Lone Wolves and Social Butterflies
Waylin and I were invited to a dinner with a couple of my closest friends tonight. We decided to get together during the weekend, which is a different pace that we’re normally used to. We try to meet up for dinner during the week (aka kid free), but we kept running into trouble finding a night that worked for all three of us.
I also have a small amount of anxiety when I hang out with my friends, only for the fact that I worry about hat Ben is going to say or think. It’s not that he doesn’t like my friends, but he would prefer that I just stay home. 9 times out of 10, that is what I prefer as well, but I will never abandon having friendships with people. Having friends is so important, and you never really realize that until you are in a rut.
We offered to bring corn bread and baked beans to our BBQ dinner. I love the recipe I use for cornbread so much that I thought I would share it here:
Sweet Cornbread
2 boxes of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
1 box of Yellow Cake Mix
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups of water
1/3 cup of milk
That’s it! You literally combine all of it into one large bowl and mix it up. Pour the batter into a greased 9x13 pan and cook at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes (I usually do about 45-48). It really has the right amount of sweetness for corn bread! I highly recommend making it this way!
I am sure you can tell, but I try to include Waylin in everything I do. I want her to learn and experience new things everyday. Today, we worked on greasing a pan for our cornbread and she loved it! I can say with confidence that our cornbread turned out really good and I think it was all because of her buttering skills! ❤
Dinner was delicious and everything everyone brought turned out great!
A weird thing happened though and it motivated me to write a blog post.
I grew up being a very meek and mild kid. I usually had like a friend of two, but mostly was an independent kid. I’m not sure when I changed, but all of a sudden I was * THAT * girl that could make friends anywhere out of anyone. I have this quality about myself that makes it really easy for me to find common ground with people that aren’t in the same demographics as I am. I’ve made friends with the girl who does my eyebrows, a stranger on social media that happened to have a dog that looked like mine (we send each other Christmas cards lol), and any neighbor of any age.
I don’t consider myself to be an extremely likeable person. I can just evoke friendship from people, or maybe moreso the feeling of friendship.
Waylin is definitely an independent girl. She plays a lot by herself at daycare. I don’t think it’s her being antisocial or that other toddlers don’t want to play with her I don’t think it’s anything like that. I think she’s just content being herself by herself. Daycare has told me that she’s kind of a “lone wolf” and will do things she wants to do rather than what the others are doing. One day they were all singing a song, and she got up and walked over to a corner to go “read” books by herself while all the other kids were loudly singing 5 feet away. :) She’s just her and I love that.
Tonight, I saw a Waylin I haven’t seen before! She immediately buddied up with my best friend’s kids…talk about FULL CIRCLE FRIENDSHIP! That is just so cool! Anyways, Waylin and Riley were walking into different rooms of the house hand=in-hand, making each other giggle, and playing some weird game with hammers and necklaces together. ❤
I was sitting at the dining room spacing out from all of the conversation around me because I couldn’t stop watching her interact with the other kids! I rarely get to leave the house without Waylin in tow, and that means everywhere I go she is usually right next to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. I think I love it so much that I actually felt so alone when I saw her playing with Riley. There was no one wrapped around my leg under the table and that was a weird feeling. 😂
I titled this post “Lone Wolves and Social Butterflies” because I felt like the lone wolf and Waylin was the butterfly making all the friends! I think I have been feeling “off” and “disconnected” from people lately. I think part of it is that I wish Ben would go to couple things like once a year or something “low commitment” like that. 🤣 Everyone was there with their husbands and I am always, always alone (+ Waylin).
I also sometimes wish that people would ask ME about how I’m doing. I feel like that question is never on the table for some reason. I miss deeper conversations with people where someone is generally interested in you. Of course, I love my friends and I know they love me too. I just feel detached. I hope I can reconnect with myself soon.
One thing is for sure, Waylin had a blast and I am so glad we went! We vowed to do dinners like these more often! I guess if I host the next one at my house, Ben will have to attend, right?! 🤣
Sidenote: this blog post is so random. You’ve got a cornbread recipe as well as being friendly and disconnected in the same post. 🤷♀️ #realtalk
