My cousin, Jonathan, commented that the dynamics between siblings change with the parents out of the mix. Hubby and I hoped that when the three we’d left behind no longer had us at their beck and call they would turn to each other and draw closer. We have been gone three weeks and true to form the dynamics have changed; only, as with prayer, not in the way we’d expected!
Our oldest daughter, the only girl left behind, relocated to Corpus Christi. What did that mean? Were we all that kept her in sunny Garland? Actually I know her pretty well and there is no holding her back once she has set her mind to something so this was probably a move in the works. We are only sorry that we weren’t there to help her move, to do things for her like filling out change of address notices and returning her library book, helping her out financially perhaps, enabling her ever so slightly. But we weren’t! We satisfied ourselves with chatting on Skype and encouraging her and asking the boys to help her if possible…I say if possible because she won’t always accept help. They came up trumps in my eyes though and took her out to dinner on her last night, a first for them, at the Filmore Pub in Plano. We asked for no details preferring to hold images in our heads of a pleasant evening. We thanked the boys.
Our youngest son, the keeper of our house, has gone native! His best freind from homeschool spends all his spare moments at our house, studying and using the pool and when Simon is there, they forage in the back 40 and wade in the creek, and catch, kill and eat turtles!
Yes, you read that right, I thought I’d throw it in there casually but it still jumps out at us urban dwellers of the 21st century.
I know the money is tight but how wild is my zoo keeper son going to go in his quest to save money and get back to the earth?
I asked our oldest if Simon and his friends run around the property in loincloths, and he replied,
“I wish they did!”
Which sounds pretty naked to me…
“Do you want to see something disgusting?” our oldest asked one morning when he was at the house snooping and checking our mail.
I didn’t but he held his iPhone up to the inside of the fridge and over that wonderful piece of technology called skype, we saw a neatly skinned, oven ready squirrel!
I haven’t even considered what our oldest informer is up to while we’re gone!
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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