The Empty Nest Syndrome

Life changes dramatically after the kids grow up and leave the nest.

I think this hits women more than most men. When my kids lived close, it wasn't so hard. We'd meet for shopping or dinner. It was a fun relaxing time. They were still here, just a little over there.
Now my kids are states away from me and it's very hard. I've given up our usual shopping haunts for online shopping because I can barely step into those old favorite stores without tears. We used to go out for coffee and lottery tickets. We'd sip our coffee and scratch the tickets and talk. I love coffee and lottery tickets. I've bought some scratch off tickets, but now can't bare to scratch them. They sit in a forlorn little pile on my desk. Who knows? There might be a winner in there somewhere that I'm missing.

Maybe I'll just mail them to the kids.

I know enough about loneliness and loss that I should keep busy. I lost both my parents while i was still in my 20's. I think the only thing that kept me going then was my kids. They weren't even in school yet so they kept me very busy. I think they saved me then.

I write. I have a couple of books up on Amazon and I'm working on two more. I have a full time job. Things that keep me busy, but weekends are hard. I know I should just schedule writing hours or painting hours or blogging hours or exercise time, but for some reason I hold back. Guess I have to kick my own butt here and DO SOMETHING! Plotting to move and job hunting in that far away state where my kids are consumes a lot of time, but when nothing tangible shows up, it's depressing.
Still its time to shake it off and DO SOMETHING. I think I'll start with setting up a weekend schedule.

New Saturday Schedule

• Clean till noon
• Write till 3 p.m.
• Run errands (Always better to do this in the late afternoon as most like to get this done early. Less crowds in the afternoon.) 
• Exercise-probably walking

New Sunday Schedule

• Exercise-walking
• Painting till noon
• Laundry -all day :)
• Write

Wish me luck!  All advice welcome! Please leave a comment and let me know your best advice for Empty Nest Syndrome.