Empty Nesting

The birds have all flown away. This time for real. Not a temporary flight, but the little birdies have found their home. This summer both of our kids have purchased homes. It was busy helping them negotiate pricing, mortgages, moving, and then finally helping with little improvements. It was a busy summer, but truly beautiful at the same time. I am so proud of our young adult children.

Now that it has been just over a month of empty nesting, how is it going? The house is cleaner with only two adults living under one roof. I have noticed we unload the dishwasher more often. The lights go out earlier at night. It is much quieter, not a lot of extra conversation or chatter. We watch shows we want to watch and have to keep deleting the DVR with the kids shows. At one point, I will fix the recording schedule. Our dog misses our kids. Luckily, they are willing to dog-sit while we are traveling.

We are so fortunate, we see Maddi every day at work but we miss fun times, non-work conversation. Zach lives close by, but he has a busy work and social life, we are hard to fit in.

We have been talking about goals for our next phase of life. What does that look like? Are we going to move? Not yet! We absolutely adore our neighbors. Where should we travel to? There is so much to see! How many years, realistically, should we work? Are we old enough to have that conversation?

Our nest was empty for the first six years of our marriage, but this time it is a little different. We had our whole life to look forward to. Now, we have lived and raised amazing humans.

Now what is next?