Hearts @ Home - What a Blast!

I had the BEST time at the conference! I am definitely planning on attending again next year, and if anyone else is interested please let me know - it was very worth the cost.
 
About 2000+ moms (or grandmas) attended, and altogether we had 5000+ children.
 
I'll show you what the schedule of events was like:
 
Friday
Moms Night Out 7-9 pm in the Auditorium
   - We were a little late due to a llloonngg supper (our waiter was slow) so we had to sit in the top seats in the balcony section. But we had a great view of the stage, and they had screens set up. We sang some worship songs and listened to a few funny speakers. My ultimate favourite story was a story of someone's (not in attendance) first mammogram - basically the attendant left her stuck in the machine that had caught on fire (behind the divider) and a little while later a fireman showed up. There is no way I can tell it the same way I heard it, but it had me laughing so hard I was crying so hard I couldn't see and my belly hurt until the next day!!! It was a really great start to the whole conference.
 
Saturday
Morning Main Session 8:30 - 10am in the Auditorium
  - We were early and got floor seats pretty close to the stage. However we discovered that the seats are actually more comfortable in the balcony section! (Just a note to anyone else who may attend in future... :-) ) We sang worship songs again, and the main speaker, Jill Savage, spoke about the Art of Mothering. She was a good speaker and it was a good session.
 
Workshop 1 10:20 - 11:20am in the Auditorium
The Mother Load: How to Meet Your Own Needs While Caring for Your Family
   - The speaker was Mary Byers and she wrote a book with the same name.  I learned some really good lessons including 20min naps, the importance of policies and routines, and acting on what I know uniquely about my child. There was a lot more, but I don't want this post to get too long!
 
Box Lunch
  - This included: a turkey sandwich, bottle of water, small bag of chips, (mine was actually missing, but a friend shared hers...), banana, and a chocolate chip cookie. Very tasty!
 
Workshop 2 12 - 1pm in the Auditorium
Redefining Discipline: A New Approach for Raising Respectful Children
  - The speaker was Todd Cartmell and he also wrote a book but he changed the title to "Raising Respectful Kids". He was an EXCELLENT speaker - my favourite for the whole conference, other than the story listed above in Moms Night Out. He started it off displaying a picture of Supernanny via his power point presentation, and said by the end of the session we could do better! I think I will keep the naughty blanket for now, but I will definitely put what he taught into practice. His main two techniques are called Fast Listening and Flexible Thoughts. If anyone is interested I can email you the page of notes I have for this session, they are very good. I would recommend his book as well; I will be picking it up soon.
 
Workshop 3 1:20 - 2:20 in the Presentation Hall
Motherhood: Finding the Magic in the Mundane
  - The speaker was Cindy Sigler Dagnan and she is also an author. This session was very uplifting and encouraging. She also had some funny stories to tell. The parts that meant the most to me was the importance of self-discovery and the importance of creating magic with our spouse - Glow, Grow, and Guard.
 
Workshop 4 2:40 - 3:40 in the Presentation Hall
Radical Forgiveness
  - The speaker was Julie Barnhill, and although she tends to be a funny speaker, this session was more serious with light moments. It really got you thinking. To offer a bit of an explanation about what the session was like, I will quote from the workshop description:
      "What does it mean to really forgive those who have hurt you? To forgive yourself for dumb things you've done? To forgive God for what He has or seemingly hasn't done? And how does it all affect your mothering... for good and for bad? With typical gutsy honesty, humor, and friendly, sassy style, Julie will help point you to the transformational liberty of Radical Forgiveness."
It is quite hard to express what I learned in this session - I was so glad that it was chosen for me. (When you register you pick your top 10 workshops you would like to attend, but don't know exactly which 4 you will get until you get there.) One of the parts that struck me is that once you forgive someone you may be tempted to pick up the burden of unforgiveness again and again - you must choose to leave it behind and forgive them again.
 
Afternoon Main Session 4-5:30 pm in the Auditorium
   - The speaker was Ken Davis who is the first man to be a main session speaker at one of these conferences. He is a comedian, author, and motivational speaker. He was really great!!! He told the funniest stories, but my favourite was the ordeal he put his wife through to get a Looney Toons leather jacket. He had decided that if tantrums worked for his granddaughter to get a cookie, he would try throwing one in the middle of the Mall of America to get the jacket! It was a great way to end the conference!
 
The group of ladies that I attended the conference with had suggested that we spend an extra night in Rochester to go over what we learned at the conference. This is what we did, and I think it was well worth it! We could relax and talk and laugh and eat! All in all I had an awesome time. There is so much more I could say about the conference, but I think I will leave it at that for this post. If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask!