{simple saturday}: Bridal Shower

Hello, blog world!  How have things been?  I've missed you!

But it was a busy, action-packed long weekend for me down in VA, visiting with my middle son, his bride-to-be, and other assorted family members.  My husband's older sister and her daughters threw a lovely family shower for my son's intended on Saturday night, and I thought one simple picture would give you an idea of how simply wonderful it was.

So here I am posing side-by-side and cheek-to-cheek with my soon-to-be daughter-in-law. (How's that for a string of hyphenated compound words, all in one sentence?)

Okay, I lied; make that TWO simple pictures.  Now here's the blushing bride-to-be surrounded by a bunch of Pearls who are thrilled to welcome her onto the ever-growing family string.

I know how much she loved wearing that hat, fashioned out of the bows and ribbons from all her gifts. Almost as much as she loved modeling her new "Little Black Apron," complete with a June Cleaver-esque pearl necklace attached (a gift from me--and as luck would have it, I have one of my own, so we were able to do the twin thing).

When I started this post, I thought I'd try to link up for {simple saturday} with Iris, but even though most link-ups do stay open for a while to give us procrastinators a chance to join in, I see I'm a bit too late for that.  I'm a just a wee tad out of the loop here.  I haven't just been avoiding Iris; I've been avoiding everybody!  I haven't just been not-blogging; I've been not-reading other blogs I usually enjoy and not-commenting on them.  But sometimes my real life gets too busy and full to keep up with my on-line life (which I believe is a good thing!). I doubt you even noticed I was absent from the blogosphere the past few days, but I guess I'm officially back.  And after crashing back down to earth after such an eventful weekend, I hope I'll be able to come up with some interesting things to write about.  You know, because keeping up with my blog is just a very, very important job.

See you tomorrow...I hope!

{simple saturday}: It's a tough life!

I'm a day late with this post, but I'm linking up with Iris for another {simple saturday} installment.

You see, I was too busy being not-busy yesterday, lounging around by the lakeside with my hubby at his family's childhood home, to get to my computer and blog.  We decided to take a somewhat spur-of-the-moment trip to Upstate NY with our youngest son, since he'd missed the big reunions that had been held there on both sides of the family tree this summer (because he was either en France or jumping out of airplanes), and this would have been the first summer of his life without even one trip up there.  Our son called two of his cousins, a boy who is four days older than he and a girl who is two days younger (they are the first set of "triplets" to be born in the Pearl family, the second set being a legitimate one), to see if either or both of them would like to join him for one last hurrah at the Pearl compound before they all have to head back to college for their junior year. The girl cousin was not able to come from CT; but the boy cousin was available and up for it, and he brought his younger brother along.  Those two boys drove 11 hours north from their home in VA to be with our son for two days, and they're driving 11 hours back home tomorrow.  I hope our boy realizes that cousins like that don't grow on trees and that he is--to put it simply--very blessed.

So yesterday, my day looked a lot like this:

And like this:

It's a tough life, but somebody's got to live it!

Have a happy and holy Sunday--and if you haven't done so yet, why don't you head on over to Iris'?  'Kay?

{simple saturday}: Not Too Shabby

I've only got a few minutes to sit at my trusty old laptop today.  A short, sweet, and simple post is what's required, because my husband and I are at another big family gathering in Upstate NY (and what better way to keep it simple than by joining Iris, whose Saturday blog link-up is all about simplicity?).

Earlier in the month we were up here with about 50 members of the Pearl clan; this time, it's my family's turn, and my baby sister and her husband are hosting what has come to be known as the "Palooza."  It involves not just our immediate family, but all of our far-flung cousins on my mother's side as well.

There are tents, pop-up campers, and RV's set up all over the vast grounds of my sister's lakeside house, but my husband and I are staying off-site, about 30 minutes away at his family homestead.  I've talked about this lakeside house many times here at "String of Pearls."  It's where my husband and his seven siblings grew up, and when their parents passed away, they decided to form an LLC and keep the house in the family so that there would always be a place where they could gather under one roof (or technically, two--because his older sister bought the house right next door). So we're driving about a half-hour over to the Palooza in the morning, and then a half-hour back home at night when the party finally dies down. But it's well worth it, when you consider the quality of our digs.  Nothing against camping, but we have a hard time thinking about sleeping on the ground in a tent when we can sleep in a comfy bed in a room with a view like this.

