We are down to about a week-and-a-half until we head up north for the summer, to manage our Vrbo rental on the lake, enjoy our pontoon boat, and reconnect with different family members on both sides who still live in the area where we grew up. It's always a very bittersweet time of year for me, because I do love it up there, and why wouldn't I? It's where my husband and I are from, and where our story began, way back in high school. He spent his childhood with the lake in his back yard, and his boyhood home is where we stay while we're taking care of our Oyster Haven lake house just down the road. Aside from being an idyllic place to spend the summer, being up there gets us away from the brutal VA heat during the hottest months of the year. By the time we return around Labor Day, it's becoming bearable down here again. Then of course there's also the week we set aside at our rental for our own family's use. All 35 of us will be spending the first week in July at Oyster Haven. So I'm excited to get up there and start preparing for that vacation week with our kids and grandkids, which we all look forward to all year long.
Yet...all that being said, it's always hard for me to leave this sweet little VA house, where our grandchildren love to gather, and to wave goodbye to the "VA Pearls"--that is, the three sons and their families who live near us down here. Sometimes I feel quite happy about heading north, and other times a bit sad. But two things can be true at once, as they say. I wish, sometimes, that I could be in two places at once! (Actually, make that four places, because I'd like to always be near our other two sons and their families as well--the WI Pearls and the TN Pearls.)
There are always so many things going on at the end of the school year, so the weeks leading up to our departure are usually packed with activity. Here's a brief recap of some of our goings-on.
Back near the end of May, the NCAA lacrosse tournament was held at nearby UVA, and we were able to watch Notre Dame play Syracuse in the semi-finals, along with three of our sons and seven of our grandchildren. It was a great day for the Irish, and they beat Syracuse handily and advanced to the final game.
A few days later, this same group returned to UVA with a few extra Pearls (a daughter-in-law and three more grandchildren) to watch the championship game, ND v. Princeton. There was no "luck of the Irish" that day, to put it mildly. I don't really want to talk about it. Suffice it to say that Notre Dame did not win the championship this year! But it was a fun day for the Pearls anyway.
The week before last, we were able to attend the adorable pre-K graduation of son #2's little guy, who is the 4th of his five sons. He had been given the job of flag-bearer for the ceremony, and he was so proud!
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| Cap and gown for pre-K. You're killing me, Smalls! So, so cute. |
A couple of days later, we attended the dance recital of two of our granddaughters (son #4's girls). It was also quite adorable.
Last week, my husband drove up to NY to do some work at Oyster Haven before the busy rental season gets underway--such as getting the dock in and all the boats down from storage. I stayed behind here in VA, because I had some babysitting to do, some birthday cakes to make for grandchildren, and some projects I wanted to complete before we close the house up for the summer. After a particularly productive day, he sent this photo of our awesome private beach to the family text stream, and it got everyone excited for our week up there together.
One of the days that my husband was up in NY, the three VA sons (#2, #3, and #4) decided to meet for dinner, and our house is almost exactly halfway between the one who lives north of us and the two who live south. They thought they might pick a restaurant in our town and have me meet them there (can you see why we picked this town when we decided to relocate back in 2017?), because they didn't want to overwhelm me with cooking duties.
Hello! Do you boys not even know your own mother? I told them that if they wanted to go out for a treat, I totally understood. And I also told them that if they wanted "brother time," I didn't need to join them for dinner, but maybe they could swing by here afterward to say hi before they all headed back home. But they wanted me involved. (Sniff...why am I so lucky?) And in that case, I said I would be more than happy to cook for them, if they'd like to meet at our house. They are the sweetest, and they are always so appreciative of home cooking. So that's what ended up happening.
To say that I was looking forward to this dinner is an understatement. Two days ahead of time, I'd already set the table, using some souvenir figurines that my husband brought back from overseas trips when he flew for the airlines (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Julius Caesar, a Roman soldier, and a gladiator) to form a manly tablescape. The three sons who were coming for dinner had all taken four years of Latin in high school and are huge fans of all things Ancient Greece and Rome, so I thought they'd like that. I also set the table with my blue-and-white Spode "Rome" transferware plates.
I made buttery pork tenderloin, filet mignon, bacon, Caesar salad, and roasted asparagus. And we had chocolate truffles for dessert. I decided not to make any carbs for sides, and to refrain from baking a special dessert, because some of them are watching what they eat and I thought as long as there was plenty of meat, everyone would be happy.
Well, they were. One thing about sons, mamas: they really appreciate when Mom cooks for them! The way to a man's heart really is through his stomach, as the saying goes.
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| I initially set five places for four people! I guess that's because on a normal night, my hubby would have been there. (Or maybe I'm just really bad at math?) |
What a fun night. We laughed--a lot! I just adore my boys; they are truly the nicest, sweetest people, and they're so funny, too. Afterward, when I told my husband all about this dinner, I said (for about the millionth time), "How lucky are we that we not only love our boys, but we really, really like them?" In all the most important ways, they have made us so proud: they are loving sons and devoted husbands and fathers; they practice their faith and are passing it along to their children; they all married wonderful girls who share their faith and morals; they are honest, kind, humble, hardworking, and smart. But they also make each other--and their dad and me--laugh, so much. They are honestly our favorite people to spend time with.
Those VA boys joked that Mom's three favorites were there that night, but as I've told them before, I have five favorites. It's a five-way tie--it always was and always will be.
So that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods, as the school year winds down and summer fast approaches. Stay cool, dear readers.
