Garden Decorations (and Special Visitors!)

Seeing as how June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (and why it is, of course, such such a special month for us Catholics), we just got a new little flag to hang in the garden on the side of our house, near the patio.  Isn't it a beauty?

Wait…did I just hear someone say, “But what’s with the Bigfoot statue?”  Do you mean to tell me that during June (or anytime, really) every Catholic doesn’t have one of THOSE in their garden, too?!

(Just kidding.  If that hadn’t been my late father’s nickname, I can assure you that we wouldn’t either! LOL!)

I also put a little garden sign out front this morning, because later today our oldest son, his wife, and their seven children will be arriving to spend the week with us.  (They are traveling all the way from WI in their new-to-them 15-seater van!)

Before their move to the Midwest in 2021, this sweet family lived less than 20 minutes away from us here in VA for over four years.  Our daughter-in-law and the four children they had at the time even lived in our house with us for a few months when they first got here, while our son was away in training for his job and they were looking for a house of their own.  So this will be like a homecoming!  

And then after their week here, reconnecting with family and old friends, ALL of us Pearls will be heading to New York for our annual Oyster Haven vacation week at the lake.

Life is good today.  Life is very good.  And our gardens are decorated to show it.

I will not be blogging the next few weeks, because we will be busy with travels and family.  But I have a few drafts ready to publish (someone's been in a writing mood lately!), and I can post those in the meantime. After the kids all head back home from the lake, I'll be sure to report how it went.   (And there will be pictures, I'm sure.  Lots of pictures!)

The Gift of Hospitality

I get such joy from opening up my house up to others.  I think that's actually one of my favorite things in the world to do--to play hostess.

Showing hospitality to others is kind of what I live for...well, that's mostly true, but not totally.  [Gulp.] Time for a reality check.

Opening up my home when I'm just being "Mom" and "Grammy"-- that's what I live for, and that's easy. Playing the more demanding role of plain old "Hostess" is a tad harder for me.

When it comes to hosting family events, I am all in, all the time.  Even when it's our whole gang--five married sons and the 22 kids they have between them--I am never daunted by the idea of having them all descend upon us, though it is undoubtedly chaotic.  I love to cook for them.  I love making pre-party menu lists, setting up the buffet and/or dining table, putting up party decorations if the occasion calls for it, and the whole nine yards.  My husband and I seriously can't ever get enough of watching our grown-up boys interacting with each other, hearing their laughter in the house again (our favorite sound); it's wonderful seeing our girls, who get along so beautifully, swapping mom stories; it's a hoot seeing the little cousins chasing each other around the house or the yard, or playing together in our basement playroom.  It's loud and crazy and so much fun for us.  Being down here in VA, where we live near three of our sons and 14 of our grandkids (and we're actually centrally located, almost exactly midway between the two boys who live south of us and the one who lives north), our house is often the meeting place for Pearl holidays and family get-togethers.

But since moving here in 2017, we haven't played host and hostess to too many non-family members.  We had the pastor of our sweet little parish over once for lunch--and a house blessing--a few years ago.  We had our good friends (whom we met at church--natch!), T and R, over for a nice steak dinner a few months ago.  But as I said, when we're playing host and hostess, the guests are usually named Pearl.

Last week, on a whim one day we decided to invite a nice woman whom we see at daily Mass to come to our house for coffee afterward on Friday.  We chat with her often on our way out of church, but we never see her anywhere else.  This darling lady, who is about 20 years older than we are, has been widowed for many years and lives alone.  We just thought it would be nice to have the opportunity to really get to know her and to make her feel special.  On Thursday night, I was already getting excited about having company the next morning, so of course I got the table all set up in anticipation.  This was going to be a very casual affair, but I still wanted it to be nice.

My initial menu plan was simple: coffee, a bowl of mixed fruit, and some pastries (store-bought mini-muffins, some delectable little caramel-iced cakes from our town's popular local bakery, and some leftover banana bread I'd made for my hubby).

My husband and I drove to church in separate cars, because although we usually stay after Mass to do the Divine Office prayers with some of the other parishioners, I knew I was going to want to go right back home and get things prepared.  Plus, he was the sacristan that day and was going to have to stay to clean up, and our guest had to do some work involving the altar flowers as well. So I went home ahead of them--to fill the cream and sugar dishes, to brew a fresh pot of coffee, to pour a lemon-sugar glaze over the fruit, and to slice the cakes and put out the goodies.   

