Grateful Friday

Yesterday:

I took my stop sign to recess.  Which I take to traffic duty, not recess duty.  "Mrs. Davis?  Why do you have a stop sign?"

After school, I couldn't find my phone anywhere.  I kept asking Mark, "Have you seen my phone?  Have you seen my phone?"

Later, I found it and stuck it in my back pocket so I wouldn't lose it again.  Mark walked by while I was switching the laundry.  "Hey, Mom," he said, "I found your phone.  It's in your pocket."

Also, last night, within the span of about ten minutes, Mark, Emma and I all had a come apart.  There are no other words to describe it.  Emma and I have come aparts often.  Mark, not so much.  But we were all just recovered from crying when Braeden bounced in, his cheerful ebullient self.  He looked at me sideways then threw his arms around me and held me tight, lifting me onto my toes.  He wasn't letting go.  He said, "Can I do anything for you Mom?"

I said a muffled, "You could let go of me," into his chest.  So he did.

We ate a brisk dinner because I was heading off to Relief Society which I didn't really want to go to.  (See above.)

I've been released from the committee, so I could just breeze in at the start.  But I didn't really want to.  I didn't feel social or even very friendly.

I sat between my friends Marie Louise and Shannon.  We talked and laughed and it was nice.  Then we divided into teams for Cupcake Wars.  I was with Melva, who is a fellow aide I have lunch with every day and Heather, one of my favorite laurels ever and her mother Julia.  Melva said something about the lunch I had the other day and Julia looked confused and I said, "We have lunch together."

She said, "Where?"

I said, "At work."

She said, "Where?!?"

Like we were some kind of comedy team, Melva said, "At lunch."

Julia said,  "Where?  And you'd better not say at a table."

So we told her where we work.  We teased each other and dubbed our team The Spice Girls (because our "special ingredient" was candied ginger).  I was scolded by Melva when I wrote the team name for not "using nice handwriting."  I told her that was my nice handwriting and she looked disappointed and said, "Hmph".

We debated the amount of ginger we should add and couldn't taste the coconut at all which was another of our ingredients.  Heather classed up our tray with paper flowers she fashioned and then Melva and I each tipped over cupcakes at different times from the levels Heather was trying to achieve on the tray.

Even though we laughed a whole lot, we didn't win.

I left feeling lighter when I walked out of the door and like those wacky ladies are my favorites.

I had a day that was at times eye rolling (stop sign at recess and where's that phone?!?) and also discouraging (my come apart), but then I spent an hour or so with women who understand it all.  They have gone through all the hard things and emerged on the other side. Marie Louise, Shannon, Melva, Julia, Heather--I'm aware of some of their sorrows but probably not aware of most of them.  They still smile.  They make me laugh.  They convey empathy and tease me enough to make me feel like I belong. We need each other.  That is all.