The weekends are getting quieter

The stunningly patient SML and I are entering into a new phase of our family life and that phase hit home again this Saturday evening. Our three children are growing up. Our Lady of BYU has left the building (although she will be home for the spring and summer in about six weeks), CAL is sixteen and getting out with friends more and more and the Boy is doing a little of the same. Tonight, CAL is out hearing some friends play a gig in another one of Chicagoland's fine suburbs and the Boy is at a Bat Mitzvah celebration for one of his school friends. Hence, we are alone tonight. Time seems to be creeping with everyone out. It did give us the opportunity to make our beloved alfredo prosciutto pizza (the fresh basil in it is the bomb) and over dinner, we laughed at the silence in our house and started joking that we will really be empty nesters sooner rather than later.

Weird, huh? It is. I am more than ready for my kids to grow up and go out into the world. I think we've prepared them well and there's still time make them even more ready, but the question is, what are the stunningly patient SML and I going to do? We're looking forward to the challenge, but would welcome suggestions. We've got some time though.

Today's been nutty. It started early (7AM) for me with training meetings at church that went til nearly noon. Then it was off to another 'burb to pick up the Boy and some buddies from the Bat Mitzvah they'd attended. While I was doing that, the girls made the heinous Costco run. That gave the Boy and I a chance to go to the greatest Israeli place ever, Naf Naf Grill, for lunch. My chicken shawarma pita was amazing and the Boy's falafel rocked. We've become regulars at this place. The owners are really friendly and came out of the kitchen to talk "shop" today. After that, it was haircuts for the both of us at the local Hair Cuttery/Hair Barn/Hair Clips/Hair _________ (insert descriptor). The Boy's stylist was a raging Chatty Cathy and she asked what he had for lunch that day and he tells her falafel, to which she says, 'Oooh, I love waffles! Did you have strawberries on it?' Proving that he is as much his mother's son as his dad's, he played along, describing the fruit he had on his "waffle." I would have told her otherwise. It was pretty funny.

It's been a good day. Nice cap to a long week. Ready to start another one.