Making Time For My Friends

I'm joining Kelly and the other Build 'Em Up bloggers in talking about I make time for my friends. Go here to join in on the conversation. My friends are so important to me. Except for our time in Edmonton most of my closest friends are either from church or from the residence I stayed in at university. I stayed at my church's residence at a secular university and it was the best of both worlds for me.

My closest friend, Janice, and I spend a lot of time together, usually with our husbands (who thankfully get along well!) and our kids (who also thankfully get along well!). We also manage to take time together just the two of us by planning pedicures or going out for tea. For these next few months we signed up Sam and her son for swimming lessons at the same time (even though they are nowhere near to being in the same class) and we are going to spend some of those evenings either going for a walk or going to Starbucks or both :) We also plan things for our families to do together, some of which you've likely read about before if you're a regular around here. I'm thankful that Janice is intentional about making separate time to spend with her friends because it helps that we both think it is important.

Another way we spend time together is by going on some double dates. We have done this a few times in the past year and have more planned in the future. It's a nice way to have some couple time AND some friend time. Yay for multi-tasking :) I highly recommend this as a good way to spend time together, especially if your husbands get along well.

I am also part of a monthly women's craft night at our church. I find that time is so important for me. Not only is it a chance for me to get things done, or learn something new, but it's a chance for uninterrupted adult conversation both about life, our church and our families. We are talking about doing a weekend retreat sometime in the near future and I cannot wait for that to happen. It would be such an amazing time with them. I have no pictures from Sew Be It (as we call it) because I'm usually too busy crafting talking to remember to take any!

The above groups of friends are from university and we don't see each other as regularly. And when we do it's usually with our families. Once in awhile I get some girl time with them and I really enjoy it. I do find it's a lot harder when we almost all have kids, and don't all live near each other, to get kid-free girl time. We usually get together with our families included.

Another couple you've probably heard about if you've read here for any length of time is Donny and Marika. They are another good couple friend of ours and they don't have kids. We get lots of time to visit with them after our kids go to sleep. And they are really great with our kids so Sam and Rachel love Uncle Donny and Auntie Marika. Even though Donny and Marika live about an hour and a half away, we see them a lot which is so great. Again, what helps this relationship work is that we are both intentional about making time for it.

 

And I would be remiss in talking about spending time with friends without mentioning my New Mom's Group from Edmonton. We all met when our first children were between four months and six weeks old. We were part of an official group through the City of Edmonton for six weeks and then we just kept meeting. We had weekly playdates and some of our kids were in Kindermusik and gymnastics together. We looked after each other's kids and a lot of us went through our second pregnancies together. This is an amazing group of women and I miss them so very much. Even though we got to spend a lot of time together with our kids we also got a few women-only evenings and they were so much fun.

I think the best way to make time for your friends is to just do it. Like me, I'm sure most of us spend a lot of time with our friends AND our kids and sometimes our husbands. But it's also vital for me to have time with them that is away from my kids. I'm thankful that Dave, my husband, is supportive of that and recognizes that time is important for me because it does take time away from our family. But he knows that it makes me a better wife and mom and I almost always come back from time with my friends with renewed energy to parent again and that's a win-win situation for everyone!