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 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!)

Our Lady Speaks to Us, Part 2; and a Birthday!

Today is our middle son’s 38th birthday.   He is the most pleasant, easygoing, fun person to know: whip smart yet humble, a sports fanatic, unfailingly sweet to his parents, a devoted husband and father, and a friend to all.

On a dream trip to a football game at Notre Dame, his alma mater, with his firstborn, in 2022.

With his nephew, who shares his name.  Who wouldn't love that face?
(Either of those two faces, that is!)

Our boy's beautiful family.

But that boy of ours has never liked to have a big deal made about him, or to be the center of attention.  So I won’t go on and on about him in this post, because that would make him uncomfortable.  Instead, I’ll turn my attention to one of his precious loved ones, the youngest of his five offspring. When you read this post, you will understand just how special our son must be, and how well he is passing on the Faith to his children.

Happy Birthday, son #3!  We love you!  (Now enjoy reading about your little man.) 

Way back in 2011, shortly after I’d set up shop here at String of Pearls, I blogged about a rather humble garden statue of the Blessed Mother that we had outside our house in NH.  Our across-the-street neighbors were Catholic, but non-practicing and not very religious at all.  So imagine how surprised and touched I was when the mom told me that her 3-year-old boy had stopped in front of our house one day when they were out on a walk and said, "I have to kiss the Lady."  By that he meant that he had to kiss the statue of Mary that we had out in our front yard, not far from the sidewalk!  Here's that old short-and-sweet post, Our Lady Speaks to Us, if you're interested.  It's only been visited by 87 readers in all these years...)

We brought that statue of Mary with us when we moved to VA in 2017, but it had developed cracks and wasn't holding up too well anymore.  So we replaced it with a bigger, better one (a 36-inch faux granite beauty from Walmart).

This is my favorite time of year here in VA,  when those flowering bushes
bloom behind our statue, and this area looks like a "Mary Garden."

Recently, I was reminded of that poignant incident I’d blogged about all those years ago, when another sweet and pure-souled little boy (our 2-year-old grandson, who was visiting us on St. Patty's Day with a bunch of his cousins) was similarly inspired to give our Marian garden statue some love.

He stared at her face.  He patted her cheeks.

He held her hands.

And then he went in for a hug.

It was the sweetest thing ever.

My grandson didn't call her "the Lady," or anything else, for that matter; he still doesn't have a huge vocabulary. But he knew just who She was, I'm sure of it: his non-verbal actions told the story better than words ever could.

This wee fella is a little wild man, into absolutely everything, a real Bam Bam (although you won't understand that reference if you're not old enough to remember The Flintstones cartoon--I'm revealing my age!).  He's a climber (he has a zipped-up tent over his crib now, so he can't escape).  He likes to throw things (and can be very destructive at times).  He's all-boy, hilarious, and about as cute as they come.

But even the wild little heart of a 2-year-old mischief-maker can be tamed by Our Lady.  She speaks to us. And little ones always seem to hear Her voice the most clearly.

So Much to Write About...I Can't Keep Up!

Hey there, 'member me?  LOL!

(No really, do y'all remember me?)

I used to post here pretty regularly, and now I drop in about once a month or so and dust off the old blog, all the while wondering, "Why am I still doing this again?"  

I know the answer to that question, actually: I want to archive as many family memories as I can, before my 65-year-old brain starts failing me and I don't remember what I had for breakfast today.  (Actually, that's easy, because I don't eat breakfast.  Or lunch either.  My husband and I really only have one meal a day, sometime in the afternoon--unless we're guests of friends or relatives.  But more about that some other time.)  So I want to keep this blog going, if possible...but yikes, if you think you're going to have more time for hobbies when your kids all grow up and leave you to start families of their own, I'm here to tell you that's not always the case.  It certainly isn't the case for me, anyway.

But I'll take a busy life, one so filled to the brim and overflowing with gobs of precious grandchildren that every other interest (except my husband, of course!) has to take a back seat.  I'm one lucky woman, and I remind myself of that fact every single day. 

