7QT: Family, Favorites, Film, and a Sad Farewell

These Takes this Friday are going to be QUICK, I mean it.  (I can do quick if I put my mind to it!) It's been a busy week and it's not over yet.

Take 1

I've gotten behind on updating my "Sewing with Grammy" series.  A few weeks ago, the girls finished up some simple sundresses for their American Girl dolls (the only "pattern" needed was a sheet of computer paper!); unfortunately, I didn't remember to take pictures of those.  But this past Monday, they started sewing together squares for a small patchwork quilt for their baby sister, who will be joining the family in February.  Each girl is responsible for a row of three squares.  The twins (10) used the sewing machine for theirs, but the younger two (8 and 6) started stitching their seams up by hand.  It's impressive to see what tiny, neat stitches they can do--they almost look like machine stitches.  It's slow-going for them, but it's satisfying and they enjoy it.

 Take 2

This was a big birthday week for the Pearls.  First, Junior (the oldest of son #4's four boys) turned six.  He is the most enthusiastic kid, a huge (I mean HUGE) fan of both sides of his family tree.  I try to make birthday cakes for all the grandkids each year and decorate them according to their wishes or current passions.  An animal lover, Junior requested a zebra for his cake.

Junior's mom, our daughter-in-law Ginger, told us the sweetest story via text: Junior was very excited about every aspect of his birthday celebration; talking in the car with her a few days beforehand about his cake, he told her what a great baker I am and then added, "She is actually like a CHEF!" (Current favorite grandchild?)

Take 3

A few days later, our little Hermanita (the youngest of son #3's four) turned two.  She is crazy (I mean CRAZY!) about a show called "Cocomelon," and even if she hadn't requested a JJ cake, that's what I would have assumed she wanted.

This little cutie-pie has taken to answering almost every question with "Papa Grammy's house."  Here's another sweet story relayed to us via text, this time by our daughter-in-law Preciosa: The other day Hermanita was licking a lollipop and her mom told her it looked delicious.  Then Preciosa asked her what flavor it was and Hermanita's reply was "Papa Grammy's house!" (Now the current favorite grandchild?  Sorry, Junior! But don't worry; it changes just about hourly, as it did for your dad and his brothers.)

Take 4

On the same day that we celebrated Hermanita's birthday, we visited Junior's school for a moving Veteran's Day Mass/assembly/brunch celebration. His Papa, a former Naval aviator, was Junior's special guest for the event.  My husband now has a "brick" on the wall and will be a part of the Veteran's Day display in the hallway of Junior's Catholic elementary school for as many years as he and his brothers are students there.

Take 5

This guy.

My favorite husband, dad, grandfather, former Naval aviator and airline pilot, and all-around human.  (He never has to worry about losing or sharing that spot, like his boys and their children.  It's a permanent status.)

Take 6

We really don't have favorites, I hope you realize that!  The big joke when our boys were growing up was that they were constantly vying for and earning the favorite spot.  But it was truly a five-way tie.  With the grandkids, we've currently got 17 (soon to be 19) favorites.  (This subject has come up now and then here at the blog over the years; here is one post, and here's another that you could check out, in case these takes are so quick that you need more reading to do. Sorry, you probably didn't know there would be homework when you came here--LOL!)

Take 7

Our youngest son was an Army officer for six years and is currently getting a graduate degree in fine arts.  He is learning all about film production--screenwriting, filming, editing, etc.  This has been a passion of his since he was a young boy, enthralled by the movie magic of Jurassic Park.  I mean, just to give you an idea of how far back this goes, for career day in 3rd grade he went as a movie director.

Son #5 started a blog a few years back to post movie reviews.  He hasn't had the time to update it in a while, and I just tried to click on it but it appears to have disappeared. (Son?  Where did your blog go?)  This boy of ours writes extraordinarily well (said his proud mom), especially when he's doing in-depth analysis on his favorite art form.

 

And on that note, I think this post is a wrap.

