Total Quiet Here

Well the kids and my husband and two of our adult children got on the big ole tour bus this AM to go to state Special Olympics. Such excitement!

I didn't go. I can't sit on those bleachers and there is a LOT of sitting to do at Special O. So I'm all by myself if you don't count Jack the German Shepherd and Daisy and Clifford the bedroom cats (they rarely come out of the master BR...)

I simply do not think there has ever been a time when I was totally by myself before in 40 years of marriage. So I decided I'd see how I would be able to live on my own, Go forbid, that I HAD to.

So I came home from taking the big van to the bus stop and did a lot of computer work, and then went out in the little van to the library to pick up some books, then to Walmart to get some more $5 shorts for myself. And bought some things for my dinner-roast beef, corn on the cob and potatoe salad. Then I came home, fed the dog and walked him, watched Dr. Phil until I couldn't stand it any more. Watched Oprah giving away stuff again until I couldn't stand that either.

Then I made corn on the cob and potato salad and ate that.
(I'm saving the roast beef for later.) I figure I'll read one of the library books until I fall asleep tonight, then go to a garage sale that is for our family benefit tomorrow AM. (I thought this would be a little affair that a group of realtors put together, but I called down there today and they have THREE ROOMS filled with donated stuff for the sale!)

So in answer to my initial purpose of the day, I now know that if I were all alone I'd spend a lot of time at the grocery store finding just the right dinner for me (something that takes a very few minutes of decision for the entire family...) I'd watch bad TV, I'd read books and walk the dog.

So yeah, I COULD survive on my own, but what exactly would I be working for? What would I be working toward? What would I be planning? Nothing. Without the kids and my husband, what would I be looking forward to? Why would I want to decorate, or even try to make money?

And I think about my one grandmother, who after the death of her husband, my grandfather, spent 30 some years in a tiny apartment knitting and watching TV. And I didn't go to see her or call her nearly as often as I would now, if she were still alive.

Yes, large families are noisy, boisterous and busy, but at least I know what we're working for, what we are working toward. The successful lives of all our kids.