Yesterday, before heading over to my sister's, we brought our morning beverages down to the patio on top of the new sea wall (which the LLC had built this year to shore up the eroding bank).   THIS is what I was gazing at as I drank my morning coffee.

Not too shabby, eh?  (We're practically on the border of Canada here; the "eh's" may start flying, because when in Rome...)  

And now I must go, because my coffee's been poured and the patio--and that VIEW!-- beckons!

(By the way: this is day 6 out of the 7 Posts in 7 Days challenge, and I haven't missed one yet!)

{simple saturday}: Jeepers Creepers...

...where'd she get those peepers?

Jeepers creepers, where'd she get those eyes?

These are the eyes of one of my two-year-old twin granddaughters, Bonny Babe.  And she got them from the Author of Life, of course.  Because who else could create something so beautiful?

What's even more miraculous than the simple beauty of these "windows of the soul" is that underneath those long dark lashes and behind those sky-blue orbs, there exists a complex system that could never have come about by some random process.  If ever there was an argument for intelligent design, this might be it:

Those baby blues of hers enable her to see the world about her--and maybe most importantly [wink, wink], to recognize her Papa and Grammy when they appear on the computer screen during Skype sessions or come through the front door of her house after a months'-long absence (thank you, God, for the gift of sight!).

There is another pair of eyes in the world that is almost identical to this pair, because Bonny Babe has an identical twin sister, Cutie Pie.  By God's hand, one fertilized egg split and produced two precious human beings; they have an eerie resemblance to one another, but are definitely individuals with their own personalities, likes and dislikes, temperaments, and immortal souls.  They are far from clones.  And while their eyes look similar from the outside, these two little girls see the world through their own unique lenses.

So there it is, pure and simple--some hard proof, if you ask me, of the existence of God: the complex inner workings of the eye, and the miracle of the creation of identical twins.

That's all I've got today, but there's more over at Iris'.

{simple saturday}: I Knew He Was Comin', So I Baked a Cake!

My youngest son, who has spent the past six weeks in France (doing one of the coolest college internships you could ever imagine) is coming home tonight!  Huzzah, yippee, yay, etc.!  Not only that, but he's riding in the back of the airplane his dad is piloting (oh, the perks of being the son of an airline pilot!).  Actually, I don't know this for a fact yet; if there wasn't any space available on my husband's flight, he may have had to buy a ticket on Air France to ensure he'd make it back home in a timely fashion.

On Thursday, my husband went over there on a working trip and met up with our boy on Friday, just as the six-week gig was coming to a close.  The two of them painted Paris red rouge (they even had beers together--because in France, a 20-year-old is not a boy, but un homme--at a joint called Harry's New York Bar, a favorite watering hole of my dad's from way back in his traveling-for-work years).  They saw some amazing sights together--like the incorrupt body of St. Catherine Laboure, enshrined in the church where Mary appeared to her and gave the humble nun instructions for the creation of the Miraculous Medal.  (When my husband told me about it, my eyes filled with tears...more on that another time, because today my goal is to keep this post short and sweet.)

Now for the sweet.  To me, every celebration must have a cake, so I set out to make my son a French-themed two-layer welcome home cake, with little French toothpick flags adorning the top of it.

Unfortunately, however, after sitting overnight, my decorative icing flourishes began to melt and run off the cake.  My son's name is now unreadable.

And the poor cake looks like it's bleeding...but no worries!  I now proclaim it a French Revolution-themed cake.  It still works!  It's got Les Mis written all over it!

It may not be pretty, but I know it will be simply delicious.

Now go say hi to Iris, because she hosts this simply delightful link-up:

{simple saturday}: Boys and Trucks

What makes little boys happy?  Big trucks!!

This picture of my two young nephews watching the work going on in the back yard of their grandparents' house yesterday, from their front row balcony seats on the deck, pretty much tells the whole story.  Words are simply unnecessary.

I love boys.  And they love trucks.  And that is all.

