Coming Soon: One-Year Anniversary Party, January 21, 2010

Plans are under way for our one-year anniversary party to be held on Thursday, January 21, 2010, 7-9 p.m. in the upstairs Fellowship Hall at AUMC, 716 S. Glebe Rd., Arlington, VA 22204.

Join us for a night of celebrating our holistic community!

A few of our chapter volunteers will be preparing a database of Community Supported Agriculture opportunities so people can sign up for shares before the subscriptions are sold out (usually mid-February to mid-March). This information will be available at the party.

We'll also have some refreshments (contact Mary or Jessica if you want to volunteer to bake or to help get donations).

Local businesses and holistic practitioners are invited to contribute donations of refreshments for our party as well as goods and services that we can give away as door/raffle prizes. Email holisticmomsarlalex (at) gmail (dot) com or call Jessica at 703-824-6167 for more information.

Lots of things to be thankful for!

What an amazing group of women we are! Our speakers shared inspirational stories of education and healing. Katherine, Nina and Josie have made their holistic passions their careers, and we all came away with such a motivated sense of commitment. It was great to just sit and talk and share ... and give away generous prizes! And we collected donations for our host church's food pantry. What an amazing community this is!

Thanks to all the speakers for their time and donations, to Vicky for an additional donation/door prize, to new member Marybeth for sharing, and to everyone who came to the meeting. Thanks to Mary for working on a list of favorite websites of our members (she went through old emails to start a list! Send her others if you have them.)

We also talked about plans for the January 21 anniversary party. There is lots of room to help out for our celebration. Also, here are some photos of a great business meeting we had on Sunday morning before the Thursday meeting. The next business meeting will be December 5 at 3:00 p.m., location TBA.

Check out the flyers on our Yahoo member group site or the schedule to the right on this blog to see the great schedule of meetings we came up with for the first half of 2010. Thanks to all who attended the business meeting and helped flesh out this great program. Anyone with any expertise or interest in any of the topics, let us know and we'll see if there's any way you can help us prep for the meeting.

Little River Yoga is hosting us for a yoga/massage/relaxation Moms Night Out on Monday, December 14. The required minimum number of participants is 8 people. The time is 7-9 p.m., and the cost is $35. Let Jessica know if you plan to attend; RSVP by this Wednesday, December 2.

November 19 Meeting - Sharing our Holistic Journeys!

Click here to see photos from this meeting and read more about the event.

Join us on Thursday, November 19 (7-9 p.m.) for a wonderful meeting of learning, sharing, and building community. Two chapter members will talk to us about their personal journeys toward holistic health and how they brought the personal into the professional.

Katherine Sumner, AADP, is a Board Certified Health Counselor who trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. Nina Elliot is a Certified Personal Trainer who, with her husband, owns Health and Wholeness, a wellness studio focused on improving diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices. The company's tagline is "Health by Choice, Not by Chance."

We'll hear the inspirational stories of both members and have a chance to ask questions and share with one another about our own journeys.

Members have been asked to share their personal favorite webstites for holistic health (which we'll put into a handout). Below are some questions to think about prior to our discussion.

Please join us and find out just how many varieties there are of "holistic moms!"

Thought questions:
What got you started down a holistic path?
What was your a-ha moment?
Were there any times you had second thoughts?
What brought you back?
What haven't you addressed yet but want to?
What is next for you?

Pumpkin Patch!

Our group had a second pumpkin patch outing, this time at Ticonderoga farms, a great, low-key place that doesn't spray its pumpkins (or tomatoes or peppers, which are also available U-pick in the summer). We had a great time with the animals, on a hayride, on slides and on the playground.

Learning about Consumerism

We had a great turnout for the screening of Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood. Cathy Myers of the Family and Home Network and our own Michelle R. did a great job moderating the post-film discussion. We might try for an evening screening in the new year. Thanks to the Family and Home Network for organizing the screening along with Arlington Unitarian Cooperative Preschool and Michelle R.

For more on the film, see the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.