Mother’s Day Weekend

Mother’s Day Weekend

By Allan Olson

It’s crazy to think about it but 2016 is nearly half over, with the month of May upon us and another school year nearly completed, summer fast approaching, I’m not sure what I did with all that time.

Alivia "helping" her Grandpa at the sawmill.

This last weekend we were on the road and for the first time in many years I found myself at my parent’s home for Mother’s day. My wife and I discussed the plans early in the week, but I was hesitant to make any plans that she wasn’t a part of because it was Mother’s day and perhaps she just wanted to do something else. However, in the end we hit the road north on Saturday morning.

That day, I woke up at the bright early time of 6 a.m. just like any other day, my brother had plans to be at my folks by 9:30 a.m. and if we were going to make it by then, we needed to get moving early. With that idea in mind, I woke the kids up about the same time as usual for a school day and they started slowly moving. The night prior, I had asked some kids to do a few things and after an interruption with some visitors, the work never got finished. I was inclined to let it be, because we needed to hit the road and the mess would still be there when we got back (unless some fairy cleaned it for us in our absence).

The departure time was nearing and the kids weren’t cooperating and were only arguing with each other.  It got to the point where I said, I’m leaving and I got in the vehicle and drove down the road. I was tired of this game. This evidently got their attention. I only drove a short distance – just out of sight and when I came back I let them have it. I flat out told them, they had one hour to do the jobs I assigned them the night prior and to do some completely or I really would be leaving them at home.  I think they understood that I was crabby and somehow they managed to accomplish their jobs in 45 minutes and when they were nearly done, washing the counters off Alivia managed to knock two jars of jelly into each other breaking both – creating a bigger mess on the floor. I quickly came to the rescue at that point and helped clean up that mess.

We finally got on the road about 8:30 a.m – an hour later than I planned.

Once we arrived in my former hometown the first stop was a much needed coffee shop. I figured since I was already behind schedule another stop or two didn’t make any difference. I selected my flavor, they created the masterpiece, I tested it, and the jolt was really strong and I gave in and asked them to lessen the blow just a little. They did and I approved it and off we went. The next stop was to grab some flowers for the moms and since I was sent in, I grabbed some flowers for my wife also.

Ten minutes later we were nearly to my parents and I pulled the same prank on my mom that I used to on her mother. I gave her a call about a mile from the house asking how she was feeling today and what her plans were as I was pulling in the yard, prior to placing the call I silenced the children and after parking in the yard, I pointed at the door for them to exit, they understood the sign language and creeped up the entryway and into the house surprising their grandma. My dad was already working on his sawmill when we arrived so the kids quickly went to greet him as well. Alivia and Marcus each took a turn sawing up a log into boards before they went off to play.

My brother who had planned to be there by 9:30 and yet to arrive and was still 30 minutes away even though I was an hour later than planned.

I told my dad we were there to help with whatever it was he needed help with - like staining some of his pieces of his beds that he’s making to sell.  My brother finally arrived and he changed the oil on the lawn mower and started assigning kids to the job of mowing. My dad and I with some assistance from the kids moved some of the pieces out of the barn so he could prep them for staining. Once we finally got started Abigail helped me do some staining and in my opinion did a better job than I did. She eventually got tired of helping me and went in the house to help her mom and aunt who were doing some cleaning for my mom. Alivia showed up and soon had a brush and started helping stain some boards, but she was soon disinterested and moved on. I was then joined by my older brother and between the two of us we finished the pieces that were prepped.

For supper, I was put in charge of the grill and everyone else pitched in getting the rest of the stuff ready. After the meal, I took the girls for a ride on the ranger and later, I dug into my parents photos for over two hours and never even made it to the bottom of the tote.

On Mother’s Day, we attended church with the family, had leftovers for dinner and headed into town to see my wife’s mom before we headed home. I stopped at the coffee shop hoping to get the edge off of my likely caffeine induced headache but it was closed.

We finally were back home shortly after 5 p.m. I instructed the kids to unload the vehicle and went to close my eyes, I was exhausted.

Plans for this weekend, might include getting my boat operational for the first time, but that yet remains to be seen.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.