Join Iris for more simple thoughts on this glorious Saturday morning.

{simple saturday}: Mon Fils Visite de la Tour Eiffel

My youngest son is doing a six-week college internship in Paris this summer.  (C'est magnifique, n'est-ce pas?)  He's traveling all about France while doing research on the WWI and WWII war memorials over there (many of which are dedicated to U.S. servicemen).  I miss him terribly, but I wouldn't have wanted him to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity just because his mommy was having a severe case of separation anxiety.  He is learning so much--and seeing things I never dreamed he'd see by the age of 20.

For instance, he recently visited the Eiffel Tower.

[Le sigh...]

And that is all (c'est tout, if you'll excuse my French).  But you can head on over to Iris's now, for some other simply delightful posts.  Au revoir, mes amis!

{simple saturday}: Family Coat of Arms

My husband and I homeschooled our fifth-born son, from 2002-2007 (for 4th through 8th grade), something we'd never done before.  His four older brothers all went to our local Catholic elementary school from grades K-8, and it wasn't until we grew concerned about some of the changes taking place there that we decided to try something different with him. So when son #4 graduated from 8th grade and moved on to the local Catholic high school, we thought the time was right to take matters into our own hands and educate our baby ourselves.

In 2005, I came up with a cool homeschool art project for my favorite pupil: to design a Pearl coat of arms that would be symbolic of our family and what it stands for.  (Full disclosure: I totally copied the idea from another teacher, after one of my older sons--who was in high school at the time--was assigned this project for a religion class).

I loved the design he came up with so much that I laminated it and hung it on the wall of our basement classroom, where it has been proudly displayed...until last Wednesday.  My baby boy just finished his second year of college, and I am just now--finally!--dismantling our homeschool classroom for good.  I put away most of the trappings of our little "school" years ago, but I have had a hard time shutting the door on that wonderful period of our lives completely.  However, the time has finally come.  I'm getting ready to re-paint and put up some wall shelves down there, and so for the first time in eleven years, there will be no remnants of that beloved classroom in evidence.  R.I.P., St. Dominic Savio Academy (that's the name our boy gave our little institution, in honor of his favorite saint--whose name he took on his Confirmation day).

Without further ado (because it's {simple saturday} and I've already said way too much), I give you our family's coat of arms, rendered in colored pencil by my youngest son:

I like its Latin motto: Veritas, Justitia, Virtus.  (Truth, Justice, Virtue.)  I like its symbolism: shamrocks, to show our intense love of all things Irish; the ND logo, to show our intense love of all things Notre Dame-related; and most importantly, a Cross, to show our intense love of our Catholic Faith.  To put it simply: it's just plain perfect.

You nailed it, son.  A++++++++++++

As a quick postscript, here's the sign we had hanging above the desks, too--and notice our homeschool's own little coat of arms there on the right.  It, too, was designed by my son, and he chose the motto (because of something St. Dominic Savio was known for saying--that he would rather die than commit one mortal sin): Mortis sed non peccatum.  (Death but not sin.)

And that is all!

Now head on over and visit Iris, for some more simply delightful posts by some simply delightful bloggers.

{simple saturday}: Bathing Beauty

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a new blog link-up I thought I'd try on for size.

So...I'm joining Iris, whose motto "Live Simply" inspired this link-up--which is nothing short of inspired, I tell you.  As Iris says, {simple saturday} posts can be "short."  They should include "simple words, clear speech."  Maybe a picture or two

Nothing fancy, folks.  It's just simplicity all the way here at String of Pearls today, and over at Country Girl's Daybook, too.

Well, it's about that time again: summertime; which means that I must finally start shedding some of the comforting clothing layers I've been hiding under throughout the cold months because...[shudder] bathing suit weather is almost upon us.

And the last time I looked really cute in swimsuit (in my very objective opinion) was circa 1961.  Not to toot my own horn or anything--but at the tender age of three, I think I looked like a little bathing beauty. (Here's the proof.)

Now?  Not so much.

And that is all!

Now head on over to Iris's blog to see what others have posted--you simply must!  (I'm not going to say, "Did you see what I did there?"--because I know you're not a simpleton.)