A sense of urgency has come over me since moving Whitney, our youngest child, to UW-Whitewater. I’m not sick or anything serious like that; I’m merely getting old. Think about it like a bell; the bottom edge of the bell represents my school years and the role of daughter, half way up the side represents dating and marriage and the role of wife, and the top of the bell represents the childrearing years, the role of mom. I’ve moved over to the opposite of the bell; I’m back to the role of wife. I hope to never experience the role of widow, although that is a possibility each and every day. The last stop is the bottom edge of the bell on the opposite side; death.

After sharing the analogy of my life as a bell with a friend, she rebuffed the analogy. She told me that statistics actually show life as a series of ups and downs; life after children at home is one of the ups. I could see myself as one of the statistics after I settle out of one routine and into a new routine.

Ted and I have started a list of things we’d like to do. I call it our “bucket list”. Often times the reference to a bucket list is used when someone with a life-threatening illness knows they are nearing the end of their journey. Their bucket list includes those things they’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t or didn’t do. Our bucket list will be used very differently; it’s a list of places to go and things to do on days we are stuck in a rut, sitting on the couch watching TV or working on our laptops.

It will be extremely important for Ted and me to enjoy the variety of attractions in the area while creating a new way of life. A new way of life; that phrase makes it sound like we’re changing our eating or exercise habits or one of us are no longer employed. I view the phrase “a new way of life” as living with most everything status quo; the only difference is our children no longer live with us on a full-time basis.