the creative ability, I was willing to use it however He wanted me to... even if I was 8 months pregnant! 

I didn't even know how MOPS meetings worked or what the craft coordinator did, but in the following 3 1/2 months, this is what I've learned at least speaking for our group:

Although the group is called mothers of preschoolers, it encompasses moms with kids birth to 6 years old. It's a Christian-based group, hosted by a local church according to region. Ours covers the Springfield/Eugene area of Oregon and is hosted by Springfield Faith Center. Being a Christian group, we pray together and discuss topics relevant to motherhood from a Christian perspective. But it is not exclusive to Christians only. 

Meetings are held from 9:30-11:30am on the 2nd & 4th Thursdays of the month. We share announcements for the month. We celebrate upcoming birthdays by having members pick a gift from a basket of goodies. We celebrate anniversaries by having the moms pick a Hershey kiss from a basket- one for every year of marraige. We celebrate birth announcements by having moms choose a package of Saltine crackers from a basket. And, as an added bit of fun, the crackers are wrapped with a blue or purple ribbon which indicates whether they'll have a boy or girl. We typically have a theme for the week and have a speaker come share about that specific topic. We have brunch food to snack on, discuss the topic in our group with discuss questions, and do a craft project together. 

At these meetings, members are divided up into tables, which stay the same each week. The tables have about 6 members. There is a steering member, who is one of the leaders of a portion of MOPS. Their jobs probably cover way more than I am aware of, but these are the basic job descriptions. 

1. We have one steering member who leads the entire group, keeping everything organized and coordinating topics, the other steering members, and overseeing all operations. 
2. There's a steering leader for Public Relations. She works as an administrator for our facebook page, is the contact person for new moms who want to join, creates business cards for members to pass out to friends and advertise, and designs the monthly newsletter. 
3. One steering member is in charge of Moppets, which is the kids program. We have a nursery for 0-2 year olds, a 2 year old class, and a 3-5 year old class where all of the kids are watched during our meeting. The Moppets coordinator organizes the lesson plans and snacks for the older kids. 
4. There's a Discussion Leader coordinator. She comes up with the questions that each table will discuss at the meetings and coordinates with the discussion leader at each table. 
5. There's a hospitality coordinator who arranges for the brunch to be brought each week by one of the tables. She also arranged for meals to be brought to me when I gave birth to Micah. I'm sure she does so much more, but I'm not sure what it all entails.
6. There's a steering leader who is in charge of all of the finances. She coordinated all of the membership applications and handled registration fees. She coordinates all of the fundraisers and keeps everyone informed of the budget. 
7. There's the mentor mom coordinator. She is in charge of all of the mentor moms, which is explained below.
8. And then there's me! I'm the craft coordinator. I choose a craft project each week to line up with the theme/topic covered at the meeting. I buy all of the supplies and teach everyone how to do the project. 

In addition to the steering member at each table, there's a mentor mom. This is a mom who has older, even grown kids. She can be a source of encouragement and advice for the younger moms. And, the mentor moms LOVE to hold all of the little babies, which gives the moms a break and the ability to use BOTH of their hands for eating or craft time (something that I, as a mom of a young baby, appreciate!). Then there are about 4 moms who are just regular MOPS members. One of these women usually is assigned or steps up to be the discussion group leader. She has a binder with all of the table's members information. She writes down prayer requests each meeting, and she checks in with each member throughout the week to see how they are doing.

When I started as the craft coordinator, I had no idea what all of the rules were or what a typical craft project would be like. In our group, I started with $700 for the year, covering September to May. There are usually 2 meetings a month, but in November and December we only had one because of the holidays. I figured out that there would be about 12-13 meetings for the year. This would make about $54 per meeting and, with roughly 25 members at each meeting, this leaves me with $2.15 per person per craft. Not much for someone who loves to do crafts, but I like the challenge! I then started to peruse the web for craft ideas and found that there's not a lot out there. I'm so thankful for pinterest! Not only have I been able to link up with other people who have MOPS craft boards and share ideas, but I've been able to add other crafts that I have found to the list of possible projects. My other big challenge is time. I have from 11-11:30 for crafts. This time is also shared with the discussion question time. And, we only have one table where all of the crafts are usually placed. Each table is able to come up one at a time and gather their supplies. If they take 5 minutes, there's only 5 minutes left for the last table to do their craft at all. I've recently tried to separate the crafts into trays that can be taken to each table to eliminate the wait time. This seems to be a good adjustment, but it adds to the prep-time for each project, and it means that I have to have at least 4 of each tool/supply, 1 for each table to use. Some meetings I am allowed more time, but it's all dependent on what the topic is and how long the speaker goes.

Aside from our regular meetings on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays, on the first Thursday of every month, the steering members meet together to plan and discuss ideas for the upcoming month. Then on the 3rd Thursday of the month, moms can do an activity (with their kids) somewhere in town with the other moms from MOPS. This is an opportunity to get out and have a fun playdate, a way to include their kids (since kids are not included in our usual meetings), and a way to meet and build relationships with moms who are not at your table. We've gone to the fire station, the apple orchard, done a nature walk, and sang Christmas carols at a retirement home. Finally, there's a Mom's Night Out. This is done another day of the week, once a month, and allows the moms to go out, without their kids, and just have fun with each other. We had dessert in October, went shopping in November, wrapped presents and had fun talking together at someone's house in December, and in January we plan on going bowling. 

In the upcoming weeks, I will share about our previous meetings and, specifically, the craft projects we do each week. I'll try to include tutorials or links to tutorials for each craft and let you know what our plans are for the month. For those who are friends with me and usually follow my blog, this lets you know what I'm up to as well as gives me the opportunity to share the crafts I love to do. For those who stumble upon this blog through a search for MOPS, I hope to be a new resource and help others who are in the same position as I am to find new ideas for their groups. 

I can tell you that I have been incredibly blessed by my MOPS group so far. I came into it excited to learn something new and make new friends, and I'm thrilled, just a few short months later, to have met some women that I adore. I'm so excited to be building relationships with these lovely ladies and for Josiah to even make some new friends too. How awesome is it that most of these women that I've come to know also have 2 year old boys. In fact, our whole group is overflowing with 2 year old boys! I have met some of the sweetest people I've ever known. I've had women pray for me, which I so appreciate, who barely even know me. I had more MOPS friends visit me in the hospital after Micah's birth than friends that I've had for years. I was overjoyed to receive hot meals delivered to my house for 3 weeks following Micah's birth. I never had this with Josiah and it was a huge blessing for me. I've had people offer to babysit for me or have playdates or help me with anything that arises. And, I'm so glad I stepped up as the craft coordinator because it gives me the opportunity to engage with the entire group and forces me to step out as a leader. Without it, it'd be easy to sit back at my table and never answer a question out loud to the large group. No one would even know who I was. In addition, being a steering member gives me the chance to interact with the other steering members more often than twice a month. 

So, here are MOPS Mondays! Next week, I'll share this week's craft project, which is to make t-shirt scarves. Interested? You'll learn all about it soon enough!