I made a new friend recently, which is a sentence that feels weird to say when you are in your thirties. Like, I say that to my three year old “Did you make any new friends today?” Except the thing is, it’s kind of hard to make new friends when you are in your thirties and have a toddler and a husband that works weird hours.
One of the reasons that I joined the leadership team for my MOPS group was that I figured it would force people to be friends with me. I mean, and because I love Jesus and wanted to serve my fellow man and all. But also because of the friendship. And because I really like to glitter things.
Recently we all went on a retreat together and one of the girls saw my bottle of Frankincense sitting on the bathroom counter and she asked laughingly “So, do you always travel with a bottle of frankincense?” And because I am awkward I said “Yes. I am very spiritual.” and then waited a bit too long before explaining that I actually use it for skincare. This is why “sarcastic” does not work well for me, because I’m not quick with the wit like Chandler Bing. It is a fine line between funny and awkward and I find myself falling on the latter often as store clerks stare at me with a look of confusion on their face. It’s a gift.
But luckily for me she decided to be my friend anyways and then at our very first friendship coffee date I burst into tears on her couch. I make an amazing first impression. I mean, I was a bit sleep deprived because Lucy Dog is going through maybe a bit of dementia and getting lost and wandering our house crying in the middle of the night like I have an infant. But still.
And she is a really good friend because as I was spilling out my mom-guilt about my tiredness and how I felt like I should be able to balance it all, she was so kind and encouraging and not even the least bit like “KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE WOMAN!” on account of how she has four kids, three of which are under the age of three. Remind me to buy her something pretty. Like a day at a spa.
What I am trying to say is that if you ever write a book and said book includes a lot funny stories about things like hospital cafeteria food and the hilarious things your kid says but ALSO includes really hard, devastating things like that time your only child almost died? My advice to you is not to save the hardest parts to write for the end, when the deadlines for the manuscript add to the stress of putting the story down on paper. Or a laptop, as it may be.
And that I feel really lucky that my life is rich with people who I admire and who have been so supportive during this process. Including y’all, who continue to champion our story even though I have no words left for this little blog of mine during this season. ♥
I am taking the entire week to be offline so I will see y’all after labor day, funny stories in hand.
(Like how Scarlette just told my mother, who is her keeping her so I can write, “Sorry Janie, I love you but I can not help you wite now because I weally hab to concentrate on writing dis book so you’ll need to ask daddy to help you.”) (You know, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE MOM GUILT.)
(Photo taken by my friend Ashley, filter is Pastel Haze from the Florabella Muse action pack (affiliated))
