Here we are, the man I married so long ago, forty years this year, and I, alone. We are what is known as "empty nesters." Silly term. It sounds lonely, but I've dreamed and looked forward to this for a long time.
But we have all this time that seems empty. What are we going to do with it?
We have both tried a few of the new things that we always wanted to do when we had the time. I know he has time on his hands when he buys and plants flowers he knows nothing about, just because he can't sit all day. He never noticed flowers when the kids were small, when I did all the planting. He was as apt to stomp on them as to step over them. He didn't notice them.
I used to watch my mother make her quilts when I was small. I admired that she could make something out of nothing and dreamed of creating my own some day. Well, guess what? Yeah, two years ago, I made sixteen (16)! quilts! I gave them to my kids and grand kids for Christmas and haven't been able to sit at the sewing machine since. I put it into my closet and tried to forget I even had one.
I have boxes of material and scraps from those quilts. I look at them once in a while to assure myself I still could make the perfect quilt if I just had a room where I could have a cutting table. You have to have a cutting table to create the perfect quilt. You can't always use the kitchen table.
Sometimes the little ones, the grandchildren, find a box and pull out the long strips to tie around their heads so they can become NINJA TURTLES.
Anyway, since that year of constant cutting apart and sewing back together, I can't even sit at the sewing machine table (sans the machine) without my back protesting--'don't you dare sit in front of that monster!'
I have bought and read so many books, I could open a used book store. I used to read a page here and there, in between the important stuff. I would dream of being able to read a book all the way through, putting it down when I chose to--not when somebody needed me to.
I like to go to yard sales. Sure, it's easier to go by myself, without children, but not nearly as much fun. Sometimes I grab a grandchild or two and find the sales. Then of course, all I get to look at are toys and games. If I chance to look at big people stuff, I hear, "Grandma! Look!" You ought to see my house of bargains.
I don't know what else I could do. I have just about ran out of ideas.