Stick Horse Cowgirls

Excuses, excuses. Sorry there has been no post! First the holiday bustle, then my home computer crashed. I've always heard of these "crashes" but this is a first experience for me--not good! Anyway, after delay, let me give you the lowdown promised on my "big girl sleepover!" We had a great time! This is going to be an annual event, I'm certain. We had two "newbies" in the crowd, so the evening meal and activities were a bit surface. Boy, by breakfast time had that ever changed! There's just something about a sleepover and arriving at breakfast table sleepy-eyed and with bed hair that breaks down walls. We sat--and this is quite literally--for three hours, making pot after pot of coffee and listening to the conversation deepening. Several in our midst were going through "stuff" (including yours truly). There was no contrivance to the conversation, no steering, it just went. What happened was healing and helpful. Those of us who were i...

V and I have a wonderful group of friends with whom we regularly meet and swap commiseration. The core of this group is five of us who have known each other in excess of twenty years. I cannot tell you what a blessing this group is to me. About five years ago we decided to meet regularly as a "book club," and we did, in fact, read for a while. Then the bottoms fell out of our lives, one by one. It is uncanny, really, how each of us experienced some pretty wrenching times, kind of all in a row. We abandoned literature in favor of tequila and beer, and we started meeting every couple of weeks at a local Mexican restaurant. Last year I hosted all these girls, plus a few, in my home for a slumber party. We had such a good time, and it lasted well into the next day, so loathe were we to part company after such a time. We determined to make it a habit and here, a year later, we will meet next weekend for the "Second Annual." I can hardly wait. No real preparations are req...