As we continue to pack, wrap, stuff and tape — preparing for our house sale closing on Friday — I am reminded that there are alot of things I will miss about this house, but perhaps none more than the laundry room closet door.

This house is special.  This house is where our daughters Caitlin and Erin have grown up.  Where they giggled, and ran, and played, and did math homework until we all wanted to pull our hair out!  They grew….grew into the sensitive, smart, and creative young women they have become.  The laundry room closet door marks their growth — literally!

In attempts to get them to try new foods, I would convince them to eat vegetables or salmon by telling them it woud help them grow!   Grow my little girls, grow like the flowers in the garden.   Every now and again, our little girls, in their nightgowns or Disney pajamas, would back their heels up to that door, and I would mark their growth progress.  How excited they were to see their progress.

One year Erin grew so much in 6 months — she attributed it to the “Lasagna Factor!”  SO funny.  Their sense of humor grew up in that house too.  🙂  All those crazy, yet funny, dinners at the table.  Stories about school, the world, fairness and discrimination, vacations past and future!, dreams and sorrows.  It all happened here — in this house.

I had to snap a picture of the door today.  It makes me tear up thinking that next week, or a month from now, all those markings of memories could be gone!

Peter said……lets take it with us, and buy a new door to leave behind.  Thank you, sweetheart, for being the man who understands me.   This picture….and all the moments I carry in my heart….will be enough.   The door will be painted over — but maybe, just maybe, it will make room for all the growth of the next little ones who will live here – in the same happy house that created our family.

#ChooseHappiness365 (164/365)

Ciao for now…Diane