I hate being an only child. No offense Mom and Dad, I love living with you. But I also love living with my siblings. Excepting Gretchen before Ben was born and maybe Oliver for one week a couple summers ago, none of them have been alone in the house like this (to my knowledge). The over two week wait to leave seemed to take ten times as long with no one else around to speed up the time.
Anyone who has grown up in a big family (let's say at least six people) knows that all through childhood, there is no absence of energy and liveliness in the house. Some might've hated it, but in seeing the contrast between a house full of life and one that is empty and still, I can confidently say I miss the chaos. The house has been picked over of most of, first Gretchen's, Ben's, Oliver's more valuable belongings.
Still, this is home base, and the chaos happily returns for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ben and Gretchen may not know where half the kitchen appliances are in our new kitchen and Rohka may only hang out with Abby and me, but that's okay. Oliver may empty the shed even more of garden tools to take to his abode in Troy, and Ben might be disgusted with the bat poop on his belongings in the barn because he no longer has a room.
Some things won't change. Oliver won't stop walking around in boxers and Ben [probably] won't stop collaborating with his buddies in a video game. Gretchen won't stop finding new, creative uses to anything that might still have a purpose, and Abby [most likely] won't stop talking over me at dinner :)
And I'll be in there somewhere, and we'll all have new stories to tell.
