We're Back in VA

And it's hot!  So hot!

By the time we left NY yesterday morning, temperatures had been dropping and it was starting to feel almost fall-like; we had been opening up our windows at night to feel cool breezes while we slept.  It sure is different down here. It's about 90 degrees and so humid that it feels like you're breathing through a wet towel.  I can't imagine wanting to open a window, and I've never been more thankful for air conditioning.  Yikes!

But it's so good to be home!!  We've missed our own house, our own bed, our own routines, and most of all, our VA peeps--the three sons and their families who live nearby.

We had a great summer in our old hometown in NY, though.  We got there at the end of June and stayed at my husband's family home most of the time (except for the week we stayed at our Oyster Haven Vrbo house with our whole gang in early July, and another week in August when we blocked it off so that we could get some much-needed plumbing repairs done). It's easy to manage our place from there, because Oyster Haven is just a few miles down the road (and down the lake) from the Pearl homestead. Changeover days are always hard, when one set of renters is checking out by 10:00 a.m. and the next set is arriving by 4:00 p.m. on the same day.  We do have cleaners...but we often have to sort of clean up after them, if you know what I mean.  And my husband and I take all the dirty linens to the laundromat, and I make up all the beds with fresh sheets and towels while my husband cleans the grill, makes sure all the kayaks, paddle boards, and oars are accounted for, and moves the dock if the water level has gotten too low. But other than turnover days, we have a lot of free time to visit with family and enjoy the lake. We spent lots of time on our pontoon boat, any day that weather was permitting.

Most summers, my husband and I are the only steady occupants of his family's house.  All four of his sisters own houses nearby, two as their primary residences and two as vacation homes/rentals.  He has one sister a few doors down who lives there year-round, but her house burned down a little over a year ago and she had to move in while her new house is being built. Another sister lives in FL but also owns a home a few doors down, and for many years it has been mostly a Vrbo rental.  Like us, she blocks it off sometimes for personal use, but she and her husband usually stay at the Pearl family's house when they're visiting. However--her husband recently took a job in the area and they are planning to live there almost year-round now, and to stop renting their home and live in it themselves; but they have renters booked until October, so they, too, had to move into the old homestead this summer.  That means there were three couples sharing the house this year!  (With various and sundry other Pearl relatives popping in for short stays now and then.)  That could have been stressful, but honestly it all went so smoothly and we really enjoyed lots of time together, sharing meals and laughter around the kitchen table.  It helped that each couple had their own full bathroom (in order to make this possible, my husband and I did a minor renovation of the dilapidated basement bathroom, installing a new toilet and vanity and giving it a coat of fresh paint, and that became "our" bathroom), and we also each each had a fridge of our own.  (There are four fridges in that house: one in the kitchen, one in the garage, and two in the basement.  Until this summer, I would have said that having four in one house is overkill; but trust me, all of those fridges were full.)

The night before my husband and I left to head back to VA, we housemates (or "roomies," as we often called each other) decided to take a selfie to commemorate what we are calling "The Summer of Us."

If you must share a house, you couldn't find better people to do that with than these.  

Although I'm glad to be "back where we belong" (to quote one of my sweet little VA granddaughters, who thinks our summers up north are way too long), I'll miss watching the glorious sunrises over the lake as I sip my morning coffee.

The view from the deck of Oyster Haven.

The view from the deck of my husband's childhood home.

The grandkids here are all back in school, and everyone is very busy.  But we're excited to get back to our usual schedule of Sunday brunches and special dinners with the families of sons #2,  #3, and #4, and maybe catching some youth soccer and football games, too.  But even on those days when we can't see any of our peeps, even when it's just my husband and me in our cozy little house down here, going to daily Mass together and eating our simple meals for two, life is good.  So, so good.  It's funny, there are so many times that I'll make some comment and he'll say, "I was just going to say that!"  Or he'll ask a question, and I'll say, "I was just going to ask that myself!"  We are so often thinking about the same thing at the exact same moment. He likes to joke that we have the same brain. Maybe that's what happens when you become best friends and start dating at 15, and you've been married for going-on-46 years--and when you're still each other's favorite person to spend time with and you've talked about everything under the sun.  We like to quote that line from Disney's Frozen: "We finish each other's...sandwiches!"

