Friends

When I was a little girl I often had sleepovers with friends. These were friends that I had seen every day during the week at school, yet once the weekend came I still wanted more time with them, and more often than not we ended up sleeping at each other's house. As an adult looking back I have wondered if the desire to constantly have friends spend the night at my house was related to the peer dependence that is so prevalent among children who are educated institutionally. My own daughter, home schooled since first grade, occasionally has sleepovers with friends, but much more infrequently than I used to do at her age. And as a homeschooler, she doesn't see her friends nearly as much as I did when I was growing up, so when she does get to do so it is a very special thing.

Well, guess what? After years and years of no sleepovers, I have started having them again! Some of my dearest friends live too far away for us to be able to see each other as often as we might like, so when we get together, we really get together, making an entire weekend of it. I wrote about one such weekend back in January; well, after three months, we were ready for another. So last week we did it again. You can read more about it here and here. Elephant's Child and Boots on the Ground both have great write-ups, so I won't add much beyond a few photos. Here's one of me and Melody (Boots) waving at our daughters (actually I think Melody's taking a picture--maybe she will eventually post that one for you), who along with Elephant's Child braved the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier in Chicago (I rode that thing once, and once was enough):


And here are mine and Melody's charming and lovely daughters, standing on a bridge in downtown Chicago with the river in the background. I don't think that skyline can hold a candle to these two, do you?

I don't think it will be long before we do this again. Although there are people in my immediate geographic area that I also feel close to, daily life is such that the Lucy & Ethel type of coffee break just never seems to fit into the routine. In order to get this kind of fellowship, it seems necessary to set aside a designated block of time and bring everything to a screeching halt. And the connection I have with these ladies--Lutheran homeschooling moms like me (and really fun, cool and smart ones, too)--is so profound and multi-faceted that I am motivated to do exactly that.