So much catching up to do...but where to begin?  The last time I was here, summer wasn't even over yet. Since then, so much has happened.  Maybe the easiest way to tackle this is to start from our most recent family goings-on and work backwards through the month(s).  On that note:

My husband and I returned from a kind of epic road trip a couple of days ago.  If you come here often, you know that three of our five boys had settled down here in the same area of VA, and because of our decision to move south in 2017, we get to see them and their wives, and the 14 children they have between them, on a regular basis.  Our oldest lives out in WI now (most likely for good) and our youngest is located outside of Nashville (at least for the foreseeable future).  So we decided to visit both of those faraway boys and their families in one fell swoop, before winter weather sets in and makes travel difficult.  We first headed west to TN for a week, then north to WI for another week.  From WI, we drove back home to VA, with a stop in South Bend, IN on the way, to break up the trip and check on a rental house my husband and his siblings own out there.  We were gone about two-and-a-half weeks.  (We could have been gone for months, I believe; thank you, God, for children who actually like to spend time with their dear old Mom and Dad and are sad when we pull out of their driveways!)

Our week with our youngest son and his wife was delightful.  My husband was able to do a couple of minor projects for them (the last time we visited them, shortly after they bought their first house, he did a few major ones), but mostly the two of us just doted on our little granddaughter (grandchild #20), who is about as sweet and adorable as they come.  At a little over 7 months old, she is all pink-and-white skin, silky tufts of blond hair, big blue eyes, chubbiness with creases, breathy baby talk, heart-melting smiles, and giggles. We are besotted with that little one.

Our son's boss calls him "The Tall One."  He makes us look short, that's for sure.

My husband plays a game called "Stinky Toes" with all the grandbabies, and they love it.

Daddy's girl.

When we left TN, we drove north, stopping for the night at a hotel to break up the trip.  Once we got to our firstborn's WI home and had spent a few days catching up, we were able to do some painting and plumbing projects for him and his wife, who have bought a house out there that sits on 20 acres of land.  But mostly, we just enjoyed lots of time with their six children, whom we miss terribly now that they're so far away.  We had wonderful, hearty, home-cooked family dinners every night, sitting around the long pine farmhouse table our son made with his own two hands years ago.  And we were able to be there to celebrate his 40th birthday with him, which was very special.

It was fun watching our boy guide his four oldest girls, teaching them his secret methods for drawing amazing images using colored icings.  He has always been the birthday cake decorator in their house (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree--but in his case, the student has become the master!  The pictures on his cakes are more professional-looking than his mom's ever were).  Now he's passing on this skill to the next generation.

Tell me you know who Homestar Runner is.  (We wouldn't, if not for our
oldest son, who discovered him his Freshman year at Notre Dame.)

[Gulp!] I have a 40-year-old son.  Yes indeed, I do!   It seems like yesterday that I was pregnant with him, eagerly awaiting his birth and sewing things for his nursery.  I still have this little mobile that I made to hang over his crib. It's hanging in one of our guest rooms here at our house in VA.  I know it's not the best-looking mobile you'll ever see, but I am far too sentimental to get rid of it!

BTW, Our oldest son's wife is expecting baby #7 (grandchild #22) in about a month, so please keep them in your prayers, dear readers!

You know, I never had a problem with turning 40 myself.  But for some reason, our son turning that age kind of gave me a bit of a gut-punch. While my husband and I were driving back home, praying a Rosary together out loud in the car, my mind wandered and I found myself doing math.  Our triplet grandchildren recently turned 6.  And I thought, "How old will my boy be when those triplets turn 40?"  The answer, shockingly, was 74.  The answer was that he would be an old man.  My son, the sweet baby boy for whom I'd made that mobile not too long ago...someday, God willing, he would be even older than I am now.  Well, just thinking about that, my eyes welled up with tears and I was too choked up to say a few of my Rosary responses.

It's all good, though!  The circle of life and all!  As my father always used to say, when it came to getting older: it's better than the alternative.

Okay then, I'm going to stop here before I become too maudlin (am I too late for that?).  But I'll be back as soon as I can.  I need to chronicle the triplets' birthday celebration, for one thing!  Until then, God bless you!

