Forty Hours Left

Only forty hours until our oldest son takes off for the northern plains for the next phase of his life! This is the calm before the final mayhem of packing up, cleaning up and throwing a going away party for him and his friends.

This past weekend, The Dread Pirate Sparsebeard helped him work on his car to get it ready for the road trip. Today is to be spent with a couple more close friends who probably will not be able to make the going-away party tomorrow evening, for they are both in college in the city, and have hectic schedules of their own.

The previous weekend, we celebrated with family across town and took one last formal family portrait before J moves out.



J came to my final Charlotte Mason book club meeting last week to say goodbye to all my mom friends, some of whom he has studied or worked with in one form or another.

What else do I write? J has grown up so much since spending the summer helping with youth camps in Scotland and traveling about, learning and expanding his perspective(s). He has very strong opinions and is ready for this next step. Staying in our area is just not the best option for him anymore; he has blossomed all he can in this part of the country and needs new soil in which to be transplanted, fed, stretched and even tested. I understand this from my own year(s) right before entering the "twenty-something" ages.

When I think back on it, I, like so many others, would not want to relive the high school years...BUT, the college years are perhaps another matter! Those were exciting times of traveling, learning, growing and maturing. Sure, there are things I would do differently, but the overall experience(s) are exciting and life-changing.

As you can imagine, not only is our sons life changing, but his brothers and sister's lives are changing, and Sparsebeard's and mine are changing, as well. That really goes without saying, but I don't have anything else profound to say at this moment. I'll let you know after he is gone, after we've taken the party streamers down and eaten the last of the cake or brownies. I'll let you know once we begin to change the boys' bedroom to update it to the taste of the next brother in line :-).

Though......

Maybe, just maybe we'll leave those party streamers up for a while.


Javamom