I had just typed this up and then headed over to Kelly's to read her post, and I saw that the 7QT link-up at This Ain't the Lyceum has been shut down.  7QT is a wrap, too.  It had a good run, just like blogging.   And I was too late; I didn't get around to doing a post last week and missed the boat on linking up that last time.  :( 

But even though hardly anyone reads or writes blogs anymore, I think I'll keep at it--if only to record family memories for posterity, before my mind starts to go!

7 Quick Takes: Much Ado about Nothing (or Everything)

I always look forward to the 7QT posts Colleen Martin shares here each week.  This funny, bright, devoutly Catholic, happily married mother of seven has long been one of my favorite bloggers, and I'm thrilled that she has kept her Martin Family Moments up and running, even after most of the gals I used to follow have jumped ship and headed over to the Insta-world.  I have felt like giving up myself numerous times over the past five years or so, but I keep trying to plug away at it.  I've noticed that even if she doesn't get any other posts up during the week, Colleen is usually here on Fridays for 7QT.  I am going to use her example as inspiration and try to do the same.  I used to blog every morning, for goodness sake; I can certainly blog once a week.  Because, you know--

1. Blogging is Still a Thing

It is!  And speaking of Martin Family Moments, if you aren't reading it you're really missing out.  If you stop by this endearing blog site, you will undoubtedly be entertained and inspired.  You will see adorable children, ranging in age from toddler to teen.  You will be amused by clever memes (you might even LOL on occasion!).  You will also get some great ideas for new recipes to feed your family.  This recent post is a perfect example of why I always make a point to read Colleen's blog.  Check it out! 

2. Further Proof That Blogging Matters

If you're here at This Ain't the Lyceum, you probably know how awesome blogger/writer/speaker Kelly Mantoan is, because she's the host of this link-up after all.  But when I read an old blog post of hers, "I Am Not Exceptional, and So Can You" (following a link that Colleen had shared in that post of hers that I just told you about), I was blown away by her writing.  What a beautiful treatise on finding joy while parenting her kids, two of whom have special needs, reminding readers that God can choose any one of us--whether we seem like "saints" or not--and give us crosses to carry and challenges to overcome that we might never have thought we could handle.  Kelly has a down-to-earth way of putting things and writes with wisdom, honesty, heart, humility, and humor.  She says, "Raising a special needs child requires the same skills as raising non-disabled children: patience, hard work, sacrifice and love.  If you say you couldn't do what I do, then I have to question if you can properly raise any child, pet or possibly houseplant." So true!  I just love the way she puts things.  (You can read that post here.) 

3. I Have Lots to Blog About, But Less Time to Do It!

I used to have just five boys to blog about (there they are with me in this photo on my computer's screen saver), but they grew up and got married, so now I have five daughters, too, ten children in all. And those ten have so far produced 17 precious grandchildren, with two more on the way.  With SO MANY people in my life to love (and bake birthday cakes for, and babysit for, and snuggle...), I could seriously write a novella every day...if only I had the time.  

4. I'm Going to Need a Bigger Wall...

When our grandchildren reach the age of one, they are immortalized on our living room wall with a photo canvas.  Our daughter-in-law Preciosa started us down this road Christmas 2012, when she gave us a 16 x 20" canvas print of our twin granddaughters (now 10), who were our only grandchildren at the time.  Preciosa wasn't even engaged to our middle son yet (that would happen within a few months, and the wedding just under a year later), and she already knew exactly the kind of gift we would love.

When our next grandchild, the twins' sister (now 8), was born, we decided that since the twins were just about a year old in their canvas, we would have one made of her at that age, too.  Our gallery of canvas portraits just keeps growing and growing as each new grandchild celebrates his or her first birthday.  When the next set of multiples, the triplets (now 4) came along, we put them on a 16 x 20" canvas together, like the twins, but all the singletons have 12 x 12" squares to themselves.  (I hope the multiples don't feel cheated!)

It has gotten to the point where I'm going to need a bigger wall.  Or I'm at least going to have to rehang all the canvases higher up, both in order to make room for more faces and to keep curious little people from standing on the couch and playing with them.  (Not that that would ever happen.)

