A Much Needed Blessing!

The pastor and staff at FUMC-RR have blessed us with the gift of a fourth childcare room for both Thursday and Friday! We are thankful for this and for the growth of our group that precipitated such a need. However, with this gift comes responsibility. It is important to know which children to expect on meeting days. If you foresee that you will be unable to attend a meeting, please contact Sandy Perez at cpperez@sbcglobal.net and let her know you won't be needing your child's spot that week. We know unforeseen conflicts arise, but if you will notify Sandy whenever possible, it will allow us to better manage all the children's placement in childcare.

This fourth room allows us to continue to grow as a ministry! So, please help spread the word that childcare space is no longer a restriction for our group. We want every mom to be able to find a place among us. As Jessica and I thanked Rev. Adkins this morning for approving the fourth room, his comment was, "You're welcome! Fill it up!" What a blessing to know that our ministry is so valued and supported by our church!

Upcoming: Kids' Nutrition

This week's meetings will focus on the topic of Kids' Nutrition with an overview by a nutritionist, followed by a taste-test of healthy menu options. Please bring a prepared healthy dish that your children enjoy and following our discussion, we'll bring in the older children from childcare for a little picnic. Please bring a picnic blanket if you have one, your child's sippy cup and one copy of the recipe for your dish. We'll see what the children will really eat and then later receive a compilation of the recipes to try on our families at home.

Book Orders Due October 3rd

One of our members, Kim Heath, has generously volunteered to place a group order for our book study book, The Power of a Positive Mom by Karol Ladd. By ordering in bulk, we can avoid shipping costs. The cost is $9.17 per book ordered this way, compared to upwards of $15 in local stores. If you would like to order a copy you MUST contact Kim by this coming Friday, October 3rd. Kim's email address is elfkim@sbcglobal.net Please make your check payable to FUMC-RR and note "MOM book study book" on the memo line. Thursday members may give their checks to Amy Myhand and Friday members may give them directly to Kim.

Please remember that purchasing the book is entirely optional. The book study will be conducted through DVD viewing and group discussion, so reading the actual book would supplement the study, but is not required.

Our Favorite Things

We had a great time this week sharing (and stealing) each other's favorite things in a gift exchange. With items ranging from lip gloss to barbeque sauce, we learned a lot about one another and went home with some new "favorites" of our own. Here are some pictures from the action...

Confidence Box

A new addition this year is a Confidence Box that will be in our meeting room each week. The purpose of the box is to provide a method of expressing needs that our members may not feel comfortable voicing in person. If you need a resource or information about a particular issue you or your family are dealing with, please place it in the box and you will be contacted with further assistance. Also, if you wish to submit an anonymous prayer request, please place it in the box. The only two people who will have access to its contents are the co-leaders. In addition, we will also use the box to collect anonymous questions you wish to pose to guest speakers.

My Favorite Things

This week's meeting topic will be "My Favorite Things" We'll continue to get to know each other better by revealing what our favorite things under $10 are. Simply purchase one of your "favorite things" and gift wrap it. Then bring it to the meeting for a gift exchange. It's completely up to you what you choose to bring or how you wish to wrap it, but please do limit yourself to something unexpensive, no more that $10.

This is always a fun-filled day as we get better acquainted and discover a few new future "faves" of our own!

We're off to a great start!

Wow! What a room FULL of moms we had for our first week of meetings. The Thursday and Friday groups had a combined total of over 50 ladies attend this week! That's just incredible! We had some wonderul food and it seemed like everyone had a great time getting to know each other better. We hope if you were with us this week you felt at home and like you have a place within this ministry. In a group this large, it sometimes takes a while to really feel like you are connected, so please join us again this week and for upcoming events.

Speaking of upcoming events--a couple of reminders:

• Lunch Buddies will be Monday, September 22 at 11:00 a.m. Chick-Fil-A on Louis Henna in Round Rock
• Ladies' Night Out will be Monday, September 22 at 7 p.m. at Gino's Italian Restaurant in Round Rock

Hope to see you this week!

Welcome to MOM!

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up."

--1 Thessalonians 5:11

The 2008 Welcome Tea was a huge success. Thank you to all the ladies who planned and worked for months to make it such a special event. The narthex of the sanctuary was a beautiful venue to come together again officially as a group. It was wonderful to see familiar faces of old friends and also to meet so many new mothers interested in joining our ministry this year. We hope everyone felt truly welcomed and will consider joining us for the semester.

A special thank you to past leader, Amy Stoker, who traveled from Ft. Worth to be with us and bless us with her beautiful song. Amy's selection, Legacy, is playing as the background music of this blog. May we always remember what Amy reminded us--that we are doing God's most important work by raising our children to know and love Him.

Monthly Mission Challenge Continues!

Our Missions Coordinator, Kristi Rape' has provided the following opportunity for service on an ongoing monthly basis:

My challenge to each of you is to add $2.00 or more to your grocery bill each month and bring the items to the church for me to pick-up and take to the Round Rock Service Center. If all of us just do this small task once a month, I believe it will go a long way and serve our community GREATLY! By pulling together as a group we will do GODS work in strength and may the Lord bless our gifts each month.

Some items that are needed by the center are…
Canned vegetables (corn, peas, carrots)
Canned soupCanned beans (green, black, ranch, refried, pork’n beans, baked)
Canned tuna, meats, stews
Breakfast cereal
Pasta (spaghetti, macaroni, lasagna, hamburger helper meals)
Peanut Butter & Jelly
Toilet paper
Toiletry items such as shampoo, soap & toothpaste

You may bring your donation items to the weekly Thursday or Friday meeting of M.O.M. in Building 5, Room 127. Or, you may still drop your items at any time into the large blue plastic bin in the Family Life Center foyer at FUMC. It has “MOMs Missions” on the front of it. Please drop off your bag of items in our bin with your name and how much you spent on the bag (example = Kristi Rape / $2.00).