Nesting

Since we are in the month of Thanksgiving....I will be writing a bit about gratitude, thankfulness, and such.  

I often forget to acknowledge the things in my day that I feel grateful for.  I just take them for granted.  I hope that forcing myself to take a step back and looking for the little moments, people, and things that fill me with gratitude will open my eyes to how blessed I am.

I invite you to do the same.

Yesterday was blissful.

Our kids had show choir rehearsal from 9-5....and then they decided to go grab dinner at Mc Donalds (excuse me while I make some gagging noises) and work on their lines for the play they are in.

This meant we got to experience a day of what it will be like when we are empty-nesters.

~

I had to play at church in the morning for All Saint's Day.  My darling hubby came with to keep me company, and to squeak out the ridiculously high songs I had chosen.  (Whoever is composing these Saintly hymns....lets take them down about a third, ok?  It's just painful that early in the day.)

Since we had a FREE DAY (when does this ever happen?!) we went out for breakfast, and then a quick shopping trip.  

We needed toilet paper, dog food and beer (and I grabbed a bottle of wine...because I have found that writing goes very well with a glass of vino.)  Obviously this was high priority shopping.  Emergency shopping, really.  These were necessities that we could not face another day without.

Thank God for Target.

~

After the shopping excursion, we headed home to our nice quiet house, and decided to watch a movie.  In the afternoon.  (this never happens.)

I had sent Lexie out to rent some movies the night before.  She always comes back with interesting selections.  I usually have either seen them, they are currently playing on the movie channel we have, or they are one of those awful horror movies where a weird looking doll comes to kill you with a steak knife while you are in the tub.

We watched "The Purge."  It wasn't awful....it WOULD be awful if it actually happened.  Let's hope our country doesn't decide to have an annual "purge."  It wouldn't be pretty. AT. ALL.

~

After viewing lots of stabbing and shooting, I decided a nap was in order.

My beloved cleaned leaves out of the gutter while I dozed in front of the fireplace on my favorite couch with my furry friends.  

(Yes, it was heavenly.)

~

I guess communing with nature was so enjoyable, it sparked Mark's interest to continue into the night.  He decided it would be a great evening for grilling. Apparently standing in the freezing cold while flipping burgers is a good time? 

It would seem he didn't want me to miss out on all the fun, so he was sure to throw on one of his god-awful 70's lounge records before heading out to grill.  I'm not quite sure how to describe it.

Imagine really out of tune flutes, with female voices oohing and aaahing.  

It made me wish I had opened that bottle of wine I bought earlier today....and chugged the whole thing.  

Fortunately, the entire side of the record only lasted about 10 minutes....so, my sanity was spared.  For today.

And, the burgers were fabulous.

~

Anyway....my point in all of this rambling is this:

I think I am going to love being an empty nester. 

Not that I won't miss the kids, or worry about them constantly, of course.

The one thing that I most look forward to is that we can make whatever we want for dinner, and NO ONE WILL COMPLAIN.

Does anyone else have that problem?  The whole "no one ever likes the same things to eat" issue?  I am pretty sure the only meal we could make that everyone would actually be happy about would be ribeye's on the grill.  Of course, we would both need to get an extra job to afford that on a regular basis, so we can knock that off the weekly grocery list.

It seems that whenever I go out of my way to make a really nice dinner, one (or both) of the kids will end up making themselves a box of mac and cheese instead.

I will NOT miss that.

~

But....until then, I will cherish each moment I have with my little birdies, for I know it will fly by, and before I know it, they will be leaving the nest.

But it sure is nice to know that once the nest is empty, I won't feel sad or lonely.  Instead, I will be starting a whole new adventure with my very best friend....and what could be better than that?

Happy Sunday!