Hello friends! I am back! I had every intention of having a blog post written Sunday night to go up Monday, but I did NOT intend to catch a bad cold and feel like crap when I got home Sunday night! I think I am getting better thankfully. What timing, huh? The sickness didn’t stop me form having a great time in Tennessee for Refresh Summit.
We spent the weekend at the beautiful Deer Run retreat center just outside of Nashville.
Instead of recapping everything we did, I just wanted to share my 5 favorite moments:
1.) 80’s glow in the dark Zumba party: OH MY GOSH so much fun. Zumba has never really been my “thing”, but this was a BLAST. Since it was Halloween, we had an 80’s theme. We turned out the lights, donned a ton of glow in the dark jewelry, and danced our booties off to 80’s music. It. was. amazing.
2.) Sharing my heart in my workshop: I had the privilege of leading a workshop twice, sharing my heart about social media, the negative side of things, the comparison trap, and having a healthy view of social media. (I fully intend to make this into a blog post at some point, so hang tight.) I had forgotten how much I enjoyed speaking and sharing what God is and has done in my life, and it lit a fire in me to do it more often, so hopefully I will have the opportunity!
3.) Chatting with friends: Old friends and new alike, I enjoyed each and every woman I met at the summit. Everyone had such a unique story, and I am so happy to have met them all. I will admit, at first I felt a bit like the odd man out since a large portion of the people there had attended last year and all knew each other, but it didn’t take long to jump right in and get to know everyone. That’s one thing I loved about this particular retreat, we got to have some down time to get to know each other instead of just GO GO GO non stop.
4.) Meals: Ah, the food. We had some amazing meals at Deer Run put on by the staff, then we also had a breakfast sponsored by Love Grown, and a lunch sponsored by Chipotle! Both were delicious. So many good eats all weekend long.
5.) Worship time: We have several times where we sat and sang/worshiped. and we had the privilege of being led by the wonderful Rhyan Shirley. She wrote the song “You Are” that you may have heard Colton Dixon sing on the radio. She did a great job and I truly enjoyed her music and guitar playing. 
All in All, Refresh Summit was amazing, and the hosts put in so much hard work to make sure it was a great experience for all, and I was grateful for their hard work, and blessed in so many different ways. If you have a chance to go next year I highly recommend it! There will also be one out in California in April if you live on the west coast.
QOTD: have you ever gone on a fitness or women’s retreat?
Must have been nice to get away and really focus on what is important.
it was, thanks!
Looks like fun but weren’t you so sad to miss Halloween with your little one?
Sad? Not at all. She just turned 13 months old…she has no idea what Halloween is nor do we really “celebrate” it around here. We went to our church fall festival last weekend. She’s too young to trick or treat, she can barely walk…so not exactly sure what I “missed” by not being here?
I guess for me at least Halloween with a young one (my daughter is 18 months) is about memories for my husband and I. She said trick or treat for the first time and said “mimmie pretty” when she saw herself in her Minnie Mouse costume… Memories for parents are very important too, especially as your child grows. All I was saying is that it must have been sad to miss but I understand that you have to work (I travel for business too).
Aw that’s fun that she said trick or treat! Mine just turned 13 months and only says like 4 words and had no idea what was going on. We dressed up for a church festival where they handed out candy so that was our “Halloween”. I was honored to be asked to speak at the retreat I went to and knew this would be the last year I would be able to get away over that particular weekend so I went for it, but am excited she will be old enough to trick or treat next year!