Have you ever noticed friends make everything easier and less mundane? This morning I needed to go to the grocery store, which I've been dreading. Solution? Call up a bestie, lure her with the promise of Starbucks, and whiz through the store in half the time and with half the bad attitude.
Until my grocery store trip, I had one of those mornings that left me feeling like a grumpy, snarly mom who started her kids off on the wrong foot with my rotten attitude. What was left of my short illness was a massive headache, and every time Camden yelled "MONSTER TRUCK!" at the top his lungs or Scout crawled after me crying for me to pick her up, I cringed inside. Scout's separation anxiety is by far the worst of my four kids, and my patience is waning daily when I have to do every task with a baby whining and pulling at my pants legs. Yes, I know this is temporary. Yes, I know she's an awesome blessing. Yes, I love my daughter to pieces. But any mom who spends two weeks trying to take care of four children with one constantly demanding an unusual amount of attention in a such an ear-piercing, teary manner is bound to reach her limits. Today after I dropped Hudson and Camden off at school, I just needed a solution to improve my attitude so that I can pick them up from school a different kind of mommy--the kind of mommy who inspires and encourages rather than nags and discourages. Friends can always offer me just the right pick-me-up.
Whether it's walking around the neighborhood, venting your frustrations, grocery shopping, or folding laundry, friends make everything easier for women. We not only take care of our kids and our husbands, we take care of each other. I never really realized that completely until I moved away from my family--who had spent so many years taking care of me--and learned to lean on a different kind of family. A chosen family of incredible women and moms who are there to listen, to advise, to bring me ginger ale when I'm sick, to take my kids to McDonald's, to give me hand-me-downs because they know I'll use them and appreciate them, and most of all, to make me laugh when I need to the most. I can only hope I give back to these women what I receive from them--a sense of unconditional love and friendship that I thought I wouldn't have in a new city. I'm so thankful to have added these ladies to my kaleidoscope of beautiful friends and look forward to the opportunity to introduce my best Atlanta women to my best Savannah women. The awesomeness will be epic.
So true Molly. You do learn to lean on other people and branch out when you move away from family. Especially when you can drive over in a hour just to talk cause you are about to loose it. Friends are wonderful!! Miss ya!
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