What Happens When Kids Grow Up

Coming back to Conway is always weird. It is feeling less and less like home, and I am starting to refer to it as "going to visit my parents" rather than "going home on the weekend." (It makes more sense, too, because in Fayetteville I have a bed and in Conway I have an air mattress in the living room...) With my sister and I both in college, my little brother is the only one living at home - and he is constantly busy with his band that he is in, but when he is home he is usually shut up in his room doing Lord knows what. Therefore, my parents have begun to go through the "empty nest syndrome." I saw this starting when I left, but it is so much more evident now that Mel is gone as well. (Well, not really gone - going to school at UCA but living in the dorms.)

Evidence of this new phase in my parents' life - my dad has gotten into bike riding and rides at least three times a week. And he has begun to convince my MOM to go! Not normally my mother's cup of tea. My dad has begun cooking all the time and is very health-conscious in what he buys and eats. According to my dad, my mom is his "best friend" and he spends so much more time at home as opposed to out riding his motorcycle with his friends. The funniest thing happened Saturday morning: Mom was doing laundry and apparently forgot a pillowcase, so my dad put it on his head and was going through the house pretending to be ghost. He was trying to do the spooky "ooooo" and everything! He is not as stressed about work and has gotten really goofy. I am so thankful for this! I wish that maybe it had been a little bit more like this growing up because it just cracks me up.

While my parents are going through this independence-from-kids sort of phase, I am going through my own independence phase. I, of course, and cooking and cleaning and mowing the lawn. I am having to pay bills and realizing how much groceries really do cost. I am trying to make smart decisions concerning my time and money - more than I have had to in the past. The newest thing in this is that my dad wants to make Thanksgiving plans to go to New Jersey to visit my mom's sisters and their families... but I have class through Wednesday (they would leave Tuesday) and then I have a Turkey Day retreat at camp that I was planning on going to that is Friday-Sunday. When I told my dad, he said that I am growing up and someday I will spend Thanksgiving with my husband (a LONG someday from now) and not necessarily with them and so they might have to go without me. WHAT?! It's nice that he sees me as grown up and on my own - my parents don't treat me like a little kid at all - but it's weird at the same time. They don't have set plans to go to NJ, it depends on how much money they can save towards that road trip, but it's weird to just think about.

Speaking of my house, here are pictures (finally)!

This curtain was just printed with the tree; I sewed little birds to put on the tree. In the fall I want to make leaves, at Christmas do Christmas lights, etc.