Friday Night

So today was a long day. The kids played hard, husband worked hard and I got some cleaning and cooking accomplished. We enjoyed spending some time with the nice young man that came to help with the side work that was to be done. He was kind enough to listen to the kids stories and look at their drawings and toys. Sweet guy, he is. We had a fashionably late dinner and all was good. On a whim, we decided (the grownups, the kids had no idea) to go out for ice cream.

Such a time honored tradition. Ice cream on a summer night...there might not be anything more perfect. But then it was more perfect. As we sat down outside to eat, a little girl came running up, calling to us. It was one of my daughter's friends from preschool! What a fun surprise! And what is funny is the last time we went to this establishment, we ran into the same friend! The girls were overjoyed to see each other and started chatting and never missed a beat. While we were sitting there, I caught people waving out of the corner of my eye...another family from school/church was in line as well! The kids squealed with delight at this unexpected reunion! The parents talked, the kids ate their ice cream and played in the grass. It was a real Norman Rockwell kind of night.

Some people enjoy living life anonymously, keeping to themselves and not "bothering" anyone. I am not one of those people. I love that we live in a community where we know other people and see friends while we are out and about. I love that my kids have friends and have both kids and adults outside of our family that they can count on, talk to and share with. I used to dislike that whole "it takes a village to raise a child" thing...now that I have kids, I have a greater appreciation for it. I love our "village" and I am happy that they are helping raise my children. We wave to people in the community parades and can call many of them by name. We see friends at church and see people we know from church at school. We see church friends at gymnastics. We see old baseball teammates in the preschool pick up line. We are on teams with people we had never met but are now happy to know them and be a part of the "village." I think we are well on our way to being a part of our community and I couldn't be happier.