Life With Boys

Life with boys … has been quieter … our nest is not empty, it’s just that it is not as full as it used to be … and it is not so much the change of activity in our house that has changed, as much as the change to our calendar … since 2007 we have usually needed to get someone somewhere … and now the once crammed days are ours again … and that is weird … it is not so much that I miss sitting on cement gym floors, waiting in carpool lines or endless meetings … it’s that is I miss the camaraderie of the parents who were in the thick of it too … they became my Monday night buddies or fellow Saturday survivors … and all of a sudden not only are my kiddos gone, but so are the familiar faces I have grown so used to seeing … and it’s a lot like being in the outside looking in … and no, I don’t really want to do it all again … but I would … this is another strange limbo place … like when you have graduated from something but the next phase has not yet begun … you know that another seismic shift is coming and you’re not sure if you should batten down the hatches or live like there is no tomorrow … I am seeing why people have a mid-life crisis … everything is in flux and we just want some control and maybe normalcy … so in the meantime we think about adding more exercise (but don’t) … and we start researching classes (that we may or may not sign up for) … and I wonder how to reconnect with this person on the other end of the couch … and then the couchmate starts to eat cereal so loudly that I wonder if reconnecting is really a good idea … and we wonder what the boys are up to as we check their locations on find my iPhone … and we place another delivery order of ramen and peanut butter and macaroni and we hope they are at least adding a vegetable to the carb load every once in a while … and we look to the future with trepidation and hope as we grow accustomed to this new normal …