Many of us have children and others are planning weddings and rebuilding homes and running our own businesses and taking care of babies and work full time and finishing up bachelor degrees. So to say we are a busy group of women is kind of an understatement. However, I think it's so important that we carve this time out for ourselves to refresh and catch up and laugh! We laughed so much that day. Most of my pictures of Sunday are of us laughing.
We decided for our afternoon out that we would go to a winery in Indianola. They do live music and you can bring food in and purchase wine and beer and you just sit around listening to music, drinking and eating. So we all piled in to one vehicle and chatted the whole way down there, set up a spot right under a tree with blankets, food, and of course wine. We started off with 4 bottles but we finished off 6.
It was so much fun to just lay around listening to music, telling stories, making future plans and just being ourselves. We are always going to be wives and mothers but before we earned those roles we were our individual selves. It's so important to remember to make an effort to find those women and let them come out once and a while.
We had a woman who was sitting by us with her husband and their friends, she was probably in her 60's, take a picture of us when we first got there. We explained that we were having a wives and mother's day out to relax. I think at first she thought we were crazy but she obliged our request and went back to visit with her guests. About an hour later we were 4 bottles down and food spread out and we were all chatting away. She came back over and sat down with us and wanted to let us know how great she thought it was that we were doing this for ourselves. She said when she was raising her children that women just didn't do things like this for themselves and that she was envious of us for taking time for ourselves to just be girls again. She chatted a little bit more and then before getting up she told us she wanted to take a picture of us before we left, so we would have a before and after.
The after picture is the first picture in this post and even though some of us are a bit sloshed it's one of my favorite pictures of the day. We look happy and relaxed, and really the whole goal of the day was to just be around one another to catch up and refresh, away from our busy lives and demanding schedules.
I am very selective when it comes to my close friendships, those who I cherish have maintained a permanent place in my heart because they are truly good people with kind hearts and positive attitudes and funny as hell to boot. These things are what I need to surround myself because I tend to be more on the angry and stubborn side, it's just who I am and my friends all know and understand this about me and they accept me for who I am. They know when to call me out on my B.S and they know when to give me my space to evaluate. They know if I want to be open about something I will and if I don't I will keep it to myself until I'm ready, even if that may not be ever.
These girls have been there when my children were born, have watched me grow in my role as wife and mother and as an individual as well. I have also had the pleasure of watching them grow in their roles as well. I'm so blessed that I get to continue to see these girls through such a great time in our lives. We may complain about everything that is on our plates and we may get frustrated when things don't always swing our way but we have all chosen to be where we are and with the men we love and have the children we do and in all reality we are truly grateful for all that we have in our lives.
To have women understand and appreciate the everyday things of what we do for those that we love and understand the need to be away even if it's just for a afternoon is comforting.
I can't even tell you what half of our conversations were while we were out but I remember sitting closely with these wonderful woman, dancing when know one else would, indulging just a little bit, seeing the smiles on these ladies faces and know that we are doing right by one another.
My weekend was great, it filled my heart with love and new memories. I may look crazy with my camera attached to my face 90% of the time but our memories are not guaranteed and I know I always want to be able to at least look back and see that whoever these people were we were happy, that I might have been a part of that some how.
Saturday and Sunday and the friends that I was able to spend them with was exactly what I was hoping for and so much more. I drank a little to much, laughed so hard my face hurt, danced so much my body ached for 2 days after and took way to many pictures, but I am happy, oh so happy.
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