Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Wow!  December already!  Time really does fly during the holiday season.  Even when we try to simplify there are still a million things to do.  Baking, shopping, wrapping and all of the seasonal activities are enough to suck the joy out of the holiday season for us busy moms.  Oh, and if you are having people over for the holidays, don't forget the cooking and the cleaning!

As we all attempt to keep in mind the true meaning of Christmas and open our homes and hearts to others , it is important to keep in mind the important distinction between entertaining and hospitality.

This article is a great reminder of why we should be practice hospitality and how it can be a blessing to us when we bless others in this sincere way!!

Choose Hospitality

(And it's short, because who has time to read more during this busy time???)

Merry Christmas, friends!!

Operation Christmas Child 2013

MOPS of Quincy will once again be participating in Operation Christmas Child and helping supply Christmas gifts to needy children around the world!

Each year, our MOPS aims to make 60 boxes to spread Christmas cheer to those less fortunate.

On Nov. 21, we will be packing these boxes.

Here's how you can help!
1. Empty and Donate your adult sized shoe boxes.  We will fill these with great gifts and will wrap them.

2. Write and Color a note and/or picture with your child for inclusion in the gift. You can track your gift to see where it was received!

3.  Shop and Drop off the following new items:

• Toys- Small cars, balls, dolls, stuffed animals, kazoos, harmonicas, yo-yos, jump ropes, Slinkys, etc. 
• School Supplies- pens, pencils and sharpeners, markers, stamps and ink pad sets, writing pads or paper, solar calculators, coloring and picture books, etc. 
• Hygiene items- toothbrushes/paste, mild bar soap, comb, washcloth, etc. 
• Other- hard candy and lollipops, mints, gum, t-shirts, socks, ball caps, sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches, ziplock sandwich bags (for bagging candy, etc.)
• Please do not include: war related items, chocolate or food, out of date candy, vitamins, liquids or lotions, areosol cans, damaged items of breakables. 

4. Make a monetary donation. Write a check to Fort Square Presbyterian Church with "OCC" noted in the memo line and give it your Discussion Group Leader at MOPS.

Everything can be brought to the November 14 MOPS meeting.  Get the kids involved, too!! Perhaps a trip to the $1 bins at Target or the Dollar Store could be fun and meaningful for the whole family!

Visit Samaritan's Purse for more information about the program or feel free to contact us at mopsquincy@gmail.com.

A Little "Me" Time

The stress of back to school season is dying down and the hustle and bustle of the holidays is knocking on our doors.  During this momentary lull, perhaps it is time to think about taking a little "Me" time.

Sometimes we have to give ourselves permission to take time for ourselves.  Whether it be to read a book (have I mentioned that our MOPS group has a fabulous book club that meets the 3rd Thursday of each month?), to spend an extra few minutes laying in bed even though we hear the baby coo on the monitor, or to have a night out where we can recharge, enjoy food that we don't have to share with pint-sized beggars and have an uninterrupted conversation with a friend, moms can truly benefit from some down time.

Each month our MOPS group plans a Moms' Night Out to allow us moms to do just that!

Our next Mom's Night Out is coming up soon!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013
7:30-9:30 PM
Hosted by Kristen C. in Weymouth*
Bring a board game and your favorite Fall snack!

*(email mopsquincy@gmail.com for the specific address)

Keep it Simple, Silly.

Let's be honest. There are days we have the time, energy and motivation to do amazing, creative and inspired things with our kids.  Then there are days when keeping everyone clean, fed and unharmed seems like a monumental task.

This week's MOPS meeting will feature a panel of wonderful mothers sharing how they deal with those days when everything they do as a mom just seems to miss the mark.  We'll share a few tips on how to handle our own and others' expectations for our mothering and how to take stock of all of our mommy victories.

When things aren't going exactly as planned in our household, we just get right back to the basics. For our family, keeping it real means keeping it simple.  We stumbled upon this totally easy activity for our family to get out of the house, stop the bickering and (perhaps most importantly) kill some time before bedtime:  A Fall Scavenger Hunt.

