Friends

I have been stuck at home all week with a sick ten-year old.  Now being the mother of a sick older kiddo isn’t the same thing as being the mother to a sick baby.  When she had to throw up she tended to her own needs and cleaned up after herself, so if you are on the younger end of the spectrum there is light at the end of the vomit filled tunnel. (Gross, and I’m sorry for that!) But this is my final child of four and yay for me that we have finally reached the stage that I don’t have to clean the carpet and the bed sheets every time the flu strikes our home anymore! I have seriously earned this after all of the places that I have had puke on my body that wasn’t mine (down my bra and in my ear are my two favorites locations).

I work at my ten-year old daughter’s elementary school as a yard supervisor so that I have a flexible schedule and can be off when my children are at home.  However, that does put me in the company of children for most of the day:  breaking up fights, enforcing rules and teaching other people’s children how to interact without killing each other. I have really come to appreciate the company of the women with whom I work.  They have become not only fellow employees of mine but also friends and confidants. The saving grace in this arrangement is that I get to spend about and hour a day with my friends, because it sure isn’t the vast amounts of money that the state pays us to keep little Sally and Ralphie safe and sound.

I have missed my friends this week.  I have become very accustomed to having these ladies to share the funny happenings in my life.  No matter how old we get we don’t outgrow the need for friends.  They care when things are going poorly and when things are going well.  My oldest daughter is expecting her second child and one of them crocheted booties for my unborn granddaughter. I got to deal with a lot of teen age “friend” drama this week and made me think if a quote that I learned years ago, so I will close with it.

“Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave your friend to learn unpleasant things from his enemies; they are ready enough to tell them.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes