September October 2021 web

Your Mickle’s Worth
“Counting flowers on the wall... that don’t
bother me at all. Playing solitaire til one with a
deck on 51. Smoking cigarettes and watch Captain
Kangaroo. Now, don’t tell me I’ve nothing to do!”
Now that I’ve placed that song in your head, if you
are old enough to remember the Statler Brothers
I’m certainly not planning to take up smoking, but
playing solitaire til dawn is not out of the realm of
possibilities. Seems like we went from warp speed
many days balancing work and kids events to a slow
crawl.
Being empty nesters is something Karen and
I thought we’d be ready for. Turns out at least one
of us was not. I’ll let you guess which one of us that
is. Here’s a hint... it’s not Karen. The days I’m home
and Karen is working, the house is eerily quiet. Not
only do we miss seeing the kids on a daily basis but
we also enjoyed seeing their friends come over and
hang out with them. These days (at least some of
them) it’s just Boomer, Dennis (the turtle) and me.
Recently when Karen was home, she decided to
set Dennis free from his tank and let him roam for
a bit. He came face to face with Boomer, as shown
in the photo. Dennis didn’t snap. Boomer didn’t
bark. I think they were both too confused by what
they were looking at to take any action against the
other. Yep. That was our evening entertainment, a
dog and turtle face off. I thought about challenging
them to race each other but I was afraid if Dennis
won, it might impact Boomer’s self-esteem. So, we
let them stare at each other for a bit. Boomer got
tired of turtle tracking and left the room to go eat.
Dennis tried to make a run for it but didn’t get too far.
He was safely returned to his tank and the evening’s
pet performance was over.
I’m sure we’ll find a hobby. With two of
the kids just an hour away (in opposite directions
of each other) and the oldest 4 hours away, we
can certainly go visit them, who knows, we might
even take off on our own vacation! That would be
a switch from the past 23 years. One thing is for
certain, while we are adjusting to the new chapter
in our lives, we are forever grateful for the three
children we have and getting to share the joys and
the struggles of parenting with all of you. It’s still
hard to believe that Matt was a baby when the first
edition of QCFF rolled off the presses and now he’s
in college. From the bottom of my heart, thank you
for taking the journey of parenthood with us. For
those of you just beginning the journey, my only
advice is don’t blink. As I’ve said before, the days
seem long but the years fly by.
Take Care,
Mike, Karen, Kyle, Kate Matt, Boomer and Dennis
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4 September/October 2021 I QC Family Focus
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