What they have in common

OK, my bloggy friends. You know me too well! Either that or my quiz was way too easy. Whatever the case, you came very close to getting the correct answer to my question.

On Friday evening, I was looking at those three things in my kitchen and it made me feel so happy. It reminded me of a time not that many years ago when I felt like I had walked through a desert. I was feeling wiped out, in need of refreshment and lonely.

The three things reminded me of how blessed I am right now to be doing life with a lot of great people. They reminded me of community.

The daisies were a gift from my secret sister at our home school co-op. I wasn't sure if I would want to get involved in a co-op with so much happening in our lives this first year of home school, but I thought it might be good for the kids.

I didn't realize how good it would be for me! Home school can be isolating, so it's nice to be doing it with other families. But the amazing thing is how much this group of families really likes being together.

When co-op ends at 1:30 on Fridays, we all end up hanging around for another hour or more to talk and let the kids play. After every field trip, several of the moms immediately start uploading their photos of the adventure to Facebook. The first time I saw this happen I told my husband, "Wow! These women are just. like. me!" =]

Two of them even have blogs, so you know how much I like them. In fact, three of the families have started attending our church, and one other family already went there. So, now not only do we see each other at co-op, but we see many of these people at Awana and small group and church and after church at lunch. I love doing life together.

**

The next photo was of a bag of friendship bread starter, although I loved the guesses that it was some kind of milk I was going to feed the baby. That was a very creative guess!

The boys have two friends from their old school who are brothers. There has always been something special about these two groups of two brothers that made them have the most fun together.

We haven't seen them as much now that we are doing school at home, and the friends are still on a school-day schedule. But on Friday, their mom invited our boys over for an extended playdate that lasted until bed time.

When I dropped off the boys, it seemed like the younger two had both grown a foot and were catching up with their third-grade brothers. But the boys picked up right where they had left off and ran out to the trampoline where they later started a "war" of the big brothers vs. the (not so) little brothers.

The other mom brought the boys home and dropped off the bag of friendship bread starter. I have NEVER made friendship bread! Can you believe it? So, I was excited to learn about how to do it, and I'm impatiently counting down the 10 days until we get to eat it.

And the starter just reminded me how thankful I am for friends from the past who make an effort to keep that relationship going even when it takes a little extra work. And it reminded me that even though we aren't part of the school community that used to be such a big part of our lives, we are still able to do life with those people.

**

The third picture was a huge pan of pulled pork.

I have mentioned before that the women in my church are amazing cooks and they are always there with a meal if someone is in need. We have been the recipients of many of these awesome meals over the last few months.

While I was gone all day on Friday, my husband cooked a ton of pulled pork in his convection cooker. When I got home, he asked me who needed a meal so we could share it with some other families.

I thought it was awesome that my husband was cooking meals for people without even being asked. And it made me realize how nice it is to be part of a community of people who look out for each other in this way. We really appreciate all of the meals that have come into our home, but we definitely prefer to be on the giving end!

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