These women. My Friends. My Saviours. My Tribe.

Having friends like mine, is a blessing.

This morning I woke in a raging bad mood. I was so tired after Buggity Boo decided he would wake two hourly to feed, The Bear woke twice for drinks and then the toilet and Little Dude decided 4.50am would be a lovely time to start the day, and woke everyone to alert them of how wonderful it was. Unfortunately I don't share his enthusiasm in waking at such an ungodly hour, particularly after such a terrible night.

Poor Bear copped the brunt of my horrid mood, after being particularly demanding and rude for well, just everything... the blanket I was snuggled under, the lounge I was snuggled on, pancakes for breakfast, wanting to sit on me because she was cold, me going to get her clothes because she was cold. (*Snaps fingers* Slave! Oh ahh, sorry... MUM.....what are you doing?! Get to it!! I want, I WANT!!!!) So, she got yelled at rather loudly and harshly, at around 6.30am when I snapped. The Hubby got up and god love him, ordered me to stop making pancakes and go back to bed. Which I very wearily did, sobbing and streaming with tears, and got 2 more glorious hours of sleep.

When I was woken again, for The Hubby to go to work, I was still tired, though not as much, but I was anticipating a bad day. My head was fuzzy, not to mention throbbing with the familiar promise of a migraine. I had a meeting I wanted to go to, but Buggity Boo fell asleep as just the right (or wrong!) time. So we ended up being an hour late. I was still on edge and anxious, on the verge of tears and not coping so well with the demands of the kids.

Not long after being at this meeting, a beautiful friend gave me a hug. Just because. She noticed I wasn't travelling so well and wrapped her arms around me. It was just what I needed. A hug from someone who knew. Who knew the tiredness and exhaustion. Who knew that *get out of my space NOW* feeling. Then a group of us went outside into the beautiful sunshine and sat around chatting while our kids played so beautifully together. Once we had to leave the meeting hall, we went to the park and had an impromptu picnic in the park. It was a really lovely way to spend the afternoon.

When we were going home, I was lagging behind a bit, and when I looked up, I saw Bear holding hands with her little friend. I saw two of my beautiful friends walking shoulder to shoulder, laughing together. I was holding the hand of Little Dude, and Buggy was fighting with all his might not to go to sleep in the pram, gazing at me with those beautiful blue, sleepy eyes.

And I just thought of how blessed I am. How amazingly utterly and truly blessed I am to have these gorgeous, strong, insightful, funny and intelligent women as friends. As people I can look to in times of need, if I need a hug, or a laugh, an answer or just to chat. They are there. I have only known them for not quite a year now, but they have carved their way into my heart. They have etched their names there, and they will always be there. I am not usually one to make friends easily. It took me over 12 months of living in this tiny remote town we call home, to find these beautiful women, or more precisely for them to find me. But boy am I lucky they did. I am so happy they found me.