Very Outside The Box: Roller Coaster, Animal Kingdom

This has been a roller coaster week. All of the girls in the house have bad colds. It's been a choirs of hacking coughs and stuffed noses. I rarely get sick, so it has really thrown me for a loop - and working two days this week only made my feel that much more run down.

A close friend of mine lost a close family friend this week in a skiing accident. He was a father, and by all accounts, an amazing man. I know these unspeakable tragedies happen every day, but when it hits so close to home, it makes you stop and focus on what matters. We spent some extra time with our friends this week. Not doing anything, just being together. And as hard as it is to see someone you love in so much pain, it was important to me to be one pillar in the wall of support and love we built around them. It felt good to plant my feet wide and let someone lean on me, to wrap a friend in love. Somehow, in the middle of all of this, the same friend brought soup over on the day I was feeling most under the weather - seriously?! I have the best friends ever.

My corps of mama-friends are some of the most fiercely loyal, loving, caring, thoughtful, funny, amazing women I know. I was trying to find a good word to describe us, and I think I finally got it - we're a tribe. If you glimpse a tribe of lions, particularly lionesses with their young, it is a touching scene. Playful cubs, wrestling and loving, mother lions just being together, keeping a watchful eye on all the little ones. But and this is a big but threaten that tribe, a cub, or a lioness, and they will show no mercy. I'm on an animal kingdom kick, because a few months ago I wrote a short piece called Mama Bear. Yesterday, it was published by Mamalode Magazine. I'd tell you about it, but I'd really rather you read it. And since I get paid based on the number of unique views I get, if you want to share it with friends, that would be OK too.

We went to the science museum last weekend. Twice. Because I didn't realize you needed to reserve tickets to go to the Day in Pompeii exhibit, and it closes in a week. So, we reserved tickets for the next day. Chloe loved it.