How quiet it is, save the sound of Houdin banging out "Do You Realize" on the piano. The weekend wedding and travel to Indiana/Illinois is over, the girls are staying with their Illinois relatives for three weeks, Bard is back to college, and Monet is at high school. Houdin is an only child for a week, and then he's off to training to spend 8 months in Africa as part of a service and missions project. There's plenty to do here--three wedding videos to finish editing, church stuff to organize, Houdin's packing and preparation to do, funds to raise, books to read and review, pickles and sauerkraut to make, laundry to wash, maybe even a bedroom or two to paint--but for now, I'm just gathering my thoughts, absorbing this strange phenomenon. Never have I been alone in my house for more than a half-hour. Wow. Isn't that hard to believe? That I could have an entire day, uninterrupted, to write, edit, clean, watch a movie, nap? I'm excited, yet I'm also unsure how I feel about it. After years and years of wondering what it would be like to be alone in a house, to clean something and have it stay clean, to complete a sentence or a thought, I'll have a taste of it for two whole weeks, and it makes me wonder what life without children at home will be like.
For those who have children leave home, what was the transition like for you? I'm especially interested in hearing from women who were home with their children, and if you were homelearners, all the better. Was the process difficult? What surprised you? Did you find yourself with more time of your own, or did it get quickly filled? Did you go to work? Start volunteering full-time?
After this three weeks, my two little girls will be home again, and we'll back into our Ambleside schedule.
But, for now, I'll enjoy my venture into daytime solitude.
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