Now is the time

The other afternoon 2 of my closest friends came over to visit because both of them took the day off from work and had kids to entertain and I invited them. Now I've known these 2 ladies since before I could drink legally. For about...holy crap, for about 16 years now! (Damn!) We get together fairly often, I'd say. One of them--I'll call her Queen B--has a daughter a year older than Sister and they've gotten to where they play together just beautifully. The other some of you will already know as Mommygoth. Her Miss K is 5 months older than my little Bean, and we both have high hopes that they'll be good friends, too, once they're both old enough not to snatch coveted toys out of the other's hands and steal sippy cups that don't belong to them.

We 3 ladies sat out on my porch under warm, sunny skies. We sipped sweet iced tea like the good Southern girls we are, and we got caught up on each other's lives in the little interims between kid supervising tasks. Then at one point Queen B said, "Damn, we sure have a mess of kids now!" We all looked around and realized how many of them there are. And suddenly I realized that this is the life and the home I've always wanted to make for myself. Since I was young, I have wanted one of those homes that people feel comfortable in, where things are lively and comfy, where there's tasty food and drinks, and where people feel relaxed and tell jokes and stories and hang out. Now, I'll grant you that my friends and I used to have much more time to hang out without worrying about getting dinner started or kids in baths or homework done. But that was in crappy rental houses, with people who were bad for us for one reason or another. I think this is really it now. This is that life. Woo-hoo!