NAPERVILLE, IL — Greg Callahan, 41, announced Saturday morning that he intended to “quickly organize” a decade of his children’s artwork before dinner, a statement his wife describes as the most optimistic thing he has ever said.

By 2 p.m., Callahan had photographed forty-seven drawings, cross-referenced them by approximate year, created a shared Google Photos album titled “Legacy Archive – DO NOT DELETE,” and had not eaten lunch. The garage floor was covered in construction paper. His youngest, Cora, 7, had entered twice to add new drawings to the pile.

“Some of these are museum quality,” Callahan said, holding a 2019 watercolor depicting what may be a horse or possibly a boat. “You can’t just throw these away. That’s history.”

“He’s been in there since nine this morning. I made sandwiches. He didn’t come in. He’s photographing a handprint turkey from 2017 right now.”

His wife, Dana Callahan, 39, confirmed she had originally suggested they “go through some of the boxes,” a phrase she now regrets with clinical precision.

“I meant maybe recycle the duplicates,” Dana said. “We have eleven drawings of the same rainbow. Twelve if you count the one he just found behind the water heater.”

Their son, Owen, 11, when asked about the archive, said he does not remember making most of it and would like his dad to come watch a movie.

At press time, Callahan had paused the digitization process to frame the water heater rainbow, which he described as “the one that started everything.”