Growing Up...

Hmmm, where to start. Having the boys home (and all of them in the house once again at the same time) was a blessing and a time of growing up. For me. Not them.

I really have procrastinated writing this post. Because, I guess for one thing I don't want to be maudlin or have one of those blogs that is so negative that when you read it you wished you hadn't. So I am going to share my blessings and that includes the growing up part.

• I was very glad that Tim and Eve made it home without incident. We had a very lovely time, which also made it hard at the end of the week to wish them safe journey back. I think everyone had a great time.
• I am glad that Ben made it back to college and Tim and Eve back to their part of NY.
• Kerry Lee's lay off is over and he starts back to work tomorrow.
• Tim has made some plans that when his tour of duty is over (this summer) he will be back for a visit, but will be relocating to out of state to go to college there. He has always loved the ocean so wants to live near it.

I am proud of them all. They are grown *gulp* men. For some reason this kind of snuck up on me. And truthfully I was really having a hard time with this since last Thursday. I am happy that they are going their own ways, the Lord knows we won't be around forever. But for some reason I thought that they would be back to stay for at least a little while longer. I do have a couple more years yet of Ben coming home in the summer between college semesters, but even that is no longer the same. He has places to go, things to do, people to see and works like the dickens.

And Tim. For some reason I thought that once he got this crazy soldiering (my words not his) done and over with he would want to be back. It was hard to let go, but the boy went and signed papers two days after his 18 birthday, so I didn't have a choice. I always thought he would be back. But he's not. Instead a man came back to visit.

And Kerry Lee is making noises of moving out too.

My mother-n-law had three of her children married within 5 months. Now I understand. I stole one of her sons (lol). I remembered back to when I left home. I was 18 when Kerry and I married. I never have looked back. I remember life being an adventure and I wasn't a bit fearful of what tomorrow will bring. I do wish that I could recapture that feeling!

So the growing part of this for me is to let go and enjoy what is, not what was, in each and every moment of the day.