romantic painting

Tom and I do not celebrate Valentine's Day like other couples. We do not do flowers and candies. This year we decided to direct our Heart Day funds into our home remodel budget. So on Valentine's Day the whole family had dinner by candlelight and I gave the kids a small gift to celebrate. (Drew and Julianna got goggles and Lily a swim cap.) After we gave them the gifts we explained to them that mom and dad were going to be painting the living room for our gift to each other. We explained that it was a lot of work to paint a living room and wasn't that a nice gift?

Last weekend Tom finished the living room painting (including two coats on the ceiling) and this week he had moved on to the kitchen. Last night he finished the kitchen and had moved the painting down the stairs and started on the family room. Tom is doing all the painting himself, as he is very particular about how perfect it needs to be. I am helping in other ways. I'm the gofer and the 'help wherever I can' person. But, to be clear, Tom has shouldered the brunt of the project, obviously.

Ok, now that you have the background of our Valentine's Day, you can fully appreciate the conversation I had with Drew this morning. Drew came down into the kitchen and looked around this morning. When he went to bed last night the kitchen was half done; and when he woke up, the kitchen was completely finished.

Drew: Geez, Mommy. You're going to have to do something really big for Valentine's!

Me: What? Why?

Drew: Because Dad has, like, painted the whole house!

I wish you could hear how flabbergasted Drew was that Tom had 'like, painted the whole house'. It is still making me laugh right now.