Two words: Book. Club.

It is finally happening!!!

What you will find in this edition of Sunday Dinner:

• Best, Worst, Who Got It Done

• Our new Geneva community

• My Sister Made Me Read it: OUR NEW BOOK CLUB featuring both a book book club and a cookbook club

Best | Worst | Who Got It Done

One of my old managers used to send around an email every Monday to his team and we would all reply with our “Best, Worst and Who Got It Done” from the week. It is like that rosebud/thorn exercise, but I think it is catchier.

BEST

I moved into my new office! I was using an office in a spare bedroom, which served me well when I was working at my old job. However, just as soon as I left my corporate job, James also got a new job where he is full-time remote. So I heard his calls. A lot. I ended up being able to get a TWO windows office - something I have never had. My office is in a newly opened co-working building in Westerville and is just a quick walk from uptown, which is so cute for lunch! Not only am I more productive, but it makes it feel more real. It also gives me a reason to get dressed for the day, plan my lunches and have a better routine. I AM SO HAPPY with it.

WORST

James was on a business trip last week so I felt like all I could get done was driving Rebecca somewhere. Usually James takes her to school and they leave the house by 7:15 AM. I was so nervous I was going to sleep in, that I barely slept any of the nights he was gone. Then when I was able to work, all I could think about was how anxious I was about how much time I had left until I had to pick up Rebecca or take her to her next activity. So much mind noise! Exhausting.

WHO GOT IT DONE

Abercrombie does a fundraiser every year at their corporate headquarters, which are massive and beautiful, called the ANF Challenge. The Challenge benefits six different charity organizations centered on kids and teens, including one of my favorites, SeriousFun Children’s Network, a network of camps for kids with medical issues. There is one local to Columbus, Flying Horse Farms, and it is incredible to see the thought that goes into camps for different disease states. The best part is seeing how impactful these camps are to the kids, and I am sure to their guardians, as well.

The Challenge is a music festival and it was my first time going this year with Missy and Sara. AJR and KYGO played on the main stage and it was a gorgeous night. Plus the ticket includes all you can eat and drink and it was just a fun night hanging out and getting drunk on Abercrombie’s corporate campus.

We did not get many pictures of the night, but we laughed a lot!

My Sister Made Me Buy It Geneva Community

Last year we started a Discord, but I did not end up opening it up to everyone because I was trying to figure it all out. It just was not as user friendly as I wanted. I started to research Geneva, joined a few groups and played around with the features. I am so excited to launch it to newsletter subscribers! First I launched to our broadcast channel (free to join — just messages from me) and now I am launching to our newsletters. We have a large following and it makes me nervous to launch it all at once, so I am slowly phasing in more users so we can see how it works out.

My goals for the Geneva community is to be a place to go when you are looking to make friends in your city (we have city chats!), find a good book, talk to each other about what to buy or where to travel to, have a place to talk about GLP/GIP drugs if you are on them, find a Peloton community, etc. I want it to be a resource and a happy place for people.

It is actually SO EASY to use. I was nervous, but I figured it out quickly. You just join the rooms you are interested in and start chatting or post a question. If you want to start a city or another type of forum, just include in the requests and I will create one for you! It is also a great way for us to get to know you better!

You can join here!

BOOK CLUB

The Geneva community is also where we will be hosting a book club! We will have two different types of book clubs - one is like your regular book club - we all read a book, I will host a meeting and a chat and we can all talk about it. The other is a cookbook club.

I am really excited about Cookbook Club. I always buy cookbooks, and then never take the time to go through and make recipes. My goal here is to just make a few recipes a week, post a picture to the forum and tell you whether or not it was good. And then you would do the same! I think it will be so fun to cook together and get each others suggestions on how to spruce it up!

This month we are going to be cooking out of Gina Holmoka’s new book, Skinnytaste Simple: Easy, Healthy Recipes with 7 Ingredients or less. I have been following Gina for years and love her recipes (hate the diet culture name, though). I especially love easy dinners, so I can’t wait to see what we make!

I had a lot more planned for this newsletter, but will probably send out another one this week. I am just pooped and I think my entire house is coming down with something.

I hope you all have a great week!