The Birthday Post, Part II: Beautiful Brunettes

Yesterday, I told you all about our grandson G-Man's first birthday party, a Brown Bear-themed extravaganza that was both very fun and very Pinterest-worthy.  He was the most adorable birthday boy!  Now today, it's all about the girls--three of them who share a Sept. 30 birthday.

They are all dark-haired, dark-eyed, lovely ladies.

When my mom was young, she could have been a movie star.

She met my dad on a blind date when she was 19 and he was 20.  The next year, they were married.  At 21 she gave birth to her first child, and by 27 she was the mother of five.  She dedicated our early years to being a stay-at-home mom, and later on was a successful career woman--first doing PR work for malls, and then as the tourism director for her hometown's chamber of commerce. 

Mom has been a spitfire her whole life; she was nicknamed the "Energizer Bunny" years ago, because nothing could slow her down.  She hit a little snag last spring when she fell and broke her hip and was forced to take it easy for a while.  But I'll tell you, she's the most youthful 80-year-old you can imagine.  She's still beautiful, six decades after that first meeting with my father.

Thanks for the lifetime of love and sacrifices you've made for your husband and your kids.  We love you, Mom.

When my mother was 26, she got the best birthday present ever: my younger sister, B. 

She, too, could have been a movie star.

She was the maid of honor at my wedding, and has been one of my best friends throughout my life.  I love you, Sister!

Now for the third birthday girl.  I'm saving the best for last, because although we share no blood I love this sweet young lady the way I love my very own children. 

In 2009, our oldest son married a hazel-eyed brunette named Regina.  He got a partner for life and a mother for his children; and my husband and I got our first daughter.

I could not have asked for a better introduction to the world of being a mother-in-law.  Regina made it an easy transition for me; she is undemanding, even-tempered, sweet-natured, patient, soft-spoken, and kind.  She also has a wonderful sense of humor.  (We found this out early on, when she came to meet the family and my husband and I worried that all the brothers with their dry, sarcastic way of joking would be too much for her.  Instead, she showed that she was good enough for them, and spent a lot of time with her head thrown back in laughter.)

Regina and I are pretty simpatico.  She is a reader and a writer (a true lover of the written word, who worked as a librarian before marrying our son and giving birth to four little girls in less than four years).  She was, in fact, the one who suggested that I start this blog.

I knew that I felt extremely comfortable with Regina right off the bat, because the first time we met (in AL in 2008, at our son's graduation from Army flight school), I spilled the beans about the novel I'd been working on for almost a year (Finding Grace).  At that point, I had told no one about it except my husband and my boys; not even my parents knew my secret yet.  But from the get-go, Regina seemed like one of my own--even though she and my son were still months away from getting engaged.

It has been a joy to spend time with this lovely girl over the past six years, and to watch the way she supports our son and nurtures their daughters.  Since she came into our family, three other new daughters-in-law have joined the fold.  But she was the first, the trailblazer; and I'll always be so appreciative that she proved that old cliché to be true: we didn't lose a son; we gained a daughter. 

Regina, we love you so much!  And you better watch it, or Papa and I might take you up on that offer to come and live in your basement.  No kidding.  We just might do it!

Happy Birthday to three beautiful brunettes who've made my life so much better just by being in it.  And sorry this tribute came so late!

Sister, Sister--and a Growing Family!

The pictures from son #2's wedding to Ginger this past weekend just keep on comin'!  My baby sister and her hubby were both johnny-on-the-spot all weekend (not just at the wedding, but at the rehearsal dinner the night before), flashing away with their cameras in their zeal to capture every possible photo-worthy moment of this fabulous occasion.  My boy and his bride had hired a professional photographer, of course; but my sister and her man (a jack-of-all-trades who was once a professional wedding photographer himself) didn't let up all night anyway.  Already, she has posted hundreds of awesome pictures on Facebook.  She's a real peach.

