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Well, my friend Sonja and I made it back from the Mom Heart Conference in Colorado to hear Sally Clarkson, Sarah Mae, and several others speak.  Sally and Sarah Mae co-authored “Desperate” which is a book that a small group of moms have been studying at my house every 2 weeks this last year.

It didn’t take Sonja and I long to make the decision that going to this conference again in the future would be a high priority.  As we discussed all that we heard on the long way home, we realized much that was talked about wasn’t just for moms, but for anyone walking the Christian life.  Ideas like our identity in Christ was what really hit home for me.  It’s so easy to fall into rules, methods, and legalistic ways of raising children.  What this talked about was looking at how God made us individually as moms, and pairing that with Biblical principles to find out how our family should work.  There was a lot of inspiration, and a lot of grace preached.  It’s not about looking like another family, or meeting the expectation of others, but finding out how our families tick and walking in the Word.

I had to laugh when one of the speakers, Sarah Mae, said in one of her talks something along the lines of, “I don’t knit, but if I were a knitter, I would think the most fun part would be designing.  It would be picking out the yarn, feeling how soft each one was, choosing a color, deciding which stitches to use, and how it would fit.  That whole fun process…was how God made you.  He knit you together with that kind of joy and excitement.”  So, it sort of felt like every session was just for me.  Also, I think Sarah Mae has the heart of a knitter and doesn’t even know it.

One of my other favorite speakers was Sarah Clarkson, Sally Clarkson’s daughter.  She spoke about children’s literature, and the way that stories shape our children’s minds.  It was so amazing, I could listen to her talk 5+ times and not get sick of it.  She has a website for those who are interested: http://www.thoroughlyalive.com.  She’s working on a new website just focused on children’s literature that isn’t up quite yet.  It will be www.storyformed.com.

It was a long way home.  We were supposed to get back Sunday night, but a blizzard at home shut down the airport.  Our journey home is a long, very boring story.  The airline didn’t think that we could get home until Tuesday night, which stressed me out.  We were able to make it to an airport 3 hours away from home, stayed the night with my companion’s in-laws, and then we got woken up to a phone call Monday morning of a friend who said she heard we were stranded and her sister was making the drive from the twin cities home, and we might be able to ride along.

I was so grateful to have my arms around my family again.  I was aching for each one of them.

So today I’m trying to get my kids back on schedule at home.  Snowdrifts near the chicken coop go up to my head.  That’s how crazy the blizzard was that hit on our way home.  Our yard is just full of snow.  The driveway is plowed, though, so it’s onto the library, chess club, and choir practice today for my kids.  The kids are really clingy, which I expected.

The conference was so good.  I felt like parts of my heart were exposed and worked on that I haven’t thought about in years.  As a mom, it’s easy to just keep going, push forward, stuff it, harden, and just make the days work.  We try, fail, try, fail, try, fail again.  It gets weary.  God did a lot of softening in me, and reminding me to embrace who I am and how he made me.  Not only that, but I had the most amazing time with my friend Sonja as we talked non-stop about everything under the sun.  We also met some other amazing moms that I know we will keep in contact with.  There is an upside to this digital/internet age.  🙂

Now it’s a matter of applying all that I learned.  I knew it would be a clingy mess when I got home.  The trip home was full of stress, long waits at airports, long stand-by lines, running between gates, and sitting next to a grumpy businessman on the plane.  The world didn’t wait a moment to attack our peace.  Arriving home doesn’t allow much debriefing as we just hit the ground at full speed.  So far it’s good.  The peace that was instilled in me remains, and what I got there was deeper than just 4 full night’s sleep in a row.  (Although 4 full nights of sleep was pretty heavenly.)

Be patient with me as I’m catching up on everything here at home, trying to unpack, trying to stay centered, trying to snuggle away the kids’ clinginess, and process all that I learned.

Also, I have to brag a moment and thank Knut for sending me on this getaway, and watching all 5 kids the days and nights that I was gone.  I feel like a new woman, physically and emotionally.  What a gift.