Missing My Baby Boy

I am missing the boy who used to wear this high school letter jacket.

It hangs there, all abandoned and forlorn, right next to the door. I have to pass it every time I go out of the house, and then again when I come back in, and it just reminds me of how much I'm missing my baby boy. (By the way, I know my youngest son must absolutely love it when I call him that. He's almost 19, 6'2" and strong as an ox, and I don't think he considers himself a baby any longer. He doesn't know yet that a mom's baby will always be her baby.)

It's pouring rain outside this morning, my husband is away on a trip, and I'm here all alone without even a cute little flying squirrel to keep me company. I'm feeling a bit blue and blah, and maybe it was a mistake to sit down at my computer to blog when I'm in this frame of mind. Therefore, I'm going to keep this post short; because if I let myself go on for too long, I'm going to get all maudlin, and tell you how big and quiet my house feels without the five delightful boys who used to fill it with their booming voices, their laughter, and their need for a mother's attention and love. (Or maybe it was just their need for home cooked meals and neatly folded piles of freshly laundered clothes...but as nutty as it sounds, I even miss being able to do those things for them, almost as much as I miss the boys themselves!)

Okay, if I'm going to get all nostalgic about the mountains of laundry I used to have to do and the countless meals I had to cook (not to mention the carts and carts of groceries I had to buy and the miles and miles of driving I had to do in my big red van, traveling to sporting events from one end of the state to the other), then that means it's time to sign off, lest you think I've utterly lost my mind. I should be revelling in the lightening of my loads and the freeing up of my time, right? And there is something to be said for those things, to be sure.

But I'm still missing my baby boy. Don't feel too sorry for me, though--because next week, my husband and I are planning to go out to his college to visit him for about five days. Can I get a hearty "huzzah!"?