No prep work, no fancy materials, no clean up.  Really, you could just make it up as you go along. This blog gives tons of suggestions on how to make it more complex and educational for kids of all ages, but sometimes we need to be reminded of the joy that lies in the simple things.  As a mom, it is perfectly fine to keep it simple, silly!

MOPS is back!!

On September 12, Quincy MOPS kicks off what is sure to be our best year yet!

Be sure to join us every 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month for some great programming, friendships, food and free childcare.  (Who can refuse that last one!? Really, the last two are more than enough to get most moms dressed and out of the house!)

The 2013-2014 MOPS theme is A Beautiful Mess, Embrace Your Story.  

So if that "getting dressed" part of the previous statement sounds like a little too much to handle, that's fine. We'll embrace your yoga pants and t-shirt. We've all been there!

2nd and 4th Thursdays, 9:30-11:30 am

Fort Square Presbyterian Church

16 Pleasant St. 

Quincy, MA

Attend 3 meetings for FREE!

Annual membership is $50 and includes all childcare costs.

Questions:  Email us at mopsquincy@gmail.com

The Mommy Memos

Today we have a thought-provoking piece by MOPS of Quincy's own Barbara Fish. Barb is a mother of three and member of our MOPS leadership team.

Throughout life, we all learn about certain social cues, codes, and rules about how to
operate socially. Since becoming a mom, I’ve noticed there are plenty of those unwritten
rules in the mothering sector. Some of them I think I’ve learned, like how it’s OK to wear
an elastic waistband in public even if you’re no longer pregnant. (They’re called yoga
pants, thank you very much.) Yet other mores leave me wishing there were some sort of
Mommy Memos. For example, at what point are we moms no longer allowed to wear
low-rise jeans? Is it your age that determines the cutoff (so-to-speak!), the size of said
jeans, the number of children you have? I would appreciate a memo on that subject so I
don’t commit any Mommy faux paus.

I think I may have recently received a Mommy Memo in regard to the world of
play-dating. Of course, I am willing to share, cause that’s the kind of mom I am. So,
apparently, when our children finish preschool, there is no longer any need to play-date
with kids from different towns. I think I received this memo from the mom of one of
my daughter’s preschool buddies, who will attend school in a different town in the fall.
In my attempts to squeeze in a few more get-togethers as the preschool year concluded,
the mom cancelled a scheduled play-date, and ignored my next email attempting to
reschedule. She managed to avoid me entirely at the two year-end gatherings, as if to
say, “We’re done here.”

Ok, so the practical gal inside of me tells me that’s fine, really. It’s hard to schedule
things amidst busy schedules and multiple children. And our daughters - though they
played wonderfully together - are young enough to move on quickly, with a whole new
group of kids.

But there is that softy inside of me, the one who watched her introverted daughter come
to life so easily with her friend. And the one who thinks maybe eight miles isn’t really
such a distance to drive every once in a while. And while our daughters’ relationship
might not show up in their respective kindergarten classes, couldn’t the effects show up
in any classes?

I suppose we’ll never know, because I chose to take this fellow Mom’s lack of
correspondence as yet another notation in my “Mommy Playbook.” I plan on comparing
notes with other moms and amending sections. For example, my rule about inter-town
play-dating might read something like this: Don’t bother. Unless you met the mother/
daughter duo at MOPS, in which case, play-date until they go to college.

I may need to amend my rule about the fit of my jeans, because I’m still wearing my
low-rise jeans from college. (Hey, I was just happy I could fit them.) Nobody told me I
couldn’t wear them! Yet . . .

Quick Tip #4

Quick tips is a series of mom-tested insights on topics like mothering, home managing, kid wrangling, and ball juggling designed to help you do your job better.

Never walk up or down the stairs empty-handed.  That's helped me...not that I still don't need lots of "cleaning" help.

This tip brought to you by MOPS mom Eleanor and her dad.