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Our Last Club Mom ends with a party!

Tonight was our last Club Mom for the 2007-2008 season. We want to thank so many people!! A big thanks to the guys who run the kitchen and serve us so faithfully every Weds. Night! Another big thanks to Sally who is our menu planner/cook/baker/food purchaser--thank you for all you do! It is greatly appreciated! Thank you to Pastor Rich who came to enlighten us before our bible study. Thank you to all who helped take care of our children.




We had a fun last evening together...We had some giveaways, ate some healthy appetizers and made neckwraps!
Betty did a great job getting our wraps ready at home so all we had to do was fill them with either flaxseed or rice...which proved to be quite a job for some of the girls...Mindy!

These girls did more

chatting than filling I think and Michelle enjoyed her new wrap!

Mindy did a great job cleaning up after we were done. We were able to make a few extra's for some people in need at the church.

Thank you ladies for a wonderful year and we look forward to a wonderful start of 2008-2009

Pastor Rich's Ponderings-Quiet time with God

Another awesome talk from Pastor Rich! He talked to us about "How to have a quiet time with God" He gave us 5 reasons why a quiet time should be a priority in our schedule, the purpose of a daily quiet time, and resources to begin a daily quiet time with God.

I want to tell you about how to follow a simple plan to have a quiet time with God:
Schedule a 15 minute plan:
1 Minute to Relax-take deep breathes and prepare yourself to listen to what God will be telling you
4 Minutes Reading scripture:a few verses over and over or a longer passage
4 Minutes Reflecting...Personalize the scripture, put YOUR name right in the passage
2 Minutes Pondering and Recording in a journal
4 Minutes Praying

Make a quiet time with God a Priority...you'll never regret it.

We also discussed some Women's outings coming up:
Ladies Day at Gull Lake June 17-20. Check your calendar and bring a date that works for you next week...we'll try to get a carpool together to go.
Hearts at Home in Grand Rapids Oct 3-4...More info to come
Immanuel Women's Retreat Nov 7-8(?) More details to come

We also discussed some mission projects for Lansing Christian Services:
Collecting Board books by authors Suess, Carle, Bill Martin, Sam McBratney, Donald Crew.
Collecting new items for Layettes:Undershirt, Sleeper, Socks, optional outfit, book, wrapped in a receiving blanket.
Sock and Underwear collections

If you could bring these the last 2 weeks of Club Mom, and throughout the summer, we will bring this to Lansing Christian Services.

Make sure you mark your calendar for our end of the year party on April 30. We will be making neckwarmers, having some fingerfood (bring a plate to pass) and enjoying each other's company.

Next week, we'll finish our bible study book with the lesson "Friends with God"

Cooking for a Cause!

These beautiful ladies spent their night at Club Mom cooking instead of hearing a speaker or doing a Bible Study! We all went to the kitchen and worked together to make 3 different freezer meals to give to our Quality Living families plus a few other families that receive food from our food bank.









These three lovely ladies were working on making the innerds of Chicken Pot Pie. It smelled so good in the kitchen! We cut up Onion, Carrots and Celery which these ladies sauteed and then we added Chicken Broth and Evaporated Milk and of course Chicken. It smelled glorious!





We froze that mixture and will give the families the innerds along with some pie crust plus instructions to make the pie!







These beauties were cutting up our veggies. They also put together our Chimichangas, wrapping them in foil so our families could heat them individually.

All in all, we made 5 bags of Chimichangas, 9 Breakfast Casseroles, 6 Pot Pies and 12 bags of Oatmeal Cookie Mix.

We had a wonderful evening together, laughing and serving our Lord by making meals for others!

Finally...Club Mom meets again!

No pictures tonight...but so much information!

After 2 snow day cancellations and then an evening spent with the kids at the carnival last week makes for almost a month of NO CLUB MOM! Finally back together, we listened to Pastor Rich talk to us about our next Bible Study lesson on "Girlfriends".

We learned about 10 building blocks for Healthy Friendships as well as learning 4 reasons why some friendships should be ended. I know I can always use a refresher on how to be a good friend as well as making sure my friendships are healthy.

Thank you Pastor Rich for giving us the tools to build up our friendships.

A quick note on our last meeting where Pastor Rich talked to us about "Husbands as a Friend"...I wanted to list out the 10 Steps to take to insure that your husband becomes and stays your best friend:
1) Self-Disclosure: Secrets destroy; be willing to be open and share what you're feeling.
2) Talking and Listening: Talking is part of friendship. Be willing to listen: Repeat back, don't judge, don't try to solve the problem.
3) Rituals: how you say "good-bye" and "hello" with a kiss. It builds a connection when you celebrate events.
4) "Attending":Watching out for each other's interest. Be willing to sacrafice for development of the other person
5) Playing: It strengthens relationships...make sure you play on a regular basis, don't get caught up in projects, take the time to play.
6) Loyalty: When the going gets tough, don't jump ship. Stick close-be a support.
7) Respect: Don't take advantage, respect their space
8) Inspire: Motivate them to be their best, to seek to accomplish dreams, to accomplish their vision.
9) Forgiveness: Friends don't hold grudges, without forgiveness, little hurts can tear.
10) Flexibility: Because we change over the years, our expectations must change. We must learn to be flexible, be willing to grow. People change through the years.

