Rhyme and Reason from my Empty Nest

                                                            Here Ye Here Ye........ My CHRIST mas gift to you...... May this offer some encouragement to keep us all on track in the midst of the last minute craziness..... Merry Christmas to you, my friends far and near. May you find your season bright full of merriment and cheer. Your to-do list is done. Or at least it should be. You'll soon reap your reward with evidence under that tree. Stop to take a look. Stop to sniff a smell. Stop to give yourself kudos. You conquered it all well. Relish each moment. They slip by too fast. Before you blink an eye this Christmas will be past. Make sure to adore the Savior sent for us. Everything else won't matter. No need for anymore fuss. 🎄 Merry MERRY CHRIST mas to YOU, my blogging family!! 🎄

Any "This Is Us" fans out there?  Remember the Big Three chant?  "First came me.  Dad said gee.  Then came me.  Mom said wee.  Then came me.  They said that's three.  Big three."   Maybe your family chant was the Big Four or the Big Six.  Now our chant in the Empty Nest is "Just the two of Us."     We all started out that way - the Big Two.  Once we met our man, he was more than enough.  At the risk of isolating friends and devoting too much time to our budding romance, we felt like three was a crowd.  The two of us could do anything or nothing at all and be giddy with contentment.  No one else mattered.  In fact, others seemed to get in the way.  All changed when those little people took up residence in our home.  Becoming two again can make a profound impact on the holidays.  Do your seasonal celebrations look different this year?  Mine do.  That is to be expected....

November warrants it.  It just does.  As the golden leaves fall from the wind-blown trees, we must discuss the golden topic of the day - gratitude.  It is an often touched on topic but not often taken to heart.  What do you say.  Let's take it to heart today. 💛 My thoughts on the importance of gratitude were profoundly enriched when I read,  One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  November is the perfect time to pick up this book. Ann discusses how the sin of ingratitude is "the catalyst of all my sins."  The entire Garden of Eden was offered to Adam and Eve yet it didn't prove to be enough.  What was wanted was the one gift not given.  Ann writes, "Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren't satisfied in God and what He gives.  We hunger for something more, something other."  Is that the case for you? It became the case for me. I've always considered myself a "glass half-full" person.  Generally speaki...

 Ok.  I have something to get off my chest - literally and figuratively.  I need to make a confession.  It's quite ironic that the exact 2 months I began blogging about the Empty Nest are the exact 2 months that our youngest son needed to move back home.  I realize it's just temporary.....but there goes my Empty Nest.  It seemed to happen just when I became the most comfortable in my new-found freedom in my new-found surroundings. It feels like I just began to do as I please when I please.  Be aware that this too could happen to you!      Sometimes there must be a revolving door on our Empty Nest. Our boy only needed an "in between" place after a lease was up and before a plane carries him across the world for a year of mission work in New Zealand. How could mom and dad say no? Why would mom and dad say no?  Well, of course mom and dad didn't say no!  We can do anything for a short period of time...right? Even if the anticipate...

                                                               I've been on this parenting journey for 33 years. Seeing that typed out feels even more shockingly true! That's the equivalent of 231 dog years! There were so many days when I was plain dog tired! So many days I thought would never end. Would I survive? My greatest desire was to just get in a good nap or just orchestrate 5 minutes of precious peace. I bet you can relate. I blinked. There stood before me my 3 sons who would tower over me by 3 heads and 3 sets of shoulders. Those years lived up to the prediction of flying by ever so fast.  How can this be? I have arrived at this stage of life called "the empty nest." It once seemed so far into the future but now I've landed smack dab in the middle of it. What was once outside my grasp is now well within my reach. E...

I  found one. I live in one - an empty nest. Maybe you do too? A momma bird perfectly crafted a safe haven for her babies branch by branch, twig by twig for as long as it was needed and for as long as it lasted. This nest was never intended to last for very long. Neither was my nest. Like that momma bird, I worked hard to craft my nest over time. I strived to lovingly create a home for me...my husband...and for our offspring. I built it piece by piece, day by day, actually minute by minute. I poured myself wholeheartedly into it. I gave my all to it. I'm certain you did too. After all, acquiring an empty nest was the grand plan all along. You know that. We were all fully aware our nest would become empty one day. That one day initially felt quite a way away. All's great and predictable when one day is way beyond our grasp and almost inconceivable to attain. It creeps up on us ever so slowly but ever so surely. Some of us find it especially challenging to welcome that empty nest...