Empty Nest?

Would you think me an unnatural mother if I told you that I was sort of looking forward to the Wild Child and the Drooling Dog's departure tomorrow? I love her dearly--the Wild Child--but my happy little schedule is disrupted and I'm yearning to get back to "normal." I think I'm even getting a little cranky!

I think it's hard when our kids move out and then come home to visit. For the first couple hours, we're overjoyed to have them back. After that--well, I think we'd be happy to have them back if only they'd leave for a little while. Or something. I guess I'm kind of conflicted.

I haven't really been able to quilt much since she's been home. When I start quilting, I'm invariably interrupted. And that's okay in a lot of ways, because I want to spend time with her, but I also want to quilt. Similarly, I haven't gotten any further on decorating the house for fall. I'm just itching to decorate, but it's hard to do with two cats and a dog to referee and two other adults--all of whom, humans and pets alike, seem to be hanging around all over the place.

My blog post is late tonight because the Wild Child has been downloading and giving titles to 628 photos from her digital camera. Finally, when I did get on the computer, she came running in here with an unopened 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle begging me to let her open it and start putting it together, even though it's 10:30 at night, she's leaving tomorrow by noon, and she has a lot to do between now and then. And it's a quilting puzzle I bought for myself and have been "saving" until I had time to put it together. I said "no." She begged some more. I said "no" some more. She looked at me with sad eyes--you know that look, right? I said "no" again. I feel mean.

I look around my house and see messes that wouldn't be here if there weren't three adults and a dog coexisting in this small home. Oh, she's pretty good at cleaning up after herself with the larger messes--like when she baked (and burned every single one of) a batch of cookies. But, for instance, her camera is still sitting here on my desk, I found one sock draped over a kitchen chair and another in the living room, and her purse, keys, and cell phone are likely to turn up anywhere. That's just an example--it is not even close to being all the stuff that's scattered here and there around the house.

The dog drools. Really yucky, ugly, gross, snotty looking drool. And sometimes he shakes himself off. I now have drool plastered on the outside of my patio screen door. I'm kind of afraid to look at anything too closely in the house. I really, really, really need to clean house--like tomorrow night after she's gone. Maybe I should take time off work and come home early to get started. Maybe I should pick up all kinds of disinfectants and bleach on the way home. Maybe I should just build a bonfire and burn everything. Well, maybe not. Bleach and Lysol will have to do.

I have to lure the cats in the house while the dog's outside and then lock them into a room where they're safe. This morning, they both got "breakfast in bed"--I had to feed the older cat on a table in the garage and the younger cat's dish is relocated to the top of the bureau in my bedroom. I got out of bed this morning and stepped on the younger cat because she was crouched on the floor next to the bed where she presumably felt safe.

I think I'm getting old and set in my ways. I like my habits. But I love my kids--both the Wild Child and her older brother. I know that once my life gets back to "normal," I'll miss her terribly. Like I said, I guess I'm kind of conflicted.

Yeah, maybe I might even miss him. A little. Well, maybe not. At least photos don't drool!