4. So Many Birthdays, So Much Cake!

With a family as big as ours, there are certainly a lot of birthdays to celebrate.  And that means there is a lot of cake to eat.  (Not a bad problem to have..."Or maybe it is," says my waistline.)

5. Speaking of Birthdays—

Hey, that last take was actually quick, which is out of character for me.  Did you notice?  Anyway...

Yesterday was our oldest son's 38th birthday.  (That's him in the grey and blue striped polo in the picture up above.) Happy Birthday to the boy who made me a mom and changed my life forever for the better; I love you to the moon and back!!  

Our firstborn is the father of five with one on the way, and he has recently taken a job with a new airline.  His schedule, commute, and quality of life will be so much better with this new company, as far as time with his own family goes...but the hard part for this spoiled mom/grandmother who has had all of her grandkids living nearby for more than four years now is that his sweet family will be moving, from 17 minutes away from us in VA all the way out to the Midwest.   More about that in a later post...[sniff!].  I’d rather not talk about it now!

I've been busy lately, so I missed blogging about our oldest boy's wife's birthday last month, and our oldest grandson G-man's a few weeks ago.  It's hard to keep up, I tell you!

My favorite 7-year-old boy.

Next week, we have three grandchildren celebrating birthdays three days in a row (they're turning one, two, and three).  Fortunately, the two moms of those little ones decided to join forces and have one big party today, which will simplify the Pearl family's calendar of events considerably!

6. I Might Have a Mini-me...

With all those grandchildren, I guess the odds were there might be one who resembled his or her Grammy a little.  Our #4 son and his wife have 4-year-old triplets and an almost 2-year-old daughter (one of the three whose birthday we’ll be celebrating today) who looks so much like her daddy did at that age.  They think this youngest little gal of theirs looks like me.  What do you think, is this my Mini-me? 

7. If You’re Looking for Me, I’m Probably Baking, Sewing, or Painting

It’s a good bet that if I have free time, I’ll be doing one of those things!  As a matter of fact, I have to sign off now, so I can decorate a sheet cake with a T-Rex for two little grandsons and finish sewing a dress for one one granddaughter’s birthday and a poodle skirt for another granddaughter’s upcoming Fifties-themed dress-up day in kindergarten.

Before I finished and published this post,
I finished the skirt!  

No painting today.   But I recently finished a fun trompe l'oeil painting project on my walls that I'll share here soon.  

That’s it for me, but now if I were you I’d head on over to Kelly’s, where many delightful die-hard bloggers continue to gather.

7QT: Trompe L’Oeil Fireplace Project

My husband and I have been in Upstate NY since late June.  Four of our boys and their families came up here for a week in early July, but otherwise we haven't been with our gang--and I miss them.  On Sunday, we're heading down to VA to check on our house there, and to break up the long summer and see our kids and grandkids.  All five boys and their families will be there, and I'm extremely excited to reconnect with everyone.   

So I thought it was apropos to do a post about our VA house.

A little over a year ago, just after we’d just finished off our VA basement, we got a discarded wooden fireplace mantle from son #3 and his wife.  (A neighbor of theirs had done a renovation and was giving it away for free, and our kids liked it but didn’t have a place to use it in their new house.)  I love a good trompe l'oeil treatment about as much as anyone, so I decided to take that mantle and create a faux fireplace with a blazing fire in it.  Actually, this was something we had considered doing in the basement of our old house in NH, but we never got around to it.  

I  thought I’d post the step-by-step transformation of this mantle project here at the blog.  (I did this a while ago in an Instagram story—back before I deleted my account—so you might have seen it already.) 

TAKE 1

First step: paint in the gray "mortar" that will go behind the bricks.  (I’m sorry.  The first step was really “get husband to expertly mount mantle to wall.”  I forgot that part!  But as you can see from the first photo up there, he did a great job!)

TAKE 2

Add the bricks—using a template made by tracing the bricks on the side of our house!

TAKE 3

Start giving the interior a three-dimensional look

TAKE 4

Create white brick interior.  (Lots of measuring, and using a level!)

