Last week was a 3 day online conference to help busy moms in all aspects of life appropriately named, The Mom Conference. There were numerous presentations on everything from marital relationships, eating well, fitness, money management, emotional well being and more. Each day 7 presentations were made available to view for a 24 hour period. That makes 21 presentations in all. While I was not able to view every presentation, I found the ones I did watch invaluable. The good news is, today 5 of the top presentations will again be available for 24 hours. So, if you missed the conference, you can still checkout some amazing presentations for free. There is also a package available for sale which I will get into at the end of this post. In the meantime, let me tell you about some of the presentations I did watch.
Jesse Mecham: How to Easily Create a Family Budget
Jesse is the founder of You Need A Budget (YNAB), a website and budgeting software that allows you to take control of your money. The best part of this presentation was the discussion of mindset when creating a budget. Often we think of setting budgets as limiting. We think of what we can not get if it doesn't fit the budget. Instead, Jesse talks about budgeting as a plan. We plan our day, our week, or work, our activities, so it makes sense to also plan how we will spend our money. Budgeting is not meant to punish you, but allow you to set aside money for the things you really want/need. Want to pay off debt or take the family on a vacation, budgeting allows you to do that.
Another point that I really appreciated is the idea is that your budget doesn't have to be perfect. Unexpected things come up, and while we'd like to be prepared for them, this is not always possible. It's important not to stress every time the budget doesn't line up perfectly. Instead, learn from it and make any adjustments necessary. Sometimes its just a one off and other times its something you can account for in the future. What is important is adapt and reassess.
Ruth Soukup: Decluttering your Home, Mind, and Soul
Ruth is a NYT bestselling author and founder of Living Well, Spending Less. Her talk about decluttering your life brought great perspective not only on physical decluttering but also mental decluttering. Decluttering is an ongoing process, you don't just declutter once and then everything is perfect forever more. Circumstances change, our needs and wants change, so we have to continue to work on this throughout our lives. I liked her discussion on removing the guilt that we moms often harbor when things aren't perfect. We can't expect picture perfect Pinterest lives all the time. Some days your kids eat junk, some days are a mess, but we can get back on track the next day.
I also appreciated the discussion of decluttering your mind as well. You don't need to check your email every time the red dot appears. Every text doesn't need immediate attention. Some of us might need to to baby steps for this, but our need to immediately respond is often in our own mind. We create our own stress. I might be picking up her book on the subject for a more in depth study!
Ramona Zabriskie: Your Power to Succeed in Marriage
Ramona is the author of Wife For Life: The Power to Succeed in Marriage and the founder of Wife for Life University. Her talk was by far my favorite presentation of the conference. I have a good marriage. It's not that I had some big problem within our relationship that needed solving. But the perspective that Ramona brings to male - female dynamic is so insightful and relationship altering. She talks about progressing from a good to a great and finally to a grand marriage. I couldn't help but be swept up in her image of what a grand marriage can be like. I also couldn't help but nod my head when she discusses the little ways in which we but down or embarrass or belittle our husbands. Often when we intend on drawing them closer, we are in fact pushing them away.
I already purchased and have started devouring Ramona's book, Wife for Life. It gives a whole new perspective on what drives men and how the little things that women do can either build them up or tear them down. In the presentation Ramona talks about the different types of behavior and how they affect a man, whether intentional or not. She gives a few tips on how to adjust our behavior to get the results we want. If you go to her website she also offer online courses to help strengthen your marriage. I am still reading the book and can already see how it is impacting our interactions.
Hopefully, this is one of the presentations included in the encore day today. If not, definitely look into purchasing the conference package, they have a special deal going on until Wednesday at midnight where you can purchase unlimited access to all the presentations as well as a ton of valuable freebies. Ramona gives a short marriage e-course that is worth $50 alone. There are also freebies from all of the other presenters.
So, if you can't make it to Encore Day today or if you've attended parts of the conference and it's left you wanting more, you can get a steal of a deal on a Mom Conference Recording Package that will give you LIFETIME access to the 20 presentations along with a whole lot of other great material to help you be the mom you really want to be. Check it out here.
Cheers,
Emily
How to take care of yourself while you are taking care of others.