on his own

My brother wants a storage shed, so he asked my older son to build it. This is my son’s first solo building project, and for pay, too. He calculated the costs and then gave my brother an estimate. He placed the order for lumber and had it delivered to our house. And then he started building.

My husband is being as hands-off as possible with the project. In other words, he stays away. He did show my son how to lay out the floor, and it just so happened that he day before my son was to start framing the walls, my husband re-built a wall at a neighbor’s house and my son was able to watch and learn, and of course my husband fields my son’s many phone calls, but for this project, my son is taking the lead.

When my husband returns home at the end of the day, I watch from my kitchen window, eager to see his reaction to the latest shed developments. His truck pulls in and then slows to a crawl as he examines the work from the cab. All those years of slap-dash forts that made my husband want to rend his garments and scream? The kid has come a long way.

When my husband steps out of the truck, he’s smiling.

This same time, years previous: the quotidian (7.21.14), how to beat the heat, a free-wheeling education, braised cabbage, alfredo sauce, and salvation’s chocolate chip cookies.    

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