Hi everyone, and welcome to The NonEmpty Nest!

My name is Lynn, and I am a non-empty nester…

oh, AND a project junkie!

What that really means is that I’m a mom, a grandma, and a wife who has somehow managed to perfect the art of juggling to achieve some semblance of organization while raising a two generation family.

Ha! Who am I kidding?!?

I’ve simply managed to perfect the art of finding creative hiding places (I’m pretty sure it’s a family trait 😉 )! But my addiction to projects? Well, that’s another story entirely… It makes raising a large family look like a piece of cake!

When my husband and I married (many years ago!), we blended his two children with my two children. It was a strange coincidence that the two oldest children were 2-1/2 months apart in age, and the youngest two were only 5 days apart- it was like raising two sets of twins! A year later, we had another child who helped “glue” us all together. After our “baby” graduated high school, we adopted our 5 year old twin grandsons. Needless to say, this put our plans for an empty nest on hold. Raising this generation has definitely been more difficult than the last, but we’re learning… and surviving.

Grandparents raising grandchildren has become an unfortunate epidemic in the past decade. Biologically speaking, nothing really changes. But legally?!? It muddles all of the family dynamics and can be a geneological nightmare! Imagine trying to document your family tree… Your grandparents are now your parents, and your father (or mother) becomes your brother (or sister). Your aunts and uncles? Well, they’re your brothers and sisters. And all those cousins you have (had)… BOOM! instant nieces and nephews. That’s a LOT for an adult to process, let alone a child!

For grandparents already living on fixed income or dealing with health issues, it can be financially and emotionally devastating. We were very fortunate to not be in that category, but there were still quite a few adjustments and sacrifices that had to be made. It certainly hasn’t been an easy task for us to tackle, but when the choices for your grandchildren are either long term foster care or relative placement, it’s an absolute no-brainer- no… matter… what!

Thus, our nonempty nest!

Apparently I’m also one of those people who doesn’t feel “complete” unless I have 10 or more projects going on at the same time (yet another family trait!). I love going to auctions and garage sales to find hidden treasures. I enjoy being able to breathe new life into old things. But, for some reason, I can’t seem to find enough time to get it all done.

It’s not that there isn’t enough going on in my every day life, but I really needed to find an outlet… a break from reality… a jump-start to motivation… so I created this blog.

My Mommy Monday posts will invite you to laugh (or sometimes cry) as I highlight some of the “normal” happenings in a typical day around here. You’ll probably read some of my posts and think there is NO WAY that happened, but I SWEAR- I could NOT make these things up.

Even though cooking is definitely not one of my favorite things to do, I’ll share some of my family-tested/kid-approved favorite recipes in the What’s For Dinner Wednesday posts. I know my (adult) kids will love being able to reference this category instead of trying to track me down and hope that I can remember the recipe… or at least remember where I put it!

The Just For Fun Friday posts will showcase some of the fun projects I’ve completed (or ummm… almost completed 😉 ), and hopefully inspire you to do something fun yourself… or maybe even finish one of those projects that you put on the back burner a while ago.

I think there’s a little something for everyone here at The NonEmpty Nest. Please click on the link at the top of this post to leave a comment… I’d really love to hear what you think.

Enjoy!
Lynn