It’s my first week without any of my children at home. The baby elected to pursue a degree in Christian Counseling at Urshan College in Wentzville, Missouri. She transferred there from a nearby community college.
I spent last week helping her sort through her overstuffed bedroom at home to select only the essentials. After all, the two of us were planning to drive her lil’ Honda Passport to our destination seven hours away, so it all had to fit!
I planned on staying a few days to get her settled before catching a flight home. After watching her fill three suitcases, four jumbo dorm bags, a dorm safe, a large bag of last second stuff, three stacking boxes, a set of wide plastic drawers and tons of dresses, which required a hanging-clothes rack, I teased her that I would put my things for the four-day trip in a paper bag and stuff it between my feet in the front seat.
I remember my biggest boy’s dorm move-in. He was hands-off in the planning of it and let me put together an organized entourage of bags and suitcases, complete with a pool noodle to catch stuff from sliding between the bed and the wall and artwork made from his photos of insects, professionally printed on canvases and hung with care and 3M velcro. His whole family followed his minivan to Starkville and helped unload the stuff.
The next year, he left behind the artwork (and quite a few other things) and moved himself in sans family.
The next year, little brother moved to Oxford, Mississippi, and he had done the planning. His sister and I followed his minivan to Ole Miss to help him unload a gaming chair, a futon, a bike, suitcases, dinosaur soap dispenser, extra large stuffed animals, boxes, bags, and everything else he’d selected for his dorm room… on the fifth floor in the far corner of the building on the hottest day of the year! And, no, the elevators were not useful engines as hundreds of people were moving in at the same time!
So back to the present:
When hubby got home from work on Tuesday, we played Jenga–with extra large pieces in a small space in a hot car. It was fun! Don’t let him tell you any differently!
Then baby girl and I hit the road early Wednesday morning to make it to our 4 p.m. move-in time. Pray for us!
