Alone, but not Lonely

Another summer is in the books at Grandma Central.  The last of the grandkids left yesterday.  Of course we still have the locals to visit with from time to time but the overnights and group activities are at an end for the season.  If you haven’t been around teenagers for a while, let me tell you – they have a TON of energy!!  Here’s an example:  (Cailin has a bit of advice at the end!)

I’m glad they are moving and getting exercise but it does tend to wear on a body after a while!! In self defense I finally took the TV out of our bedroom into the craft room and set the Wii up in there.  Worked much better.

We weren’t in the frame of mind to do a lot of fun activities this year, but the 5 teenagers had fun gathering at our house and just being together.  The energy level was high and matched the food consumption!!  Good Lord, can those kids eat.  We did take a day trip to the farm and they all shucked corn for dinner.  Had fun doing it too!





For the first time in our married life, we are totally alone as a couple.  We started married life with four kids between us, and for forty years we have had kids, nieces, nephews, and other assorted relatives living with us most of the time.  Don’t’ get me wrong – I wouldn’t change a thing in having had our kids here at home.  And since we have been blessed with a big home, it was only natural to help out various family members from time to time with accommodations, some long term, some shorter.  And in the times  when perhaps we had no other people living here, we always had a pet or two or three to occupy our time and attention. 

Again, I wouldn’t change a thing in the past and I miss Poppy and Rusty so much – more than I ever thought possible.  But as Nick Russell recently said on his blog, you cannot go on with the next chapter in your life until you quit going back and re-reading the last one.  Our lives have changed and we are beginning a new chapter.  Although we will always treasure the memories of our last years with Poppy and Rusty (and little Punkin Kitty), we are prepared to move forward.  For the first time, we have only ourselves to consider when making plans.  It is a totally different feeling and one we will have to get used to. 

It is hard to imagine the time and physical and emotional energy we invested in Poppy over the last 8 months, and in Rusty before her.  I would do it over again in a heartbeat and, if I could have her back as a healthy, happy dog, I would do that too.  But we have accepted that we did the best we could for both our dogs and made the right decision when we could see there was no other option.  They lived good, long, and happy lives. 

But now it is time to refresh ourselves and our relationship.  It’s time to focus on us as a couple and enjoy some things we have put on the back burner.  We’re not even going to let sidewalk construction and downed trees stand in our way.  Don’t like the estimates we got today for taking care of that tree but that’s life.  Bad things sometimes happen and you just take care of them as best you can and move forward.

And moving forward is what we plan to do.  We are going to a grandson’s wedding later this month and then on to the coast at Astoria, OR.  We hope to do the coast from north to south.  So many beautiful places to see and so many campgrounds to visit.  It will be after labor day when we hit the coast so hopefully the crowds will be somewhat dissipated by then.  I hope I'm not jinxing our plans by mentioning this ahead of time but I’m excited and pleased with the new direction our lives will be taking.  Hopefully, we’ll see some of you on the road!!