A Beautiful Mother's Day and a Beautiful Life!

I am late with my Mother's Day post, but that's about par for the course for me these days!

We had such a special celebration last Sunday, because our oldest grandson, G-Man (who is the oldest of son #3's five offspring), made his First Holy Communion that day.  What could be better than spending Mother's Day seeing one of your precious children's children receive the Holy Eucharist for the first time ever?  It was beautiful.

This grandson of ours will always occupy a special place in my heart because of the four-and-a-half months we lived with him and his parents when he was a baby.  We were still living in NH at the time, and my husband was still working as an airline pilot.  So he commuted to work while I played the part of full-time nanny, so that our son and his wife didn't have to put the little guy into day care.  Our daughter-in-law had completed her three-month maternity leave from her job at UVA, and there was about a four-month stretch until the end of the school year.  She had decided that when that semester ended, she was going to quit her job and stay at home with the little guy.  We filled in that gap and it was a very special time for us--and of course, G-Man was often the star of my blog posts in those days, as you can see here.  

Oh my, reading over that old post has made me misty-eyed.  And also amazed at how surprising life can be, and how beautiful.  Two years after that post was written, we had moved away from NH and become Virginians--which we never would have imagined doing at that point.  (Best move ever: with three sons living close-by, we are no longer constantly in travel mode.)  G-Man has a little brother now who's just a bit older than he was in those old photos.  And he's often riding on my left hip and staring at my face, just like his big brother was in those photos from 2015.  Oh my goodness, it's like deja vu (all over again. Ha ha!).

After Mass, we went over to G-Man's house for a brunch with lots of beloved people: G-Man, his parents, his four siblings, and his maternal grandmother; son #4, his wife, and their four kids; and one of our boys' cousins (named after yours truly!), who lives in the area and has two delightful daughters.

We got a picture of G-Man with his grandfather (my guy, whom he calls Papa), his godfather (his uncle, our son #4), and his father.  All of his earthly fathers looking out for him, body and soul.

So that was Mother's Day, one for the ages.  

If you come here often you know that ever since we moved down to VA, the boys who live nearby come over to have a special Mother's Day dinner with my husband and me, without spouses or kids--so that we can relive the old days when they were just mama's boys.  (The gift of time spent together, which is my #1 love language.)  It's usually not on actual Mother's Day, because we want them to spend that with their deserving wives.  I've written about this tradition before.  Here's last year's post, which included a big surprise for me. 

Oh no, not again.  An old blog post, making me misty-eyed! 

Anyway, I usually only get three or four of my five boys at once, but I'll take whatever I can get!  I am so grateful for this tradition.  I didn't think it was going to happen this year, because everyone is so very busy with their kids' school and after-school activities, work, and other commitments.  I had said that we should skip it this year, and that our wonderful celebration for G-Man's First Communion was enough of a Mother's Day treat for me.  

But those boys...the Tuesday after Mother's Day, our VA sons (all three of whom live between 40 and 50 minutes from our front door) came anyway.  And we had steaks and baked potatoes, with cheesecake for dessert.  And we talked about the two brothers who were missing, so that it was almost as if they were there, too.  And we laughed. And it was wonderful.

I have the best sons.  Just sayin'.

I tell you what, I'll always be glad that I have this blog. It's keeping memories alive for me.  As the years pass, things tend to get blurry.  But all I have to do to remember exactly what I was doing and thinking and feeling during some moment in my life is to click on an old post buried in my archives, and I'm transported back in time.  It's a gift, this blogging thing.  I don't do it as much as I used to, but I don't think I can ever give it up completely.  I'll be 65 this summer; my memories are only going to get fuzzier with age.  I'm going to need to read the story of my life, and luckily, I'll know where to find it.

Deep thoughts about blogging.  Yikes, that's enough of that for today. 

A belated Happy Mother's Day, dear readers.  God bless you!

Falling Behind and Playing Catch-Up, as Usual!

When it comes to keeping this blog up to date with what's been going on in the Pearl family, I'm currently falling way behind--which is par for the course these days (months, years, what-have-you). Some people are just so good at writing regularly, and so fun to follow (Colleen and Madeline, you two blogging champs come immediately to mind!), but others of us seem to suffer from a constant state of blogger's block.  In my case, it happens because there's too much happening, too quickly, and so much I want to write about that I don't know where to start. Kind of like when you have an extremely messy house and can't figure out which room needs cleaning the most.

I have too much that I want to say.  And so I choose to say nothing a lot of the time.

Excuses, excuses--right?

