~ yesterday ~

For 3 years we've met on Tuesdays.
Straight after school drop-off we've headed to the park near the beach.
Someone picks up the coffees.
We bring snacks, drinks, scooters, hats, sunscreen, coats, the stories of our weeks.

They used to need us to push them on the swings, supervise their sand-pit play, referee their disagreements.  
The scooters were taller than them.  
Mostly they played alongside each other rather than with.
We rarely finished a thought let alone a conversation.

Now they count down the days til park Tuesdays.
Their park buddies are their best buddies.
They hatch plots, swing madly, run up the slides the wrong way, ride their scooters so fast we can't bear to watch. 
They need us only for food and toilet trips.

We stand and we chat, we sip our coffee, for an hour (or two or three) we try to forget the to-do list and we indulge ourselves in some idle chatter, harmless gossip, sharing our woes, our good fortunes, our lives.
We've come to rely on this little window of time in our busy weeks.
To cherish this group of women for support and wisdom, friendship and advice.

Yesterday was our last official park day.  The holidays will start, the big brothers and sisters will be with us for the next few visits and then full time school next year.

And so we will change.  
We will gather - for lunch or craft or play tennis or do pilates.  
They will catch up after school, or at soccer, play dates, random park sessions.

Park Tuesdays may be no more ... but they are evolving ... to something more long-lasting and equally valuable.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Do you have a group of women you gather with regularly?  How did you meet?  What do you do together?  I'd love to hear.



♥

~ making connections ~

When we left WA (almost 7 years ago now) my heart was light and we moved with great anticipation.

We were coming home.  Bringing our little family back to where we belonged, where we wanted to raise our children.  Where life was good.

Not that it hadn't been good in the West.  Life was easy and breezy there.  Good times, happy times but we were a long way from our heart's home.

It's mostly the little things I miss - the lemon scented gums, the jacarandas in spring, not wearing socks.

Notably thought, in the first couple of years back,  I found myself achingly missing my mother's group.  That random group of women who met because we lived in nearby suburbs and all had babies (all girls) at the same time.  I know its not for everyone but we had one of those groups from a chick-lit novel.  We clicked.  We got each other.  We listened and talked and shared and learned and marvelled at the amazing transformation that motherhood had made to our lives.

I tried playgroups when we got back here; the hippy one nearby for which I had showered too recently to fit in, the one down in the posh end of town where I had the wrong clothes on the girls...it just wasn't the same.  The Doc ended up taking the girls to a dad's playgroup down the road and they all loved it. I cannot rave enough about what a fabulous concept dad's playgroups are and I wasn't even allowed to go.  And that was the problem - I was missing out.

When Jack came along I knew a couple of other mums having 3rds or 2nds with big gaps and we've created our own little routine.  On Tuesdays we meet at the local park.  We have a coffee roster.  We bring food.  The boys play and run and jump and we don't bother with craft (or healthy eating).

We chat and catch up.  We exchange idle gossip (the harmless kind).  We never finish a conversation.  We exchange parenting tips and mock complaints about our wonderful husbands.  We encourage each other in our exercise/study/craft/whatever plans for the week.

We leave refreshed, renewed and reconnected.

It feels good to be part of something again.  Something good. 

♥