Let’s Look: How I Maintain Friendships

 Hello,

I’m excited to join Shay from Mix and Match Mama and Erika from A Little Bit of Everything’s link party for “Let’s Look”. I love that these topics are a glimpse into our normal, everyday life and it’ll be so much fun to look back years from now and remember what we were up to!

As time has gone by my everyday friend group has gotten slightly smaller but a lot deeper. I still maintain friendships outside of this core and we try to see each other when we can but it’s very much “pick up where we left off” rather than active connection on a regular basis.

My core friends are either literally right next door or those whom I don’t see frequently but communicate with at least once a week. 

Long Distance:

Two of my amazing friends from college, I’ve known for over 15 years and we still talk pretty much every week by phone with texts thrown in throughout the week. The goal is to see each other in person about once a year to once every two years as we’re spread literally across the country. 

I also have two friends who I text with multiple times a day every day through a “meme war”. We talk about other things and we see each other every couple of years or so, but it’s fun to have people who will brighten your day with ridiculous memes and also pray for you hard when times get tough. We forged our friendship during a very busy time in our careers and our meme war has gone strong for 10 straight years now rarely missing a day. 

Closer Distance:

Grant and I have a “couples friend” who we’ve been close to since we’ve known each other. These friends live a couple of hours away and we make time to see each other about once a quarter. They are the ones we’ll do special events with and our kids are all in the same age group so it makes it really fun to go to that Disney Breakfast or meet up at a playground or campground because we’re all in the same stage.

Girls’ Night/Day with a guest appearance from Simba

My closest friend Lisa, figuratively and literally, I’ve known for just shy of four years. Our houses are about 15 feet apart. We text pretty much every day, see each other almost every day, and have a standing girls’ night once a week to spend quality time together while watching terrible reality TV. She is the person I call first when things are wonderful or challenging. She is the one who stayed with me overnight in the hospital. She and her husband are the ones who would take our kids as their own if anything every happened to Grant and myself. The boys invite themselves into their house like they live there and we can talk about anything but always support each other. I love this very positive but healthy friendship and I’m so grateful to have such an amazing person who literally lives next door.

Writing this post has made me so grateful for all of my friendships, old and close. My heart is very full at having so many people I can call to celebrate or grieve alongside. I also am grateful that these people have showed me what true friendship is so that I can recognize and ensure that I’m investing in those relationships.

That’s it for today!

💛Jessie