EMPTY NEST-FULL HEART

And skipping the To-Do list...

My friends said I should have left a to-do list.

They were trying to console me when I complained that none of the things I thought—(insert “expected”)—my husband would do while I was gone on my Africa trip were actually done when I returned. Two weeks … actually, sixteen days! It was the longest I had been on my own in more than 30 years. I had companions on my mission trip, so technically I wasn’t completely on my own, but I was away from my husband for longer than I had ever been. I thought because of that fact alone, he would have the house shipshape when I returned.

To be honest, I wasn’t really surprised. My idea of what needs to be done and his idea of what needs to be done have never been the same.

As it turned out, I didn’t have a perfect score with my own to-do list either. I left for Africa with a suitcase of supplies and visions of success. But just like my dance moves and my grasp of world geography, I’d say my score was more like a seven out of ten.

First up: sewing lessons. This should have been an easy one. I’ve sewed and taught sewing for years. The lesson started off great; I had fifteen eager students huddled over the one machine we had for the class, and then crunch … the needle broke … and that was the end of the lesson. Of course, I apologized and added an “I’m so dumb!” for good measure. I had packed yards and yards of fabric and thread, but no replacement needles.

It could have been a great class! How did I forget the needles!

Other to-do list point reductions included forgetting the glue, sending all of our Polaroid film through the X-ray machine, and skipping—okay, not even starting—Afrikaans lessons on Babbel. We figured out how to complete the art project without any glue and went ahead and took Polaroids—a bad picture is better than no picture, after all. I also forced myself to speak more slowly and made sure to answer all the questions before moving through my lesson plans.

I overcame the language barrier with the kids with a lot of games. We created hop-scotch courses and outlined ourselves with sidewalk chalk. The concrete schoolyard looked like a mass casualty scene from an episode of Law and Order until the kids added hair and smiling faces to the outlines.

They laughed and laughed because I forgot to add the number ten to the end of the hop-scotch course and was left teetering on one leg when I attempted to demonstrate how to play. But not as hard as they laughed when I tried to jump rope! Have you jumped rope recently? Years ago, I bought a jump rope and brought it to work to challenge my staff to exercise every day. As you can imagine, that didn’t go over very well … that rope was never used by anyone but me. I remembered that jump rope and how hard it was when I could manage only four jumps without running out of breath!

We colored, hopped, and jumped for hours, and then played on the swings and the slide. Every muscle in my body ached. Simply spending time together, with no list and no agenda, was a ten out of ten.

I may have an empty nest, but my heart was full.