A New Time of Life

One of the blessings of blogging is reading other bloggers and discovering that they are having some of the same experiences in life that you are. A couple of days ago I came across a post by Gannet Girl, who was musing about whether or not to move from the big old house where she and her husband raised their family.

One of her conclusions was: "I know that what we really need to do is re-think our lives. They no longer center on children, and they haven't in a long time." El Jefe and I have been having the same discussion recently. With the marriage of Portia and the passing of our beloved Gretel The Noble Dog, it finally occured to us that it is time to make some changes. For years after Babs left for college I found myself reflexively returning home at the same time every afternoon that she came home from high school. Only in the last year or so have I begun to break myself of that habit.

What kind of changes are we thinking about? Like Gannet Girl, we decided not to trade in the now too-big house for a smaller one until after El Jefe retires, if then. We like it, we love the location, it's paid off, and we do use it to entertain large groups from time to time. There's plenty of room for Babs and we expect her to move home for some period of time after she graduates from her master's program while she finds a job and decides where she wants to live. Portia and DK can come back and spend the night for a holiday if they want to.

But what other changes might we make? Some of them may be small changes in routine. Some may be more significant changes in where we put our time and energy. Where is God leading us now that our girls are grown and don't need us to focus all our attention on them anymore? It's something we're thinking and praying about in this new time of life.