Peaceful Mornings

My kids just left for school this morning.  I was thinking about how quiet the house becomes after the three of them race out the door.  Sometimes I'm relieved to have some morning time to myself, but a lot of times it makes me wonder what it will be like when they are all off to college.  We are still 3 1/2 years away from my first one leaving and 6 1/2 years from my last one leaving, but knowing how fast the first fifteen years went, I know this little bit of time is precious.  This morning I made cinnamon rolls.  Johnny finished and said, "does anyone want to lick the plate?"  I started to respond until I realized he was talking to the dogs.  Luckily, I said no thank you, but it was only because I am avoiding sugar.  That reminded Jenna of the other day when I said in my high pitched voice, "how are youuuu?" and she began to answer until she saw me cuddling up with the dog.  As we were laughing about these little misunderstandings, Andy is in the background saying, "Bazinga!" a new phrase we picked up from the sitcom The Big Bang Theory.  That lead to a Marvel Comics discussion about whether Excelsior is a heroic phrase or an actual character.  Andy was right, of course and kissed me goodbye on his way out the door.  Like most mornings with my kids, I laughed quite a bit.  It's not always the Normal Rockwell picture, like when Andy runs down the stairs as the bus is pulling up and goes to school without socks. But I will take the noise and craziness over the not so distant future where all of my mornings will be silent and peaceful and a little empty.