Testing, Testing, 1,2,3...Is This Thing Still On?

Well, I've been gone so long that I just had to make sure blogging was still a thing.  You know, that it's still being done.

I mean, technology and social media seem to be evolving at warp speed these days, so you never know what might have become obsolete overnight.  You could go to sleep and wake up in a Brave New World-ish place, feeling like you're trapped in an episode of "The Jetsons."  (Now that TV show reference doesn't date me at all, does it?  Just a few days ago, I celebrated my 58th birthday, and it shows.  Oh, does it ever show!)

But getting back to the idea that it's hard to keep up with the latest techno-trends: yesterday, I took some pictures of my nieces and their little ones on my iPhone, and I offered to make the girls up some flash drives or CD's of all the shots I got.  That gave everyone a good chuckle.  Why didn't I just go ahead and put them on a 90's-era floppy disc while I was at it?  (The photos got sent via text messages, so I didn't even have to make a trip to Best Buy to hunt down some storage paraphernalia from the Stone Age.  Easy peasy.)

Here are a few of the pictures I took, just to give you an idea of the sort of cuteness by which I found myself surrounded yesterday afternoon, lakeside.

My sister-in-law has four of her five kids staying with her this week, and all four of her grandchildren.  She lives next door to my husband's childhood home, where he and I are staying for the summer so that we keep an eye on nearby Oyster Haven and clean it in between rentals.  (Our fourth set of week-long renters are there as I write this!)  Spending time with her crew, and seeing how much they enjoy the lake, gets me so excited for next week--when all five of our boys, our four daughters-in-law, and all seven of our grandchildren will be with us at Oyster Haven for a big family reunion of our own.

In anticipation of feeding my little army, I have been baking goodies ahead and freezing them.  So far, I've got two coffee cakes made, and two pans of caramel brownies.

Oreo brownies are in the works this morning.  (Those are the roses my hubby sent for my birthday, which he spent flying some lucky folks to Rome.)

My daughter-in-law Preciosa is busy making special "team" shirts for the whole family to wear when we have professional pictures taken together during our vacation week.  The numbers on the backs, 1 through 18, have been assigned according to when each member officially joined the family, whether by marriage or by birth.  Here is my husband's, being held up by son #3.

Anyway, I'm hoping the blog hasn't gone the way of the floppy disc or the dinosaur, at least not yet.  After I finally got around to cracking open my laptop for the first time in ages, I realized that I MIGHT just have more to say, even though you wouldn't know that by the radio silence over here at String of Pearls this summer.

Speaking of the radio...I did recently do a radio interview with Allison Gingras, on her "A Seeking Heart" program (which is a sort of on-air Catholic book club).  Ten days ago I included a link to the program--wherein we discussed Finding Grace, Erin's Ring, and marrying our high school sweethearts, among other things--in a 7QT post; but if you missed that and are interested in listening, here's the archived link to the podcast.  Since I didn't get around to doing a Grace-filled Tuesdays post yesterday (because I've become a bit of a blogging slacker as of late!  I blame the heat and humidity, and the fact that my husband and I are busy managing our VRBO property), this should fill in nicely for my own online book club.

Well, I hope you're having a great summer, dear readers.  Mine has been spent visiting with lots of special relatives on both sides of our family tree and looking forward to having a whole glorious week with my own nuclear family.  And also, I must admit, it's been spent feeling a tad jealous of the renters who are staying at our beloved Oyster Haven!

But truly, my accommodations have been absolutely stellar.  Here's the view from the deck of the Pearl homestead, where I've been privileged to spend my summer.

There's nothing like getting up and having a relaxing cup of coffee, while enjoying a view like that!  (Another fun thing to do with your morning coffee might be to listen to Allison's radio show, if you're so inclined...)

Okay then, until next time...