The children have left. At first there is the breath of relief, time, now, to get back to work. There's much to be done. And I sign into the computer and check my emails.
And then there is the silence. The strange, overwhelming silence that hits you like a freight train when you weren't expecting it. The house is quiet. Dead quiet. With the children gone it'll be an hour, maybe two, before the mice come out to play in the garbage.
And I wasn't expecting it but I'm missing them already.