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Well, I’ve driven our youngest back to college and we are shifting once again from “open nesting” to “empty nesting.” My husband and I are looking forward to getting a lot done, but the house sure does seem extra quiet. It took a while to get used to the house being full of people again– coming and going incrementally– and now we’ll readjust once more to being the center of our own days.

I haven’t taken many photos lately, so I thought I’d share those of driving our daughter back to college in Pennsylvania. She is shown above leaving home with her giant sequoia bonsai tree that she is carefully tending, which she held in her lap in the car the whole six hour trip. She has an enthusiasm about things that I really appreciate.

We had a whopping, great conversation the whole way, and I can’t be grateful enough that we can talk so well about a huge range of meaningful stuff. She has a great attitude, is blazingly authentic, and is making good, sound decisions; I’m really grateful for those things too! And I’m very glad she is in her right place, doing work she loves, with nurturing professors and genuine friends.

She’s looking forward to this term. She’s taking five classes (17 credits): Differential Equations, Math Methods in Physics, Electronics, Archaeoastronomy, and Survey of Western Art. She is also doing research for the archeoastronomy professor this semester, as well as tutoring Physics and Calculus for pay. Additionally, she is independently making and selling pottery to pay her way to Portland, Oregon in the spring, where she’ll attend the national ceramics conference (NCECA), with a weeklong excused absence from school. And she hopes to spend her spring break building a wood kiln on campus…

After dropping her off, I was a bit melancholy with the contrast of the car so empty without her. Resolving to focus instead on my present good, I stopped to take a few photos of the beautiful winter Pennsylvania countryside, which is void of the snow we have here in Connecticut. You can see those photos below. I love the back roads, the farms, and the rolling hills on the way to and from her school.

I don’t expect to see her (or any of my children) until May, which I think is my longest stretch yet without any of them. But with my New Year’s Resolution, I have plenty to get on with.

Thanks for being here with me! Onward and upward!

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