Hearts at Home Conference

In the month of March, my wonderful husband encouraged me to go on a mommy conference. The organization is called, Hearts at Home and is connected to MOPS (Mothers Of Preschoolers).

3 of my dear friends and I packed up the car on Thursday night and headed to Bloomington, IL. There we rented a hotel and had a wonderful girls weekend.

In the above picture you can see how big this conference was. They had a main speaker and then they had break out sessions. Each mother could pick the sessions she wanted to attend.

There were three areas in my life that I wanted to work on and then I picked classes to help inspire me and challenge myself.

In the area of being a mother I took parenting a strong-willed child, what every preschooler is trying to tell you, and discipline. After these sessions I really realized in parenting you need to set goals for each of your children. Both short term goals and long term goals. I learned that being a good parent is being creative. In the area of discipline make games to promote positive behavior. Praise your child when they do good. Give them choices that you can live with.

Next I wanted to work on my relationship with the Lord. A picture that has really stayed in my mind about the conference is a watercolor picture. In the watercolor picture it lists:

Lord

Husband

Children

Work

Watercolors bleed and run down. If you have these priorities in place you have Lord as number one in your life, then honoring your husband, then your children, and lastly your work. If the Lord is your #1 then it will drip down into every area of your life. I am a visual learner and to have this picture in my mind really helps me to access my life. It has been one of my goals to make an effort to spend time with God each day and as I rise in the morning to ask HIM to be part of my day.

The last area in my life that I wanted to work on is being a good wife to my husband. I learned that I need to allow God to determine the man He designed my husband to be. I am not the one to mold my husband into the man I feel he should be. I learned to be intentional in our relationship. Us moms also learned more about intimacy. I know TMI (To Much Information)! The girls and I decided to pick something up from a little shopping excursion.

They had this sign as we are walking by! I thought it was totally funny and had to take a picture of it!

The girls! Kelli, Barclay, Shari, and myself

Barclay and Shari Of coarse we needed to do a little shopping on our girls trip! We went to the mall and we passed by Claire's. I said to Barclay, I should just go get my ears re pierced. She said lets do it now! Before I could say anything I was already in the chair! One of my earring holes had closed for the last 5 years. Funny thing is that I used to work at Claire's when I was in high school. I used to pierce peoples ears all the time. I must admit that sometimes I closed my eyes when I pulled the trigger! Remember I was only around 17 and they trusted ME to poke people in the ear! It was a fun experience with the my girls!