The Sounds of Silence

It is the middle of summer and my house, unlike most of those with school-age children, is silent.

Both of my children are away this week. Sean is up in Alger, MI for six days at Boy Scout Camp. Shannon is in the Upper Penninsula at Michigan Tech studying astronomy for a week.

Now that baseball is over and Shannon is not starting driver's ed until next month, this is a time when we would normally to go to the beach or the movies and spend some quality time enjoying the warm weather. Going to the beach or the movies by yourself just isn't as much fun.

I suppose I should enjoy this mid-summer break, but it is eerily quiet with no one blaring music and video games or bickering over whose turn it is to watch television. I am really starting to miss the noise and chaos.

I suppose this is a foreshadowing of what is to come when both are grown and out of the house. Everything is quiet. Everything is staying clean. Cliff did offer to mess up a few rooms so that I won't go into withdrawal from having no one to pick up after. However, you just have to look in our bedroom at his clothes strewn everywhere to realize I don't have to worry about that.

I am going to take advantage of the quiet to get a few projects done and spend some quality time with the hubby in the evening. We had a nice, quiet walk with the dog last night and could actually watch a television show that we picked. We also did not have to badger any children about bedtimes.

In a few days everything will be back to our normal summer schedule, and in a month we will be getting ready for back-to-school time. Regardless of the noise, bickering and craziness that comes with having children in a home, I am going to enjoy it. It won't be long until the sound of silence is a permanent fixture in our house.