August 2022–I was expecting to begin my transition to empty nesting in August of 2019 when my eldest child left for college. He did go. Then the pandemic started and he moved back home and took classes online until August 2022. Meanwhile, my daughter graduated from high school and we were expecting her to be called to the Air Force but the call with a job opening did not come and after about 6 months of waiting, she decided to change paths and head to college too. So, that puts our household in a situation where my children will be moving out and heading to college simultaneously.

What does this mean for my husband and me? A few different things. One thing I know will be a definite change is what I prepare for meals each day. Instead of cooking several different dishes for the meat lover, the vegetable hater, and a couple of healthy eaters in the house, I will be able to prepare much less food each day. I expect that this will change my grocery shopping habits as well. Since I will be cooking less food than before, I decided to get a small slow cooker for smaller-sized meals.

I’ll keep you updated on how I use it. At the very least, I’ll be able to use it for making oatmeal for my breakfasts! Maybe it was just an excuse to buy another appliance, but I really think I’ll use it.

Next, I get my car back. After my children got their driver’s licenses, I didn’t get a third car because I was expecting to see them leave the house. Plus, with me working from home, I really didn’t need the use of my car all that much. So, we had four drivers and two cars for much longer than I expected. I finally get my car back and expect to have lower gas costs and a slightly cleaner car. The downside will be that I will not have a designated driver to call on. Would someone like to be my on-call DD?

Another drawback is that I won’t have the kids to depend on to watch the dog and cats while we travel. The cost of boarding my dog will go up significantly.

I wonder if one benefit will be a cleaner house? I hope so, but I’ve been wanting a cleaner house ever since I moved into this house. I need to get my husband on board with this goal. That’s been the toughest part since he is a collector of all kinds of things and living in a clean house isn’t important to him.

My husband and I will both still be busy with work so I don’t expect to be sitting around and missing the kids too much. We have some travel plans to look forward to as well, hence the high expected cost of boarding the dog. Maybe we will be able to go walking in the neighborhood more since I won’t be so busy cooking so many dishes for dinner. My garden is definitely a project that is kind of like having a child. Maybe I’ll have more time to blog too! I’m a little excited about this phase of my life. Stay in touch to see how my life changes. Living Hilo Style.