Let’s face it doing chores around the house is not something anyone looks forward to usually. But there is something about getting together with family to tackle projects that are not only for you, but also benefit others. My crowd gets together as often as we can. We are not always productive. But on this particular day I think the aching muscles at the end of the night were shared by all.
My brother and his wife, Shane & Michelle, as well as my mom and I, all burn wood in the winter. We believe that it saves money….although there are days when I am not too sure. This particular Saturday was a full day of cutting down slab wood that Shane and Michelle had brought from a local mill. Shane worked the chainsaw and Michelle stacked a load on their trailer while Rob, my son, and I hauled enough into Mom’s house to fill her wood box.
Stacking, carrying, lifting, sawing…..the afternoon was pretty full. Don’t get me wrong, there was some standing around time and of course a big meal prepared by mom, but we worked. Rob showed some ingenuity when we were carrying wood into Mom’s. After we had carried a few armloads up the steps and inside, he thought we might be better off using the dolly. Some may say this idea was born out of laziness, I call it working smarter not harder!
Shane picked out a couple of nice looking slabs and he trimmed them up for Rob to make into rustic cutting boards. We all helped stack Shane and Michelle’s trailer full at the end of the day so that they would not go home empty handed. While we stood and finished clean-up of wood mess, we all pulled together and changed a pile of blocks laying in Mom’s yard into a lovely staircase that led into the yard.
We affectionately named the steps, “The Steps to Nowhere.” Also, this began as one of Rob’s creations. Creative and productive bunch of folk we are!
At the end of the day, Rob and his girlfriend Laura-as well as our friend Jeff were planning an evening on the town. I am jealous of their energy! Mom was concerned that we might be hungry and of course tried to feed us all again. She’s never one to let us go hungry. Shane and Michelle were in a hurry to get home as their trailer was loaded down. I was the one with the horrific backache, and opted to take myself on home to find some muscle cream. What a lovely Saturday though…
After I arrived home, showered and changed and got comfy with a heating pad and a glass of wine…I reflected upon the day as I looked through my snapshots. There are many people that aren’t as fortunate as we are. My family has suffered loss and love, good times and bad. We have multiple friends that we call family-we work, play, eat, and celebrate together. We are lucky! It takes some effort here and there to make sure life doesn’t take over and we lose our precious time together, we know how to keep our connection and deep love for one another in tact. It takes work!
All good things take work: your job, your home, your car, but most importantly your relationships with others. We must cultivate and tend to our relationships with others in order to make them strong and lasting. A bit of a rambling post, but the memory has been recorded…