Grandparents' Day, a Confirmation, Cousins, and a Cake

Well, it hasn't been QUITE a month yet since I last blogged (almost, but not quite!).  I left off with this post, from May 19, which chronicled a grandson's First Holy Communion and a Mother's Day celebration.  Lots has happened since then...lots that I haven't written about but I'd like to get down "on paper" here before too much more time has passed.

I actually forgot to mention another special event that occurred in May in that last post: Grandparents' Day at son #3's kids' Catholic school, which took place on May 12.  Their school is only about a 45-minute drive from where we live (I've said it before and I'll say it again, this move to VA in 2017 was the best decision we could have made), so we were able to arrive early and snag the best seats up front in the gym/auditorium.  (That way, when the kids looked out to see if we were there, we were easy to find!)  It was wonderful, but a bit crazy: when you have three students (grades JK, 1, and 2) and only two grandparents, it's hard to do all the things you want to do with each one, as each grade level has a different schedule of events.  But we did the best we could and our grandchildren seemed extremely happy that we came.  (Especially our JK cutie, who was literally jumping and dancing with joy.)

 

You may recall that in my next-to-last post, I blogged about a trip out to Iowa for a granddaughter's First Holy Communion in early May.  Well, that same granddaughter (8) and her sister (10), two of our oldest son's six children, were scheduled to be confirmed on May 21--in the same ceremony, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, WI, by Cardinal Burke.  So we went on another road trip!  We drove out to Iowa first, to spend a couple of days with our son's family.  On Sunday, we went to a traditional Latin Mass at their parish in the morning, and then we car-caravanned over to WI with them afterward for the Confirmation.  Our 8-year-old granddaughter, City Girl, had asked me to be her sponsor.  Her sister, Little Gal, had asked her other grandmother.  What a special honor that was for Grammy and Nonna!

The two newly confirmed girls are in front,  one on either side of the cardinal, with their sponsors
 behind them. (St. Joan of Arc, pray for us!  St. Catherine Laboure, pray for us!)

One more interesting little fact: our granddaughters' mom Regina was also confirmed by Burke many years ago, back when he was a bishop.  

That will probably be our last trip to Iowa to see this beloved family, since son #1 has taken a job with a new company and a move to WI is imminent.  It's funny how you can get attached to a place so quickly.  They've only lived there a year-and-a-half, but I'm a bit sad that my husband and I will never visit them at their sweet little Iowa homestead again.  They've sold most of their animals (the cows, chickens, and ducks; but they still have the goats) and put their house on the market, and they're looking for a place to buy in WI.  We pray that the sale of the old house and the move to a new one will happen quickly and smoothly.

Doesn't this look idyllic, like something out of an old painting?  It's a dreamy piece
of real estate. (Hopefully some buyer will agree with that sentiment, sooner rather than later!) 

Let's see, what else has happened since I've been away?  Oh yes, over Memorial Day son #3, his wife, and their five kids made a trip to TN.  They met up with son #5, his wife, and their infant daughter (who live outside of Nashville), and they all stayed together in an airbnb cabin.  While my husband and I weren't part of that fun family vacation (which included visiting Dollywood), we enjoyed it vicariously through pictures.  We were so thrilled to know that two of our boys had met up with their families and were enjoying precious time together, and that cousins who'd never met before were forming new bonds.  (Although our youngest granddaughter may have to see these guys a few more times before she starts to remember them!)  That's everything to my husband and me, really.  Aside from wanting them to one day all become saints in Heaven (of course!), our one wish for our boys and their families is that they remain close to each other, long after we're gone.

It has become a tradition that sometime in mid-June, son #2 and his wife host a huge family blow-out party at their house, to celebrate the birthdays of their second-oldest son Jedi and my hubby.  After that backyard extravaganza, we head up to NY for the summer to manage our Vrbo house and enjoy the lake life.  This year, because our daughter-in-law Ginger is due to have baby #5 in mid-June, they were going to have the party at the beginning of the month.  But they ultimately decided to cancel, which to tell you the truth was a relief to us.  It's hard enough to be within a couple of weeks of giving birth, but add in a party for dozens of people (which always includes an amazing spread and a giant water slide/bouncy house for the kids), and that's just too much.  

