Filling the empty egg cartons

A dozen. Lots of things come in twelves. Roses, cupcakes, eggs, dinner rolls, inches on a ruler…

Things that come by the dozen are not found in singles. You can’t go to the store and buy just one egg. Good luck finding a packaged single dinner roll!

Every time we go to the folks’ house this question is asked, “do you need eggs?” And whether we answer yes or no, there’s always this hem-haw=thing that happens with them saying “yes we have enough but there’s more in the garage fridge, ” et cetera. We didn’t go there just to get eggs. Probably it’s just this farm thing that’s a little weird for me. When I leave my mother’s or my dad’s we go through the hugs and the I love you’d but they never ask me if I need something. Rather it’s the other way around. For my dad it’s reading something or finding something (because he is blind.). For my mother it’s always about fixing something whether it is plumbing or electrical or some construction fix-it thing.

While others buy eggs at the grocery store and return the cartons in the recyclables, I have a stack of them near the front door. Or in the vehicle. There always seems to be this floating stack that we forget to take back to the supplier: my sister in law. And then there is the occasional carton full that gets left in the car on a sunshine day. Hush!

Filling the empty nest is something I have been attempting to do since my home school girls left me alone. While I hadn’t planned on the loneliness that would result after 20 some years with them around day and night, I had planned on them leaving home to seek their fortune in the wide wonderful world. So rather then instructing “my two little piglets” on what type of house to build now that they were free of mine, I found myself trying to fill the empty hallway with my own mess.

For anyone that doesn’t believe empty nest syndrome is real, I ask that you come for a visit.

The first egg I tried was another puppy. Waldo went real badly. Perhaps it was just his own stomach problems or just my lack of focus. No, it was all him. Then there was Seymour. He was a real good boy just full of allergens. And now the nest is a mess from Honey. Well, not really. It has been rainy and snow turning to mud lately, so she has been outside. I’m a bit tired of doing the groom thing and her going directly to the composting mud to play. Dogs are really pigs in disguise. That’s my new belief.

A dog simply is not working. Should I get another one, or a cat. Oh, yeah, that didn’t work either.

So today as I considered the empty house, the cat on the grill toying with my emotions, and the messes that I have stacked about: cleaning and de-cluttering became my mission. Emptying the next more. Like finding more of my fist daughter’s things to give her since she has a house of her own to fill up now.

More stuff.

More egg cartons.

More plastic containers filled with surprise. Sounds like quite the Easter Egg Hunt! Just on a more adult level.

Do you know what? I don’t enjoy Easter egg hunts. Looking for cartons to fill with stuff. Finding baskets to move the eggs around from one hiding spot to the next. Sure glad my girls didn’t insist we do the hunting for eggs thing real long. Hide and seek might be fun as a toddler when you are looking for colorful goodies, but now that I am going to be a grandma, this game has taking on entirely new meaning.

Oh, it will be fun to teach the little one this hide and seek ploy that is really a teaching tool about how to pack up a room, a house, a lifetime of stuff and find the right size containers for everything. Label them all appropriately and decide what to put in the basket and what to give away. Hopefully, my de-cluttering has a purpose. Hopefully, the cleaning helps me discover what projects aren’t done yet and which ones are important.

Empty nest syndrome for us as a couple was a greenhouse, a motorcycle, a hiking trip to the local park. This winter was nothing but snow. We put a basket on the back deck and it filled up with snow several times. A few times I decided not even to scoop. At least the leaves stayed out.

Empty nest as a mom with no driver’s license, no job, and nothing but time on my hands has led to some real idle talk. Or rather writing.

So there you have it. A lot of empty blubbering. There’s another stack of egg cartons to put into the vehicle for the next visit to the nearest relatives.