Home Alone, But Not So Much Fun!

For the past eight days I have been home alone. My wife is on her annual sibling vacation in Branson, Missouri. She and her twin sister, born eighteen months apart, along with her two older brothers have been doing this for a number of years. The twin thing is because they are so much alike. In the old days when we didn’t have weekend cell minutes these girls saw each other only every few months. My brother-in-law and I swore that when they came together after being apart they could pick up where they left off in mid sentence. Talk about two peas from the same pod!

Being home alone has its advantages. I can get up in the middle of the night and bang pots together and not bother anyone. I can run up and down the stairs all I want. I can watch the US House of Representatives, or the Senate or the presidential debates, or any other thing that catches my interest. I can have NASCAR on one set, CSPAN on another, and be playing Old Time radio on my computer. But with her away, it’s just not the same. Given the choices I would much rather have to be a little more disciplined than be home alone.

Yes, I do still need to hurry up and do some straightening so that it doesn’t look like I’ve been living the way I have been living since she left. And, I probably need to sort through the ton of mail that’s stacked up on the kitchen counter. I would have put my dishes in the dishwasher but it’s full of clean dishes. If it were empty I would have already cleared the sink. Why does life have to be so hard? The clothes hamper is running over and I would have done a wash or two but I noticed we are very low on washing soap; therefore, I’m forced to wait because I wouldn’t want to damage any equipment or do the wrong thing.

Sure, I’ve enjoyed working on my Bible study lesson at 3 a.m. I’ve eaten a few potato chip sandwiches with cheddar cheese on the side. But after forty-three years something seems out of place. I did get to see her this past Monday. I had told her about the live webcam on the Branson strip. So she called me on my cell phone, had me log into the webcam site, and then she drove to the location in front of the Titanic attraction. She then proceeded to lean out of the door of the car and throw me a kiss. As it relates to technology, surely we’ve come a long way! I told her it was neat but no telling what the roaming charges will end up being.

I’ve missed our morning prayer together. And, while I have not missed the Game Show Network, I have missed seeing her enjoy watching it. Her mom used to love game shows. I think when my wife watches she remembers her mom. Occasionally, everyone on the show wins something. When this happens I tell my wife her mom is up in heaven with a big smile on her face, because she always wanted everyone to win something.

She should be home in the next two days and then we’ll get things headed back towards a more normal routine. She’s a special person and I’ve come to realize more and more what God meant when He said the two shall become one flesh. My marriage training growing up did not really include great insight into this closeness that God intended. My grandparents were close in their own way but I remember my grandmother telling this story about their first night together. The next morning my granddad, her brand new husband, sat up on the side of the bed and grabbed his khaki trousers and threw them over to my grandmother and said: “Put them on!” She said: “I’m not going to put your trousers on!” He responded: “Well, just don’t ever try to wear them in the future!”

Like I say they had a loving relationship but these were the stories I heard growing up. Since then I have learned that marriage is not a 50 – 50 proposition. It is a 100 – 100 situation. This means I must do all I can to be 100% of what God wants me to be as a husband, and she must do all she can to be 100% of what God wants her to be as a wife. Just so you know, doing the math is much easier than making this work each day!

When we were teenagers and would break up from going steady I would go up to the little drive-in café and sit there drinking cokes and playing Ray Charles, “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, over and over again on the jukebox, until finally the owner who enjoyed the coins but could no longer tolerate the song, would run me off. Like they say, the more things change the more they stay the same!

Can you tell I’m a little homesick for my woman?

More later………