It was a treat to use my three-tiered dessert tray, a gift from son #2 and his wife, Ginger.  She found the blue-and-white plates (my weakness!) at the thrift, and he drilled the holes in them and added the hardware.  I would love this piece if it was store-bought, but it means so much more to me that it was designed and homemade by two of my favorite people.  Such a thoughtful gift!

I decided at the last minute to make some mini-quiches, stopping on the way home to get some scallions at the grocery store because we were out.  To make these quiches, I flattened slices of white bread with a rolling pin, cut out little circles with a biscuit cutter, buttered the bottoms, and put them in a muffin pan to make the "crusts." Then I added diced scallions and grated Swiss cheese, and finally poured an egg and cream mixture into the muffin cups until they were almost full, and baked at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Luckily I had plenty of time to get them made before my husband and our sweet guest got to the house.

I was able to use another gift from son #2 and his wife for our little after-Mass get-together: a handy thermos coffee pot.  Now that I have a Chemex pour-over coffee maker, I use it pretty much every day.  I used to rely on a Keurig and brew my cups one at a time; now I make a six-cup pot first thing in the morning and transfer the coffee from the glass Chemex carafe to the thermos, where it stays hot for hours. (I don't know about you, but for me, just about any time of day is a good time for a cup of coffee!  #addictedtocoffee)

Our church friend stayed for about two hours, and we just sat at the dining room table talking that whole time. There was not one lull in the conversation!  It was so enjoyable, and I'm now inspired to invite some of the other nice folks we see every day at Mass over for coffee.

I'm a rather shy person--an introvert, a homebody, a reader, a lover of peace and quiet and solitude--and I'm not naturally gifted at making friends.  Being open to sharing my home with others outside my comfortable circle of Pearls (or should I say string of Pearls?!) is not really one of my charisms--that is to say, gifts given to us from God that enable us to live out the Gospel.  If all I had for friends were the members of my beloved family, I would be perfectly content.  But I'm determined to work at developing this charism of hospitality.  

The wonderful book Theology of Home* has a whole chapter devoted to hospitality.  This quote in that chapter spoke to me: "In opening our homes to others, we allow ourselves to detach from our relatively comfortable, safe, orderly ways so that love, which by its nature is not confining or insular, can spread out beyond these walls and these inhabitants."  Also this: "Hospitality is rooted in kindness--not a kindness that is mere politeness (though that is important) but a kindness that actively seeks to fulfill a need of another unprompted."  What lovely sentiments, so eloquently expressed!  And I'm taking them to heart. I'll let you know how it goes!

Have a wonderful weekend, dear readers.  One filled with faith and family--and friends, too.

*I actually have a copy of this book signed by one of the authors, Carrie Gress.  She gave a talk to a group of women at a church hall here in VA a few years back, and I attended the event with my daughter-in-law, Ginger.  (Gress is a phenomenal speaker!)

Grandma's Chair (Before and After)

I've blogged before about my paternal grandmother's Victorian mansion in a small Upstate NY town, where my family lived for about a year-and-a-half when I was a young girl.  The seven of us made a temporary home in one of the upstairs apartments that she rented out.  (We used to joke that our place had once been the servants' quarters; I'm not really even sure if that's true, but it made a good story!)

When Grandma and her second husband (my father's dad died when he was very young) took possession of the mansion, they found and rescued many pieces of antique furniture original to the house and had them refurbished.  There was a giant dining table and matching chairs that took center stage in the extraordinarily beautiful, wood-paneled dining room in the mansion.  When she eventually sold the place, my grandmother kept a few of her favorite items, among which were some marble-topped end tables and coffee tables and several of the ornately carved dining room chairs.  My youngest sister had been given two of the chairs after Grandma died and recently asked all of her siblings if any of us would like to take them, as she no longer had a place for them.  One of my sisters-in-law and I were immediately interested, so we each got one.  I just brought mine home from NY about a few weeks ago after a trip up there to get our VRBO rental house ready for the summer season.

While I was in NY, I "shopped" in my mother-in-law's attic for fabric to recover the chair.  (I've blogged about this before as well--about the treasure trove of fabrics and laces and sewing notions my seamstress M-I-L amassed in her lifetime, which I have been given the green light by her generous daughters to plunder at will!) I not only found some lovely upholstery material for my DIY project, but also some coordinating gimp trim.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let me show you what the chair looked like after years of use, including when my sister used to strap a portable high chair seat onto it and her sweet granddaughter would kick away at the front of the cushion with her little feet.

