Stages

I'm loving this time in my life.  This stage of my life.  My kids are older and I have more freedom.  I'm busy, but it's a different kind of busy.  During the day they are all at school.  I do have work, but even that is flexible.  It is a slower pace than what I used to have. 

But once they get home, the house comes alive.  I am looking at papers and helping with homework and running them places and getting supper ready.  It's not like when they were little and I was busy all day changing diapers and wiping noses and feeding them.  But in a weird kind of way, I miss that.  My kids don't need me anymore.  Well, they need me, but they don't rely on me to help them with everything. 

But now I am envious of the young mom's in my neighborhood.  When I had young children, the neighborhood we lived in had a lot of teenagers, but no little kids.  I felt very isolated.  And now I feel isolated because we are in a neighborhood that has a lot of little kids, but very few teenagers.  My son is 16 and there are no 16-17 year old girls that go to our ward.  There are very few people my age that have kids my age.  It's a very odd feeling. 

It's a different stage of life and there are pros and cons to it, but there are pros and cons to every stage of life.  For instance, I no longer own a stroller.  And that's a good thing!  I just have to adjust.