So instead of that, Papa and I brought a little party over to Jedi last night, and we celebrated his 6th birthday a few days early. 

It has also become a tradition for Grammy to make cakes for all the
little ones.  Guess what Jedi is into these days?

Unless the baby decides to come earlier, Ginger is due to be induced on June 16, the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  She and son #2 chose not to find out the sex, and we can hardly wait to meet our new grandson or granddaughter!  We will be staying overnight at their house to watch their four boys while they're in the hospital.  Please keep our daughter-in-law and her baby in your prayers, if you could.

I used to dream that this blog would have all sorts of inspirational content, that it would be more about writing than just telling you what I've been doing and posting photos.  When I read Jenny Uebbing's blog posts, which don't come out that often and are always eagerly devoured, I'm just blown away by her WORDS.  (I love words!  I love to read them and to write them!  Speaking them is harder for me, so I'd rather write them.  But I digress...)  Uebbing rarely even includes pictures in her blog posts, but she doesn't have to.  Every essay is gold. 

This blog, on the other hand, has has become more of a scrapbook of my life than anything else.  But I'm okay with that!  As my 65th birthday approaches, I'm reminded more and more of how fleeting it all is, and I want to commit to memory every single precious moment with the people I love. 

And thanks be to God, there are many such moments.

A Birthday Love Letter to My Boyfriend

Yes, I’m a married woman (it’s been 41 and 1/2 years now!).  So what’s up with title of this post?!

Well, you see, that’s the way I think of my husband, even all these years later.  He made my heart skip a beat every time I looked at him, way back when I was a 15-year-old girl in love for the first time.  And he still does.  He’s still the one.

Of all the choices I’ve made in my life, the best one, the most important one, was marrying him.  He has never, in all our years together, failed to put me first and do everything in his power to support and take care of me, to make me happy.  He treats me like a queen (as St. Paul instructed—you know, as Christ loved the Church), and always insisted that our boys do the same.  They all knew that the most surefire way to get in trouble with their dad would have been to speak disrespectfully to me; but honestly, they just didn’t do that. It wasn’t an issue.  They had an excellent role model and they followed his lead, and I’m not just putting on my rose-colored glasses when I say that my husband’s sons treated their mother like gold as boys—and if anything, they treat her even better now that they are men.

He’s one of a kind, my guy—a true family man in every possible sense of the word, the fearless leader of our string of Pearls. He always considered himself a husband and father first; airline pilot was just the job he had that made it possible for him to provide for his wife and sons. He prioritized time at home with his family, which enabled him to help coach his boys’ football and lacrosse teams from youth leagues through high school.  He’s funny, smart, hardworking, soft-hearted (yes, boys, underneath that tough disciplinarian who kept you on the straight and narrow lurked the heart of a big old marshmallow), loving, generous, ethical, faithful, and faith-filled, a talented carpenter and an all-around handy guy when it comes to household projects.  My worst day with him is better than my best day without him, to quote one of the country songs we heard at the Grand Ole Opry on our recent trip to Nashville.

Here is a post called Our Boys' Life Coach that I wrote way back in 2014.  It will give you an idea of the kind of man and father my husband is (and since his birthday falls on Father's Day this year, this will count as his "Happy Father's Day" shout-out as well!). 

I forgot to mention that he’s easy on the eyes.  And strong, too.  Every other day, he does 1,000 push-ups (20 a minute for 50 minutes).  Not too shabby for a 64-year-old, if I do say so. And I do!

My husband was obviously my inspiration for Grace Kelly’s high school crush in Finding Grace.  I mean, who else could be?  And her feelings for him?  All me. That character was not supposed to be like me; but her feelings for Tom Buckley were very much inspired by mine for MY real life love interest.  (Real life: better than fiction!)

In Chapter 10, here’s a peek inside Grace’s 14-year-old mind:: 

Grace couldn’t meet Tom’s eyes, as usual, so she directed her gaze at those arms of his.  He had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and had his jacket slung over his shoulder...Grace could imagine those strong, golden arms around her, keeping her safe.  She could imagine them tenderly cradling their newborn baby.

