Tearing up carpet

Noah tore the carpet out of the hall and discovered very nice hardwood underneath it.  It's under the carpet in all three bedrooms, so we're considering taking out more carpet.  The problem is all those darn nails, staples, and worst of all, tack strips that formerly held the carpet down. Mike, Noah, and I have been working on pulling all that out, and we've discovered that you can't be too rough or else you scratch the precious hardwood.  You also can't be too gentle, or else you don't make any progress at all.  It's slow, difficult, time-consuming, messy, sometimes painful work that requires the perfect balance of firmness and gentleness as you chip away the old, ugly sharp edges to reveal the hidden beauty, but it's worthwhile in the end; sometimes you want to give up and call in the professionals.  Sounds a lot like parenting, doesn't it?

Just yesterday at CBS, we were talking about how being happy in your work is a gift from God (Ecc. 5:19).  I'm happy to have the gift of work to do:  tearing up floors and raising kids.

There he is, about to pull up the pad...

Discovering the buried treasure!

Now he's saying, "Why didn't we do this YEARS ago?!"

Sweet reward!