It’s been busy around here – the day before my husband came home a week ago, I decided to totally change the way every single bedroom was set up.  This was prompted by the realization that with ds14 soon leaving for a dormitory high school and dd17 leaving for seminary, it would leave Yirmiyahu in his own room, dd12 in her own room and ds11 in his own room.  That didn’t make so much sense, so I started thinking about how we could improve on the way we’re going to be using our space for the coming year and it turned into a big project since we changed around all five bedrooms.  We had to take apart and then reassemble every bed in the house along with some other furniture, and the amount of chaos this switch over generated was tremendous.

However, it was a really good move!  Dh and I now have a room on the second floor, which is more private without all the through traffic we used to have when we were on the main floor.  The  playroom is also on the second floor, and there are two advantages of this: noisy play can take place here without bothering my downstairs neighbor, and since I have to pass through that room daily to my room, it doesn’t get hugely messy because I pick up whatever is left out at the end. The three younger boys still share a room and prefer not having to go upstairs when it’s time to go to sleep; it’s also easier to put their things away and keep things orderly.

This is a stage with a lot of transitions for our family that is represented by the physical changes we’ve made in our home, and it’s sad for me to have the kids moving out just as dh finally returns from four months away.  Ds20 was home for two and a half weeks and went back to yeshiva a couple of days ago.  Dd18 has decided to stay in the US and begin her degree.  Dd17 is running a camp until just before she leaves for seminary in less than two weeks so she isn’t around that for a good part of each day, but I’m enjoying every bit of time that she’s here.

Yesterday ds14 left for high school in the center of the country.  I didn’t expect to get so emotional about this, especially since for this first week of school, he’s starting on Weds. afternoon and then coming home on Friday – not exactly a long time to be away!   But when I hugged him goodbye, I did feel emotional.  Even though he won’t be far away, even though he’ll be home every weekend, it’s a big change and it marks the end of an era in our family life.   We’ll really miss not having him here every day.

As parents, our job is to give our children two things: roots and wings.  While making the transition from roots to wings is an important process, it’s a bittersweet experience.

Avivah