The fabric on the top of the chair, front and back, had held up fairly well.  But the seat was in bad shape.

I could hardly wait to restore this chair to its former glory! To get started, I removed the gimp binding, which is used to cover up the raw edges of the fabric and the nails (and it's attached with glue, so it's easy to pull off).

Then I removed the fabric pieces, which I used as patterns for the new pieces.  (I was able to remove the upholstery nails, which are short and curved at the tips, and then reuse them).

I almost ordered some new blue gimp to match the lovely fabric I’d chosen, because I wasn't sure if I'd like the shiny gold stuff I'd found in Mom's attic stash...

Out with the old, in with the new!

...but I did like it.  A lot!

Oh wow, heart-eye emojis all over the place!!  I LOVE this look!

I didn't refinish the wood, but I cleaned it, and I also touched up the nicks and scratches with some wood stain I had on hand.  There were small traces of orange-red paint here and there, signs that perhaps some misguided soul had at one time painted over that glorious wood--AAAGGGHHH!  But I didn't remove them.  (I've decided that the flaws in the finish add to the character of the chair.  Yeah, character: that's it!  Ha ha!)

The most challenging part to fix was, of course, the seat.  My biggest roadblock to getting that done was finding the appropriate size and type of foam cushion to replace the old one, which was damaged and disintegrating.  I ordered one from Amazon, but it was 5” high—which was a bit much for this chair.  I ended up finding the perfect thing at our local JoAnn’s.  (There was probably some foam in my M-I-L’s attic, now that I think of it!  But I was too focused on finding fabric to notice!)

I put a new 2" foam cushion on top of the seat's interwoven support bands (or whatever they're called!).  I didn't take a picture, but you probably don't want to see that step anyway.  Just imagine a piece of green foam sitting on top of those strips of burlap.

Once the foam was in place, I set out to cover it with the fabric I'd cut out, using the worn-out old seat cover as a pattern.  I started by anchoring the fabric in place with a nail in the center of the back, the center of the front, and the center of each side, and then I proceeded to stretch the fabric as tightly over the foam as I could as I continued to nail it down all the way around.

The last step was gluing down the gimp trim all around the raw edges of the upholstered seat.

Within about four days of getting the chair home to VA, Grandma's chair was ready to be sat upon. I am thrilled with how it came out.  And I love having this piece that is such an endearing reminder of my grandmother and the wonderful old house she lived in for many years.

I have a lot of colors and patterns going on in my living room: a black and tan Oriental rug; a pink and green floral couch and matching loveseat; and now this chair covered in a blue and white floral print.  (Not mention another antique chair that I rescued and reupholstered many moons ago, using gorgeous brocade fabric in a red and green—strawberries and leaves—pattern.  So there's that, too!)  A professional home decorator would probably shudder to see what I’ve got going on here. Nonetheless, this room makes me very happy.

And in the end, that's all that matters, right?  A house should be a home that makes its owners happy; it need not be a designer’s showcase.

But boy-oh-boy, my grandmother's beautiful chair is a bit of a show-stopper, IMHO...

(So many photos!  Can you tell how excited I am about this chair?!  Moving forward here at the blog, I'll try to keep the photo-sharing under control.)

The Many Blessings of Our Life in VA

I have gotten to the point where I can't imagine not having made our big move to VA.  Back in 2016, when we were celebrating our last Christmas in the NH house where we'd raised our boys, it was somewhat heartbreaking imagining a different sort of home.  How could we be as happy anywhere else?  How could another house ever mean the same to us?  After all, we'd been in that one for 26 years and we'd put so much sweat equity (and love) into making it just right for us.  It was filled with wonderful memories.

But when we moved in early 2017, we knew that eventually, we would make many new memories down here.  And that this would become our home.

Well, that definitely happened.  Hoo boy, did it happen! I can no longer imagine what our life would be like if we didn't live here, near three of our five sons and their families.  Just this past week, look at all we would have missed.

On Tuesday, we went to the kindergarten graduation of four of our grandchildren.  Son #3's daughter (the middle child of his five) and son #4's triplets (two boys and a girl) had their end-of-year ceremony at their Catholic grade school, and my husband and I were there in attendance.

The kids were adorable, needless to say.  But I thought MY kids (the doting dads taking videos of their kids singing) were equally adorable.

