Last night we had our monthly support group meeting, with about 50 moms ( and 2 dads ) in attendance.  We start our meeting with a devotion by one of the moms; Wanda talked about joy, and recommended a book called If Mama Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy: Making the Choice to Rejoice by Lindsey O'Connor.  I haven't read it, but it sounds like one I'll have to look for.

After the devotion, we broke up into groups of 6-8 and did introductions and answered the question, "What is the most distant place you have ever visited?"  ( just as a means of "getting to know you" )  The most distant place I've visited is Italy / Germany / Austria / Netherlands, when I was 10 and my family camped around Europe for 6 weeks in a Volkswagen Campmobile! ( my parents were school teachers, and took us 4 kids ~ ages 5 - 10 ~ during the summer of 1971;  brave people, they are!)

Our topic for the evening was "How Do You Do That?", so after handing out a couple of doorprizes and a few brief announcements, we heard from a few moms who shared how they made lapbooks, scrapbooks, time lines, nature journals, state notebooks, and homemade hardcover books.

The group has all of a sudden gotten "active" this year! We seem to go through phases when no one wants to do much, but this year things have picked up a lot!  Part of it is that several key people have stepped forward to coordinate certain areas, and they have generated a lot of enthusiasm.  

- Pam has taken the reins on teen activities, and had 40 teens at her house a couple of weeks ago for a game night! They have at least one thing planned a month, and she isn't doing it all herself. She got it going, but other moms are stepping up to organize specific activities. And the kids seem to be excited too.

-Faye revamped out mentor program, which kicked off mid-Sept., with all new homeschoolers paired with an experienced homeschool mentor.  The mentors are supposed to call their assigned mom once a month, or get to together, and just talk about how things are going.  Feedback is good so far.

She is also heading up Yearbook this year.  Last year one person did the whole thing herself. This year there are a dozen parents and 20 or more teens working on it!

-Blair came on board as Field Trip/ Event Coordinator, and has generated huge response.  For the past couple of years, there have been few field trips, with not a lot of participation.  But there have been at least 5 field trips already this year, with 40- 80 people going on each one ( they divide into smaller groups when they get there); and there are a bunch more coming up in the next couple of months! She's one of those "let's get things done!" kind of people.

Amazing! 

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