MACHE Conference

Last weekend we were privileged to be able to attend the MACHE Homeschool Conference in Duluth. It was wonderful!! It was great for Dan and I to reconnect since he has been mostly absent for the last 6 months. He really needed a break and I really needed to be with him.

We arrived in Duluth on Thursday night around 10:30 after dropping the kids off at John and Erika's in St. Paul. (Dan's parents picked them up Friday evening and took them to our house). We've never driven into Duluth at night but it was a beautiful sight. The bridge that goes from Minnesota to Wisconsin is lit up at night and very pretty. We stayed at the Holiday Inn downtown. Due to Dan's platinum status at Holiday Inns (due to all his traveling), we were on the 16th (top) floor with a view overlooking the harbor and the aerial lift bridge. I was hoping for a gorgeous sunrise on one of the days but no luck. Friday morning was the only morning with the hope of a beautiful sunrise as Saturday it was cloudy/rainy and Sunday morning it was so foggy we couldn't even see the lake.

We went to breakfast at the Amazing Grace Bakery and Cafe on Friday morning--one of our favorite places to eat in Duluth. About 1/2 way through breakfast, my cell phone rang. It was Erika. Darin was under the weather. He had gotten up and was having the dry heaves. Never a thing you want to hear as a parent especially when someone else is taking care of your kids. I was hoping it was just a Darin thing (he has a few GI issues) and that I hadn't brought illness on the whole household. I called later in the day and found out that he perked up later (after having thrown up later in the morning). Thankfully no one else got sick, at least not that Erika has told me.

When we arrived at the conference, after picking up our registration info, we headed over to the used curriculum area. Never again. It was way too disorganized and in too small of a space. Also, most of the curriculum that was being sold was either really old or not something that I use. I didn't find much that those who school classically use--mostly Abeka stuff. And the stuff that I might buy was only $1 or $2 less than new so definitely not worth the hordes of people. We left there quickly after running into a few friends from Rochester.

We headed on over to the exhibitor booths, browsed there for awhile and bought a few things. We had time to run those back to the hotel room before our first workshop so that I wouldn't have to carry around a heavy bag all day.

Dan and I went to several workshops on Friday and Saturday. Sometimes we went to the same one and at other times we split up. The keynote speaker was Dr. Jeff Myers. He was an excellent speaker and talked about passing the baton to the next generation. He had a very polished delivery, was funny and was also very transparent. He told great stories. He teaches at a small Christian college in Tennessee--Bryan College.

I went to a few of the seminars offered by Steve and Teri Maxwell of Titus 2 Ministries. I bought 2 of their books-- Managers of Their Homes and Managers of Their Chores. Teri talked about some creative scheduling ideas that I plan to implement--a daily chore time, preschool time, time for the older 2 to play alone with a younger child (Ellie is most excited about this), and a daily meal helper. I hope to get my schedule and chore assignments laid out in the next few weeks. Ellie wants them done yesterday. :-)

We also attended a workshop called Raising Pure Daughters in a Generation of Darkness. She has written a book called Before You Meet Prince Charming. She had a lot of good things to say about how to teach young women to be pure and to wait for their prince.

While in Duluth we were able to eat at many of our favorite restaurants--Pizza Luce (a really yummy pizza with artichokes, feta, etc), Fitger's Brewhouse (they had a really yummy clam chowder), Amazing Grace (delicious sandwiches), and Grandma's (the best onion rings anywhere!!). Duluth has such a better selection of restaurants than we have here.

We had originally planned to come home Saturday after the conference was over but Dan suggested we stay Saturday too so we could have more time to reconnect and discuss what we had learned. It didn't take too much arm twisting to get me to stay. Ok. So it didn't take any arm twisting.

We came home on Sunday in time to go out for lunch with the kids and Dan's parents. Thanks again to those who watched our kids so we could get away, renew and refresh. It is greatly appreciated.