Andrea Ryall
MOPS Coordinator
What has pleasantly surprised you about motherhood? Motherhood is like a rebirth of who I was always intended to be. The incredibly hard transformation has brought forth so much truth and fruit in who I am. Proof that doing the hard stuff is really worth it.
Share one way MOPS has changed you as a mother. The friends I have made along the way through many MOPS seasons are the biggest change in my mom life. I have the support I need now in my highs and in my many lows as a mother.
Share one mom hack you love. Save Halloween candy to use a bribe to get in the bath or to get shoes on throughout the year.
Annie Bonati
MOMSNext Coordinator
What has pleasantly surprised you about motherhood? Pretty much everything. I was 24 when I had my first (not planned) and I was scared to death to become a mom!
Share one way MOPS has changed you as a mother. It has better equipped me to raise strong, confident, safe children and point them to Jesus!
Share one mom hack you love. Getting up before my kid's and working out...I am much nicer if this happens :-)
Veronica Burke
MOMSNext Coordinator
What has pleasantly surprised you about motherhood? One way motherhood has pleasantly surprised me is how fun it is. I know, I know, some days are beyond hard, long and can be extremely challenging to say the least. In between those days are the ones that are pure joy and happiness. The ones when they finally learn to ride their bike or the magic of Christmas morning or the excitement at discovering something wonderful about the world. Motherhood gives me gray hairs, but also keeps my heart young.
Share one way MOPS has changed you as a mother. This question is hard to only write one answer. MOPS has been so instrumental in how I parent. If I had to pick one thing it would be this, everything is a season. They will eventually sleep through the night, be potty trained, stop throwing tantrums. You get the idea. The good and the bad won’t last forever. Embrace the season of parenting.
Share one mom hack you love. Ok, mom hack, I feel like I don’t have very many but I do have this one. I have successfully and (somewhat) painlessly helped pull teeth using what I coin as the “dental floss method”. I simply tie a long piece of dental floss at the base of the wiggly tooth and when I close the knot the tooth pops out. I don’t know if this is dentist approved, but we have had many happy visits from the tooth fairy.
Allison Schriver
Hospitality/Events
What has pleasantly surprised you about motherhood? One thing that has surprised me as a mom is the fact that you have to train babies to sleep! I honestly thought that babies just knew how to do this and never imagined how difficult and long it would take to get my oldest to sleep through the night.
Share one way MOPS has changed you as a mother. This is my 5th year doing MOPS. My husband's name is Kyle and we have two kids; Lucas (4.5) and Charlotte (18 months). I joined MOPS when my oldest was 9 months and it has forever changed who I am as a mom. MOPS helped me meet friends who are moms and that I could connect with both as moms and our love for Jesus. I love how open and vulnerable we are able to be with the moms we meet over our time together.
Share one mom hack you love. My top mom hack is that my kids love smoothies so I am always sneaking in extra veggies and peanut butter into their smoothies to help get the nutrients they need!
Carey LeDoux
Outreach/In-Reach
What has pleasantly surprised you about motherhood? A fresh new day has been the one thing that has pleasantly surprised me about motherhood. Between the overwhelming, exhausting, loving, playful, frustrating and joyous experiences in each day of motherhood, I would have to say that starting each day with hope and doing better than the previous day has been such an enlightening experience. A new day to continue with the things that have worked and brought joy while also being able to work on the things that didn’t go so well the previous day.
Share one way MOPS has changed you as a mother. MOPS has changed me as a mother by seeing others vulnerability and feeling confident in sharing my own experiences. Not only do you see that most mommas will say “me too” but there will also be a guest speaker that approaches the topic with compassion and tools to help. Motherhood used to be an isolating time but MOPS has made it empowering and glorifying.
Share one mom hack you love. A mom hack I love is giving kids choices which has to end up in the result I’m looking for. It’s a way of limiting tantrums and monitoring behavior. Always give your kid a choice that makes them think they’re in control. In a nutshell I give my kids choices without letting them choose. “It’s time to put on your shoes now, do you want your sparkle flip flops or your pink slip ons?” Or, “We have to go to the store, would you like to go now or in 5 minutes?” Giving them a choice makes them feel like they have skin in the game and limits me bribing them to do something!
Katie Mack
Outreach/In-Reach
What has pleasantly surprised you about motherhood? It’s easier to make new friends and talk to strangers when you have kids (especially a baby).
Share one way MOPS has changed you as a mother. MOPS has helped to normalize how hard motherhood can be.
Share one mom hack you love. The ok-to-wake clock!
Mollie Coniglio
Publicity/Creative
What has pleasantly surprised you about motherhood? How full my heart would feel, how strong having children makes me feel, and how proud I am of being a woman. I feel like Wonder Woman!!
Share one way MOPS has changed you as a mother. I am a much more centered person. I was able to find purpose outside exclusively being a mother. This lead me to be a better wife, daughter, and sister.
Share one mom hack you love. Put soup broth in your babies sippy cup when the family is eating soup, and serve cereal with yogurt instead of milk while toddlers are learning to use spoons.
Steph Jordan
Hospitality/Events
What has pleasantly surprised you about motherhood? I was pleasantly surprised by the laughter that my kids have brought us and continue to bring us. Even when they were babies they did things to make us laugh so hard and now that my kids are getting olderish (3, and 5) the funny is at an entirely new level!
Share one way MOPS has changed you as a mother. MOPs has changed my view on what a mom should be. I think we all have our preconceived ideas of what a great mom is but MOPs has shown me that each mom is different and each child is different and God brought each specific child into our lives because He knew that we need each other. There is something so beautiful about how differently we can parent each of our kids and yet how much we can understand each other amongst all of our differences.
Share one mom hack you love. Have a travel potty with bags in the car at all times. I cannot tell you how many times having a travel potty has saved us from so much wasted time on road trips, playgrounds and everything in between. We have kept it around even after everyone was fully potty trained just for the absolute convenience of the travel potty with throw away bags!
Teryn Willard
Hospitality/Events
What has pleasantly surprised you about motherhood? Motherhood has surprised me in that I can relate to my daughter in a way I could never relate to another person. The things that challenge me the most and that I struggle with the most about her personality are the things most similar to my personality. It’s made me look at myself in a way I had never done before, work on myself and grow in showing grace to her as well as myself.
Share one way MOPS has changed you as a mother. MOPS has opened my eyes to the fact that whatever motherhood throws at me, I’m truly not alone. Every experience that I thought I was the only one I was struggling with, there is another mom willing to talk about her experience with the same thing. No matter how put together someone looks, odds are, there’s a struggle under the surface.
Share one mom hack you love. One of my favorite mom hacks might seem odd but I love using cuticle cutters for cutting my daughter’s nails and have since she was born. I feel like I get better control, it’s easier to see what I’m doing and I have better precision with them compared to using regular nail cutters.