Week of October 15th

Playgroup
Friday, October 19th, 10 am, Foxborough Park. Email a leader if this is your first time, so they know to look for you.

REVISED: Oh no! I got the wrong place. I looked at the wrong date. It is at Lewis and Clark! A million apologies. I did this too rushed!

Family Gathering
Sunday, October 21st, 4-6 pm, Kiddoz Play Center. Cost: $10 per family. After much discussion, due to the large turnout, we have finally settled on a place for the family gathering. It does involve a cost, but with about 80 people, the event grew too big to host in anyone's home. Bring a food (foods of autumn is the theme, I believe) to share and come join in the fun. Their address is 222 SE Reed Market Rd (on the corner of 3rd & Reed Market, next to Patio World). Please email Katie for to RSVP or for more information.

Week of October 8th

Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, October 10th, 6 pm, Oregon Reading Room at the COCC Library. (As you walk in the COCC library, the Oregon room is right above you.) Join us for the first-in-a-long-time monthly meeting where member can further discuss attachment parenting put into practice. This month's focus us co-sleeping, but feel free to bring personal questions or challenges for disucssion.

Playgroup
Friday, October 12, 10 a.m., Larkspur Park/Bend Senior Center

Family Outing
Saturday, October 13, noon, Pumpkin Festival, Tillicum Park in Tumalo.This festival has over 4,000 pumpkins to choose from, crafts, hayrides and farm animals, carnival booths, food and live entertainment. An all-day activity pass is $10 and includes one pumpkin or you can purchase individual activity tickets for 50 cents. Directions from Bend: Take Hwy 20 six miles west toward Sisters to Couch Market Road. Turn left on Couch Market Road and follow the signs to the Pumpkin festival.

Week of October 1st

Baby Playgroup
Tuesday, October 2, Jen L’s house, email for directions or more details.

Playgroup
Friday, October 5, Wildflower Park, 10 am. This is the park in the River Rim subdivision, pretty far south on Brookswood. See map.

Week of September 24th

Playgroup
Friday, September 28th, 10 am, Compass Park, the big circle park inside of Northwest Crossing. Contact Katherine or Jen for more information.

Moms Get Out
Saturday, September 29th, 9:30am, Breakfast at Victorian Cafe. Located at 14th and Galveston. The last time I was there, I noticed they had this New York Times article on the wall. NYT has a travel feature where they spend 36 hours in a town and describe how to get the most out of a short time there. The NYT recommends you breakfast at the Victorian Cafe. I tend to agree. RSVP to Katherine or Jen.


Free Baby Expo
Anyone going to Portland for the Free Baby Expo? It's at the Portland Convention Center Sept 28th through 30th and looks like an incredible event.

Week of September 17th

Baby Playgroup
Tuesday, September 18th, Jen's house.

Playgroup
Friday, September 21, 10 am. Hollygrape Park.

Bookgroup
Sunday, September 23, 6:30 pm, Wild Oats Cafe. The Five Love Languages of Children by Chapman and Campbell. I'm hosting and will be posting some questions soon. This book is a quick read, but may actually change the way you think about love. Definitely worth the time.

If you have the time...
Having all three girls under the care of someone else last week, I treated myself to a This American Life podcast. The theme for the show was "Unconditional Love." If you have the time, this show was beautiful, humbling, and inspirational. Well, at least to me. The first part talks about turn of the century parenting and the scientific community's stance that love is not necessary for a baby to thrive. Act two and three are the stories of two sets of parents who face incredible difficulties. If you want to download it and put it on an iPod, it costs $.95, but if you just want to stream it on your computer and listen, it is free. Made my cry and shifted my perspective on my own life.

Discussion Questions for Five Love Languages

1. Think about the last day or two. List specific examples of ways love has been communicated to you. Who communicated the love and what language were they speaking? Also, think about the expressions of love you have made. Who did you communicate love to? What language did you speak? Do you think they heard you?

2. Spend the next 24 hours on the lookout for love. Note the expression of love you see each member of your family (including you) are making. Is it easy for you to add in more love? What impediments do you experience?

3. Rank the love languages according to ease of expression for you, 1 being the love language that you do most naturally, 5 being the language that is hard for you to speak. Why do you think some are more difficult than others? What implications does this have for your family?

4. Have you discovered your children's love languages? Yours? Your spouses? What challenges have you encountered in trying to determine them?

5. What would Naomi Aldort author of (Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves) say about Chapter 8, the chapter about discipline, for example, the statement that defiance "cannot be permitted and the behavior must be corrected?" What do you think about it? What do the two books have in common? What are their differences?

6. Which of the forms of discipline listed in Chapter 8 do you currently use? Is that a conscious, deliberate choice you and other caregivers have agree on or one that's made more organically or spontaneously? Which ones did you plan on using before you had kids? If they are different, why? Do you think there are other forms, not listed here?

7. Are your children able to express anger verbally? How do you react to name calling from your children? The authors say that expression of anger is one of the most difficult and yet most important issues we will deal with as parents? Has anger been a challenging issue in your household?

8. In this book, there are several stories about transformations after parents attend a workshop or read a book. Has any book ever transformed your family? Have you had a breakthrough moment where you felt like you discovered something true, implemented changes in your behavior, and your family experienced lasting results? What was that book, and can I borrow it? Seriously, what was the book, what changes did you make, and how was your family changed?

9. If I discover that any of my daughters' love language is acts of service, am I going to have to start buying skirts that don't fit and then learn how to hem them? Did anyone else notice how much skirt hemming was going on?

Week of September 10th

Field's Farm Day
Monday, September 10th, 11 a.m. Bring a picnic lunch & see the farm (Bend's one and only urban farm) in action. Contact Jen – bluesparrowbaking@yahoo.com or 280-7251 to RSVP. You can find it at 61915 Pettigrew Road, which is what Purcell turns into south of Greenwood.

Playgroup
Friday, September 14th, 10 a.m., Big Sky Park

Mom's Get Out
Saturday, Sept. 15th at 5:30 pm – Have dinner with your movie! Meet at O'Kanes in back of McMenamins to come together before the movie starts at 6pm. Currently the movie is Evan Almighty, but the movies may change for the weekend, and the theater's schedule doesn't go that far out. Check that link later in the week to see if the movie has been changed. Email an AP leader if it is your first time to come so that we can know to look for you!

UPDATE: The "movie" is a 3:00 OSU Football game, and no 6:00 movie is scheduled for that day. The McMenamin's person just told me to check back at the theater schedule to see if that changes, but if a movie is shown, it will probably be the 8:30 show. Ideas?

Week of September 3rd

Babygroup
Tuesday, September 4th, Cricket's house. Email her for directions and details.

Playgroup
Friday, September 7th, Overturf Park, meet about 10 a.m.