Busting out of Ruts!

That has been our theme during the past year, and we have invited a few of our friends along to join us on the adventure.  So many things in life are out of our control, and the ruts simply grow deeper and deeper as we press onward doing the same things that need to be repeated over and over and over... (How can one really change up laundry?  If anyone finds a way, let me know)

But that doesn't mean that everything in our lives must always be the same.  There are plenty of variables out there to make life interesting if we only make a little extra effort.  One area is our social lives.  It is usually the first to be sacrificed because of our busy schedules, and that is fine because our families and work and church should be our priorities. I don't believe that our friendships don't merit some priority as well. We, however, had fallen into a very deep rut.  If we did find ourselves with a free weekend evening, we might try to call someone last minute to go out to dinner.  Usually without any planning ahead, though, we were rarely successful. 

This had to change.  So we took it upon ourselves to make the change.  We instigated what we affectionately call, The Rut-Busters Club.  It consists of a pretty good group of friends who have known each other for years, are comfortable together, and who otherwise we rarely see anymore because our kids are so busy.

The challenge is to take turns hosting a party.  Not just any party.  We have tried to use a little creativity to come up with ideas that get us up and doing things we haven't done before.  Cooperative spirit and good humor are usually called for too.

Here is a sampling of some of our adventures together.  Our original plan of monthly get-togethers has had to slide a little.  We really are a very busy group of people and sometimes the ruts are difficult to buck, but we are trying.

This last group of pictures was taken at our party last Saturday night.  We had our own "Project Runway", divided up into teams, and cut and sewed until we came up with stunning ensembles for our very own runway show.  No pictures are included of that to protect the "innocent".