The Family-Centered Life

Morning tea

I’m trying to catch up since getting home from Memphis. A weekend away at a conference always takes the wind out of me. I think it’s because I operate in hyper mode the whole time and then I come home and crash. I try not to but my body just doesn’t cooperate. I never sleep well when I travel and I could sleep for a week when I get home.
The conference was really quite nice. Of all the conferences I go to Memphis is certainly one of the best. As a vendor you feel so appreciated and the hospitality is unmatched. We even got a little gift basket with things we might need during the conference; water, a piece of fruit and a few pieces of hard candy and throat drops, a stick of beef jerky, hand lotion, lip balm, hand sanitizer, a pack of tissues, a pad of paper and a pen, a small calculator and even a band-aid. It was really a nice touch and something I’m going to keep in mind for our upcoming conference.

The main speaker was Ann Anzalone and she was great! We, the vendors, got to hear her talks because the main speaking area was right in the vendor area (an idea we had already planned on for our conference and which I think is a great one because the majority of vendors tend to also be homeschoolers). Ms. Anzalone’s two main talks were Teaching the Tornados, Space Cadets, and Children Refusing to Learn & Setting Children Up for Success. Both were fun, interesting and informative. As a parent I felt I came away with some really valuable information in regards to teaching my children and as a right brained woman married to a left brained man I felt validated. My only “complaint” of the entire weekend was that none of the talks were taped. I would have really liked to listen to those talks again. If you are interested, you can read more about Ann and her talks at the Memphis conference website. Oh yeah I gave a workshop too. It was on effective time managment for busy moms. OK, that makes my left-brained husband laugh but the fact is that left or right-brained, we homeschooling moms have unique challenges that many time management books and systems just don’t address. In fact I’m working on a book about just that!
Another great part of the weekend was connecting with people. I was so blessed by the people there and really and truly felt connected to the greater family of God. A few old friends and some new ones made the weekend a truly revitalizing experience. OK so I’m exhausted but I am just brimming with new ideas! Well exhaustion or no I have lots of planner orders to fill (they arrived at my house last Friday!) so I better get to it.

Oh and the weather…it was actually quite chilly in Memphis. Thankfully it’s warming up here and despite my exhaustion I cleaned my kitchen from top to bottom last
night. . .which means either I’m pregnant or spring cleaning fever has hit me. . . or both.

I’ll keep you updated.

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