Money Saving Mom®

After a long and wearying day of traveling with our three children (6, 4, and 2), we were anxiously waiting to disembark at our final destination. I couldn’t have been more ready to get off the plane.

All three children had been especially whiny and antsy that day. I was sure everyone around us was desperate to get off, too, after being unwittingly subjected to over an hour of fussing, loud, and animated youngsters.

The stress levels continued to rise in me as the minutes ticked on and the decibels of whining increased. I was poised for someone to turn around and let out an exasperated sigh or give me a very sharp “what-were-you-thinking-bringing-these-unruly-children-on-this-flight?” look.

Read the full article over at MomLife.

I had all these plans of blogging a short recap everyday while we were at the Relevant Conference last week. But, ahem, that plan went completely by the wayside. I got so involved in just enjoying the wonderful people who were at Relevant that it was hard to break away to even check my email or post.

However, since I had promised some recaps to many of you, here’s a one-post recap of some of the events (it would take at least 10 posts to even try and scratch the surface of all that went on and all I learned and gleaned!).

Since we were one of the Relevant sponsors, we were generously given three display tables. The problem? We don’t really have any products to sell.

However, I hated for the table space to go to waste, so I asked if we could give stuff away from some companies we love and have worked with in the past. The Relevant coordinators kindly gave us permission to do that, so we contacted a few companies and asked if they’d be willing to send free items for us to give away.

Well, let me tell you, we were blown away by the generosity of these companies. In fact, we were a little overwhelmed to arrive at the hotel and have 30 boxes of free stuff waiting for us to go through and organize. Gratefully, I’d brought my assistant, Erika, along and she transformed the 30 boxes into a beautiful display.

I was worried about what we were going to do with all the freebies and whether or not we’d really be able to get rid of everything. Well, I should have known better. As soon as the 250 bloggers attending the conference showed up for dinner, our table was pretty well mobbed. It was so much fun to get to be the bearer of freebies. It felt a little like blogging about freebies, only I got to hand-deliver them this time.

People kept asking, “Is all of this really free?” And then they’d go pass the word that we had free stuff and it was going fast!

The planners from Home Educating Family were especially big hits. Erika and I could hardly keep the stack stocked. And long after we were completely out, people kept coming back asking if we had anymore left.

My publisher also offered to give away a free pre-release copy of my upcoming book, The Money Saving Mom®’s Budget, to every blogger who was willing to sign up and do a review on their blog. I was so humbled and blessed at how excited everyone was about the release of my book. Dozens upon dozens of bloggers signed up and we ended up running out of sign-up sheets!

(You can get a little sneak peek of my book’s cover here. It’s now available for pre-order on Amazon.com, too, for those who have been asking to see what it’s going to look like! I can hardly wait for the release date in January!)

One of the best parts of the whole event was getting to introduce bloggers to some of my favorite products and companies — like The Imagination Station books, All You magazines, Tropical Traditions coconut oil, and Marie-Madeline Studios products. My sister even made a bunch of bars of homemade soap that I gave out–which people loved!

Friday afternoon, I hosted the first official Money Saving Mom® Reader Meet-Up. While there were some hiccups and some last-minute scrambling (thanks to those of you who came early and patiently endured me running around like a chicken with my head cut off!), it turned out incredibly well.

I was so blessed in meeting all of the amazing women who came. I laughed until I cried at how hilariously funny you all were during the games. I was touched deeply with your stories that you came up and shared with me individually at the end. And I was so humbled that many of you drove 30 to 100+ miles to attend this event.

(A group picture of the reader meet-up. Such beautiful ladies!)

Meeting these precious readers in person solidified something I’ve long believed: I have the best readers on the planet. It’s hard to describe in words just how much of a blessing my readers are to me on a daily basis. And I can’t wait to do more get-togethers in 2012 in other parts of the country so I can meet more of you face-to-face!