My favorite place to visit is still my kitchen table. Most of the time my tablecloth doesn’t match the rest of my decor. It seems more and more lately I need to keep cleaning it off too, because I spend a lot of time there, and for some odd reason, more than before. Breakfast, dinner, bills, homework, blogging, letter writing. (Yes, I still write old fashioned letters… handwritten, even). Recently Lyla, Owen, and I made caterpillar biscuits there, and rolled cookie dough onto a baking sheet. LIFE still happens at the kitchen table in my house.
There are a few girlfriends I’ve been trying to get together with at my kitchen table lately, but our schedules haven’t jived, and ya know… life just gets nuts, and plans go south, and then there’s work… Work, shwork… I’m still not used to working five days a week. When is a girl supposed to have time with her friends? COME! ON! I mean, technology is great, and I’m happy to FaceTime across town but… seriously. I haven’t seen Annie in person in two years! Two years! I’m pretty sure that’s a sin.
But guess what happened this morning! My job sent me west – west to another one of our sites. West as in… the same neighborhood as a few sweet girlfriends. So I sent a group text and before you know it we had a picnic dinner planned in the park. We all headed to Dodge Park, found a little table inside the pavilion, and froze our bums off while we had dinner. We prayed God would send some heat, and though I’m pretty sure He did NOT do that, somehow we managed to visit for 2-1/2 hours?!!! We each brought our dinner, and we had fruit, and cookies, and, I’m not really sure why none of us thought to bring anything hot! Eventually we made our way into one of our vehicles where we giggled a little more, and decided it will be a memory we’ll always cherish.
I’ve been trying to have a sort of “theme” throughout each of my weeks lately to have something different to look forward to instead of the dull week, after week, after week routine. Nerdy, I know. I think this one is going to have to be “date week!” Cuz I’ve got a few more fun “dates” planned for Tuesday through Sunday!
But ya wanna know what I think? I think we women need each other. Back in the “olden days,” or least the olden days that I remember growing up – when we lived in 800 square foot homes with one bathroom (and those homes were just the right size!), and Moms stayed home and did laundry with a ringer washer, hung clothes outside on the line, and borrowed cups of sugar from neighbors, life was sweeter. Women got together and talked about raising children, and husbands, and in-laws, and school projects, and menopause, and gardening, and health, and recipes, and all sorts of other stuff. They didn’t need counseling. They had each other. They didn’t need to work 2 jobs, because they didn’t have 3000 square foot, ridiculously enormous homes they never got to spend time in, and… well, I just think if we all had a little less stuff, and maybe a clothesline, or a little more activity at the kitchen table, we’d all be a lot more satisfied.
I feel like I had a good old-fashioned, friends around the kitchen table kind of dinner date tonight. I’m cold and tired, and it’s only Monday, but hands down, this was the best evening I’ve had in an incredibly long time. I swear… I have the sweetest, most thoughtful, fiercely faithful, and silly friends in the whole wide world. And going through life with the friends I have… well, it just doesn’t get any better than this.
Ladies, I’ll picnic with you anytime. I’ll meet you at the park, the clothesline, or the kitchen table. I’ll meet you anywhere! But next time, we need candles and hot chocolate 😉 Let’s do it again soon, okay?
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17
Laugh of the Evening: Raising kids is like baking a cake. You follow all the directions, measure everything perfectly, set the oven to the correct temperature, and wait… then 45 minutes later, out comes a pot roast!
YES! Friends are THE best! Mine have helped me get through this cancer craziness and I am so grateful and blessed!! Glad you were able to see your friends….on a positive note, I bet you had the place to yourselves!