The moment our boys left for sleep-away camp, everyone just assumed that we packed our bags as well. Sort of, but it wasn’t as if we were secretly awaiting their departure to take advantage of our "empty-nesting." In fact, quite the contrary. I was secretly awaiting their departure to “clean house.” Recognizing that I intentionally stopped working to become a full-time SAHM (stay-at-home-mom), my schedule sort of opened up the minute they boarded the bus. In preparation of that, I planned plenty of projects to fill my time – re-organizing the boys’ bedrooms, their closet and drawers, not to mention kitchen cabinets and refrigerator and playroom; going through (meaning, “ throwing out ”) toys, old clothes, and school projects that were no longer “cute” (hard to believe ); sorting and documenting family photos and finally framing those “selected” family moments that I had planned to do during last summer’s camp time. These were all admirable projects that required focused, unin...
Everyone goes through "stages" or "chapters' in their lives, whether its wanting to move out of the city and buy a farm, or learn to roller blade and lose those unwanted pounds, or join a book club or bridge club and become more "rounded", or sign up for that design class you were always sorry you didn't pursue. Sometimes these stages present themselves without effort and we consider it "meant to be". And yet sometimes it just HAS to be...