Annette, Terri Sue, Jennifer Bogart, Debbie, Smock Lady, and Stephanie! Congratulations!!!

This weekend’s She Speaks Conference was both a surreal and a “coming home” sort of experience. Surreal, in the sense of hanging out with well-known bloggers, writers, and speakers; comfortable in meeting other women - the bloggers - who are interested in and familiar with the same things that I am. In how many social settings could I engage in meaningful conversation about IP addresses? You tell me.

The day started with a four hour drive, arriving just in time for a lunch date at Chili’s with Robin, Valerie, and Lisa. We got our I-don’t-actually-know-anyone jitters out of our systems, a perfect ice-breaker before heading to the conference.

Robin and I have emailed back and forth a lot and even talked on the phone once, so I was psyched about getting to meet her. We recognized each other immediately and really clicked. Amazingly, we were signed up for exactly the same sessions throughout the weekend.

Friday afternoon’s bloggers’ reception was the perfect way to put faces with fellow bloggers (around 100 of us) in the sea of 560 conference attendees. I met 14 ladies whose blogs I’ve designed, as well as 4 who are presently in my queue. Sophie (BooMama), Shannon (Rocks in My Dryer), and Melanie (Big Mama) were the featured speakers for 3 blogging sessions throughout the weekend.

Shannon and I are originally from towns about 40 miles apart in Arkansas. We could have Called the Hogs, but that might have frightened people.

Renee Swope (The Journey of My Heart & HeBrews Faith Cafe) was one of my earliest P31 clients.

Sophie was every bit as sweet and Southern as expected. What a precious and witty woman, capable of using the word “organic” intelligently in a sentence without referring to food items. She brought the house down during the Blogging Q & A when she referred to “pimping your post”!

Being Lysa TerKeurst’s blog designer is certainly one of the claims to fame of my little SAHM web design business, Barefoot Blog Designs. After all the calls and emails, it was a sweet meeting. Not only is she an inspirational speaker, she has a gift for making others feel special and valued, and that’s no small thing.

This is a group shot, and in order from left to right are yours truly, Shannon @ Rocks in My Dryer, Jo-Lynne @ Musings of a Housewife, Big Mama, Annie Downs, BooMama, Robin @ Pensieve, Valerie @ Valerie at Home, Lisa B. from Simply His, and Sarah @ Genesis Moments.

There was a block of time on Saturday afternoon when the speakers and writers had meetings, but we bloggers were at loose ends. What it created was a perfect opportunity for the “seasoned” bloggers to pull together some tables, pick each other’s brains, and discuss topics that would have been beyond the scope of the sessions.

Oh, and to gab, too. Bloggers have more than the average share of words per day, which is why we blog some of them, thereby sparing our families.

My husband confiscated the laptop for the weekend, telling me that I needed to be a normal person. In this crowd, the absence of a laptop was not normal, so that one backfired on both of us.

Heady with new friendships and a touch of silliness, we hit the local outlet mall, where we tried on outrageously expensive shoes in Off 5th. From left to right: DeeDee @ Fiddledeedee, Missy @ It’s Almost Naptime, me, Tina @ Antique Mommy, and Robin @ Pensieve. I don’t know about the other ladies, but I couldn’t have lasted 5 minutes in those painful-but-pricey heels

I have to tell you, meeting Tina was a thrill for me because she is one of my favorite writers. Missy was cute as can be and totally tops me in the childbirth category; she has 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-year olds!

DeeDee and I snagged a last minute photo op with Marybeth Whalen and realized that all of us are scheduled to speak at the Heart of the Matter Online Virtual Conference. [At this point I could probably say we're scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention and no one would notice since I've probably lost 95% of the people who started reading this increasingly long post.]

Marybeth is my ticket to this P31 ride. She contacted me a week and a half before last year’s conference about designing her blog, and the rest has been blessing upon blessing showered upon me by these kind and generous women.

We had a relaxed visit in my room Saturday night with our feet propped up and our hair down, so to speak, which is entirely natural considering how much we have in common: homeschooling moms, well-known authors and speakers, lots of kids, authors for the Homeschool Blog Awards, Southerners. Meeting her was one of the great treats of the conference for me.

My calendar is marked for next year’s conference.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the blogger portion continues to expand. Wouldn’t a blog conference for Christian women be an amazing thing?

For more summaries, visit the blogs of the other She Speaks attendees.

Please join me today at the Homeschool Blog Awards for a Better Blogging post about the purpose of your blog.

If I had read How to Make Your Blog Disappear for Dummies (don’t bother checking Amazon for that title) I couldn’t have done a better job than I’ve somehow accomplished lately.  My feed has had so many strange issues that I’ve uninstalled or deleted lots of plugins or post content that I’d really have preferred to keep.  Bloglines has apparently snuffed me, because my feed completely disappeared.  I subscribe to my own feed at Bloglines to help monitor it’s health, and it went from the dreaded [!] symbol (which means your feed is seriously messed up) to just gone.  When I tried to resubscribe it showed that I had 0 readers.  I guess that’s what happens when Bloglines terminates you.  If you subscribe to this blog, you might want to check your subscription, especially if you use Bloglines.

I’ve revamped my About page, based on the really cool layout of the about page at Scott Kelby’s blog, which I thought was much more interesting and informative than my neglected page.

Watch for a post soon (hopefully later today) with all the details about my Totally Twisted giveaway on March 24 - 28 (see graphic in top right sidebar), and of course I’ll be here for Wordless Wednesday (although I haven’t yet picked a photo).

Here’s a fun shot from when I first got my new camera, and please visit my photoblog for a beautiful fountain I photographed at night on our recent vacation in Gatlinburg, TN.

I am not usually an authority on everything going on in my little corner of the blogosphere. I tend to spend a lot of time on the computer working and less visiting than I’d prefer. Those wee hours that span the bridge between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning tend to be the exception to the rule, because I love my Wordless Wednesdays!

Here are a few things that I’ve discovered along the way:

My pal Carrie the Gremlin Wrangler is hosting a giveaway for Volumes 1 & 2 of Letters from Your Friendly Cashier. If you’ve never read posts from this series, go there now!!! Just click on the button to read the contest post and enter the giveaway.

Hallie is starting a new photography workshop entitled Through the Lens: Digital Photography 101. We get photo assignments, people! How cool is that? Just go to this post to read about it. There’s even a Yahoo group you can join to keep track of it.

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting something called Creative Summer Days. Click here for a chance to win Yum-o! The Family Cookbook by Rachel Ray.

Last, but not least is a contest that will be hosted right here on my own blog in two weeks. I’m a big fan of Twisted Silver jewelry. Although you can’t see much of it in the profile shot in my sidebar, I was wearing one of their necklaces.

Twisted Silver will be introducing three new items on June 24, and one will be given away to a lucky winner drawn from comments right here at My Home Sweet Home! Stop by to participate that week, and if you’d like me to shoot you an email reminder, leave a request in comments.

Also, I’m attending Proverbs 31 Ministries She Speaks Conference next weekend. Let me know if you’ll be there, too!

FYI, really long post titles (250+ characters) wreak havoc on your feed; I managed to destroy mine for a week until a little googling revealed my mistake, which was easily fixed by shortening the feed-offending title.

Think blogging is good for you? So do scientists. Neat, huh?

Check out this path that draws and calms you on my photoblog.

Is this actually a daisy, or just a cute little weed?

Join me today at the Homeschool Blog Awards where I posted about discount software pricing for homeschoolers. I think I’m sensing a copy of Adobe Lightroom in my future!

Can you identify the huge flowers we saw on our hike this week? Visit my photoblog for a picture.