It's pretty much a given around here that from the time the girls get home from art class on Saturday until Sunday evening, they will be with the homeschool neighbors sisters. The relationship these four share is truly remarkable. They have definitely had their ups and downs, their times of not speaking or not wanting to be together, they have had their arguments...but after a little time passes, they miss each other and they get together again and they have a blast!
A few weeks ago, I almost wrote a post on when your kids argue with friends. It's not fun. You know you are only hearing one side of the story. Perhaps, since her sister corroborates her story, it is true. Or, maybe it's a matter of perspective. While these four share a lot of interests, there are two that love to play dolls and two that don't. There are two who love a certain singer and want to listen to that music only and sing and dance and play to that music. The arguments are usually over when one of them doesn't want to do what the other three want to do. Sometimes that one pouts or refuses to play or locks herself in her room or her dad's car. There was one time when the homeschool neighbor dad, Cam, Jason and I intervened and things did improve for many months. More recently, we have all just decided to let the girls all work it out. There are lessons about friendship that no one can teach you, you just have to learn them on your own.
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| climbing the big hill again |
I don't remember who called whom several weeks ago, but I know we are back to it being just a given that the four of them will spend the whole weekend together, as long as their parents' don't have other plans for them.
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| The BIGGEST kid |
This weekend, Jason took them all skiing to the the BIG hill in town. Any guesses as to why Jason took them?
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| good form, honey! |
The girls and Jason had a blast for hours. I stopped by with my camera to take some pictures and then ran home to have my alone time with my book and a cup of tea!
When Jason brought the homeschool neighbor girls, Zoe and Stella, home, their dad, Cam, asked him in for a beer. Which lead to plans to have dinner together at the pizza pub. This is our weekends. Cam has become one of Jason and my closest friends. We all have a lot in common. We can sit and talk about books and movies. We all love music. Cam is a very accomplished guitar player and he is helping Jason learn to play acoustic guitar. Like us, Cam is all about keeping life simple; he's not about keeping up with the Joneses, he's about living the best life he can. It's not uncommon for us to share dinner Saturday and Sunday night. In fact, we have done that the last three weekends. Sometimes at his home, sometimes here, sometimes at the (fresh) Mexican place that just opened and is amazing or the pizza pub or any number of places.
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| The BIG hill is the place to be in our town in winter! |
These are the kinds of friendships that I want for my girls. This is the kind of childhood that I want for them. I watch them with their friends and there is really no competition, it is just all about having things in common and enjoying being together. They help each other, they learn from each other, they grow together. I feel so fortunate that this is what my girls' adolescence is like. It's not about clothes or iphones or fitting in or being cool. It's about having fun, accepting people as they are, learning from people and being open to different people.
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| I love this man |
I am so, so thankful to Jason for working hard for our family and for allowing me to stay home. If I was not home with the girls, none of this would be possible, they would have to go to school and they would have a completely different life. There are some sacrifices involved with me staying home, but I am so glad that Jason is willing to make them.
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| wipe out! |
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| friends |
I am so, so grateful for these friendships. It's funny, I didn't know what we were missing until we found out. I didn't know that I wanted this until we got it. But now I am so grateful to be part of this great group of people and to call them friends!
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| Homeschool Sisters |
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| Goofy as they wanna be! |