Two of the triplets were classmates this past year (one of the boys and the girl); and one of the triplet boys was his cousin's classmate.  He excitedly pointed at her once, at pick-up time, and told his mom, "That's [her name]! I know her from school!"  True story.  They've been playmates and practically neighbors since infancy. Hilarious.

Classmates/cousins.

The Kindergarten Crew.

If we still lived in NH, I doubt we would have flown down for this occasion.  We would probably save those sorts of travels for major events, like First Holy Communions.  But being here, we can easily attend all the grandkids' special events, big and small.

Two days after the graduation, my husband and I started some home improvement projects for son #4 and his wife Braveheart.  They just bought a new house, and before they move their things in, they wanted to get some painting done.  My husband even got up on some super-high and quite terrifying scaffolding (while I took care of some things down low, where I could keep my feet firmly planted on terra firma.  #fearofheights).

Braveheart came by with all the kids while we were working, and I got this selfie with the youngest of their four (who calls herself an "honorary triplet").  People say she looks like me...but I'm not sure.  She does definitely look like her daddy at that age.

It's such a joy to see our boys living near enough to each other to be an integral part of each other's lives.

Son #3's hard-working wife Preciosa was the real estate agent who found this dream house for son #4's family and helped them negotiate the deal.  And she and son #3 decided to give son #4's family a generous housewarming gift: a trampoline for their awesome new back yard.  Because we live nearby, my husband was able to help his boy assemble it on Wednesday, and he and I were able to be there when the kids first discovered this amazing surprise gift from their aunt and uncle the next day.

I love this big-hearted boy.  And his dad.

Last night, after an exhausting day of painting, my best guy and I came home to our little VA doll house (although smaller than our NH house, it's really not all that small; but it's a sweet little place and I often think of it in those terms) and headed out to the patio on the side of our house.  We sat together on one of the bench gliders by the fire pit, sipping cocktails.  (You can have a date at your own house!  It's relaxing...and cheaper than going out!) We were sitting there talking about how as long as we were together, we could live pretty much anywhere; and how great it was that we could live here, where we can help some of our boys out and enjoy lots of time with them and their families. (We'd like to have all five living nearby; but we'll take what we can get!)

Today, I'm going to watch son #4's kiddos, so he and Braveheart can get a lot of packing done at their old house.  Again, this is something I probably wouldn't have been able to do if we hadn't made our big move.

Leaving that NH house was quite painful at first, and a real exercise in detachment from the things of this world; but we have been so extraordinarily blessed since the move.  Life is so good here.  

I give Mary, and the daily Rosaries we say to Her, all the credit.

  

Thank you, Mother!

Have a wonderful weekend, dear readers!

Twin Teens

Our firstborn son's identical twins girls turned 13 a couple of days ago.  I can hardly believe that these two sweet young ladies, the oldest of our 22 grandchildren, are teenagers.  They're taller than I am now, but I can still vividly remember them as precious newborns.  My husband and I were so excited to become grandparents, and what a bonus it was that we got to start with twins: neither of us ever had had to wait impatiently for our turn to hold the baby, because we could each have one!  (Twins might be a doubly exhausting way to experience first-time parenthood; but it's the most glorious situation imaginable for first-time grandparents.)

These beloved granddaughters are simply wonderful girls, and I'm not saying that as a biased and doting Grammy.  It's objectively true, and anyone who knows them would agree.  They are mature in the best possible ways, but also innocent in the best possibly ways.  This mixture of maturity and innocence it a beautiful thing to behold.

The twins have always been doll lovers, and they've never seen a living, breathing baby they didn't want to hold. (Their mom and dad have given them five siblings, the youngest of whom is 6 months old, and they are the best mother’s helpers you could ask for.)  They are voracious readers, always with a stack of the books they are currently devouring resting on the table closest to where they're sitting.  (And they are big fans of their Grammy’s books. #luckiestwriterever)

Both of them play musical instruments and sing in the choir at their church, where they attend the TLM Mass in modest dresses with their heads veiled.  Their devotion to their Catholic Faith is inspiring.  They love to sew and craft and draw and write stories.  They don’t have phones.  They’re not on social media. They have lots of  friends, whom they’ve met through church and homeschool co-ops.  They are wonderfully un-worldly.

I love these two precious granddaughters to the moon and back.  They made me a grandmother and changed my life forever, in the best possible way.

Happy Birthday, girls!  I can't wait to see you later this month! XOXO

(P.S.: That second photo was taken in 2021, when I was still taller than they were!)