I guess I should feel Mother’s Day was a success with 50% of my offspring making an effort.  Nicky knows what makes and keeps his mother happy, and so surprised me with a bottle of tequila.  I know it seems an unusual gift for a child to present to his sainted mother, but in my case it’s very appropriate.  The other kid didn’t even call, so what can one do?

My life’s improved immeasurably since Nicky’s been hired at Canadian Tire.  He gets up at 4:30 because he starts work at 5:00 AM and works until 1:00.  Because of that, he often goes to bed at 8:00.  As you know, I love going to bed early, so now there’s a heavenly peace around here for hours and hours.

In the mornings I can turn on noisy hoses and sing special ditties for the dogs, as I’m alone and not bothering a soul.  I’m thinking of this as a rehearsal for the day when I might actually stop child rearing.  Luke’ll turn 25 in late summer, which will mark a quarter century of living with offspring.  It just doesn’t seem right somehow.

My mother-in-law, with 11 children, lived with offspring for a total of 40 years, which seems like an awful lot.  But I think by the time she’d had the eleventh kid, she’d become inured to so many things.  I only had the two, so maybe that’s why I haven’t developed her stoicism.

But I can’t blame Nicky.  Just as I did for Luke, I make gourmet sandwiches for him to take to work.  Both like bacon on their sandies, so I fry pieces of bacon, which when cooled are added to the deli meats, mayo, grainy Dijon, lettuce, etc.  One of Nicky’s favourites is the standard bagel, but he likes ham as well as cream cheese on it.

And now Nicky’s friend Felix has given me another $50, so that means another punch card of 10 meals coming up for him.  His first in this series was my gramma’s rouladen.  This is thin slices of beef which are smeared with mustard.  Then you fry bacon and crumble it, and chop pickles.  The bacon and pickles go on the mustard-smeared meat.  This is then rolled up and tied with thread, and then fried for quite a long time to tenderize the meat.

With lunch and dinner shopping and preparing, it’s all I can do to keep up with what’s required in the yard and for the business.  I seeded beets and carrots, planted herbs and seed potatoes in the lower vegetable garden.  I’ve just started planting annuals into my containers.

I’m experimenting with the right size for the bags of chocolate bark.  Discover Wines would like to buy some, but I’m trying to work out the size and price before I present it to them.  Then whatever that presentation turns out to be be, I can take to both House of Rose and Dirty Laundry Wineries.

I shouldn’t complain about the low-key mom’s day the kids provided, as my mom and I were too complacent to even bother to meet for lunch!  I think it’s similar to my own children in that we’re constantly together so not sure what to do with a specially designated day.