“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”
-C.S. Lewis
We danced around the idea of a blog for a couple months before finally deciding to take advantage of a kid-free Sunday morning and meet for coffee. On said day, it was pouring. Usually this would be a plan-canceler for us, a reason to stay in. A footnote in our friendship agreement of sorts. But today we braved the weather (because KID FREE) and showed up to Starbucks wearing almost identical outfits….jeans, white sweater, boots. We then ordered lattes and proceeded to talk about everything but our future blog for over an hour.
It’s very cool how people meet. Kind of a weird statement, I know, but it all comes back to that, right? When you met your husband, when you first saw your child, when you became best friends. It’s nostalgic. It’s epic. It’s the origin story. Maybe it’s a classic meet cute or maybe it was a bit rocky, but it’s memorable nonetheless. I once read that the average person meets 10,000 people in their lifetime. As stay at home moms, I feel like that number could be a lot less. Maybe that is why we are all about community events, playgroups, coffee dates, etc. Especially as military families when the worthwhile friends we do manage to meet are often renting a moving truck far before we are ready to see them go. That’s why it feels like winning the lottery when you not only find a friend, but one who gets you so well.
We met at a park on an unexceptional late-spring day, where we both separately decided to grab coffee with our husbands and take our 1 year olds out to burn some energy. As I remember it, both of our children gravitated away from the playground equipment and towards the forbidden body of water that ran surreptitiously alongside the small park in coastal North Carolina. We giggled over this common toddler obsession, made a Moana joke (duh), and struck up easy conversation. It wasn’t until a few conversations later that we realized we had both driven 15 minutes away from our homes on a weekend morning to go to Dunkin Donuts of all places, both passing other coffee shops along the way, and then taking our toddlers to a park none of us have ever been to before that’s in the town we live in. Plus our kids had basically the same due date. So there, that’s our meet cute.
Over a year later, we both welcomed new baby girls who are also close in age and commiserate daily on the whoas of motherhood. Our toddlers even celebrated their 2nd birthdays together. While I feel like we are SO alike, we are also very different. We are both military spouses and SAHMs. Kate is organized, talented at DIY, and has a flare for interior design. She has a knack for giving her kids amazing educational opportunities and making their days so unique and special. She likes to say that her son’s social calendar is more happening than hers! Elizabeth has an eye for photography and an affinity for nature and adventure. She and her husband love to take their two littles on road trips and camping trips that may seem a bit overzealous with two young kids, but oftentimes the best memories come from the chaos. That’s us in a nutshell. I have a feeling you’ll learn a lot more about us later!
So why start a blog together? I guess it’s because we both impress each other as moms. We always love what the other is up to and it’s so easy to bounce ideas off each other. When one feels like they are lacking in a certain area, the other has a great suggestion (or at the very least, an empathetic ear.) I have found that sometimes as a mother you just need to know that what you are doing is okay. Sometimes you need a reminder that it does, in fact, take a village. And sometimes that “village” can simply be the words of like-minded moms in a blog about staying sane and taking motherhood one sip at a time. So we hope you will join us on our journey. We welcome comments, inspiration, suggestions, & support from our village at anytime!
XOXO, Elizabeth & Kate
PARKS & COFFEE 