One of my favorite blessings is the gift of friendship. Life would be so different without my friends! I have all kinds of friends. Old friends. New friends. Mom friends. School friends. Workout friends. Sports mom friends. Couple friends. They all perfectly complete my little circle of friendship that I cherish!

The bible tells us a few things about friendship.

• It tells us who we should hang out with:
  • Proverbs 13:20 Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.
• It tells us how we should treat our friends:
  • John 15:12-15 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater Love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Job went through some tough times when he lost everything! His friends wanted to be there for him. I give them a lot of credit. It was complicated to be there for a friend way back then compared to current day. No text messaging or phone calls. No Facebook messaging.
Job 2:11 When Job’s three friends Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and symphathize with him and comfort him.
I appreciate my friends that help me out when I am going through a tough time. On the flip side, some of my favorite memories are good times with my friends. If you have been blessed with long standing friendships then you have probably developed some traditions. I have a clear front runner that I commonly refer to as my Christmas Day! Why? Because I can’t sleep the night before due to anticipation, yet I still wake up refreshed and jumping out of bed because I can’t wait!
For about 15 years now, my friends and I spend a day away and go to Shipshewana, Indiana. It’s an Amish town about 2 hours from home. They have a giant flea market (actually the largest in the Midwest) and cute downtown shops. Strategically placed a little over half way in between my house & this giant flee market is an outlet mall. Coincidence? I think not! This place is never busy, has great deals, and a couple of our favorite stores.
A little bit about this tradition… It started years ago as a friend trip, but for me Shipshewana memories reach back even farther. I remember going with my family as a kid. As a teenage I went with these same friends and their parents. The mix of friends changes a little from year to year, but 3 things remain consistent:
*Erin & I are always there together.
*We always laugh a lot and have a great time together.
*The day ALWAYS flies by even though we head out early and get home late.
We plan our day around the weather. The flea market has very little shade & it gets HOT so we try to start early. The drive there is full of laughs and each year is a new adventure. One year we rescued a stray dog on the side of the road. Another year I went while pregnant (against my doctor’s wishes) and had feet so swollen by 9:00 am I could hardly walk. Even though it’s a day full of shopping, that is NOT the highlight of the trip. Don’t get me wrong, I love to shop! But since the flea market is only open Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we get a day off in the middle of the work week. No kids or husbands. We usually go shortly after school gets outs, which means we are all in need of a break! This day away with friends completely recharges my batteries.
There is something about the Amish country that puts you in another time zone. Life moves a little slower. Responsibilities are put on hold. The drive is full of farm fields and small town restaurants. We’ve made the drive so many times we no longer need GPS. We just know the way. Houses along the route look familiar now.

Amish traffic 🙂

I think this picture captures the Amish lifestyle well!
There is the thrill of the hunt (sunglasses, purses, dresses) It varies each year. There is usually a new and exciting theme and/or item. This year was windmills and succulents. Love them both!

Parking lot selfie – this year was just Erin and I!

Erin & I #2018

Part 1 of the plant aisle
We always start off in the plant aisle, even though we swear we will NOT buy any plants. We always buy plants. Here’s my plants enjoying their new home in my backyard.




I’m not sure why we didn’t buy these What-A-Seats since we spend so much time watching ballgames!

The search for a yard spinner continues.

Lots of interesting hat choices …

Believe it or not my kids wanted crocks this year.
We find a variety of junk that we don’t need throughout the day. We take FOREVER to get through the first couple of aisles, drop our first load of junk at the car, then stop for lunch.

Load 1 drop off – the $5 giant footballs were a total hit!

The absolute BEST BBQ potatoes and Rhubarb custard pie you will ever find.
After more shopping we eat again because their pretzels are too good to pass up. They are homemade and they taste AMAZING! So amazing that we forgot to take a picture before we dug in!


The kids can’t wait to see their new junk! Bo loved the back scratcher. The kids has an itchy back every morning so this will get a lot of use!
I wish we would have taken more pictures in previous trips. At the time I don’t think we realized this would become such a prized tradition. So grab your girlfriends. Go for a day trip. Make memories. Start a tradition! I promise you will be glad you did! And don’t forget to take a lot of pictures!
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.