We need to take the initiative on all these things.

I hope this give you some things to think about this week and to work on. Next week, we'll have our Bible Study and we'll take a few minutes to talk about the Husband/Friend chapter as well as Women's Friendships. Hope to see you there.

Spiritual Health Disease

This is Sherry Williams, our speaker this week. She told us her very emotional story about coming to know Christ in a very personal way, but only after her mother passed away. She does not know if her mother knew Christ and doesn't know if she'll see her mother in heaven. That uncertainty is what she calls Spiritual Heart Disease. She encouraged us all to accept Christ into our hearts and to live life in a daily walk with Him. She also encouraged us to tell others of our belief...to spread the good news!

These are the ladies with all the blankets we made for a refugee camp in Afganistan. Each colorful blanket has 2 layers of fleece, sewn and tied together by these ladies as well as a logo. These blankets will be sent out soon to the refugee camp to help Mother's keep their babies warm. We were very excited to be used by God in such a fun and colorful way!

Let's get ORGANIZED!

Karen Ehman was our speaker this week. She talked to us about getting organized! She gave us so many tips and tricks about not letting clutter over-run our lives.

She also talked to us about what and who the priorities are in our lives. She told us to list out our top 10 priorities in our lives and to make sure those priorities stay in the proper order by saying "No" to some things or to use caller ID to determine if we need to answer the phone.

Thank you so much, Karen, for sharing your great ideas with us! Learn more about Karen and her new book called The Complete Guide to Getting Organized at her website www.karenehman.com.

We had a large group listening to Karen speak. It's a great topic to start out our year! Join us next week to hear Sherry William talk to us about how to make your heart healthy-both physically and spiritually.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

We had a very enjoyable evening last night. We sang several Christmas Carols and got a little history behind each one. Thank you Abbie, Don, Kevin and Dave for making it so fun. Then we exchanged cookies and of course had to sample a few!

Last week, the ladies worked on making tie blankets to send to a refugee camp in Afganistan. You can see some incredible pictures on our website www.serve.com/icrc. We still have a few to make and then we'll send them out. A big thank you to those who prepared the blankets ahead of time.

The children had a wonderful evening last night, too. They had a small gift exchange and played some Christmas games.

No pictures today, sorry! But look for some in January when we will have a great speaker named Karen Ehman who will talk to us about becoming more organized! What a great way to start the year. We look forward to hearing her on January 9. JOIN US!!

Deanna House is in the HOUSE!

Ladies, when is the last time you laughed that hard? What a wonderful evening of fun we had with Deanna. She taught us some great recipes for Hot Ham and Cheese sandwiches, Frozen Fruit cups and delicious thumbdrop cookies and each of us got to take home a sample of her food! What a wonderful night!

We hope you join us next week as we make blankets for the refugee camp in Afganistan and for sure join us for a night of Christmas Carols and Cookie exchange on the 19th!

The children at Club Immanuel are up to some kind of craft but they are not letting me in on it so maybe more on that later!

Flourishing as a Woman

Our speaker tonight was Ann Byle, a free-lance writer from Grand Rapids who spoke to us about Flourishing as a Woman. She encouraged us to ask ourselves what our dreams are and what things are holding us back from our dreams. She told us our family and/or friends can be an encouragement for us to develop our dreams. She asked us to list 3 things we are good at and then she asked us to list three things we like to do. When we are doing the things we like to do, we are flourishing as a woman.

Thank you Ann for speaking to us tonight!

A special invitation to ALL women...Next week, we will have Deanna House as our guest speaker. We encourage you all to invite your neighbors, family, friends, grandma's, aunts, cousins, anyone who will enjoy learning some new recipes and an evening of laughter.

Our group starts at 6:15p.m. and goes until 7:30p.m. We look forward to seeing you there!

Info on Weds. Night Activities

The first entry in our blog and I don't have a picture! They'll come soon enough! Just some information on what our church's Weds. night programs entail...We offer childcare for ages 0-3 yrs. We offer a children's program for ages 3 yrs-5th grade in which they learn Bible stories and do fun activities. We also have a program for 6th-8th graders.

We offer a program for Mom's of all ages called Club Mom. It's a place to Rejuvenate moms by Encouraging them in an environment of Laughter, love, caring and sharing As they realize they are not alone in their Xperiences as a frazzled mom. Come and RELAX with us!

Each week at Club Mom, we offer speakers, Bible Study or another fun activities! This coming Weds. we are looking forward to hearing Ann Byle talk about "Flourishing as a Woman." Join us for a fun evening.

All Weds. night activities are at Immanuel Community Refrormed Church, 3200 Delta River Drive, Lansing, MI 48906. Our website is www.serve.com/icrc. Our phone is 517-321-2495. Contact us with any questions!
Sue Feenstra
Club Mom Leader