Yesterday, I was on Substack and someone had shared this poem by Wendell Berry (I think he died recently?); he is the author of the wonderful novel Hannah Coulter, which I absolutely loved.

  

Oh my goodness!  "And when they speak at last it is to say what each one knows the other knows. They have one mind between them, now"... wow!  I think this poem is about my husband and me.  (I'm sure thousands of couples will read it and think so, too.  But really, gang. This is us.)

As far at that whole not knowing "which one goes first through the dark doorway...and which sits on a while alone"...well, I'd just as soon not think about that right now.  As Scarlett O'Hara would say, "I'll think about that tomorrow!"

And for now, I'll bid you goodnight, dear readers.

Summer 2026! (Part 2)

I got some lovely comments on my last post (my birthday post!), and I finally got around to replying to them today. I love my readers.  I've always been the kind of person who would rather have a few good, true friends than a legion of acquaintances with whom I socialize.  This has carried over to my blogging life: I don't have a legion of readers, but the ones who do stop by are so kind and sweet and loyal.

If you come here often, you might have seen that back in late July I did a Part 1 post about our summer goings-on.  I've been meaning to add to it, and especially to post some more pictures of our week with our kids and grandkids at our Oyster Haven Vrbo lake house, but time has gotten away from me.  My husband and I have been staying at his childhood home, just down the road from Oyster Haven, sharing the house with a number of his siblings.  Two of his sisters and their husbands are also living at the old homestead for the summer, and we have all been getting along swimmingly.  (Sometimes, other siblings also come to stay for short stretches, and nieces and nephews as well.)   It helps that there are 4 refrigerators: one in the kitchen, one in the garage, and two in the basement.  Each couple has claimed one as their own, and this keeps things from getting too complicated when it comes to meals.  Now and then, one of us will cook dinner for the group; but often, each couple is doing their own thing food-wise. And it's all working out beautifully.

On my birthday, one of my husband's younger sisters and her husband made a delicious steak dinner, which we enjoyed with 16 other members of the extended Pearl family who were in town at that time.  So it was a real party.

My husband and I have been spending a lot of time together on the boat.  Most days when the lake is calm enough, that's where we say our Rosaries, Divine Mercy Chaplets, and novena prayers.

 

A couple of days ago, we went out for about 3 and 1/2 hours.  We did our prayers, read our books, talked and lazed in the sun, and then we headed over to a bar/restaurant called "Flip Flops on the Dock," where you can park your boat for free and walk up to the lakefront restaurant to eat.  It was so much fun, such a perfect day!  We each got a cocktail before dinner, because it felt like a celebration.  (Getting old is not a joke, says this newly-minted 68-year-old; but there are some aspects of life in these "golden years," when you have grown kids and a retired husband, that are absolutely wonderful!  Especially when he's someone with whom you love to hang out.  And I do.)

Okay, now for the photo dump from our Oyster Haven week in early July.  (I have lots more pictures, but don't want to share too many with my grandkids' faces in them--especially the children of one of our sons who is not on social media and doesn't want them on it either, which I totally understand and respect.)

Magnet tiles were the craze with the younger set this summer.

The kids played in the lake and on the beach during most of the daytime hours.  But after dark, there were nightly raucous games of Texas Hold 'Em at the kitchen table.  Our grandkids are all getting pretty good at playing cards and keeping their poker faces.

People are always asking how we do meals for 35 during our vacation week together.  It works out surprisingly well (but it sometimes looks a bit like we're feeding an army--a starving one).  I used to cook all of the dinners, but I'm accepting more help these days.  Breakfast and lunch are pretty much handled by the parents of the different families, and they feed their own kids what they like and are used to.  In the old days, I tried to get up and make breakfast casseroles and bacon for the whole gang, or pancakes; but it's just hard, with different wake-up times, dietary needs, food allergies, etc. And the same goes for lunch.  So we let our kids take care of those meals.  I mean, we provide all kinds of staples, like butter, eggs, milk, cheese, bread, condiments, coffee, sodas, waters, adult beverages, etc.  But the kids end up doing a lot of shopping of their own, too.  Both of the fridges were packed to the gills by the end of our week!  