TAKE 5

Make an andiron pattern to trace; sketch in and paint two of them.

TAKE 6

Blacken parts of the interior bricks to look “sooty”; add logs in the grate.

TAKE 7

Now make it burn, baby, burn!  (Sorry, that’s a disco-era reference from the 70’s that young whippersnappers won’t even get, and now you know how old I am.)  I kind of wanted to leave it with the logs unlit (you know, so the grandkids would be safe playing near it—ha ha!).  But my husband definitely wanted a fire.

By this point, I was pretty happy with my faux fireplace, and it was essentially finished.   But the flames needed tweaking—they were a bit dull-looking.  So I added some color to enliven them, as well as some more details (such as red-hot embers underneath).

And there you have it: a fireplace safe for our grandchildren’s playroom.  It fills in an empty wall nicely and “warms up" the space considerably!

 

I had originally thought I would distress the bricks a bit, to make them look old, instead of keeping them this dark red.  But I liked the way it looked and decided to leave well enough alone.  (My middle son humorously suggested that maybe I should touch the bricks up a little bit every year that we live here, so they’ll "age" along with the house!  We shall see...)

For now, as far as this “fool the eye” project goes, c'est finis!  Now allez vous, head on over to Kelly's for more 7QT fun.

7QT: That Papa and Grammy Life

I haven't done a Friday 7 Quick Takes link-up post in a dog's age; but now that I've deleted all of the social media accounts that were taking up WAY too much of my time, I seem to have a lot more time for blogging. Which leads me to my first Take...

Take 1

I'm finished with social media, for a whole lot of reasons.  I was becoming increasingly alarmed about the way Big Tech is tracking individuals and trying to end free speech in America, and that was definitely the primary reason that I wanted to get as "off the grid" as possible.  But I was also just concerned about the increasing amount of time I was spending in scroll mode.  I mean, I had grown really, really attached (read: addicted) to Instagram.  I deleted Facebook first, and then Twitter and LinkedIn; however, I dragged my feet a bit when it came to saying good-bye to my favorite platform.  But I finally did it.  I broke up with Instagram, and it was initially a little painful.  Yet to my surprise, I haven't really missed it as much as I thought I would.

Take 2

Last week, our fourth-born son's wife, Braveheart, and her four little ones (triplets--identical twin boys and a girl, aged 3 and 1/2--plus their little 14-month-old baby sister) came to our house for their weekly playdate. Our other local daughters-in-law were not able to join us, as they have pre-school and kindergarten drop-off and pick-up schedules to deal with.  But so far, the triplets are not in school; and their mom really needs to have some social events to look forward to each week, to give the kids (and her, too) a much-needed change of scenery.  So for her, it almost always works out to come over for lunch and playtime sometime between Monday and Friday while her hubby is at work

Braveheart tells us that just about every day the triplets wake up and ask if they're going to "Papa-Grammy's" house. (They usually just call us both Papa, because to them we are joined at the hip and share one long name, and Papa is easier to say.)  Their eagerness to see us is about the sweetest thing my husband and I can imagine.  And we hope they always love to visit us as much as they do now. 

Take 3

So last Thursday, that crazy little gang of four was at our house from about 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  At one point, just after lunch, I noticed that Paquita was sitting on the floor looking at some of the children’s books that we keep in a basket just off the kitchen area.   And then much to my delight, I realized that she was flipping through her Grammy's illustrated My Little ABC Book, which I self-published in 2019 as a gift for her and her many cousins.  If that doesn't fit the bill of dreams coming true for me, I don't know what does. 

On my honor, I did not set up this photo.  That really is the book she chose to "read."

Take 4

When we moved to VA in 2017, we didn't want a fixer-upper. Not at this late stage of the game, and not after the more than two decades we'd spent doing DIY projects in the NH home we left behind.  We bought a house that was pretty much move-in ready, with the exception of needing the stained and worn-out upstairs carpeting removed and replaced with a more allergy-friendly wood laminate.  We thought that eventually we would want to finish off the basement and make a big, light-filled playroom for the grandkids.  But we didn't do it right away.  We hired a contractor to put in a full bathroom down there,  but otherwise we lived with it the way it was for a while.

