RDD 121
I remember when my grandma told us that they have two horses in the province. They love those horses and they were part of the family...
But because my grandfather decided to start a life in Manila, they didn't have a choice but sell the two horses. They sell it to their relatives because they knew that they would take care of the two horses.
My grandfather actually cried when he sold them, that was what my grandma told me. When I asked my grandfather about that, he said that Grandma was lying. Anyway, they clearly like the horses because they have names.
They call them Nino and Tongtong. Both of them were males. They sell them just to buy boat tickets.
Life in Manila was not that simple unlike what they believed. My grandfather could only work in construction and other jobs that didn't need a high school diploma.
That was right, my grandparents were illiterate. They didn't finish elementary. Back then, people in the province didn't treat education with importance. They believe that the more kids you have, the better.
Both my grandfather and grandma had dozens of siblings working in the fields.
They only got their dreams when they went to Manila. They were immediately welcomed by the hard truth of reality. That life in Manila was not better than in the province.
My grandfather worked hard in construction. Their projects kept moving to different locations and grandfather and grandma didn't have a choice but change their house many times too.
Until they reached Cavite. At that time, my grandfather already had enough experience with construction. With his thick face, he tried to contract with one of the facts to make a fence and gate.
He acquired the contract and called his co-workers. That was the start of my grandfather's hard success.
Honestly, I didn't know how he got the contract.
Once my grandparents had it better, they decided to return to the province to take their horses back... They were devastated when they found that both of the horses were dead.
Since then, my grandfather decided to start a farm and breed horses and cows... I was not sure if that was the exact reason but I knew that my grandfather was fond of horses.
Back then, horses were the best way of transportation but cars started showing up and took over the market. Although there were still some people who used kalesa(horse carriage) in some places. They were trying to keep the dying culture in the Philippines... Unfortunately, this culture completely died and I never saw any kalesa in the 2020s.
The reason why I'm explaining this was simple... I'm just trying to find the connection between the meat shop and the farm. There was no deep meaning actually. I just wanted to share the story of my grandparents.
One month of business made me remember how hard it was for my grandparents to live back then. Maybe that was the reason why they have two sons. Because they understood that having more children in the city would be detrimental. Life in the province and life in the city was different.
"So this is our profit this month, right?"
I asked my wife because I was shocked by the numbers I was looking at.
We earned 162 thousand pesos for this whole. This was our first month of business and the profit already exceeded our investment.
Our family invested more than 50 thousand pesos if I'm not wrong. If we minus that, then we already got $112 thousand as a remaining balance. Definitely something that I was happy to see.
"That's right."
Just like me, my wife was smiling as well. She snuggled close to me and rest her head against my shoulder.
We were currently sitting in the bed, spending the night together. We just finished our "exercise" and savoring the after-sex.
Because my wife was excited, she decided to show me the profit for this month. Another week and we were going to welcome the month of April.
"How about we renovate Sophia's room?"
"Hm, she's still young so I'm actually worried about letting her sleep alone."
"We can let her sleep in our room, but I know that you want to solo me."
I muttered.
"Humph! I know that you want to solo me too!" She pouted.
We both love Sophia and we didn't have a problem with her sleeping with us. However, we were conflicted about that part because my wife and I only had a few moments to spend together every day.
We were busy every day and nighttime was the only chance where we could reconnect.
If Sophia didn't like to sleep alone, then we would accept her decision.
Still, it was obvious that we had to renovate her room since she was going to use it anyway.
"Let's buy them tomorrow since it's Sunday."
"Alright."
Just like that, we restarted our loving loving.
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Sunday was the only day that I could spend the rest of my day with my family.
Since we were going to buy stuff for Sophia's room, I decided to take the kids to the cinema too. Just to have some family bonding.
When we get to the cinema, we saw the list of movies that we could watch.
Because Roman was an avid fan of superheroes such as power rangers and anime, he wanted to watch X-Men. I didn't have a problem with that one.
As for Sophia, she was eager to watch the animated movie Chicken Run. I saw that movie in my past life and it was quite entertaining. I knew how hard to make stop-motion animation.
Penelope preferred Meet The Parents because she liked something romantic. Now, I'm not sure if Ben Stiller was famous in romance movies. I only knew him as Zoolander.
As for me... I chose Gladiator starring Russell Crowe. I like the movie and watched it many times in the past. And now that I have a family, the movie was more relatable to me.
But because we are here with the kids, a movie like Gladiator was not good.
In the end, we let the kids decide.
"Nooo--! I want Chicken Run! Chicken Run!"
Because Sophia was the youngest, she had the guts to throw a tantrum in public. Penelope just smiled and let the little girl do her thing.
After Sophia cried, we both decided to watch Chicken Run just to appease her.
"Why did you not stop her crying? We are going to watch Chicken Run anyway."
I whispered next to my wife.
"Keith, we have to show our kids that they can't get what they want by crying. If we are not in public, I might have reprimanded your daughter and spanked her ass. Lately, Sophia is getting spoiled."
Penelope just smiled. It seemed that she had an idea of how to discipline our kids.
"Okay."
I just nodded. Parenting was hard. I didn't know what was the best approach to make sure that my kids would grow up well.
Even now I was unsure of myself. One thing was for sure, I must never show any weakness in front of the kids. I'm scared to show any weakness in front of them.