What you can and cannot do

Today I bundled branches from limbs that we'd trimmed ourselves during this past weekend. I did this because we cannot really afford to have our trees professionally trimmed. Its one of those things that, if we can do it ourselves, just do it and save the money. That being said, I finished the job while waving to the house cleaner that used to clean our house. She was at the neighbors, and she used to clean here. That was when we could afford that expense, now, well, we can't. I caught myself having a little pity party, wishing that we could have paid someone to trim the trees, and clean the house, but we can't, and that's that. If I were working full time, we could, but I want to continue to focus on the kids, and our personal lives as long as I can, therefore, I'm ok with doing it ourselves... Also, because I'm focused on our family and our personal lives, I was able to get the kids after school and drive to meet a friend for dinner. She'd moved away 5 years ago, but comes up annually to visit her mom. We try to get together 1/2 between her mom's house and mine (about an hour's drive for each). Her girls and mine are so great together, and she and I can always pick up exactly where we left off.
If I were working, life would get in the way of these encounters. But because I'm able to focus on life, important encounters like this happen. What a wonderful evening we had. I was reminded once again how important friendships are, particularly those who've shared big life moments with you, both in your life and theirs.