For the dinners this year, the couples each took a night to host.  We had a steak night, a pizza night, a chicken Alfredo night, a taco night, a roasted pork loin night.  And then for the 4th of July, we had a traditional hot dogs and hamburgers cookout.  Somehow, it all works, it really does.  But it's a bit cray-cray!

And we use paper plates and bowls and plastic forks and spoons.  I can't allow myself to feel guilty about how many garbage bags we fill with all that disposable stuff, because I can't imagine how we could keep up otherwise.

I can think of few things that make me happier than seeing my boys together.  There were lots of laughs, as always.

You might recall that last year, while wading out in the water our son #4 got poked in the thigh by a sharp branch on a log that had somehow washed into our cove, and he ended up with a serious infection.  He spent two nights in the hospital on IV antibiotics. Ultimately, he was fine.  But the accident happened early on in our vacation week, and once he was discharged, he was not allowed to go in the lake for the rest of his time there.  This 2026 week at Oyster Haven was going to be his "do-over."  Well, wouldn't you know, he ended up at Urgent Care again, with a swollen elbow. A small scratch somehow developed another infernal infection.  But this time, things were not as dire: it happened later in the week, after he'd been able to enjoy lots of water activity; it required an antibiotic, but just an oral one, not an IV; and most importantly, he did not need to be admitted to the hospital!!  He did have a much better week...but 2027, we're counting on you to be infection-free.

In spite of the elbow, he was a pretty happy camper.

I think now I'm just going to do the proverbial photo dump.  There are so many good pictures from our fantastic week together, but here are just a few.

My heart is full, looking at these images and remembering how magical our week was.  The kids love being together up here, and they stay busy from sun-up to sun-down.  What a blessing it is to have this house by the lake.  On turnover days, when my husband and I have to spend exhausting hours getting it cleaned up and ready for the next renters, I sometimes forget why it's so great to have it.  I need to keep coming back to these photos to remind myself that it's all worth it!

Really.  SO worth it.

Summer 2026! (Part 1)

I can't believe how long it's been since I've been here! The last time I posted anything, we hadn't even left VA for the summer, to head up to NY to manage our Oyster Haven Vrbo rental house and reconnect with extended family on both sides in the hometown where we grew up.

Before we left, son #2 and his wife hosted a party for my husband and the two grandsons whose June birthdays are within days of his.  Our daughter-in-law Ginger (wife of son #2) had "tattoos" made up of my hubby's face, and we all sported them to honor our Pearl family patriarch.  That was a hoot.

But I'm kind of hoping that those wash-off Papa faces are the closest any of my grandchildren ever get to having tattoos! LOL!

There's actually so much to write about--too much!--but the most important thing that's happened in all the time I've been away from this blog was our family vacation week at our lake house with our entire clan (12 adults and 23 kids ages one to 15, in a house that we advertise "sleeps 13"!) in early July.  It was simply magical, as always, and times like that make hanging onto our Oyster Haven house for as long as possible a top priority for my husband and me.  The kids and grandkids all look forward to that week that we block off for our own use (why should renters have all the fun?!)--it's like Christmas in July, truly.  Just so special.

We had a photographer come to take family photos by the lake in July of 2024, but our youngest grandchild (a sweet little one-year-old gal) had not been born yet, so we wanted to get some new ones taken with her included.  Last time around, we had everyone dress in various shades of blue and white.  This year, we went for patriotic red, white, and blue (it is our country's 250th birthday, after all).  We hired the same photographer, and she was wonderful at cheerfully wrangling our large and rather challenging group of mostly youngsters.  Especially because it was an extremely hot and muggy day, in the 90's with about 90% humidity.  Ugh!  We were all dripping with sweat, but she got us efficiently assembled into groups and got those pictures snapped in record time.  And somehow, she managed to make us look as cool as cucumbers.  I'm so proud of the grandkids, because it could have been a miserable experience, but none of them were crabby or whiny.  They really rose to the occasion and patiently posed like champs, and I'm just thrilled to have these precious family photos.

I'm not going to share any of the pictures with the grandkids in them here, for privacy's sake; but here's one of my husband and me with our five beloved sons and their better halves.

Back in 2022, four of my boys came to spend a belated Mother's Day with me, and son #4 had us pose for a funny picture--as if we were a 90's boy band or hip-hop/rap band.   He doctored it up and the next day, he posted this on the family text stream.

