My Day Off from the Boys: What I did while the boys were outThe other day my husband, The Farmer, took The Engineer, Farmer, Jr. and The Cowboy to a train show a couple of hours from our home.  They left before The Dancer and I got up and were gone most of the day.  A whole day without big boys to do whatever I wanted to do was here.  I could do whatever I pleased and have no one to ask me for things (The Dancer does not talk much really).  When The Dancer took a nap, I would be completely FREE to do whatever I wanted for myself and no one else.  I had the crazy feeling, “This is what it would be like if they went to school each day and I was just alone with The Dancer all day, by myself, with no other boys, just me and The Dancer, except during nap when it would just be me, alone.  I could go potty with no audience.at.all. This is going to be GREAT!”  (Yes, I know that I think in run-on sentences but don’t we all, really?)

So, what did I do…let’s see, what did I DO…what DID I do? This is where you are thinking, “She sat on the couch in her pjs and did nothing all day long!”  Actually, I decided I was going to take all the Christmas decorations down with no extra help and put them back into their bins. This is what NEEDED to be completed, so I bit the bullet and got started.

So, this day “off” I

• brought down the bins from the attic with “non-Christmas items” and unpacked them
• chased The Dancer away from these items; answered him when he asked where his brothers were
• took down and started to pack the Christmas items back into said bins; thought about the boys & prayed for them
• chased The Dancer away from Christmas items; answered him when he asked where his brothers were
• gave The Dancer a snack; thought about the big boys again, missed them, & prayed for them again
• packed more stuff in the bins
• cleaned and put up non-Christmas items; called The Farmer to ask about the boys
• stopped for a tea break and read a chapter of my book while The Dancer played cars at my feet
• danced with The Dancer to music on the radio; prayed for The Dancer and his someday wife; missed my big boys
• organized The Dancer’s clothes as he was moving up a size; answered him when he asked where his brothers were
• packed up The Dancer’s clothes that were too small to pass on to a family member
• thought about the boys again and yes, prayed for them again and for The Farmer that he was doing okay with them

On and on went my day, but while I got many items checked off my list, what I really did on my free day was miss my boys.   It isn’t that I am not a whole person without my boys.  It is more about the fact that I enjoy them.  I want to be around them.  Don’t get me wrong: there is fighting and arguing and melt-downs, and then there are problems with the boys too (he he).  Seriously, though, I want to be near them to train, teach, lead, and help them to grow into the men God wants them to be.

It was a good wake-up call for me as we are heading back into the second half of our home educating year and the winter blahs are upon us.  I do love my boys and I want to be with them.  Of course, outside time for them is a must (without me) to run off their “boy energy” as The Cowboy would say.

I wrote this post for myself, as much as for you, the parents of boys, to remind us that this is such a short, short time before our boys are moving on to jobs and life away from our homes.  ENJOY the time.

This year, my New Year’s Resolution is just that: Enjoy my Family.  I am often so very busy that I am checking off lists and making new ones.  I forget sometimes that I am doing everything for my family.  I do love them and I need to focus on enjoying the time with them.  We are never promised tomorrow with them.  Even when tomorrow comes, though, and it is followed by the tomorrow after that, soon next year and the next will be here.  Time truly is fleeting and time with our boys is short.  So this year, I am going to enjoy the boys!

Hope you can find a way to enjoy yours this day and tomorrow, too!

Enjoy the boys.