I watched my wife grab the laptop last night and take it to her part of the couch in an effort to process our oldest daughter’s federal and state tax returns. Yes, we all understand it’s that time of year again. Remember the days when we all filed the 1040EZ form? A one page instrument that provided the IRS with your salary for the year, the amount of taxes you paid, and if line 10 is larger than line 11, subtract line 11 from line 10 – this is your refund! Life was so much simpler then, but we, a collective “we” fall in love, purchase the first home, start a family and the “EZ” part of the return turned into multiple forms, a better understanding of the IRS tax code and perhaps a need for a financial consultant or professional tax preparer. I completed Taylor’s tax return last year, while she sat next to me and if you can consider this “quality time” with your child so be it. Now our beautiful little girl is away in London and after Bonnie completed all the necessary tabulations last night – we both recognized that perhaps it was time to lump Taylor’s paperwork in with ours for our own accountant to process. Leave the heavy lifting for the professionals, right? I love how Bonnie will take the time to take care of our daughter’s tax return. Things could certainly be different, and when I was a young lad I remember doing my own returns without the assistance of my father – who actually was a tax professional.
It’s all in the decisions we make, and Bonnie’s decision last night was not one from necessity, but one from love and where are we without that? LOST – that’s where.
This post today is more aligned with the power of the “kitchen table” and not about the processing of tax returns. Where would any of us be without the “kitchen table”? LOST – that’s where.
I love our kitchen table, and we, as a family, have gathered around this very table since the day Bonnie and I were first married. I remember hitching the baby chair to this very table and feeding our oldest daughter straight from the apple sauce jar – much to the chagrin of her mother, though we still chuckle about it today. Why create the need for washing another dish when you can dispense it straight from the jar, right? Men and women truly have different approaches, but it’s at this kitchen table where we sit each night, converse about the day’s events, enjoy the time we spend with each other while teaching our children the importance of this thirty minute period where family sits with family. This table has been in my bride’s family for approximately forty years and the nice thing about a circular table … there’s no “head of the table”. No power issues – the family and the Lu-dog sits oh so patiently nearby waiting for Bonnie to offer up a little something. I watched a television program a number of years ago about the first purchase a bride and groom make with their dowry … the kitchen table did not even make the top ten! 🙁
Listen, when people eat together they talk, as we do and it was at this very kitchen table where I found myself between the keyboard and breast cancer. Today is no different. Last night’s meal of grilled steaks, sweet potatoes and salad was the centerpiece of learning about Logan’s day at school, our days at work and what our tomorrow(s) will be, and now that it’s Friday perhaps we’ll sit around that table tonight with a bottle of wine and plan our weekend.
Listen, I live in a house full of women and would not trade places with anyone. How many of us can say they sit a table full of beautiful women day in and night out? As luck would have it, there’s one such lucky gentlemen right here along the Petaluma River that prides himself in such an account.
Stay close to each other and enjoy the weekend everyone.
Peace,
Papa
