Empty-nest Mom

Hubs and I knew this moment was coming. We were even a bit excited for it. Sure we miss the grown kids, but we are so proud of their motivation and work ethic.

The nest began emptying six years ago and the fourth one flew out one month ago. 'What are we doing with our time and space now?' you might be thinking. Honestly, we have spread out. I got one room and made it into a lovely guest room...but I put my off-season clothes in the closet. No more traipsing to and from the attic for seasonal clothes changes! Hubs took over the middle bedroom and is in the process of making it into his office. He also moved his things to the little closet in that room, and irons his clothes for school in there. He eventually wants to build a murphy bed to put along one wall, but for now, we are content and making due.

We are going through multiple changes at the moment, so we aren't rushing about frantically. Instead, we are pacing ourselves. So many thoughts and ideas have been swirling around in our heads that we want to give them time to percolate and settle before acting on them. We have time, really, we do. I know we are not guaranteed tomorrow, but we are not rushing things. It is just not worth it.

We lost my father-in-law last month after his two-decade-survival of prostate cancer. He was so thrilled to outlive the doctors predictions by more than 15 years. He is proud that he made it to his 80th birthday celebration back in February. Over 200 friends and family celebrated with him. It was glorious.

As I have pondered the direction for this tenth year of my blog, mothering and working as an empty-nest mom are the things that are on my heart and fill my days, now. These are the things I will share in the future. I plan to continue sharing about my hobbies and loves, but I may post on meatier concerns from time to time.
For example, what happened to the Titus 2 model of older women mentoring younger women? It exists, but more often than not, we might witness younger moms in leadership rolls in churches. This is not evil, just backwards. I was one of those young mothering and mentoring moms over ten years ago, and I burned out...or gave up for various reasons. I am not sure that the church model as it exists is appropriate. I think it sets us up to fail before our time. Then when our actual, appropriate mentoring time comes, we are done and want nothing to do with the old model that burned us.

I hope to flesh out some of these thoughts and would love for my readers to come along and give input! I apologize for the dry spell this year. Again, most of it is due to Poppy's illness progressing at the end of last year, and being busy getting the last one ready to leave the nest.

Sending Happy May Day wishes out to you all! Have a wonderful Spring!

Javamom 

Jupiter and her Moons tonight ~ So beautiful!

Tonight, I am thankful for the ability to see

things so very far away. 

I present Jupiter and her Galilean moons

 10:00 p.m.

11:00 p.m. and now you can see all four visible moons, aka the Galilean Moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. At midnight, the one closest to Jupiter will be even more visible.

Look up! Jupiter is just to the left of the moon!

Javamom

Word for the Year

Quite a few people I know are choosing a word for the year, to help drive their goals or resolutions. I find it difficult to choose just one word! Hubby has already chosen his: HOPE!

I like that a lot, and was near choosing it, myself. But I didn't want to jump on his bandwagon word, just because. Since he has HOPE and I am his partner, I decided to choose my own so we could "cover more ground" with our dreams and goals this year. Now the three that I have narrowed down are: 

BRAVE

INSPIRED

ABUNDANT

Surely their is not a thing wrong with having a trio of words now, is there? ;-)

I appreciate how these words encompass not only intentional, purposeful action, but deameanor, attitude, and emotion, as well.

What's your word for 2014?

Javamom

Beautiful, Healthy Food

I am so grateful for beautiful, tasty vegetables! This is from tonight's dinner, before the big deep freeze comes our way.

These greens are from our garden, which is still alive during this roller-coaster warm/cold winter. It is a combination of collards and red chard.

This was Christmas dinner at our Daughter's home. The love of vegetables and eating seasonally rubbed off on most of our grown kids!

I hope your Christmas holidays and New Year have been restful and wonderful.

 Javamom

365 Grateful Day Two

I am thankful for piles of seeds given to me in my Christmas stocking!

Thank you, dear daughter, who knows me soooo well...

Love,

Javamom

Happy New Year and a Brief Look Back at 2013

Happy New Year, all!

This past year (2013) was my least active time on the blog in my nine years of blogging. In some ways, that is a good thing, in that I needed to close chapters well with my family as they moved on to new events in their lives. DC #3 transferred out of state for university, and DC #4 (our baby) graduated from high school.

This year, I plan to do a 365 grateful project. I may not always post to the blog, but I will be creating a hard copy of my 365 grateful journal.

I am also exploring new ventures, now that our last child has reached adulthood and doesn't need us very much as he begins to carve out his own path.

So stay tuned!

Gratitude entry number one:

~ I am grateful for family and new friends who got to be with us for the holidays. All of us under our roof for this special Thanksgiving with Poppy, who is growing more frail each week. We decided to pose our own version of "Freedom from Want" by Norman Rockwell.

Blessings on your New Year!

Javamom