“It’s official,” she thought, “I’ve lost my mind!”

Grace Kelly sure likes that handsome boy.  Everything about him, even his arms.

I get that!  I like everything about this man I married, my boyfriend for life.  On our trip to Iowa in May, I snapped this candid picture of him staring pensively out the window while holding our little sleeping granddaughter (#18 of our 19 grandchildren).

Be still my heart!  Here’s what 1,000 push-ups every other day produces, arm-wise: the world’s best baby-holding arms (like Grace Kelly imagined when she looked at Tom’s).  They used to hold our baby boys; now they hold our grandchildren.

Happy Birthday to my best friend and the love of my life.  My boyfriend.  ❤️

A Birthday Celebration, and Celebrating a Birth

Last Sunday, we had a family get-together to celebrate the late January/early February birthdays in the Pearl family.  Son #5 turned 29 in January, and then exactly a week later, son #4 turned 34.  Our granddaughter Princesa (the second oldest of son #3's four kids) is about to turn 6 in February, followed a few days later by her uncle (our son #2), who will be turning 37.

Gulp!  It's hitting me that when our "baby" celebrates his next birthday, he will be turning 30.  Which means that in January of 2023, all five of our boys will be in their 30's...for a little while anyway, until our firstborn turns 40 later in the year.  40!!

It's fine.  I'm fine.  No biggie, really.  Except...WHERE IN THE WORLD DID THE YEARS GO?  I MEAN REALLY, Y'ALL, WHERE?  (Did you notice that "y'all" I threw in there?  I thought that after almost five years of being a Virginian, I should start talking like one.)

Anyhoo--

With our oldest son and his family now settled in their new house out in Iowa, this recent family party was a tad smaller that the ones we've been hosting since we moved here in 2017.  We had 20 gathered together in all, eight adults and 12 children (between the ages of one and seven).  Our youngest son, although one of the birthday boys, couldn't be here either, because he and his wife live in Nashville; but we FaceTimed with him during the festivities. And in honor of him, I made a pin-the-tail game for the kids to play that featured one of his and his wife's beloved (or at least tolerated?) kitty-cats.

Instead of spending hours slaving over a hot stove, my husband and I opted to order and pick up Chipotle catering for 20, and I can't recommend this enough. Everyone loves it, there are always leftovers, and they even give you the disposable dishes, serving utensils, plasticware, and napkins.  It's not cheap, but it's well worth it for a special occasion.  All I had to make was a Bailey's Irish cream cake (a crowd-pleasing recipe from Emily Stimspson Chapman's cookbook) and two dozen cupcakes.  Easy peasy.

I am always happiest when all of our peeps--or as many as possible--are with us, under Papa and Grammy's humble roof, making memories together.  Even though my husband and I have a favorite post-party joke that instead of putting the house back together again after everyone has gone home, perhaps we should just torch the place and start over (ha ha!), we truly wouldn't have it any other way.  It gets very messy, but it's always SO worth it.  And I don't know what we'd do without that spacious basement that we finished off with our own two hands. (Actually, my favorite guy's two hands did a lot more of the work than mine did, but I helped where I could.)

These two birthday boys were New England fans growing up;
and they're Tampa Bay fans now, too.
All of our boys are big fans of the GOAT, Tom Brady.

Three days after our little birthday shindig, we got the happy news that our firstborn son's wife had given birth to their new baby girl, who is their 6th child this side of Heaven.  She wasn't due until February 10, but arrived about two weeks early.  She was born at home with the help of a midwife, and mom and baby are doing well!  

So we have 18 grandchildren now, and yet another January birthday to add to the family calendar.  God is so good!

I love my gang so much.  I feel like the luckiest woman on earth.  I like to quote Jim Harbaugh, whose family motto growing up was, "Who's got it better than we do?  Nobody!"  

Weekend Recap (in Pictures)

What a wonderful weekend for our family!

On Saturday we celebrated the birthdays of three little peeps (grandsons who are about to turn one and three and a granddaughter who will turn two, in the course of three consecutive days this coming week).  The party was a Halloween-themed costume affair at the house of son #4 (the dad of the wee birthday girl/Pikachu) and it was fun. Crazy fun.  Emphasis on crazy!

