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It sounds like something out of a horror novel doesn’t it… But no, it’s trying to figure out how to adjust to the down-sizing of your family. In actuality the family is up-sizing in certain ways, we accumulate spouses, girlfriends/boyfriends and grandchildren, but yet the house gets quieter and quieter.

Our third child has gone back to college for the semester and Anthony is away on military duty for two months, and now there are only two. Elijah, my youngest, and I sometimes just look at each other and ask, “What do you wanna do now?”

Evenings are quiet, weekends the house feels like a tomb, but dinnertime is the worst. For a family that has always made it a priority to eat dinner together, the empty chairs are a sad reminder.

For Elijah, I think there is occasional boredom and missing the spontaneous visits to his sister’s room to chat or annoy her (pretty much the same thing.) There is also the fact that he is the only one left in “mom’s crosshairs” now!

For me, it is always lonely when the children leave. I have said goodbye to two that are out on their own now, living their own lives, and the third has one foot out the door. Now there is only one and I know that my time with him is limited.

It is even more difficult when Anthony is gone. There is the loneliness of the empty side of the bed, but even more, there is a knowing, that someday I may be alone. And for a woman who has centered her life around her family, that is a very sobering thought indeed.