Educator's Retreat 2017

Mom and I had the most wonderful weekend at my aunt's house for her educator's retreat of 2017. We spent the weekend focusing on "Exponentializing What is Working in Education." We each got a time to speak on what's going on in our realm of education. Then, we spent time in prayer for each person when they were finished. In between were topics of favorite Disney movies, classic childhood memories, recipe gathering, massages, and anything else you can imagine! 
Mom and I set out Thursday afternoon. Once we got out of Dallas, we stopped and had dinner at Chili's in Corsicana! We got to Houston around 10 pm and my aunt showed me my room for the weekend! She made a "grandmother" room... and my cousin and I got to sleep in the lost boys nook!

We stayed up until 1 o'clock that night, just talking about everything we were looking forward to! 
Each morning began the same way. Mom and I would visit the hospitality area upstairs and make ourselves a cup of coffee while we were getting ready. Then we went downstairs for our "round table and smoothie." This time was spent by each person answering a specific question and repeating that process once or twice! One of the questions for this morning was your greatest joy and your greatest challenge. I walked away with something both profound to me, but very simple to understand. In education (and real life), relationships are both our greatest joy and our greatest challenge. How important for us to recognize this early on in our careers. 
After the round table, we got a quick break. I snapped a couple pictures of my Aunt's house that I love. My uncle is an artist... and if you go upstairs and cross over the bridge, you come to his art studio. It's exactly how imagine an artist's studio being... absolutely full of imagination and creativity. You can never get bored in my aunt's house, because there is art everywhere. It looks like a gallery. Many are paintings I recognize and can spend hours looking at the details. 

Oh... and I might have taken a second to swing from the window down to my...... mom.

Meals for this day included brunch, an egg's Benedict build your own bar. A snack of fruits and cheeses, and a pork pazole - a Mexican stew that is a one pot dinner and full of flavor and goodness!!!

We were off to see a play in a quaint little theater, and then we concluded the night around the fake campfire in my room. It was glorious. 

The next day was just as wonderful as the first... maybe one of these days I will recap all of my thinking, but right now, I am still processing a lot of the things we talked about. During the break the next day, I slipped out to get some time with my Man BFF. And we got a picture with all of the family! :) From left to right - my cousin Kayla, me, my cousin Emalee, mom, Aunt Sue, my cousin Ellee with baby Harper! 
Our menu consisted of chicken and waffles and a salmon with mixed vegetables that were to die for. Believe it or not, I really did lose weight on this trip! While we ate good, it was all so healthy! And the gluten free fried chicken was everything I have been craving since January. 

Sunday, we woke up and got to spend the day saying goodbye and seeing other family in Houston/Huntsville.  

Before I left my aunt's, I got to write my favorite children's book quote in the lost boys nook. I chose one from Mary Poppins and my cousin chose one from Peter Pan. 

 

After this weekend, I feel as if my child like faith is renewed and I am ready to tackle the rest of February!