I think I might have had a smudge on my lens, these photos are very blurry!

Our gifts to the little dinosaur-obsessed fella who's about to turn three were a truly classy dino-themed Garanimals outfit and more importantly, a 40" blow-up T-Rex.  I think you can tell by this photo (that his mom sent me after they got home and his dad inflated it) that it was a hit.

He loved it so much that he slept beside it!

If your Monday was feeling a big gloomy thus far, I bet it brightened up considerably after you saw that last picture, didn't it?  I don't even have to ask.  I know it did!  How much happier a place would the world be if something as simple as that inflatable dinosaur could produce as much joy in us as it does in this precious little boy?

Here's another image to brighten your Monday: my adorable 5-year-old granddaughter wearing the poodle skirt I made for her to wear for her school's Fifties-themed celebration today.  

My favorite little bobby-soxer!

Yesterday, my husband and I met up with our oldest boy's family at a nearby VA brewery for a very relaxed belated birthday celebration.  He didn't get home from work until late at night on his actual birthday a few days ago.  Instead of celebrating turning 38, he was flying his last trip for the airline he's been working for while they've been living in VA.  He starts training for a new company soon and then within a couple of months his family--including a little boy with four big sisters and another baby sister on the way--will be moving out to the Midwest.  

But Papa and Grammy (or "Papagrammy," as the triplets call both of us--you know, kind of like Brangelina) didn't want to dwell on that yesterday!  We wanted to enjoy the time we have with this sweet family, and we did.  My daughter-in-law and I brought supplies for a simple picnic, we ordered some beers, and when the kids weren't sitting at the picnic table chatting with us or sitting on our laps, they were running around the fields.  It was 70 degrees and sunny, the scenery was bucolic, the company was delightful...it was a perfect Sunday afternoon.

I feel like an old-school blogger here.  Sitting down to get this posted was the first thing I did this morning (after I made a cup of coffee, of course!).  I'm not saying this will be a trend, but it feels like the early days here at String of Pearls--make that String o' Pearls.

I hope you have a great week, dear readers.

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.

Happy Birthday to Our Middle Son

Son #3 turned 35 today.  What?! How is this possible? Because "just the other day" (to borrow my mother's term for anything that happened before this very moment), he was a newborn baby coming into the world five days early at 9 lbs. 13 oz. and 22 inches.  He was a long and lanky baby.  And his father and I were just a couple of babies ourselves, not quite 28...which means that—oh my goodness!—we were seven years younger than he is now!  It's unfathomable.

His was an easy labor and delivery, despite his size—for me, at least.  For him, it included getting momentarily stuck, because of his unusually broad shoulders, and almost having to have them broken by the doctor so that he could make his way safely through the birth canal.  But other than that brief scare, it went amazingly smoothly.

A couple of grainy 1986 snapshots from our boy's early days.  
(What I would have given for an ever-handy cell phone camera
 and the color and clarity of 21st-century digital photography!)

Those words, "amazingly smoothly," kind of describe how his life has gone ever since.  He was always a happy kid, always liked to see the good in every person and every situation.  He always had a lot of friends in school, with his optimistic, glass-is-half-full attitude, his passion for anything sports-related, and his winning smile.  He was a joy to raise, and it has been a joy watching him in the role of Dada (he is as hands-on as they come) the past six years, raising his own brood of four with his lovely wife Preciosa.

Our middle-born is about 6'3" and a lot more filled-out than he was back in the day; but he's still kind of lanky, even though he's not the skinny, knobby-kneed lad he once was.  ([Sniff!] I remember that sweet little guy so well!)  He often cooks for his kids and oversees their bath time; he changes diapers like a boss and creates his family’s Shutterfly photo books every year (he likes archiving memories—I think he got that from his mom!); he’s an assistant t-ball coach for his two oldest kids' team; and along with other impressive DIY projects, he puts up shiplap walls.  He is a jack of many trades these days.  He is also unfailingly good to his father and me, and is clearly happy to have us living just over a half-hour away, where we can be a part of his and his family's everyday life in VA.

