It’s Five Minute Friday time!
If you’re new, welcome! Learn more about us right over here.
And if you haven’t heard, the deadline for the 2017 Five Minute Friday Retreat is less than one month away!
I’m so excited be able to share more info about the weekend, including the schedule, our speakers, and our sponsor!
July 21-23, 2017
Kansas City, MO
20 minutes from Kansas City airport
Ticket Price: $185
** ONLY 10 SPOTS LEFT **
Deadline to Register: June 1st, 2017
Check-in time: 4pm CST Friday
Check-out time: 10am CST Sunday
Ticket price includes two nights of hotel-style accommodation plus all meals except Saturday dinner.
We’ll be going out for dinner on Saturday evening and you will pay for your own meal choice.
For accommodation, you will have your own double bed and will share a room with one other retreat attendee.
While we love and appreciate the men who participate in Five Minute Friday,
the retreat is open to women only. Sorry, guys!
***
THE SCHEDULE
Friday:
4:00pm Arrival and Registration
5:00pm Ice Breakers / Introductions
6:00pm Dinner at retreat center
7:30pm Official welcome and devotional / Structured discussion
8:00pm Five minute free write and/or Open mic opportunity?
9:00pm Day visitors leave
Saturday:
8:00am Breakfast and cleanup
9:00am Morning devotional/Structured discussion
11:00am TBA
12:00 pm Lunch at Retreat Center
1:30pm Video call with Craving Connection contributors
2:30pm Short break / Snack / Tea and coffee time
3:30pm Fistbump Media video call
5:00pm Day visitors leave
5:30pm Dinner at Spin Pizza
7:30pm Craft/Games/Activity/Dance party/Chill/Chat
Sunday:
7:00am Breakfast
8:00am Worship & prayer
9:00am Pack & clean
10:00am Depart
SPEAKERS
We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to video chat
with two Craving Connection contributors!
On Saturday afternoon, we’re so excited to chat with
Kris Camealy & Denise Hughes!
As a sequin-wearing, homeschooling mother of four, Kris is passionate about Jesus, people, words, and food. She’s been known to take gratuitous pictures of her culinary creations, causing mouths to water all across Instagram. Once upon a time, she ran 10 miles for Compassion International, a ministry for which she serves as an advocate.
Kris is the author of Come, Lord Jesus: The Weight of Waiting and Holey, Wholly, Holy: A Lenten Journey of Refinement, and the follow up Companion Workbook. She has contributed to numerous other books, is the host of Refine {the retreat} and the founder and Executive editor of GraceTable.org. In her free time, she writes at kriscamealy.com.
As an English professor, Denise loves the world of words, where life and literature connect, but she’s most passionate about the one Book with living words—the Word of God. She’s the author of the Word Writers Bible study series and also the Editorial Coordinator for (in)courage by DaySpring.
Denise lives with her husband and three kids in Southern California, where she reads three things every day—the Bible, NFL.COM, and PACKERS.COM—sometimes, in that order. You can connect with her at www.denisejhughes.com and on Instagram: @DeniseJHughes.
RETREAT SPONSOR
Shout-out to Dan King at Fistbump Media for sponsoring the FMF Retreat!
Fistbump Media offers amazing services to writers and bloggers, including:
Website hosting and maintenance
Blog design
Self-publishing support
E-courses
… and more!
Dan will be video chatting with us at the retreat, AND …
Every attendee will get a FREE one-on-one consultation with Dan to discuss whatever you want to talk about relating to your own blog design, self-publishing goals, etc.!
Thanks, Fistbump Media!
PLANNING COMMITTEE
We have a fabulous Retreat Planning Committee once again!
Special thanks to Holly Barrett, Mary Geisen, Jen Lamos, and Christina Hubbard
This retreat would not happen without their time and input!
So … what are you waiting for??
Click here to fill out a registration form, then come back to submit your payment
via the “Pay Now” button at the bottom of the page.
Yes! I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees the darker side of ‘should!’ I’ve been trying to eliminate it from my vocabulary for the last three years. It’s not easy, though!
Guilty. I get so caught up in the “Shoulds” of writing life too. My blog, my social media presence, my (fill in the blank). I love your reminder: My blog is not the boss of me. I need to remember that.
And I need to be okay with the fact I’m not gonna get it all done. And that’s okay. As long as I’m getting done what God gives me to do, I’m golden.
Great post, Kate!
Actually, Kate, my blog IS my boss. From what I am told, the people who read it find inspiration and hope…and that means that no matter how bad I feel, every MWF there will be a post that reinforces the message:
\Life is worth living, and the next minute is everything, and yours to use as you will.
If I can offer hope, any needs or wants of mine are subordinate.
Should requires balance. And our “should’s” change with each stage/season of our lives. When I had kids in the home my should’s looked differently than they do now. It is in the knowing the peace comes. I like your litmus test of should, Kate. There will ALWAYS BE priorities to our should’s and should not’s. My five minutes went quite similarly with yours. Funny, I went to be thinking I’d write such and so but when I sat down at the keyboard, the boss of me (Holy Spirit) took it in a completely different direction. Yes, Lord! (I think this was my second FMF post!)
Yes! Excellent. You said it so well. “Who says?” is the key question to ask ourselves to determine if the “should” is necessary and God-given or man-made and maybe manipulative.
I agree with you and you said it well. We put way to me shoulds on ourselves
Hope I’m doing this right … I should be writing … http://domesticmobility.blogspot.com/2017/05/five-minute-friday-should.html
“My blog is not the boss of me.” Amen, friend!
This is a great prompt AND post, Kate. I think “Says who?” is a great response to the should’s.
I’m reading your info about the FMF retreat with a sense of FOMO. My brother — who is Canadian, as I am — was a student at the School of Advanced Military Studies in Leavenworth for 2 years (2014-15); if he was still living there now I would seriously consider a trip to visit him and attend the retreat. Maybe next time!
I love this so much. Shoulds try to be the boss of us but we are the boss! Thanks for sharing. Maybe I’ll make it to a retreat one day. https://writeitout2017.wordpress.com/2017/05/05/should/
I too get easily entangled by what other people think that suddenly I’m all tied up in self-made rules and self-imposed standards and I can’t even figure out where the ropes came from or why my hands are behind my back. You put words to my discombobulated thoughts. I must remember to focus on God and his directives for my life. I still struggle with that.
YES! ‘My blog is not the boss of me’ = LOL Mine isn’t either. But my 10-month-old granddaughter is. 🙂
Great encouragement Kate! I find myself fighting the should bug quite often. I found myself doing that with my blog after the last retreat. Several great things came from that retreat (that’s why I’m going again!) but this time I come with more discernment and less blowing about. I loved working on my blog! It was so much fun, but I realized it was distracting me from what I really needed to be doing. I’ve backed up and regrouped. I’m actually thinking of moving my blog and changing it up some. I like separating my blogging life from my real life friends. I need my space. I love to blog and won’t stop but I’ve also realized that my focus needs to be my family and this book! Too many people are depending on me to write it and it’s such a great story. This is where I feel God’s leading.