It's the Little Things

I was talking to my friend at lunch the other day. I was telling her about the bread we are eating now. I said, “We buy the $7/loaf of bread from Oleson’s. It only has 4 ingredients, and you have to keep it in the fridge because it doesn’t have any preservatives.” “I can’t spend that much on bread because my kids eat a lot of bread.” she replied. “Oh don’t feel bad,” I said, “we bought the cheap bread when the kids were still at home!” Sadly, it’s the honest truth. We also buy the natural peanut butter and fancy jam now too. There are actually quite a few things we do now that the kids are gone that we didn’t do when they were here.

We take vacations. We weren’t a traveling family. We rarely took vacations. Partly because it was so costly, but partly because we just didn’t do well together as a family cooped up in a vehicle for long periods of time. We didn’t have an in-car video set-up so taking the Xbox or movies required an extremely complicated system of extension cords and adaptors. So rather than spending a lot of money and time not getting along, we mostly confined our family time and travels to places we could visit in 3 days or less. In the past year Tom and I have taken three 4-day vacations. Two out of three of those trips we flew.

We eat out… a lot. I have written recently about my failure as a “cooking for two” cook. I remember commenting (or judging is more accurate), Toms parents. “Why do they eat out so much? Your mom is an awesome cook! If I could cook as well as she does, you wouldn’t be eating out that much” I can and we do.

I am systematically redecorating each room of the house. Our house has looked the same for the last twelve years, other than the one year we replaced the living room carpet. First, we replaced most of the living room furniture. We had to, actually, because I gave all of the old stuff to furnish Robby’s apartment. Robby’s room was next. I turned it from a poster covered teenage boy’s room to a cute, nautical, Charlevoix Venetian-themed room with a queen size bed, coordinating bedding and knick-knacks. Sammy’s room is next. I have that one slated for a whimsical “under the sea” vibe with artsy-craftsy wall hangings that I picked up at this craft show or on that vacation.

And finally, we bought a room air conditioner. That one was a necessity. I mean, we didn’t do that when the boys were here because we thought it would be unfair to sleep in the cool comfort of our bedroom while they sweated it out in theirs. But as soon as the first hot night hit in late May, we loaded up the van with that unit and it saved our summer.

I do miss having my boys here at home, but I am learning there is a whole new world to this empty nest thing. Starting with a preservative-free sandwich made with natural peanut butter and homemade jam.