Raising teens again!

It’s been a wild, busy, purposeful & rewarding 15 months with two older teens, and I wouldn’t trade those times for ANYTHING, but due to various factors, things slowed down the past 10 days, and I have mixed emotions about that! Yes, Volleyball season ended, so 4 months of driving dozens of miles ended, then 2 months later no more racing through rush hour traffic in the early morning for the 8:00 a.m. high school class for the 17 year old, & dropping her off later at 11:20 a.m. for other classes feels so liberating, but those are only some reasons that I feel a bit discombobulated lately. What happened that has the most impact, ( and I’m not really even counting that the younger one has 2 part time jobs now) is the fact that the older one got a car!

We are so proud of her. Car insurance & car payments are not cheap for a 19 year old, but she has a great job with awesome tips, so it’s not a problem, & when she can, she drives the younger one places, and she will soon be 20 so the rates may go down. Oh, and did I mention that she is house/dog sitting for 2 families for a total of 13 days total?

Another thing that happened lately was that it was Spring break so there was no dropping off & picking up at school, plus the 2 little girls were with their mom. That’s a lot of energy missing from around here, and while I did enjoy the break, it was dejavu as far as wondering what I’ll do when this chapter ends in a year or two.
I feel kinda like I did 20 years ago when we had an empty nest, but it didn’t take long for me to figure out fun things to get involved in, but I know that this time I will find even more things to get excited about.

But in the meantime, this week we will get back to our new normal and the now 18 year old will still need me for just a bit of car rides. She does have lots of friends also who drive.

I remind myself not to get too concerned about being bored later because for one thing summer is coming and every other week we will have the 8 & 6 year old girls, plus the 20 year old will bless us with our 13th great grandchild, my first biological one, in July so what gives me the idea that I will be bored? Oh my. I guess I was getting ahead of myself! Forgive me, I have to run. I just remembered my purpose for this precious time.