Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Our new living room, finally!

I promised to get these posted, sorry it took so long! I really should have taken the pics at night so there wasn't back lighting, but this is when I had the place clean enough to post on the world wide web! The biggest change is that the wall in the middle of this living room is gone, making it much bigger. Second we (meaning Ben) painted the living room and dining room and got carpet rugs for both rooms (free floating so we can go back to hardwood easily).
You can barely see the green we painted the dining room (see Z in there?). We have a big mirror in front of the fireplace to keep him out of it. Someday I'd like to get some amber glass sconce shades to replace the faux candle shades (who thinks of these things?)! We got new blinds to match in the dining room and the big windows in the living room.

Some random cuteness! My neighbor Betty found this potty chair at a garage sale for $5, it has a book rack on one side and a TP holder on the other! Z copies Mommy and pretends to go to the bathroom (only he gets it a little backwards!).

A little blurry, but I had to snap a shot of Z trying on Daddy's shoes!
So, I've gone and made an effort to meet my needs. I've discussed the matter with my church and they're allowing me to start a Mom's group to meet at the church (with our kids). I'm excited to get some much needed fellowship with other Moms and start socializing little Z! If anyone in the area is interested in joining us, call or e-mail me for details!

9 comments:

Trish D said...

Way to go on taking the initiative to start up a group. Have you considered a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group? There is some money involved in the chartering process, but they provide some really wonderful resources, plus there would be some name recognition. Our church is going into its third year with MOPS (and my third year on the steering team!) and it's been a marvelous experience.

Ivymamma said...

I second Trish's MOPS idea!

Great color in the living room - I love the dark wood contrast! And the mirror over the fireplace is a great idea! Probably always full of hand prints! :)

Trish D said...

More info on MOPS, and some of my experience (ready for a novel?):

Our church is quite young and we have a LOT of stay at home Moms. We had some Bible studies during the day, but wanted to expand it a bit. One of our ladies had been going to a MOPS group at another church, so suggested we start our own group. It has been a WONDERFUL experience. We've had some new families come to our church because of the group, too. We also had one family find us because the Mom had been with a MOPS group in their previous church, so wanted to find another one. You can structure your meetings in any way you want, but they provide lots of ideas. It's also set up so the kids have a program of their own (Moppets) - they're not just being babysat.

We meet every other Tuesday morning from 9:30 - 11:30. We have a steering team who meets every other month: we started with five people (head/discussion groups, finance, hospitality, publicity/registration, and creative activities). We ended up with only 4 when our publicity person left, and we were able to keep going for awhile but really could have used more help. We're up to 7 ST members this year, and our group is averaging 25 per meeting. We've had a wide variety of speakers on topics such as praying for your husband, meal planning, moms panel to answer questions (potty training was the hot topic that day!), family traditions, discipline, what submission means, and much more! A typical meeting day: moms start straggling in at 9:00 (can you tell we're anxious for fellowship?), and children can be dropped off starting at 9:15. We gather up coffee, a muffin and some fresh fruit, chatting all the while. Finally go sit down with our other table members, and someone starts off the meeting with prayer. We have a discussion question or two at our table, then listen to a speaker. More discussion, and perhaps an activity to end (depending on how much time the speaker needed and the topic being addressed).

Moms with young kids definitely need a lot of support, and I think MOPS does a good job of addressing the various aspects. There is also a MOPS forum just for steering team members, and it's great to get feedback/ideas there.

If you have more questions, email me at tah _ dah @ lycos.com (take out the spaces first - just don't want spam crawlers to pick that up)

Ivymamma said...

I'll try and email you later this afternoon - maybe nap time...maybe bedtime...when it's quieter!!!

Matthew Sebree said...
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Matthew Sebree said...

Great job on the living room! ...It makes me feel good that I was able to contribute a little bit of rage to the project.

The Peacock Pearl said...

the living room looks great! love the color!
i had thought of joining a MOPS group, but the only one we had was far and the price to join was just too much for me.
what i did find was a local "mothers league" that's actually more for ALL mothers of ALL ages and we're more community service oriented. we have great times of fellowship and play dates and social, but we're not just focused on "what I need" but on how we can give back to the other moms and children. our monthly service projects and our big fundraiser benefit organizations that help women and children. this will be my third year being involved and i love (and it doesn't cost as much as mops). there is one lady who is in both mops and mothers league and her comparison was like this "MOPS is more for Me, and more organized because of the national status, and mothers league is more open to everyone and focuse more on the community". I'm sure the Lord will show you exactly what kind of "group" to have, either way it will be a tremendous blessing to you and the other moms!

Unknown said...

The house looks great! What a change! I'm proud of your iniative with the mommy group. I would totally join if I wasn't a bazillion miles away.

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