Women's groups

Since my nest is empty, I have joined two women's groups. This is something I always wanted to do when I got "older" and the time has arrived! One is with my mother-in-law Pat and the other is one I started a few months ago. The group I go to with Pat is called the Cleofon club and no one seems to know what that means or why it is called that. Funny! Anyway, it's been going for about 25 years. Most of the women in the group are Pat's age. They are amazing women and have lead very interesting and productive lives. The rest of this group is made up of women my age who are mostly daughters of the older women. It was very nice of Pat to invite me to join. They meet for lunch one a month at the home of one of the group members and then they have a speaker come and talk to the group. So far these have been the interesting topics and speakers:
- Emma Lou Thayne - poet, author and song writer who wrote the hymn "Where Can I Turn for Peace" in addition to many other amazing books and some wonderful poetry
- Lunch and tour of the Minerva Teichert art collection at the museum of art at BYU
- Margaret Young - author and BYU English professor who has done a lot of research and written three books on the early black members of the church. I bought all three books and plan to read them this fall
- Artist Elspeth Young artwork web site. - She came and did a slide show of her paintings of women from the scriptures. She is working with Camille Fronk Olson (BYU religion professor) on this project and she had some beautiful paintings to share.
- Field trip to the SLC Tabernalce to listen to an organ recital given by Bonnie Goodliffe, Tablernacle Choir organist with a tour of the recently remodeled Tabernacle afterwards. Amazing experience!
- Christmas dinner with spouses and entertainment provided by a very good violinist and pianist.
They took the summer months off and will reconvene next week.

The second group is made up of women who have lived in our Park 8th ward neighborhood over the years. The requirements to join the group is that the women have to be at least 50 years old and have lived in the neighborhood/ward at some point. Many of the members are women/friends I love who have moved to another part of the valley, but everyone knows everyone else. I started the group by sending letters to 22 women asking them if they would like to join a group and meet once a month. Sixteen women responded that they would, and the group got underway five months ago. We meet in the evening since many work. At the meetings, we have a refreshment, visit, and then share our interests, hobbies, talents and such with one another. We made up a list of things we would like to learn about and members of the group will lead the discussions. We charted out the rest of the year and these are the topics: Journal writing ideas, including starting blogs; attending a play together at the SCERA outdoor shell - the King and I; quilting display and sharing of ideas; activities to do with grandchildren; reading to children, good books to share; skin, hair, make-up helps - making the most of what we've got; crocheting and knitting ideas - start a simple project; attending a Christmas program together. So far the meetings have been great and I think that the women really like being involved. We'll meet in our family room most months, unless someone else would like to be the hostess, then we'll travel to another home. I think we can go for years just learning from each other and sharing our hobbies and talents, etc. We'll just keep it simple, but I think it will be a lot of fun. We have talked about naming our group the Dust Busters since none of us seem to collect much dust. I guess it's a type of Red Hat society, but whatever! It's an interesting time of life and I want to make the most of it.

I enjoy meeting with these women and learning some new things together. I love to learn new stuff and be exposed to ideas and different ways of doing things. It should be good in many ways.