This was taken about a week ago, after his oldest daughter's
pre-K end-of-year show.

About a year before we made the decision to sell our house in NH and head to VA, son #3 and Preciosa emailed us a 15-page powerpoint presentation, complete with pictures and professional-looking graphics, enumerating all the compelling reasons why we should move south.  I shrank each page to the size of a wallet photo so that I could frame the entire document, which hangs in the stairwell on the way to the basement in the VA house we bought in 2017. Every time I pass by and see it, I am reminded that we are just where we're meant to be, and that we are beyond blessed to have grown children who want us nearby.

At the time that this powerpoint was composed, we had three married sons and
three grandchildren living in VA.  That number has grown to four married sons 
and 17 grandchildren.  When son #3 and his wife wrote this for us, they were the
parents of two, and they have since added two more.

I used to fear the empty nest a bit, because I'm not a big fan of change.  There was a time when I couldn't imagine our middle son—along with his four brothers—flying far from home.  But like the mother rabbit in The Runaway Bunny (one of my all-time favorite children's picture books) was wont to do, their dad and I decided that if that was what was going to happen, we would just follow them!  Luckily for us, most of them flew to the same region; so our choice was a relatively easy one to make.

This birthday boy of ours...how we love him!  And his powerpoint co-writer...we love her, too. 

Happy Birthday to Son #2!

There are so many birthdays in January and February in this family!  The latest was yesterday, when our second-born son turned 36. 

36?!  I would like to know how this is even possible! Because to repeat myself here at the blog for the umpteenth time, yesterday is about when it seems like he was born!  Just the other day, he looked like THIS (he is the one who probably resembles me the most, as you can see from this side-by-side comparison picture, which I've shared a number of times here at the blog already).

And now he's a married father of four adorable young boys to whom I am not "Grammy," but "Ree Ree" (their own unique derivative of my grandmother title that I kind of hope they never decide to stop using).

My husband and I are so happy that our move south to VA means that we now live close enough to son #2 (and three of his brothers) to drive over on a weeknight to have a celebratory birthday dinner with him at his house, like we did last night.  We sang Happy Birthday, along with his boys, and then enjoyed the cake I'd made to his oldest son Junior's specifications.  (For some reason, Junior knew that the ideal cake for his dad would be a rainbow cake--and when he saw how it had turned out, he pronounced it "perfect!")

Son #2's wife Ginger and I talk often these days about our similar experiences as boy moms.  She gets a lot of the same kind of "Poor you!" comments I used to get from people who didn't understand the inexplicably awesome enterprise of raising all male children.  She once said to me, "I feel sorry for people who feel sorry for people who have all boys!"  Well said, in my opinion.  My boys always were, and still are, such a joy to me.  And this husband of hers has always been an extremely special boy (I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom!).

Our second-born has always that "it factor," that thing that drew others to him, even when he was a little guy. He's the best storyteller ever, and he can take the most mundane event and turn it into a crowd-pleaser.  He makes us laugh, and there's almost nothing more satisfying than amusing him enough to hear his deep, booming belly-laugh. My husband and I love to watch him roughhousing, joking, and playing with his boys, who clearly adore him.  He has a serious side, too; ever since he was very young, he's had an ability to sense emotional undercurrents and inherently know when someone is sad or upset.  (He even reads into my texts sometimes, when I think they seem pretty normal, and gets in touch to find out if something is bothering me, because he doesn't think I sound like myself.  I won't say how often he's right!)  Because of this, he is often the one his brothers contact when they just need to vent about something; he's understanding, gives great advice, and just has really broad shoulders to lean on.  I could go on about how brilliant he is--a former high school math teacher, now a data scientist--but I don't want him to get a big head.  (Ha ha!)

I can't imagine my life or our family without this guy in it, and I hope he knows just how much he is loved  He likes to joke that he's my favorite child, even though he knows that I don't have favorites.  (You do know that, right, son?)  But on their birthdays, my boys get to be the favorite for a day; so yesterday, son #2, you had the top spot!  

Happy Birthday, and here's to many, many more!