In elementary school you need friends so you have someone to play four square with (or monkey bars in the unfortunate event that you can't come up with 3 other friends). In jr. high you need friends so you don't feel self conscious about your zits and braces. In high school you need friends so you don't stay home on Friday nights and have someone to eat lunch with and give you an identity since each group of friends in high school is like an entirely new species that differentiates you from the other insecure teenagers around you. In college you need friends so that you get dates and don't have to cook dinner and plan trips with. When you're a mom you need friends so that you don't go insane talking to yourself all day and reading fascinating 4 page children's books like "Fuzzy Bee". I don't think I have ever had a deeper appreciation for friends in my entire friend history than I do right now. You are bound by blood to have some sort of relationship with everyone on your family tree which may or may not include calling them on their birthday or at the least, Christmas gift buying. Friends are different. No one is obligated to be your friend but the fact that there is another human being with different DNA that cares about you, laughs with you and means something in your life is one of life's greatest gifts. I suppose our friend Clive Staples says it best:

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, it has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival (C.S.Lewis).”

Thursday night we went to the Dogget's where G and Casey went back to their elementary school days and battled it out on old fashioned street fighter...

Me soaking up Tara time. This woman is my example and the biggest Bluefield blessing and key to my sanity and survival. I don't know how she does what she does. It blows my mind.