I never even got around to blogging about our road trip to Iowa a week after Easter, to visit with our much-missed oldest son and his family (who lived nearby here in VA for four-and-a-half years, then moved away a little over a year ago--and boy, do we ever miss them!!). We hadn't seen them since November 2022, so too much time had passed! We were able to be there for the First Holy Communion of our firstborn's #4 daughter, City Girl. It was so beautiful, taking place during a traditional Latin High Mass at their parish.  She wore one of the two dresses I made back in 2019 for her oldest (identical twin) sisters. 

These dresses have now become part of this family's tradition.  I made one with a lace Peter Pan collar and the other with a plain neck and an extra band of lace embellishment at the waist; I wanted them to be slightly different so the twins could choose the individual style they liked best.  Sister Little Gal wore the one with the collar for her First Holy Communion in 2021.  And City Girl picked the one without the collar.  So each dress has now been worn twice.  

I dream of these dresses, made with lots more love than skill, being worn years from now by great-granddaughters whom I may never meet (although I hope to!).  I dream that they become my favorite sort of thing: family heirlooms.

Anyway--

Aside from celebrating this beautiful sacrament, we were able to become friends with our one-year-old granddaughter, who really doesn't know us very well, now that we only get to visit with her family a couple of times a year.  (Did I give her a blog name yet?  I can't remember.  If not, I think I shall call her Little Lady.)  She has big blue eyes ("lollipop eyes," as one of her aunts described them) and is just about the most adorable little person imaginable. But she spent most of the week we were there studying her Papa and me with suspicion from a safe distance, head down, raising her eyes to peer at us.  She warmed up to Grammy first, allowing me to hold her as long as one of "her people" was close-by.  Papa finally became her best buddy when we had to babysit for her and her four-year-old brother towards the end of our stay, because the rest of the family was going to her twin sisters' play.  The two oldest girls had parts in the chorus of the musical "State Fair," which was put on by their homeschooling group.  My husband and I went to see the opening night show on Friday, then we stayed back to watch the two youngest siblings while everyone else went to the Saturday matinee--and that bonding time with those little ones was truly a gift.

These girls, at not quite 12, kind of tower over me now, so they must be slouching
in this picture.  (I've been slowing shrinking while they've been quickly growing!)

"State Fair" is just wonderful, with songs by Rogers & Hammerstein.  And it is especially fun because the story is set in Iowa.

It was hard to say goodbye when we left; but we were fortunate to have the opportunity to drive our son to the airport about five hours from his house, as it was on our route back home anyway; this saved him a commute to work by plane and gave us that precious extra time in the car to chat with him.  (We did solve all of the world's problems on that drive, and even had some good laughs as well.)

Aside from the goings-on out in the Midwest, there's also been a recent Baptism, of Pearl grandchild #20; but unfortunately we were unable to travel to Nashville to attend it.  Our daughter-in-law's parents were able to be there, however, which is special because this is their first grandchild.  I've yet to see pictures of that sweet little girl, the youngest of our grandchildren (for now, anyway!), receiving her first sacrament.  But I've been assured that they're coming!  

Let's see, what else?  How about some recent VA news? 

Last Sunday we had son #4 and his family over for an after-Mass brunch.  He and his wife are the parents of triplets, identical twin boys and a girl, aged 5, and a 3-year-old girl.  Those kiddos love to come and play in our basement playroom (I've got a post in my drafts folder with my deep musings about playrooms, actually; maybe it's time to edit it and get it posted!  I bet you're thinking, "That sounds fascinating!”). That same night, we had Sunday dinner over at son #2's house.  He and his wife Ginger have four boys, aged 2 to 7, and another baby on the way, due in mid-June. Ginger is a great cook, so we enjoyed a delicious meal of Pioneer Woman steak bites, rice, salad, and homemade brownies with ice cream.  We stayed way too late talking, which we have a tendency to do when it comes to our kids.  (Isn't life grand when you not only love, but sincerely like, your kids?!)

Yesterday, son #3 had a birthday, and we were able to celebrate it with him by bringing over one of his favorite meals and his favorite cinnamon coffee cake for dessert.  I'm a broken record, so I'll add that we stayed way too late talking with him and his Preciosa after the kids were in bed.   It's so worth it, though, even though it means we don't get home and in bed until midnight or after.  We'll sleep when we're dead!

I don't know what's gotten into me today.  I'm feeling a little silly.

Anyway, I'd have to say that 37 is looking pretty good on this middle son of ours.  He is surrounded by lots of noise and activity with his energetic brood, and surrounded even more by lots of love.

God is so good.  Life is so full, I can't even imagine having time to get bored.  And VA is so ridiculously mild and lovely in the spring.  Everything is blooming and I am in Heaven, as much as one can be in this earthly life.  

Father Mike always says, at the end of each episode of his Catechism in a Year podcast, "I'm praying for you.  Please pray for me!" Ditto that, dear readers.

Okay then, until next time...which will hopefully be pretty soon!