8 points to ponder

Big changes coming. The last child heads off to college on Sunday. Another son marries next year. Will I get a job? Do I even know how to hold a job? 30 years of marriage. How do we re-organize our nest?

When I find myself slipping into a melacholy mood, I try to cheer myself up by thinking thankful thoughts. (sorry for the cheesey alliteration.) Here's what's on my mind:

1. Bill and I can talk, argue or watch a movie anytime we want. We can eat popcorn and drink coke for dinner, too, if it suits us.
2. Just when kids become more pleasant to be around, they leave home. This doesn't seem quite fair, but then, I am thankful they are self-supporting and not living here or in jail.
3. There was a time when I made up a seating chart for the van so the kids wouldn't fight over seats. I will not miss those days.
4. Whenever I hear an over-tired child whining in the grocery store, I am thankful I'm not his mom. (And if someday it's my grandchild, I have tactics to handle it.)
5. Bill's thankful that I'm not bathing kids anymore. In the summer, he'd slam the windows shut so the neighbors wouldn't hear me hollering at the kids to get in the tub. I'd tell him, "be my guest."
6. Now that the kids are gone (until the next college break), maybe I'll make good on my threat to dynamite the basement. You wouldn't believe what's down there.
7. I know I keep coming back to food, but there is huge relief in the fact that feeding us will become much simpler. Why, I might even have time to write a book.
8. I don't know what #8 is, but I think I should end on an even number. Oh, here's one. Come fall, the stress of shoving a high schooler out the door on time for school will be gone. 11 years of that was quite enough.

This all sounds good and brave. But come Sunday, I'll probably be a mess.