Happy Birthday ShadowHM!

[Kylearan]

Happy birthday and all the best to you, ShadowHM! Regardless whether you are at the cottage or at your "real"(?) home, I hope you have a great day!

[ShadowHM]

Thank You!

This turned out to be a wonderful birthday!

I was, of course, at the cottage.

There is a project there that is almost complete. I firmly told each of my sons, as they enquired, that the only thing I really wanted for my birthday was their labour to finish the project.

At the end of December 2008 there was windstorm that started this last round of projects. And now, the last thing was to plant two rows of baby cedars to re-create our lost privacy.

It snowed yesterday. We were outside digging anyway. We dug through rock rubble down to bedrock and planted the first row. It was windy. And the wind was gusty. At one point, as the wind shifted around, we heard a sharp crack and a tree fell over. (DAMN) And then we gave in and played some cards/crokinole indoors.

Today, the boys gave me my traditional Mother's Day breakfast-on-dock (although it was windier and colder than other years) and then we went to work to finish the job. It was almost as cold as yesterday but the sun shone and we got it all done! The baby cedars are planted. The fallen tree is mostly tidied up. (We will have to turn it into wood chips next weekend or the one after.)

And we even had time to go for a short hike to see the dwarf iris and rose pogonia in bloom.

To be surrounded by my sons while they cheerfully helped finish a project was the best birthday I can imagine!

[KingOfPain]

Breakfast on dock Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend, very nice!

So tell me, how do you feel having Mother's Day and birthday coincide every few years? I was born on a national holiday, which also happen to be Father's Day now and then, I can't help but feel a little ripped off on presents sometimes.

[ShadowHM]

So tell me, how do you feel having Mother's Day and birthday coincide every few years? I was born on a national holiday, which also happen to be Father's Day now and then, I can't help but feel a little ripped off on presents sometimes.

Oddly enough, I feel the opposite. I get to 'double up' on a present every few years instead!

In our family, Mother's Day has been marked by receipt of/sending of a card, a phone call if you can't 'be there' and that is about it. Father's Day has been the same.

And, in my preference list, getting labour from my sons means I am getting exactly what I want at the end of the project. After all, it was me who set up the project and designed the work load. I am not getting some useless 'thing' that they got to spend exactly three minutes dithering over in some store with a clerk who has never met me hanging over them giving advice on what I want.

Personal effort means much more than something they merely spent money on. And, on another level, it means that no matter what differing income levels they have, they can contribute equally. The 13 year old can feel that he 'gave' just as generously as the 25 year old.