Dinner Gals Go Green

Saturday, we had another wonderful evening with the Dinner Gals - but this time, a new crowd! Melissa, Alli, and Laurel were unable to join us but two new members, Faith and Louise, joined me and Jesse for a great meeting.

I am thrilled that there are so many unexpected and interesting cross-interests. For example, we have several moms with young children - three out of four of us on Saturday have young sons! A couple of the gals are single. There are several gals who support themselves or their families with careers. And at least three of us are working on launching or surviving in our own businesses - Louise has a women's adventure travel company, Melissa is a wedding and child portraiture photographer, and I am working with Scott on selling his photography and working with my mom on a freelance writing and editing business. The tips we can share about entrepreneurship will be invaluable!

I am finding this group to be invigorating. After the meetings, I feel opened up and alive, ready to tackle new projects and inspired about making changes in my life. Particularly after discussing ways to "green" our lifestyles on Saturday, I am renewing my desire to make a difference on this planet of ours. My new goal: to get a few BPA(?)-free water bottles so I can stop buying the disposable kind (which I really love). I am also going to work on using my cloth bags for shopping. Louise said her grocery store doesn't even offer plastic bags any more, and is phasing out paper, so if you forget your reusable bags, you are outta luck! That's incentive.

We agreed last night that finding new friends with commonalities and differences is a blessing we all can use. What a joy to laugh for three and a half hours!

Off to collect some rainwater to water my plants! :)

Ally

p.s. Next meeting's topic will be: Finding Our Spirituality. What is your story? Where have you come from and where are you going? What types of spiritual practices do you incorporate into your daily life and how does that influence the rest of your life? What are you looking for in terms of nurturing your spiritual self?

The Dinner Gals a wild success!

Our first womens' group meeting went swimmingly and was so much fun! Five of us met at a central location in Massachusetts. Two others couldn't make it but want to come to the next meeting.

We discussed our interests, stories from our lives, kids, husbands, etc. But not too much men talk, so chillax, guys! Mostly just girly talk plus ridiculous amounts of laughter, and it was delightful! The women have interesting things in common, like some are moms, some are career gals, all went to college - and almost all went to Christian colleges, which is unusual.

We talked about goals for the future, things we worry about, and what we would like to see out of this group. We hope to discuss several topics, like amazing things to do before we die (The Bucket List!), how to "green" our lives, how to find and nurture our spiritual selves, how women are viewed in the media and society, and gender roles. Yes, we are gonna talk about those Dove ads and if we can really believe them!

The topic for our April meeting will be: Greening Our Lives. What have you done to become more environmentally conscious? What kinds of habits have you already incorporated? What would you like to add to your life, or what do you want to know more about? So a past/present/future look at becoming more healthy and environmentally friendly. Looking forward to it!

~Ally

The Dinner Gals - my women's group starts tonight!

Women. Talking. Eating. Sharing Wisdom. Telling Secrets. Laughing Out Loud. Making New Friends.

What's not to love?

Can't wait for tonight.
~Ally