It's our house, again
It's three weeks into January and Daughter #1 just left to go back to college. We are slowly regaining control of our house. It was great having her home for the holidays but I had forgotten how much difference one or two extra people can make.
In spite of her thinness, that girl can eat! When she left in the fall, our grocery bill decreased considerably. When she came home for the holidays, we started making every-other-day visits to Carlsons'. And still her most common remark was, "There's nothing to eat."
The house is quiet. No one is doing laundry at all hours of the day and night. We don't have two or three televisions going full-volume all the time. We aren't arguing about what to watch or who gets to sit in the living room.
There aren't 14 kinds of shampoo and soap lining the shower. There aren't four or five towels crowded on one towel bar. The kitchen counters aren't cluttered with keys, purses, and coats.
We don't hear the clump-clump-clumping of heavy shoes going up and down the basement stairs at odd hours. Nor do we have to argue about who is parking in the street and who gets to park in the driveway.
The trash can isn't overflowing with two-liter pop bottles, waiting waiting to be taken to the garage. The mail gets left where I put it. The Sunday newspaper and all the other newspapers are still on the kitchen table.
There isn't anyone sleeping till noon and staying up all night. And no one is wrapped in a blanket, napping on the sofa at five o'clock, with the TV on, the lights off, and the dog curled at her feet.
In other words — I miss her already.
— DONNA BERNHARDT
