Recently I was invited to join a group called Rural Homemakers that meets monthly. I am really looking forward to joining in the fun. Apparently it is a potluck and at each meeting a lady teaches a skill or handiwork. The women in my husband's family also just last month decided to make a monthly meet up for all the women and kids of the extended family so we could stay connected. It will be at a different person's house each month and a potluck as well so it's not an imposition. It is very fortuitous that these women are creating these bonding opportunities I can take part in. My closest aunt, who is in her 70's, meets weekly for coffee with a group of about ten women who are all very close. I have always thought that was very special and when my children started school I tried fairly successfully to mimic them. So now every Thursday during the school year I invite my closest two "mom friends" over for coffee or champagne during the day.

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Since the family gatherings and the Rural Homemakers came to me this last month, they are on the forefront of my mind as we come into autumn. I am really looking forward to some cozy days spent in the company of comfortable and challenging women from all walks of life while the rain is pouring down outside. And hosting is one of my favorite things to do so I will be sure and create lots of opportunities for that to happen so I can fulfil that desire and maintain these threads of feminine community that, as our world becomes increasingly tech based, do not neccessarily come naturally.

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Do you belong to any women's groups? I'm curious as to what other opportunities are available. Bunco, book clubs, church groups, DAR (usa), charities? How do you participate? Do you feel being around other women is valuable to you?