We’re building a treehouse.

We’re building a treehouse the hardest way.

The hardest way is me….yelling on a ladder…..balancing one side of an unfinished rectangle…..trying to figure out how to screw the end that needs to go around the outside of the second tree to complete the rectangle….all while perched on a ladder on uneven ground….ten feet off the ground….my patient son trying to balance the other wobbly side….while my six-year-old son is scampering around underneath a hundred barely suspended pounds of wet pressure treated two by six…..lumber that is flexing and balancing in a bad way….while it’s starting to rain….really hard.

It’s the yelling part that makes it really hard.

I’m so nervous most of the time.

I think that I think that I’m pretty laid back….but I’m really pretty nervous.

We’ve planned to build a treehouse for a while.

It was easier to build when it was in my head.

We’ll get this treehouse built.

Nate and I went to McDonald’s for a little lunch today when we went to get the wood.

I hate McDonald’s….but Nate likes the Happy Meals.

So….we went to McDonald’s.

Maybe that’s one of the pleasures of being a parent….doing things that you hate because you love the people you’re doing them for.

Anyway….I was feeling a rush….to get home….to start building before the rain came….and Nate was telling me something about Amazon Prime…..no….the Transformer….it’s not Amazon Prime….it’s…..ummmmmm…..the other one….Optimist Prime….no…that’s not right, either….OPTIMUS PRIME!!!! THAT’S IT!! OPTIMUS PRIME!!

He was telling me why he was the greatest….or why the character that he got in his happy meal might be Megatron….even though he was the color of Optimus Prime….and I was feeling like we needed to wrap it up and GO!!! WE JUST NEED TO GO!!! GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!!! BUILD THIS THING!!!

And….and then it hit me that my agenda is something that is going to be forgotten so soon…..but this moment with this little guy is going to be something that I should be trying to remember like my life depended on it.

The good part of my life does depend on it.

“My agenda”.

What a crock of ….

I don’t want the memory I’m helping these kids build with this treehouse to be of me yelling on a ladder.

There has got to be an easier way to do this thing.