"Mama Knows Best" was the debut album of the Mama's Boiz.  He said that our next title was going to be "Don't Step on a Crack."

Son #1 was missing when we made that first album cover, but our family photo shoot presented the perfect opportunity to get a picture of the whole band of brothers.  So before the serious photo session got underway, son #4 had the photographer snap a quick picture for our long-awaited second album.  And then he made some edits to it and this is the finished product:

I think my silly boys are already discussing what the next album is going to be called.  I can hardly wait for that one to drop.  (And Mama really does love those boiz of hers.)

I'm realizing that I'm probably going to have to make this post a two-parter, because I have too many memories and pictures to share.  But here are a few snapshots to give you an idea of how AWESOME our week was.  It looked like we were running a summer camp on our little private beach in our little private cove.  Too good to be true, honestly.

Part 2 coming soon!

Hope you're having a glorious summer, dear readers!

Easter 2026

Yes, this is my Easter post.  And I'm a little late, I know—but what else is new when it comes to me and updating this blog?!  I think it's a good thing that I'm having hardcover blog books printed up yearly now as family keepsakes, because it makes me more determined not to let too much time pass between posts!  If possible, I'd like all of our most important family get-togethers to be included in those books. Also, technically, there are still four more weeks of Easter!  We are still in Easter celebration mode, liturgically; so I guess this post isn't so late after all.

On Easter Sunday, we had a lovely after-Mass brunch at our house, with 12 adults and 17 kids in attendance altogether. Joining us were: our three VA sons and their wives and children (which means 14 of our grandchildren); the parents of one of our daughters-in-law, who are local; an old college friend of two of our daughters-in-law; and our niece (with whom I share a name) and her three girls.  It was so much fun—a bit crazy, of course, but we like it that way.  We set up the dining room table with a buffet that included egg-and-spinach casserole, quiches, hash brown casserole, sausages, fruit, cinnamon coffee cake, and assorted pastries.  One daughter-in-law brought a Greek salad, her friend brought deviled eggs, and our niece brought two dozen out-of-this-world doughnuts. Oh yes, and we had lasagna, too—-although everyone was more into the breakfast fare and that was mostly ignored.

We were able to get everyone assembled around the table so that my husband could say grace before we started eating.  And he ended with, "He is risen!"  To which we all enthusiastically responded, "Truly, He is risen!"  It was wonderful.

We had an Easter egg hunt afterward, and all the kids (ranging in age from two to twelve) got along extremely well and kept themselves happily occupied with—minimal adult intervention—all afternoon, so my husband and I were able to really enjoy visiting with our boys and their wives and everyone else who'd come to celebrate with us.  

Easter might be my favorite holiday (although check in here again in early December, and you might get a different story, LOL).  It fills me with such joy, it truly does. Because it’s springtime, and the days are getting longer and sunnier, and the earth is blooming once again. But mostly because He is risen.  Truly, He is risen.  Alleluia!

Now for the proverbial photo dump:

I absolutely love the days leading up to events like this, when I am in party-prep mode and making whatever dishes I can ahead of time, and then deciding how I'm going to set everything up. And post-party, I always think of how I could have made things better.

This was the first time we ever set up the food buffet-style in the dining room, because we usually like to keep that table free for anyone who wants to eat there. But when it’s set up in the kitchen, it gets so crowded and chaotic when everyone is trying to fill their plates. Now that the grandkids are getting older, I really wanted to try it this way. I thought it would seem special, and it did.  But…for future Pearl brunches, I'm going to work on making the spread look truly spectacular and inviting, with foods set up on all different levels (and I have plenty of footed bowls and tiered cake plates that I could use for this, I don't know why I didn't break them out on Easter!). I’m going to have more savory dishes and fewer sweets! Also, I think next time I’ll pre-cut the quiche slices and arrange them on pretty platters (or better yet, make mini quiches instead of big pies!), so that it will be easier to get them served. That goes for the coffee cake and pastries as well—plates of bite-sized squares might work better, especially with all the littles we have at our shindigs.  I have lots of other ideas, too—I guess I tend to overthink everything...but that’s all part of the fun for me.  And now I can hardly wait for another excuse to have my gang over!

Happy Easter, dear readers!  And God bless you all.