Who is Sandy, anyway?

I am Sandra Poole, and my nest is empty of children for the first time in 32 years. They fly back in sometimes to eat and visit and wash clothes, but then they go back and work on their own nest.
When I was a little girl, all I ever wanted to do was grow up, marry a preacher, and have 12 kids. (Undue expectations?) I prayed to that effect, and I grew up, and married a preacher. God gave me what I asked for, and he was more than I expected. So I decided I better back up on the number of children. We have four. Three girls and a boy. So I have an oldest child, a middle child, an only son, and a baby girl. They are all grown up now (The youngest, just having left the nest, is still in the fininshing-off stage.) She has moved out to herself, but not very far away. And she doesn't stay gone long. She comes by 4 or 5 times a week for food, gas, or laundry. Or to give her dog a bath in my tub. (Because I have a shower head on a hose. "It's easier in your tub, Mom.") She also has a horse and a pony. I guess I can be thankful she doesn't bring them by to give them a bath. We go to her house often to feed the horses and check on how she is doing. (We also go because we like being in the country and working around the horses.) This child has a job, and is enjoying it and her 'independence'. At least, she is paying her own rent and utilities. So that's a start. I guess I started with the youngest, because that's where I am right now. So this blog can go either forward or backward. That is the magic of having an empty nest. I get to go the direction that I want to go. My life and choices aren't as overrun with so many others' agendas. Only my preacher husband's! Which is plenty. But I feel like his calling is my calling, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Briefly, I have a daughter who teaches, a daughter who is going to school to become a counselor, and a son who teaches people to fly, and as I mentioned, the youngest who is working and beginning to build her own life. I have two sons-in-law whom I love dearly as sons, and who love my daughters and grand-children. And I'm getting a daughter-in-law next year, who I love as a daughter. She is smart and pretty, and she loves my son. What more can a mother ask?