April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
Duck Ponderings: I love my family
I responded: "It won't be easy due to our daughter's choice of rainbow wallpaper border and the paint colors of yellow and blue with a pink closet. Let's check with a painting company and get an estimate."
In the meantime, we ordered a full bed, and my wife purchased several possible sets of bedspreads to help us in selecting a paint color. The painting company was able to give us an estimate but would have difficulty getting to the project before the arrival of our friends from Lafayette.
So, we decided to personally take the project on. I quickly found out why painting companies must make sure their estimates are right considering the number of hours spent on stripping the wallpaper, prepping the walls, and then painting. No painting company would be able to make any money with me as an employee!
We got all the work completed on time with the exception of the closet. After our friends left, I hesitantly attacked it. It was stuffed full! Our other daughter was pleased to have two closets once her sister moved out and easily filled all the vacated spaces. In addition, the shelving system needed to be removed.
Once clearing the closet, I started painting and noticed in one corner two hand-drawn hearts with words inside of them. I was wondering what boy's name I would find. Well, I was somewhat caught off guard when looking more closely and finding the words "I love my family."
I stopped painting and reflected a little on those words while determining whether to put this art work in my memory bank and paint over it or to leave it for my wife to see once returning home from teaching fourth graders. It was an easy decision. My wife would want to see the hearts and the words. After looking at them, she had to take a picture for our family photo albums.
While finalizing the closet the next day, I still could not paint over the hearts. I left the old pink area surrounded by the fresh brown.
When my wife called from work during her lunch break, she asked, "Did you paint over the hearts?"
She was relieved when I said, "It will be up to the next owner of our house!"
Life gets busy, and there are times when we all need reminders of the importance of family. My sister wrote a song, Family Ties, with the following line resurfacing due to this experience: "The family ties that bind us keep us strong!"[[In-content Ad]]
