Saturday night and I'm waiting for Mark and the kids to get home from Nana and Papa's house. It's nice to have a little bit of quiet to think about the past twenty-four hours and what I can take a way from the Hearts at Home conference.

Last night was "Mom's Night Out." The main portion of the evening was an comedy, improv group. 3 guys in a crowd of over 2700 women. I felt a bit bad for them as they asked for ideas for their show and were given suggestions related to breast feeding, bladder leakage after childbirth, etc. But, I can not remember the last time that I laughed so hard. My cheeks still hurt tonight. They were wonderful and such good sports!

This morning, our main session was by JimBob and Michelle Duggar of the 19 Kids and Counting Fame. Following that, I attended their breakout session for parenting tips. Now admittedly, I can't really relate to 19 kids... But, their ideas are not specific to big families. And they really made me think about how I interact with my own kiddos.

There were a couple of good sessions about finances and raising kids to be grateful/thoughtful in this era of consumerism. This also really changed my perspective on some of the things that we do without a second thought and gave me some motivation to change.

I think the biggest thing I came away with was just reassurance that I am not alone. In my day-to-day life, I often feel like other moms have it so much more together than I do. You know... the ones who make parenting look so easy. Perfect makeup and hair, perfect outfit, kids dressed adorably and behaving well. Me? I'm always looking frumpy, frazzled, and praying that the kids will not do something like wiping their nose on the person sitting next to them. Today, I was reassured that I am not the only one who collapses at the end of the day wondering how messed up my kids are going to be as a result of my less than perfect parenting. I'm not the only one who feels inadequate and sometimes alone in this journey. I was given the gift of fellowship with other Christian women whose desire is to serve the Lord while also serving their families. What a blessing!