Relevant ’11: Real. Intentional. Blogging

I just returned from a 4 day trip to the Relevant conference. Those 3 words in the title: Real. Intentional. Blogging….explains exactly what it was and more. I am so glad that things worked out for me to go. (I got a ticket 8 weeks before the conference) I’ve been telling everyone that this conference was not one conference, but really a 3 in 1 conference.

♦ A Girlfriend Getaway

I roomed with my in real life friends: Janelle, from Comfy in the Kitchen, Courtney from Women Living Well and then my new friends Ruth from the Better Mom, Darlene from Time Warp Wife and Joy from Gracefull Mama. (Check out their blog posts about Relevant! Comfy and WLW They have more pictures!!)

We had 2 rooms with an adjoining door and it was like we were in college again! Because it was 4 nights and close to 5 days we really were able to let loose and relax! We laughed and laughed and laughed! We spent 6 hours in the van driving both to and from. We barely slept and we ate at midnight. Can I say that we truly “lived it up”? We were all missing our families by the end, but it was so refreshing to be a “girlfriend” again!

( Ruth, myself and Janelle waiting to pick up Darlene at the airport!)

(Joy and I before dinner! She was a keynote speaker and let me tell you. She is one beautiful woman)

♦ A Bloggy Learning Experience

This is the main reason I went. I thought it was going to purely be to learn about blogging. I learned about making money on blogs, how to write better, how to balance blogging with your family and made lots of connections!

(Renee Swope and I. She just wrote the book “A Confident Heart”. We chatted a few times through the conferences and she just ROCKS!!)

(Courtney from Women Living Well. You can blame her for me starting my blog! She helped me process a lot and lead great panel sessions!!)

♦ A Spiritual Refreshment and Refinement

This took me by surprise. While I knew this was a Christian conference and had Christian underlying ones, I didn’t know how much the Spirit would be moving in the hearts of everyone, mainly myself. I heard from outstanding speakers and listened to talented musicians. (Ann Voskamp, Dr. Juli Slattery, Shawn Groves, Christa Wells and Sally Clarkson to name a few!) I went to the conference praying for God to give me some guidance for this blog and got exactly that. I will share with you later some things that God showed me for the blog.

(Christa Wells and I. Not sure who she is? She wrote the song “Held” made famous by Natalie Grant and many others for the group Selah. If you don’t know her music, you need to get to know it!)

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Thank you to the Relevant team for putting on such an awesome conference! Real. Intentional. Blogging. Yes. That sums it up!