This particular sister is probably the #2 fan of this blog, after my husband; or perhaps #3, after my husband and my middle son.  She's a fan of everyone she loves, and everything her loved ones do.  She's a bubbly, happy person who knows how to shower affection on others with an effortlessness and beauty that I have yet to master.  I might be the older of the two of us, but I think I've learned more from her than she'll ever learn from me.

Oh, yeah--and she's stunning, too.  Did I forget to mention that?

My other lovely and loving sister was also at this wedding (it was just us Harding gals, since my dad and my two brothers were unable to make it).  She flew down from NY to VA with my indomitable mom, who's been having trouble walking due to some issues stemming from her arthritis (and one of our nephews came along to help out as well).  My mom, a great-grandmother of four now, didn't kick up her heels the way she used to when she was known far and wide as the "Energizer Bunny"; but she did plenty of dancing in place and had a wonderful time in general.


The Harding women, left to right: the sister on the left is #4 of 5 in our family, I'm #2,
and the sister on my right is the baby.  (The photo-bomber is my oldest son!)

My mom and the older of my two younger sisters are both dark-haired, dark-eyed beauties, as you can see.  The funny thing is that my brunette sister up there on the left looks a lot more like the beautiful new young bride of son #2 than she does like me.  They could be sisters!  (Or aunt and niece, or whatever.)

I normally refrain from posting pictures of my three granddaughters (the children of my firstborn son), out of deference to his and his wife's wish to protect their privacy; but this shot is rather blurry, so I thought it would be okay.  I just wanted to show you our growing family.  Once, we were seven.  But between December 2009, when our oldest son got married, and November 2014, when we celebrated this latest wedding, we have more than doubled in size.  In a mere five years, we've added four daughters-in-law and four grandchildren--so we've gone from seven Pearls to fifteen (sixteen, really, with another wee one in utero: a sibling for our little girls).  Here's our ever-expanding gang, with my mother (who goes by the handle "Mimi").

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! (And there will be more pictures where these came from, just you wait and see...)

Ode to a Rose

A couple of days ago I read a Facebook post one of my nieces wrote to her mom, who'd helped her locate nursery furniture at a hugely discounted rate for her soon-to-be-born little girl.  It didn't surprise me, because this sister-in-law of mine to whom that FB post was dedicated is the eBay/TJ Maxx shopper extraordinaire (and because of it, gives the best and most unique presents to all of her loved ones), a bargain basement shopper like you read about.

Like me, this superwoman raised five spectacular children, and they are devoted to her.  But unlike me, she was busy doing so many other things concurrently that it's nothing short of a miracle that she was able to do it all--and do it so well.

My husband's older sister is the oldest of the eight siblings in his family.  A retired Army colonel (who spent many years in the Reserves when her children were young, switching to active duty later on), she is now a company bigwig in the intelligence community.  In her position as such, she has found contracting jobs for just about everyone I know under the age of 30--her own kids, their friends, and two of my sons (one of whom calls her "boss"), to name a few.

This woman works hard at a time-consuming, demanding job, yet still finds time to pore over episodes of HGTV and learn everything there is to know about DIY home renovations.  With her husband and kids, she has made massive improvements to both her main home in Northern VA and her second home, right next to the family homestead, on the lake in Upstate NY.  I have trouble keeping up with one house; she keeps up with two of them--not to mention several rental properties and some land near her NY house, on which she and her husband plan to build a brewery.

Oh yeah, did I mention that?  Her high-stress job isn't enough of a challenge for her, so she and her husband have been taking brewing classes and are planning to tap into the local microbrewery business...you know, in their spare time.  I'm sure once it's up and running, she'll hire every family member or friend who's looking for work.

My sister-in-law has been instrumental in launching the careers (and even marriages) of some of her siblings. Numerous family members have lived under her roof when they needed her help.  Currently, my fourth oldest son's girlfriend is living in her basement in-law apartment while he's on deployment in Afghanistan.  When the enormous Pearl clan gathers at the family compound by the lake, she is always willing to open her doors for the overflow. With her, it's all about family.  She is so generous--some might say almost generous to a fault (if that's even possible, really).  When the Pearl sibs set out to start an LLC for the purpose of keeping their childhood home in the family, she was all in--even though she owns a home of her own right next door.

