Retreat Report (mostly from my mom)

Our Retreat in Park City this past weekend really was powerful and magical. It's amazing the feeling you get when 85 wonderful moms gather together and spend a day or two helping each other become even better. Ah, the wisdom and joy and POWER in that room!

I'll have more photos when our photographer (and star performer) Macy Robison gets me the photos. But here's a snippet of what we experienced this past weekend through my mom's eyes and the photos people have been kind enough to send me so far. I've cut and pasted what my mom wrote about the Retreat on her "World of Good" blog at the Deseret News so you can hear a report of a Retreat from someone other than me. What my mom didn't say here is that she was our amazing keynote speaker and that she and my dad are masterful presenters who added so much to the event. Plus their lovely home was an absolutely perfect setting. They are so gracious to let us host events at their house.

My mom's report:
We are sometimes mystified by the power of the Internet. Sometimes it seems no one is out there and then suddenly we learn what it means when someone says, “it went viral”! As those of you who follow Deseret News Blogs know, our oldest daughter Saren and her dynamite mother friends power up the Motherhood Matters blog. This sprang out of an organization that can be found at powerofmoms.com. It is a web site for deliberate mothers. Saren and her co-founder April Perry have created this website that enriches, comforts and inspires moms to be better, do better and get over it when they don’t!

After Saren and April have worked tirelessly for about five years to make their website fly, suddenly one of April’s articles “went viral”. It apparently touched a nerve amongst mothers because it generated ONE MILLION HITS! If you want to take a look, click here. What a great gift to these amazing women for Mother’s Day!


As of last weekend, Saren and April have completed 16 weekend retreats involving job training for mothers all over the United States. In March they did two retreats in Australia! Their readership covers the globe and they are thrilled to be part of this movement to train mothers not only for their hardest and best job, but also for their lifelong most-important career.

Last weekend Richard and I hosted a Power of Moms Mother’s Day Retreat. I must say that the power of deliberate mothers was bursting at the seams of our home in Park City. On Friday we talked about specific ways moms can take care of themselves as well as some family systems that helps a home run more smoothly. On Saturday April gave instructions for keeping your mind (and stuff) organized with a system she has created called Mind Organization for Moms.


One of the best things about these retreats is being able to break up into small groups so that moms can help each other with specific problems and needs at home. Every mother brought her own gifts and powers. Comments, questions and suggestions from those present always makes us realize that they could do their own retreat….many of whom are! It was a gorgeous day so some of the groups were able to meet outside.


We were all moved by Macy Robison who is a extraordinary talent with a gorgeous voice and a special talent for touching and lifting up mother’s hearts. She has produced her own delightful CD called Children Will Listen which you can access here.

Snacks and a lovely lunch were served to keep our brain power at maximum and pamper ourselves a bit for Mother's Day.



After a thought-provoking day of mother training, about a dozen brilliant women who serve on the Power of Moms Board stayed on and were able to put their heads together during an evening dinner/meeting where they brainstormed about how to help the website run better and reach more mothers. These great moms all work several hours a week to help run the website and they are each amazing, wonderful women.



Since there is basically no instruction manual for mothers to enable them to be the best they can be, The Power of Moms is looking to create something that will power up those who are working in the most important job in the world. They’d love to have a million members! To be one of those excellent moms go to powerofmoms.com and click on "join us".