Our older grandchildren did play happily in the basement for a couple of years, hardly taking note of the lack of walls and a ceiling and ignoring the exposed furnace, hot water heater, and many boxes and bins in the storage area. Finally, though, the issue became making it safe and child-proof: with the triplets and a few of their cousins entering the ever-more-curious toddler years, we decided it was time to get the job done.  My husband did all the electrical and lighting work himself, and he was planning to frame and finish all the walls; but we thought we'd hire someone to tackle the ceiling.  However, we weren't able to find anyone available to do it for us, so we decided that my favorite handyman (my husband!) would do it, with me helping out in any way I could.

The former owners had put up one wall (on the right in this picture), and they'd installed a vinyl floor.  But otherwise, the basement was completely unfinished and my husband had his work cut out for him.

Take 5 

We were moving along with the project in late 2019, slowly but surely, whenever my husband had time off from work. But then in early 2020, airplanes stopped flying overseas, and you can't be an international airline pilot and work from home; with all of his trips cancelled, all of a sudden my husband had all the free time he needed to concentrate on our pet project.  I guess I can thank the Covid pandemic for giving us so much time at home together to get the work done (#unexpectedblessings).  By springtime, we had a beautifully finished-off basement with a giant playroom, a storage/sewing and crafting area that could be locked to keep the little ones out, and a small guest bedroom.

Take 6

We are so pleased with the way it all turned out!  The grandkids love it down there.  The playroom is stocked with an impressive collection of toys--many of them vintage favorites kept from when their daddies were little, and others purchased the past few years at thrift stores, Goodwill, and other places.  (I mean, with 9 granddaughters, I needed to get some dolls and dollhouses--two items which we never had in our all-boy house back in the day.)  We still have a vast collection of children's books, too, from when our boys were growing up.  Many of them are about dinosaurs, our boys' childhood obsession.  

It must be hereditary; we have a few grandsons who are completely dinosaur-obsessed these days.

Take 7

Nothing makes Papa and Grammy happier than seeing this new generation of Pearls enjoying some of the same toys their daddies played with and reading some of the same books their daddies read (and oh yes, their Grammy's ABC Book, too!).  And nothing tickles us more than seeing the basement playroom we "made" for them being put to good use.  We know that all the time we spent down there, covered in construction dust and paint splatters, was well worth it, when we see it filled with our favorite little people on the planet.

I guess I'm out of Takes already!  Before I sign off, I'm going to add some recent photos taken of me with a handsome little fella who is the youngest of my 17 grandchildren.  I used to dread my children growing up and leaving me.  I used to fear growing old.  But now I am grateful that those two things happened, because otherwise I would never know the unique joy of being a grandmother.  And I think you can plainly see that joy in these two pictures!

That's all for this Grammy.  For more, head on over to the 7QT party at Kelly's.

7 Quick Takes: This 'n That

Quick Takes is usually a Friday deal at This Ain't the Lyceum, and I'm a day early (for once in my blogging life!).  But I just really felt like writing today; and hopefully I can add this post to the link-up once it goes live over there.

1

I recently invited all four of my daughters-in law (who are practically my neighbors now), along with their combined 14 children, to my house for a luncheon/mother's day out/play date.  I had this fantasy that my husband and I could send the bigger kids down to the basement to play unsupervised and we could watch the toddlers and babies upstairs, even for a little bit, so the girls could sit at the dining room table together in peace.  You know, so they could relax and eat nice food and have some uninterrupted girl talk.  I even set the table all fancy for them.

Only three of them were able to come, because son #1's wife Regina was dealing with a stomach bug at her house.  (When there are 14 grandchildren aged 5 months to 7 years, it seems like someone is always sick.  Or at least that's the way it's been this winter.)

I love it that our home is in a central location for everybody.  Papa and Grammy's house is a great gathering place for our growing brood.  (As a sign my d-i-l Preciosa made for us says, it's "where cousins become friends.")

