Wednesday, October 27, 2010

You Gotta Add Laughter

After a little over year of our empty nest, I have come to realize that there are positives as well as negatives to having the house back.

Here are the top 10:

1.  The fact that there are fewer people here to cook for is a positive.  On the other hand, I cannot for the life of me learn how to cook for only two people!  Which automatically leads to another negative, we end up eating all that 'extra' food.  

2.  With fewer interruptions, I have more patience time to experiment with new recipes or with some that I have wanted to try but didn't have the patience time before the nest became empty.  The negative being that, when I do try these recipes, there's no one to eat it and, you guessed it, we end up eating all the 'extra' food.



3.  It's is nice and quiet around here now so I can watch a movie or just a sitcom without interruption.  The down side?  It's too dang quiet around here and I end up watching the stupid television instead of motivating and getting things done around here, which leads me to number 4--.



4.  I have tons of 'free' time to get things done around here. The negative?  I have learned that I prefer to use all this 'free' time to develop or refine hobbies and I GET NOTHING DONE AROUND HERE!



5.  There is LESS cleaning up to be done.  I'm kidding...there IS a man living here.



6.  All the sweets brought into the house are not gone in one 24 hour period.  Because it takes me two days instead of one AND there is NO ONE to blame for eating the missing sweets--if HE didn't do it, we both know who did and, if we didn't know, my hips would tell on me.



7.  I have discovered the wonderful world of blogging and met some of the nicest women.  Bad news is- I spend too much time on the computer reading their blogs or writing mine that I GET NOTHING DONE AROUND HERE.



8.  When the weekend rolls around, we have no obligations to attend the events that once took up every weekend which means time to get some major projects started/completed.  Down side?  Hubs is not good at starting OR completing projects so NOTHING IS GETTING DONE AROUND HERE.



9.   We were finally able to purge the attic!  Unfortunately, between me not being able to part with the 'memories' and all 4 daughters not wanting to give up certain childhood memories, THE ATTIC IS STILL FULL!



10.   The two of us have all the time to ourselves.  The negative:  Hubs is underfoot EVERY SINGLE MINUTE THAT HE IS NOT AT WORK!  God help me when retirement comes around!



If we have learned NOTHING else during our 27 years together, Hubs and I have learned this:  Try your BEST to see the humor in as many situations as possible.  Laughter has been an integral part of our family.  It has made life easier in some situations; it has lightened up sad days and softened hard ones; it has helped us make those teaching moments to our daughters understandable and lasting; it has helped us look at life in a more positive manner; it has kept us from self-importance... When we all look back over the last quarter of a century we tend to see good times that we shared and the fun all topped off with plenty of laughter! 


Christmas 1997





















16 comments:

  1. Funny and so true! You have a beautiful family and maybe your husband is kin to mine!

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  2. I wonder if they're related or if this is a condition brought on by testosterone?! LOL Found you other blog this morning and am following it also!

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  3. That is hilarious!! and true. :-) How does that happen!! Love the pic of your girls. So sweet.

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  4. Oh so true! We've been empty-nesters for a year as well, wish I could have read this a year ago...I somehow muddled through the first year and enjoy reading your blog as I can really relate!

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  5. Judy, Thank you for you sweet comment! I visiting you this morning too where I ended up 'under the pew!' LOL

    Deedee, thanks for the visit. This first year has been interesting to say the least. And there doesn't seem to be anything to fill the void quite like the children did. But writing helps and the daily phone calls from the girls and, of course, searching for the humor!

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  6. That picture about made me cry! You know I'm struggling with empty nest syndrome since my first born moved half a country away to attend college. Yes, I have 3 more at home, one being two - which means I'll be 100 before I have an empty nest :) Loved your post!!

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  7. Great info! I can't believe it...but I'm going to have an empty next in less than a year. My one and only son is a senior this year and is hoping to get into a CA school, about a 15 hour drive from me.
    The food thing is an issue - when he is gone for dinner now, I usually just pick something up. I hate cooking for one!!
    I am looking forward to having a clean house though!! He makes a total mess of my house all the time!

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  8. Sooo funny and so true, this post! I wish more people would read this, they´d know what to expect.
    I´ve had an empty nest for 4 years now and just now am starting to loose some of those pounds I put on, while eating all the left overs and sweets that I baked too much of! hahaha

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  9. Very true. Funny how that seems to happen to all of us. I found that it did turn around and I stopped worrying about the things that don't get done!
    Now, about that storage space filled with childhood stuff.

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  10. What a great story and so true-especially #7. My hubs cannot fathom how I can spend so long on the computer each day, writing my spot then visiting other blogs. He's totally perplexed.

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  11. Lovely post!
    I'll probably come back to this now and again, at times when I wish I had the house to ourselves, as I trip over another schoolbag, or coat, or shoes just "dropped" in the middle of a room!

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  12. I loved this post! very funny!
    and the photos that you have posted of your girls are very cute! =)
    Im one of your newest followers ~..
    ~Melissa
    http://candlesinks.blogspot.com/

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  13. I love that picture. Thank you for sharing. It'll be interesting to say the least. I'll keep checking in on you and you can teach me how to do this.
    Take care and have a great evening. God Bless!

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  14. Oh I love this post--and I can identify with it 100%! Our nest became empty just over 3 years ago. I've FINALLY learned to cook for two again--but I sure don't get much accomplished since I began blogging 18 months ago :)

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  15. Great post! Love the picture at the end too :)

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment! It makes me feel connected to everyone even though we may live far apart! Have a wonderful day!

 
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