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I'm having a hard time letting go of summer.  Oh I know, the weather is still nice and warm (some of the time) and we are still having some nice days and I am still picking tiny manos (Lu's word) off the vine and enjoying an occasional outdoor time but still....the angle of the sun is changing, the nights are cooler and it generally feels like fall.  I actually like fall most of the time but this year I am just not all that jazzed about it since the weather wasn't what we had hoped it would be this year...EL NINO my rear! We sat outside today and enjoyed the nice day, soaking up some final rays and just relaxing.  Ryan finished packing his things and took off for Portland. As he was getting ready to go he said, "gee, I guess the more times you move out the more anticlimactic it is" and I had to chuckle, he's right.  We gave him a hug and waved goodbye and cheered him on from the back deck. The first time he left home, we got up at 5 am and saw him off, crying in the driveway, the bunch of us...Yes, we are all sort of "over it" so to speak as he is so ready to move on and get on with his new life.  Dan Masters said to me the other day, don't we raise them to move out?  And I had to laughingly agree. This has been such a wonderful display of the Lords provision and leading for Ryan and as he has listened and obeyed, I have been so grateful.  I am so proud of him.

This new empty nest season is one that John and I have been looking forward to for awhile now. We are so excited.  Years and years ago when our kids were little we used to dream about having the house one day be quiet and not messy and where we could just go out to dinner if we wanted to and not have a sitter and we would talk about all the fun we would have.  John has been such a cheerleader for me in letting go of our kids. When your whole "job" has been to raise them life can get sort of narrow sometimes and over the years he has helped me to open up my eyes and my heart to see other possibilities.  He also knows that saying goodbye to our kids has always been very difficult and painful for me and so this summer we have spent lots of time talking about and dreaming about what life could and would be like for us once we had an empty house.  I am really seeing the new phase possibilities!

Enjoy what's left of your day!