Left To Our Own Devices

All four of our children are away this week. The older two are at church camp and the younger two are at grandparent camp. We have had reports of all manner of fun and learning from both camps and are thankful that the kids are enjoying themselves.

Though we take a week each year to travel without the children, it has been many many years since my Man and I have found ourselves home alone.

{You saw that coming right?}

Here's what I am learning as we have been left to our own devices...

My Man does, in fact, remember how to take the trash out.

I do remember how to unload the dishwasher.

There is little need to do either of these activities because the amount of trash and dishes generated by two 40 somethings is significantly less than what it was, say...last week!

The same holds for the laundry.

When my Man is away, the kids and I plan all sorts of adventurous "Daddy's Gone Dinners" with international themes and ingredients. When the kids are away, however, an acceptable dinner just might be two bowls of cereal enjoyed in front of a favorite TV show.

When the children are away it is possible to actually HEAR every word of a favorite TV show.

A spoon loaded down with peanut butter and chocolate chips is the perfect lunch.

My Mother-In-Law was correct when she told me that cooking for two is not nearly as fun as cooking for the whole family.

There is no one with whom to share trivial things with the very instant I learn of them after my Man has gone to work.

I have no earthly idea what LeBron James is up to this week.

There is no one around to "do what I say and not what I do".

Minivans are huge with only a driver.

Socks do not magically appear on the living room floor or on the couch or under the dining room table or in the fridge but I did hear a report of an orphaned sock of my Man's appearing at church camp?!

Our home echoes when there is only one person in it, that is, if that one person choses to create noise, but really...what is the point?

Podcasts are wonderful ways of learning and of filling a house with sound.

So is talking to oneself.

There is no line at the coffee pot in the morning...but there is also no one to bring me coffee out of the goodness of their teenaged hearts in the middle of the morning either.

Finally, I've learned that time alone is a wonderful restorative privilege in this life of mine for which I am grateful but it is not the life which I've been called to live. So as the house fills back up and as the noise level rises and the pantry level dwindles and the laundry piles and the dishwasher runs and runs and runs, and the line at the coffee maker grows, my prayer is that my heart will remember the joyful refreshment of this week and then charge ahead to the jolly chaos of the next.

“Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.” 

~Sarah Dessen

What Happened to Goodbye