The Lottery

My husband buys lottery tickets. There I said it. He does every few weeks when the lottery hits some obscene amount like 200 million he runs off to the gas station on the corner and buys two or three tickets and comes home holding them like the Golden Ticket that will lead him to all the chocolate he can eat. Or in his case to all the fishing one man can do in a lifetime. A ticket that will allow him to trade in his khaki's and computer for waders and bait and call the run of the fish instead the run of insurance rates. We haggle for about 24 hours about what we would do with that much money. Buy a bigger house? Smaller house? More land ? Less land? It's fun for 24 hours and then the next morning he checks his tickets and sadly pulls on his khakis.

Last week our washing machine kicked the bucket. It took me over seven hours to realize that the machine was not indeed working and the smelly things I was trying desperately to wash were not coming clean. The water wouldn't drain. I called my husband who vowed to "have a look" when he got home. When he got home that night he dropped our four year old on my nose which bled heavily and we somehow lost track of him "taking a look" at anything. It was two more days before he had time and after a good hour of "looking" at it we realized we needed professional help, which wouldn't be the first time. That was Saturday. On Sunday evening I had to wash a couple things in the sink and I won't mention what but some things just had to be cleaned. Today I had the dilemma of what to do with all the laundry that was piling up. I called my sister in law who was happy to lend me her machine so I collected two loads and went out the door, stopping at my friend's house who also volunteered her machines. When I got to her house she offered to just do both loads for me, unmentionables and all, while I hit the grocery store ( it would seem we were also out of anything edible in our house as well). I think my pupils might have magnified to ten times their normal size. All I could ask was "Really?" And she said yes. So I left my laundry and peeled out of her driveway before she could rethink her offer. When I called my sister in law to explain she wouldn't be seeing me she was incredulous that I had a friend who was actually doing my laundry. She said," Now if you could just get someone to clean your house!"

She's right of course. A mom's life would be much easier if we could delegate tasks we hated or chores that take too much time away from things we would really enjoy doing. This morning as I ran past another girlfriends house I thought about what a great friend she is as well. She helped us with our kids a couple weekends ago. My husband and I had a chance to go to Boston for the day with friends and in order to do this we needed our three kids cared for. So two friends who were available worked it out and took our three kids. One of them had our three plus her own three for nearly four hours. It occurred to me this morning, and it is not the first time but it started to sink slowly into each small fiber of my muscles that I am surrounded by fabulous people. That I have somehow managed to create a circle of friends who are giving and gracious and have given me a village of my own.

I have friends who will do my laundry and care for my children. I have friends who I can call when I need to cry and when I need to laugh. I have friends who check up on me and some who keep me in check. Those who cheer me on and cheer me up. Those who know I need more sleep than the average person and those who try to keep me awake so I won't miss the fun. I have friends who run with me, walk with me or just sit on the porch and have a drink. I have friends who inspire me to be frugal and some who inspire me to splurge. I have friends who run through screen doors and some who are more graceful. I have friends who call for advice and some who show up just in the nick of time. I have book reading friends and "Twilight" loving friends. I have friends who love me for my attributes as well as my faults, but are kind enough not to tally them up.

My girlfriend, who watched my kids that Saturday, when I tried thanking her simply said,"We're a village." Amen to that. My husband can keep buying lottery tickets. As far as I can tell we've already won.