Car Activities for Little Kids!

During our last meeting we discussed the importance of play time. If you're not the keenest on playtime with your kids, you're not the only one. Lindsey shared this great quote she found that hit home with a lot of us:

"Playing with children doesn’t have to be hard, but for some reason, I get it in my head that there’s a certain way I’m supposed to be doing it. Then I question my abilities as a mom and wonder if I’m doing it right. The truth is, my kids want me more than anything else. They don’t care if my story lines are a bit awkward. They don’t care if I’m not very creative. They care about me. And your kids… what do they want more than anything else? You guessed it: you." from Embrace the Moments

To go along with the "play" theme, Hope had a great craft for us: magnetic car activities! The coolest part is all of these can be created with a minimal budget (hello, dollar store!), and with little supplies. It's all about getting creative.

Magnetic Car Activities

The main tools you'll need to create some fun magnetic car activities are: a tin cookie sheet, popsicle sticks, glue, magnets, and whatever fun stuff you have at home!

Using foam, magnets, and popsicle sticks, you can make some great learning tools to help stimulate your child. They also make cute foam "kits" at places like Micahel's and Hobby Lobby with things like these turtles. They'll make for fun puppets! 

 

For the learning sticks, utilize both sides of the stick. On one side put the shape, and then put the color on the other side! Along with magnets, you'll also need velcro. 

The little turtles are a cinch to make. Just get the kit, and start gluing them together! Kids will have fun with these "puppets" in the car! 

We also made popsicle stick puzzles! These are AWESOME! Print out whatever photo you'd like to make the puzzle out of (keep them on the smaller side, so they'll fit on the sticks), cut the whole picture out, mod-podge it on both sides, then using a razor, slice through the sticks. Easy peasy! 

And here's the final product! 

Awesome craft, right? And it needs to be said: several of these pieces can be choking hazards, so please keep a close eye on your kids, especially if they're little! 

If you want some more ideas, here are a few sites to take a look at that have great games to play in a hotel room or on an airplane:

The Rules of Motherhood
Learn with Play at Home
It's Always Autumn
A Creative Princess
Life Through My Eyes 

If you have any good, easy, mess-free crafts, let us know about them! 

Date Night in a Jar

For our craft during our February "love" meeting, we made date night jars! This was a super easy project, so even if you're not very crafty, or short on time, it's something you can still make quickly.

What you need:
A mason jar (or whatever jar you want)
Popsicle Sticks
Decor (washi tape, chalkboard paint, sharpies, stickers, etc.)

How you do it:
Decorate your popsicle sticks however you'd like, and then write the date idea on each stick. Then, the next time you're in a date-night rut, pull out a stick and do what's listed! Variations can be: dates with your kids, chores for your kids to do, family dates, adventures to go on around the area, new restaurants to try when you hear that ever-so-lovely "what's for dinner?" phrase, etc.

We'd love to hear your date-night ideas (or any other ideas) in the comments!

Getting Personal with Vulnerability

Did you make it to the last meeting? We got a little deep talking about things like our feelings, building walls, and letting go. Lindsey took a big leap of faith as she opened up and spoke from the heart about vulnerability.

Vulnerability seems like such a hush-hush topic, but it's something we should talk about more often. If we admit to the areas where we're vulnerable, we can get help and maybe even find something in common with other people/women. When was the last time you were truly honest withourself ? Or when was the last time you truly felt seen for who you are. In order to be seen, we must take steps to tear down our walls. Together we can leap into a brave new world of letting down our carefully built walls, so that we may become who we are meant to be, who we are thriving to become. 

MOPS is a great place to let your guard down and be vulnerable. If you're putting walls up in your life, take a look at the heart of the issue so you can begin tearing those walls down. Getting down to the nitty-gritty is harder than it sounds, but the results will help reveal the real you and people in your life who you can trust.

Once we're vulnerable and start bringing our walls down, is when we can really start to flourish.

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was greater than the risk it took to bloom." -Anais Nin

Switching gears a bit from the heavy talk, let's talk about some fun stuff like crafts!

Our craft last Wednesday was on point and definitely went along with our topic for the week. We made affirmation frames—something that you can customize every day if you'd like. Sometimes being vulnerable means being more optimistic, or thinking about a daily verse to help you throughout the day.

Do you have your affirmation frame up in your home? Tag us on Facebook or Instagram (#WRMOPS) so we can see your creativity at work!

We also started something fun at our last meeting: a Best Dish award! I'll leave that to another post, so stay tuned for the winning dish from last week and her recipe so you can make it again ASAP!

From the whole steering team: we hope you're having an excellent week!