2

Remember how I said my fantasy was that the girls would be able to sit and chat in peace?  It wasn't entirely the case!  There were some little visitors in the dining room.  They were having serious FOMO, thinking their moms were getting a better deal than they were.  (But come on, Kraft mac 'n cheese at the kitchen table; what's not to like?!)

3

Our house in VA is ideally located, and it's very nice; but it's a good bit smaller than our longtime family home in NH was.  And our string of Pearls seems to be having new gems added to it all the time, so I'm anxious to get our basement finished off so that the kids have a big, safe area in which to play.

Not that the grandkids don't play in the basement already--they definitely do!  All the time.

As you can see, there are plenty of toys to play with down there, and there's lots of space (and we even had a full bath put in).  There's a couch to sit on, a table to draw at, and a TV to crowd around.  It's not bad, as far as basements go.  But I'll be happy when it is finally truly finished off--something we've been planning to do since we moved in two years ago.  The toddlers are starting to get a little too interested in investigating the dangers hidden in the storage space.  Not to mention Grammy's sewing area.

4

Speaking of sewing, I have been working on a special project for our oldest grandchildren, identical twin girls who will be making their First Holy Communion next month.  Their mom (knowing how much I enjoyed making christening gowns for all of our precious grandbabies) asked if I would be interested in making white dresses for their big day.  Would I ever!

The dresses are about 90% finished--I just need to sew in the zippers, put elastic in the puff sleeves, and then add some embellishments, like big satin bows and perhaps some pearl buttons.

Yesterday, I took one of the dresses over to the girls' house so they could try it on.  I wanted to make sure it fit and the length was okay.  "It's perfect!" cried Bonny Babe (the older twin, by a few minutes), twirling and looking like she was on a cloud.  How sweet was that reaction?  And when Cutie Pie found out that it was made of satin, she oohed and aahed.  "It's satin?!"  It was adorable.

I'm hoping these dresses become family heirlooms and get used by lots of granddaughters.

5

Speaking of heirloom garments (wow, my segue game is on point today), I have several special outfits worn by my boys when they were little that I put away many years ago to save for the grandchildren I dreamed I'd one day have.  It is such a thrill to see this sailor suit, worn by son #2 in 1985, being worn by his three boys, Junior, Jedi, and Topper.  (Thanks to my d-i-l Ginger, who put together this wonderful photo montage.)

6

Seeing our grandchildren wearing clothing once worn by their dads is pretty touching; but what is even more amazing is seeing how much they look like our boys did when they were wee lads themselves.

I recently came across a photo of son #4 that reminded me so much of his identical twin boys Pumpkin and Peanut (who have a triplet sister, Paquita!), particularly Peanut.  After I showed it to my d-i-l Braveheart, she sent me this side-by-side comparison that she'd made of our boy next to his boy Peanut.

What do you think of that resemblance?!  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?

7

I just have one last tidbit of information to share here (now that I've shown you how cute my grandchildren are and what lovely daughters-in-law I have):  My husband and I are taking a trip next week, to his favorite city...ROME!

He has been working as an airline pilot for over three decades, and flying internationally for much of that time.  He estimates that he's probably been to Rome about 200 times in his life; but these trips were working trips.  He would fly the plane over on the first day, have a one-day layover there, and the third day, he'd fly the plane back.  Over the years, he was able to see many of the city's treasures.  But he's never done it as an actual vacation.  And he's never done it with me.  Once our boys were mostly grown and I overcame my separation anxiety and fear of flying, I tagged along on a handful of his working trips to some beautiful European cities.  But I've never been to Rome.

It will be the adventure of a lifetime!  And you can be sure I'll be sharing pictures and stories about our trip here at String of Pearls when I can--and definitely on Instagram.  (I'll be like those friends who invite you over and make you watch their vacation slide shows...but the beauty is, you can leave any time you want--and I won't know, so I won't be offended!)

That's it for me.  Ciao!

(P.S. It's Friday now.  Here's that link to the link-up!)