Empty Nest Week

She's about to land in Madrid as I type this, my little third offspring, and I am having a long lie in not having to do a morning school run or head into the office.  Is this what being a real empty nester will be like in three years? I've been parenting since 1988-that's a really long time if you do the math. She's been gone on mission trips in the summer and to camp, but this is the first extended time during the school year I've had no children at home so will be a mind experiment for me on how I channel the changes. I have no evening commitments next week after work, a change, after the ridiculous schedule of the past five days, pretty much each day involving the social, extracurricular, and academic life of DD#2.

Monday: 6:00 call time for her for her school choir concert meant me needing to be out the office door promptly at 4;30, leaving a project that had to be completed by Tuesday morning a tad unfinished. After the concert, I logged back in and finished before bed.

Tuesday: The show Choir Finale show tickets went on presale for families at 6:00. You might be thinking , "How is buying tickets a time suck?" Buying tickets means trying to get in line as early as possible before the sale, because it seems to take no less than two minutes per person to select seats and make payment. I unfortunately had about 65 people ahead of me in line, even though I arrived 15 minutes before the sale started. I thought mistakenly I would be able to get in line early buy the tickets, and still get D to her violin lesson. When I had barely moved ten minutes after 6:00, I called DH who had to leave work to come up to the school to shuttle her to the arts center by 6:30. At 7:10 I had finally made my purchase then ran across town to pick the kid up, head home, eat a bite of dinner, and of course, finish work I had left incomplete because I left early again.

Wednesday: A final 5:00 meeting for the trip with students, parents, and chaperones and a 3:30 webinar training meant I planned ahead to work from home in the afternoon.  Technology was my friend this week. After the meeting, we did one last Target run, because isn't one last Target run the night before leaving town a prerequisite to travel, brought her home. I then met the volleyball team for our end of season gathering and a gathering spot a town over that has a great martini special on Wednesday nights. I don't often feel I deserve anything , but that night I felt I deserved the Lemon Drop Flirtini and enjoyed each drop.

Thursday: Left work at 3:30, got home, and helped DD with a final check of all her times.  Both DH and I went along to the airport, where we left her with her group, ready to go through security. 

It is my day off, but I am going to log in for an hour or so to put closure to the work week since I left early again. I have more to do on making the extra bedroom fit for a guest, and am meeting my three birth friends, literally my three friends since infancy, for birthday celebration lunch.

My risk to my empty nest week is overcompensating and losing track of time in the office next week. I have changed my work pattern for the most part, but I have had an instance or two when I get caught up in a project on Thursday's when DH is home and I don't have anything on the calendar, look around and find I am the only one in my division still at work. This is not how I want my empty nest years to be so the following week will be a good test of my resolve to recoup my time for myself. At least, until Friday when she is back in the house, and the other daughter comes home for Easter weekend. Then I will be back in full on mom mode again.