Today marks one month and three days from the day we dropped
the last little Haverkamp off at college.
Life is much different than it used to be…and it’s not half bad. Here’s why:
1. Mornings are slower because I am not trying to clean up
any dishes left in the sink or the remnants of lunch-making mania. They now involve drinking coffee and
sitting with my main man on the porch talking and listening to the birds
welcoming the day. I love our new morning routine.
2. Suppers are
quiet and kind of pieced-together; we have had lots of soup, sandwiches,
quesadillas, and eggs. If I make
an entire roast or something in a 9x13 casserole, we have to eat it
forever. And that’s a long
time.
3. Speaking of
food, I finally went on a real grocery shopping trip last week after Brent
said, “Hey, I don’t mean to be critical, but we have nothing in the pantry and
only Half and Half in the fridge.”
He was actually wrong since we had tortilla chips and salted almonds in
the pantry and a half a bar of dark chocolate in the secret drawer by the
fridge. He was, however, right
about the Half and Half. I mean,
since no one is really around anymore, I pretty much just eat those
things. And only those
things. I am a bad eater when I am
alone.
4. We go
through lots of Half and Half—in our coffee because it has to be light tan—but
not much milk. I had to pour some
milk down the drain yesterday because it was sour. We even started buying whole milk, thinking that we could
use it in the place of Half and Half if we ran out. Because running out of Half and Half is an emergency.
5. Our
conversations center on either the dog or the Roomba—mostly things like, “Jet
tore the drainpipe off of the garage and ate it today” or “Do you know where
the Roomba is? I started it before
I went to work so it must be stuck under the bed.” We are able to talk about these very arcane and boring
subjects for an entire mealtime. I
think we are going to have to buy those little note cards with conversation
starters on them so we can expand our repertoire.
6. We see way
more movies. We have gone out to a
movie theater THREE times (and we even got popcorn once!) since we have been on
our own. Two of the movies were
great, but Brent fell asleep at the third since it was animated and about pets. I did not fall asleep.
7. Evenings are
uninterrupted and slightly boring.
Which is why we have gone to so many movies. And out for ice cream.
8. You know all
that time I spent stressed out when I had kids at home because their rooms were
disasters and they never made their beds?
Well, those same rooms stay neat and tidy now and the beds are made
beautifully. This is both a happy
and a sad thing. The bathrooms
staying clean however, is an entirely happy thing.
9. I post
videos of my dog on Facebook and celebrate his birthday by buying him a toy and
letting him play with the old dog food bag.
10. Brent mows the yard now, and we had to decide who would
take the garbage out. I have 100%
of the pet duty and Brent puts salt in the softener. He has also agreed to cook one day a week, and on Sunday he
made eggs with an avocado garnish and a side of salsa. It was yummy. He had forgotten that he
was a great short order chef.
11. Everywhere
we go, we notice other people who are obviously empty-nesters doing the same
empty-nesting things as us—kind of like when you are pregnant and you notice
all the pregnant women—kind of like that, but with no baby.
12. We take
lots of walks together in the morning--and sometimes at dusk—and we marvel at
God’s goodness to us. He has
blessed us richly. So richly. Like coffee with lots of Half and Half,
except better.
