Friend or Fo-Get It?

So it was the first non holiday weekend of summer and it was CRAZY! We had 2 birthday parties on Friday, a birthday party Saturday morning, a baby shower Saturday night in Atlanta, church on Sunday, a wedding shower for Tori on Sunday afternoon, Tad had a company picnic on Sunday afternoon and I had the Sex & the City movie with friends Sunday night. Today was non stop as well and this is the longest I've been home since Thursday (not counting sleep of course)!!

My friend "G" whom I love and is basically my friend who can sum up every crisis in your life with the best one liners I've ever heard tells me often that I have too many friends - an interesting concept I think. We were joking around a few weeks ago and I told her that she better not make tons of new friends next year at her new school and forget about me. She responded with, "No I am pretty much at my limit with the number of friends in my life, I have enough". I laughed because not only was it funny but I knew she was serious. And although I know she didn't mean that she's never going to make new friends and that concept seems foreign to me, my current schedule might prove her point. Don't get me wrong I love my friends, I wouldn't trade them for the world. I am blessed to have each and every person in my life and I cherish that always. But, relationships - friendships - take work, take time and when you are a young (OK maybe not young, but spry) couple with children and with obligations pulling you in every direction at what point do you say, "I love you, but I just can't make it to the dinner, party, shower, etc". So far for me that's been a response not often heard in this house. Now maybe, "Crap, I totally forgot about that" or "I am so sorry but we already have an event that morning and another I'm hosting that evening" would be more often heard around here. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe "G" is right. To me friendship is showing up, making the effort, putting in your time and the work it takes to maintain that friendship and as our family grows so does the network of people we come to know and I'm just not ready to say that certain friendships are not worth the effort or worth nurturing. But on the other hand what is this really doing to my family? Is it really enriching my life to be trying to do everything and get to know everybody? But on the other hand how do you weed out who is worth getting to know and is that fair or the best way to live? Is not showing up to all these events going to really make a difference? The answer is I have NO idea, but these are just some of the struggles that this young (OK, maybe not young but sassy) mom is facing.

On another note, the best one liners from my children this week were:

• Charlotte on Sarah-Grace being exhausted after swimming lessons, "She's tired from all that stroking".
• Sarah-Grace on all the special places she has with each family member (note: Grampa likes to flip the girls and I (as so many would never guess) get a little nervous so he began flipping them on the bed as to reduce the risk of injury. However this doesn't fair well in 6 year old discussions.), "Grandma's special place to take me is at Steak & Shake, JeJe's is at Dairy Queen, Aunt Tori's is at Chick-Fil-A and Grampa's is on the bed". Tad suggested maybe Frontera or any Mexican restaurant would be a better "special place" when having this discussion again.
• Sarah-Grace when meeting Tad's boss, "So how does Mr. Mark have enough money to pay for all of this and you, Daddy?"