Are you feeling slightly intimidated by this dynamo yet?  I know I often am.  Because on top of all I've just told you (and I know I'm leaving stuff out), she's intelligent, good-looking, charming, out-going, faith-filled, and funny.

That's her, the second from the left, with her three sisters (who are all
amazing in their own unique ways).

Sometimes I wish I had the kind of dynamic personality that I admire in her and others like her.  I find myself wishing I'd been born different, which is so wrong--and which my husband can't stand.  "Hey, don't do that--you're putting down my girlfriend!", he'll say.  He'll remind me that he chose me just the way I am, and then ask me if I think he has terrible judgment in other areas of his life--and if not, why do I think he might have made a mistake by choosing me?  (He's always right, that guy.)

Sometimes I feel so small when I compare myself to people like my amazing sister-in-law. I feel like I don't have talents that are helpful or useful in the world.  I fear I may actually be a more contemplative, artsy-fartsy person than I like to think I am.  I love to draw and paint. I love crafting and sewing.  I love to write--I wrote a Catholic YA novel and I sit down to write this blog almost every day.  Those seem like little things in comparison to running companies and starting new businesses and being a "life of the party"-type person whom everyone loves to be around.  But I need to stop wishing I were more like this person or that person, as wonderful as they might be.  I can't be a good anyone else; I have to try to be the best me I can be.  My husband, the wise sage, tells me this whenever I allow my self-esteem to take a nose dive.

Yesterday, I quoted dear St. Therese of Lisieux, who reminds us that "The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm.  If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness." Yes, that's it!  Words to live by, for sure.  God made me a little wild-growing daisy for a reason, one I won't find out until the next life (maybe--hopefully!); and until then, I need to learn to live side-by-side with the hothouse roses and have confidence that there is a place for me among them.  It's a big garden, after all.  And God loves all of His flowers equally.

(But I think it's okay if I still can't help but admire those gorgeous roses!)

Button Noses and Birthday Girls

Today is the birthday of one of my husband's sisters, the sixth out of the eight children in his family. I met her when I was a shy high school sophomore who had just started going out with her brother over the summer and she was a shy little girl of six. It was my first time at my boyfriend/future husband's house, and while her two younger siblings danced around me chattering, she stood hiding in the doorway of the living room, too shy to talk to me. She could barely make eye contact when her mother introduced us. (I totally "got" her, being a shy person myself.) She was such an adorable little girl, blond and blue-eyed, with the cutest freckled button nose. That nose was as cute as...well, it was as cute as a button, that's what it was. A tiny little ski jump nose, the likes of which I'd never seen. I was so taken with the cuteness of that nose, and the face that went with it, that I went home and tried to sketch it from memory. I did a pencil drawing of that little girl's profile, a crudely rendered doodle that didn't even begin to do her justice; but I showed it to my boyfriend, and he showed it to his family. And from then on, every time I went over to his house, the four youngest Pearls (especially the two youngest, who were three and four at the time) would say, "Draw me!"

None of the drawings I did of those incredible little faces were all that great, especially since I'm not gifted enough to draw objects that are in motion (and boy, was my husband's youngest brother--who was 100% boy through and through!--in constant motion when he "sat" to have his portrait done). Not surprisingly, though, from then on it seemed that all of the faces I doodled in the margins of my school notebooks resembled my husband's siblings. My mother always used to tease me that every face I ever drew looked like a Pearl.

After all these years, I am seeing my sister-in-law's upturned button nose in the faces of the littlest members of our family. Her two-year-old daughter definitely has it. My twin granddaughters have it. It's just the cutest thing imaginable. Anyway, Happy Birthday, A! You're not as shy as you used to be, but your nose is still adorable.

And by the way, I forgot to post Happy Birthday wishes to some other important women in the family who've celebrated birthdays in the past month or so: my mom, my sister (who hit the big 5-0, although she'd probably prefer I didn't mention that), my daughter-in-law, and another one of my Pearl sisters-in-law, one of the original "Draw me!" bunch. I love you all!