I may have briefly mentioned that we recently dropped Youngest off at University.

Well, that is not strictly true as she actually flew on a 10 hour flight alone to her university, but we dropped her at the airport.

At that time Eldest was still in residence finishing off a summer job and Middlest was about, in between various trips and activities, so we returned to a fullish house.

Then we ourselves flew on the same 10 hour trip to settle Youngest in her permanent dorm after her month of a nomadic lifestyle half way across the world.

When we returned 10 days later Eldest and Middlest had decamped back to university, and our nest was finally empty.

It has been a week and a half. It has been OK. But the oddest thing to get used to is the silence.

We have had years of loosely contained chaos. Noise. Madness.

And that has stopped.

So I do find myself laughing out loud at podcasts and ‘turning on the TV for company’.

I spent a lot of their childhoods counting the hours until 7pm, when they were finally all asleep. Or when they were teenagers relishing those times everyone was out at various places and I was at home.

Now I have that luxury all the time. And I miss the chaos.