Book Launch Event

Last Thursday I had the privilege of gathering with about 80 other mothers to celebrate the launch of our new Power of Moms book, Motherhood Realized (which is now a bestseller - thanks for helping to make that happen!).

Oh how I love gathering in person with other mothers and sharing our ideas and our hearts! It's always quite an ordeal getting these events together and in the process of it all, I often wonder whether the effort is really worthwhile. But as I talk face-to-face with the wonderful moms who always show up, all the work I do day-in and day-out, sitting in my house at my computercomes to life. It's such a joy to actually meet some of the moms I'm reaching out to every day via podcasts and posts on our website. And it's an even greater joy to listen to them and learn from them in real time.

Eight of the 30+ authors of the book shared beautiful readings from the book and then we broke into small groups and really delved into discussion about what motherhood has helped us realize (plenty of tears and laughter - I so love these small group discussions that are a hallmark of all Power of Moms events).

Here's a glimpse of the event in photos:

 My mom, April and I enjoyed a nice little dinner right before the event. Love these ladies!

What a roomful of wonderfulness:

We had 8 authors each share a beautiful, powerful reading (lots of tears, lots of laughter...)

Here's my mom doing her wonderful keynote - all about the light found in motherhood.

After the readings and my mom's talk, we had rich small-group discussions:

Here are the wonderful authors who were able to join us for the event:

After the event, April and I had the chance to have a great slumber party and planning meeting (it's a rare and special treat for us to work together face to face rather than over the phone and email!). We recorded this podcast sharing our thoughts from the evening plus concrete ideas for how moms can create and nurture important and fun friendships with each other:

PODCAST: The Importance of In-Person Gatherings

And I have to end with a big shout-out to my very very favorite cookie place in the world:

Ruby Snap was kind enough to donate cookies for refreshments for this event. And these aren't just any old cookies. These are top-of-the-line all-natural-ingredient gourmet cookies that are seriously amazing. I'm sort of a "cookie connessieur" so when I found Ruby Snap last year, I fell in love with their unique recipes and high-quality deliciousness. We love getting food donated for our events so that we can keep the costs down and involve more moms at an affordable price so with this event, we approached Ruby Snap and I was delighted that they agreed to donate a whole bunch of fabulous cookies. When I found out that the were going to donate cookies, I was seriously jumping up and down. I'm not sure whether I was more excited about finding out we'd be getting free Ruby Snap cookies or finding out that our book had become a best seller!

The cookies received rave reviews at the event and I think Ruby Snap is going to have a bunch more loyal customers now.

Anyway, here's the Ruby Snap website so you can check out all the uniquely amazing different kinds of cookies they offer and find out how and where you can sample them for yourselves.