I've decided that I need a break so I have snuck upstairs to hide from my kids. They are supposed to be doing the dishes (it's 8:45 p.m. and I haven't heard one drop of water run in the sink yet!) but what I hear are 3 kids, all on laptops, watching different versions of the same YouTube video and laughing and comparing notes. I'd almost bet tomorrow morning when I come down to get ready for work, the kitchen will look like it did after dinner. 3 of us will be unhappy. 1 of us will be UBER unhappy. 3 of us will regret watching videos. 1 of us will somewhat regret having children.
I remember when they were really young. I couldn't wait til they were older and would be less of a walking dirt distributor and more of an actual help. Now I am counting the days til they move out into their own homes! I plan on visiting, leaving cups and dishes all over their houses (apartments, after all, who am I kidding) leave my shoes in the middle of the walking areas, spill food on their carpets and leave it for their dog to clean up, misplace their car keys, leave my coat any old place and then whine and drag my feet when they say I'm behaving like a pig.
One of my dearest friends has no children left at home. Hers are all grown, married and moved out long ago. Her house is immaculate. She has time to knit, quilt, spin yarn. I have time to dust my wheel, my loom, my sewing machine. Her fabric is all sorted by color and detailing; mine is sorted by cat, as in whichever one he pushed off my table and onto the floor, I've picked up and shoved wily nily back onto the table. Her fiber is neatly bundled next to her wheel. Mine WAS neatly bundled, now it's a bit frayed round the edges from the cat (yep same cat). Our cat BlackJack just loves fiber. Many is the time we've watched him come trotting down the staircase with his latest prize, in his mouth, and him looking smug about it. Until he sees me. Drop and bolt, that's what we should have named him. He only grabs my expensive yarn (the Japanese yarn at $28/4 ounces) the nice fiber at $18/4 ounces). Never the cheap stuff. EVER. I can bury the good stuff down in a yarn bin, he will find it and dig it up like some sort of four legged, fur covered archaeologist. Her home is beautiful. My home, lived in. We had purchased a new sofa and matching love seat, 3 cats later, one back is shredded wheat (the loveseat) and the seat portion is a bit bowed to the center (#2 son jumped up and landed in the center of the loveseat, just to show us he could and busted out the center support. Couch has two extra cushions under the seats as we've had a rather large number of extra children call our house their home. To get up in the morning and NOT find some child sound asleep on my couch is more scary than if they are there. In fact, lately, we've been known to get up to only 1 child in the house. #1 son is still living at home but has his own floor. He lives in the basement and comes and goes pretty much as he pleases (when he's not at work). #2 son was sleeping over at a buddies' home. #1 daughter was sleeping over at a girlfriends' home. Besides being extra quiet, know what I noticed most? I'd cleaned the kitchen up after supper AND IT WAS STILL CLEAN WHEN I GOT UP THE NEXT MORNING!!!! The sight of a clean kitchen is like a portrait of Heaven to me.
While I do realize I will miss them when they are gone, I won't miss the mess, the clutter, that odd smell that no one will own up to and my car will no longer smell like a combination of every fast food franchise in the state. From the looks of my seat, maybe the next law we should pass should be "no eating in the car"!
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