{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"A Quiet Morning","description":"For years, Cam Marston wondered how he'd handle the empty nest once his last kids left home. This week, with his youngest twins dropped off at college, he finally gets to find out. -----          For several years now I\u2019ve thought about my last children leaving home and wondering how my wife and I would fare in our next life chapter of empty nesting. I thought I may like a quiet and neat home, or not being waked late at night with kids coming in from a night out with friends, and many many fewer dirty dishes in the sink. When the older kids came home at the end of the school year in May, my wife and I celebrated a full house and a reveled in having all four kid\u2019s childhood bedrooms full again. But in the back of my mind, the countdown was on to late August when my wife and I would deliver our youngest to campus. They would be beginning their their first year of college with their older siblings already well on their way with their own college lives. We\u2019d drop the twins and say goodbye, knowing that greeting us when we got home was this legendary, much anticipated empty nest. It was a life-stage destination we\u2019d heard a great deal about. Some friends thought their empty nest was heaven. Others thought it hell. My wife and I would now get the chance to experience the phenomenon for ourselves and make up our own minds.          As I write this it is not yet 7am on empty nest life, weekday morning number one. For more than twenty years, this time of day has meant I will soon begin hearing foot falls upstairs as children begin preparing for school or, and in this past summer, readying for summer jobs. The dog hears their noise and comes to the kitchen to greet them as they come down and give her her morning pets. Today, though, it\u2019s silent upstairs. Last night, I shut down the house before bed, turning off all the lights, making sure all the doors were closed and locked. I didn\u2019t bother to leave a light on in the kitchen, knowing no child would be coming in after a night out with friends looking for a quick snack before bed.          My wife and I will visit each of the children on campus this fall, meeting their new friends, trying to picture their lives there. For our older children, their rate of change accelerated when they went off to school, and observing their changes has been one of life\u2019s great treats. The same will certainly happen to the twins. All four of them will be home for Thanksgiving. Right now, though, they\u2019re exactly where they should be. They\u2019re squarely in the chapters of life where they spread their wings, test the air and start to fly. And my wife and I are squarely our own new chapter \u2013 this quiet and empty nest that they\u2019ve left behind. It\u2019s all just as it should be. Just as expected. I counted down the months, weeks, and days to experience this empty nest, wondering how it would feel and if I would like it. And as I sit here alone in the quiet of the kitchen that, just a week ago, would have been bustling right now, I\u2019ve found myself wondering how much longer till Thanksgiving. I\u2019m Cam Marston, just trying to Keep It Real. ","author_name":"Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston","author_url":"https:\/\/cammarston.com\/keepin-it-real-with-cam-marston\/","html":"