Thankful

Yesterday I got together with a group of friends from high school. Tonight is our 10yr reunion, which several of us couldn't attend, so we had our own dinner the night before. It is so much fun to be back together with them; I feel like things have never changed and that I still know them so well. But it makes me sad that my close friendships with many of them are no longer what they were. Now they are merely a once or twice a year visit and a few emails here and there. Our lives are very different; I'm the only one with kids (besides one who is about to pop!) so I'm the only one with this kind of job, a stay-home-mommy. But still I have a rich history with these ladies that makes for many fun memories!

We took a bunch of pictures at the end of our party, which reminded me of all the fun times we had in high school and memories I have from the pictures (Sadly, I hardly remember anything I don't have a picture of). We weren't really party-ers or drinkers, but we found some silly, crazy things to keep us busy on weekend nights in high school!

Afterwards I was looking at the pictures of my high school friends and I on my digital camera and relishing that special evening together. Then it flipped to the pictures of my girls and their friends from the St. Clare party yesterday...Ellie with her first pigtails and first ice cream cone, Mary Clare dancing in the kiddie pool, and the kids painting a poster saying "St. Clare Pray for us!" I kind of chuckled at the stark difference between that evening with my high school friends and my normal life as a stay-home mommy. And I gave thanks, because I'm living the life I've always wanted. One of my friends commented about her sister marrying a friend she'd known since diapers and how sometimes dreams really do come true. So here I am in my dream world! Not that everything is how I envisioned it or that it isn't hard, but it's what I always dreamed of.

When I'm not at home I have a harder time being consistent with my daily prayers, particularly my morning reflection. But today, visiting with family, I just felt like it should be a day to give thanks for the beautiful, crazy, fun, exhausting, fulfilling life that God has blessed me with through my husband and daughters! We spent some time at a children's museum and later at the pool (where Mary Clare was swimming like a fish underwater!)...these are the things I really love to spend my days doing. I wish I could be doing them with those friends of my past...but maybe in a few years, we'll be having a summer pool party with all our kids...and hopefully we'll all be swimming and playing together for all eternity, in heaven one day!