Friends who are like family and family I am glad to be friends with.

I started to write my thankfulness post yesterday morning and kept rambling (worse than normal) I couldn't seem to tie it together. So I decided to let it sit and 'live my weekend out.' After spending a rejuvenating weekend that included productivity of farm work, catching up on odds and ends, prepping for upcoming events, cleaning my house, then spending time last night with great, GREAT friends and ending the weekend with family; I am hoping that the clarity of this post will end up shining through.
We  have many groups, families I prefer to call them, that are made up from the different activities that we are a part of. Wrestling season is upon us. That is one of my favorite families to spend time with. Of course, that's good, since we spend LONG HOURS together in gyms for the next three months. One of my favorite phrases to describe a wrestling tournament, 9 hours of sitting for 9 minutes of wrestling. Of course that is sort of flexible, since obviously I have a HS wrestler, some many days its more than 9 minutes and if you add drive time, 9 hours doesn't catch it either. We will also being getting to know the younger end of this 'family' as Seth is going to wrestle in the 'club' (little league) this year. He has tried both wrestling and basketball, and isn't really sure what his thing will be yet.
We love this group so much, definitely as close to them as if we were actual family. We have our inside jokes and fun times, we are there for each other in the harder times as well. Just like family.
Today was spent celebrating our two littlest kids' birthdays. We had our parents there, our siblings and my grandmother. We were mostly all here. Our oldest was up at school, wasn't able to come home this weekend. Truly makes me sad that he wasn't here. My brain realizes that the goal was to raise them and they grow up, but my heart wants to cling tightly to my babies forever and never let go. Even without their oldest brother, my littles had a good day.
Which brings me around to my thankfulness for the weekend. I am so thankful that within our lives we have people that we love so fiercely, whether they are related by blood or not. I am also thankful that our family is like friends and that we enjoy their company so much, I know that some aren't afforded that luxury. I am also thankful that among everything else, we just plain had a great weekend that makes me smile and leaves me ready to tackle the week ahead.
Smiling,
From Tulip~
KH
:)