Introducing the brand-new Three Sisters Podcast!

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That’s Yours Truly on the left, then my sister Anne in the middle and Mollie on the end.

I’ve always felt a bit sad for women who grow up without sisters.  Brothers are grand, too, in a different way, and friends are wonderful, but sisters–especially my sisters–are a very special gift.

When Anne, Mollie and I are together, we can look in each others’ eyes, and without a word, burst out laughing, and moreover, know what the other ones are laughing about.  We don’t agree on everything, but we can disagree vigorously without hurting each others’ feelings.  The older we get, the closer we get. We recognize and appreciate our shared genes and occasionally poke fun at each other, depending on who is taking after which parent at that particular moment. We take a special interest in each others’ kids and are amused by each others’ husbands.  We trade recipes and give each other our hand-me-downs.  We trade hair and make-up tips. We are each others’ biggest fans in life.  There now.  Doesn’t that sound like a gift to you?

Although we all have our unique interests, we have a lot in common, too:  we all three are stay-at-home moms, with twelve and a half children between us.  (Ah, yes, nearly half of them are mine.)  We take pride in the fact that we are all Nebraska prairie women, accustomed to and shaped by a rugged environment.  We all three do something to add to our family’s income.  We’ve all three run successful farmer’s market stands.  Mollie teaches college theatre classes and directs a community theater show every year;  I direct a homeschool theatre group that produces a play every spring, and Anne participates in community theatre.  Anne runs a successful healthy living business from her laptop, Mollie sells painted fabric from her Etsy shop, and I have done freelance art and writing gigs.  All three of us have our own websites.  We all garden, bake from scratch, and dote on our children  (all unaccountably beautiful, by the way, and I say this without a hint of bias), we are all musicians (Mollie plays the violin, Anne has a college degree in piano pedagogy, and I play the piano and the flute) and we’re all pleased to be part of the big, noisy, nutty, creative Young family.

We take a Mother’s Day trip to our favorite nursery and fill our Surburban with our choices every year. That’s our longsuffering Mom, Elna, next to me. We didn’t plan on all wearing horizontal stripes, by the way.  That was just a happy accident.

I think maybe the idea for doing a podcast together was borne during a shopping expedition we took one year the day after Thanksgiving.  While many people we know pore over the sale ads the day before Black Friday and then rush to stand in line in stores in the city, that type of schtick never appealed to us, and years ago we decided to start our own Black Friday tradition:  we’d go out for coffee at a leisurely hour on Black Friday, and then we’d go to our favorite thrift store in the world, The Etcetera Shop in Seward, Nebraska, to do our own brand of Black-Friday shopping.  We’ve done this same thing every Black Friday since, and we always have tons of fun.  We noticed the first year we did this, as we laughed and giggled and commented on items in the store, our arms and carts full (that first year, I think we all bought Christmas villages) that there were people in the store who seemed to be following us around.  It was curious.  As we picked out elements of our Christmas villages with enthusiasm and glee, the other customers in the store looked over our shoulders.  I think they were wondering what the big deal was with the Christmas villages, and were there enough for them to pick out their own?  When we moved down to the wonderful basement in the store, to the toy area, and picked out stuffed animals to put in our kids’ stockings (nearly new!) and laughed over the odd selection down there (a mechanical elephant! a monkey with only one arm!), the same customers seemed to be milling about down there, digging through the stuffed animals, too.

As we stood in line to make our purchases, at the end of the morning, we noticed how many of the people who had been (apparently) observing our shopping experience, had also filled their arms with Christmas villages and stuffed animals and dollar-rack clothing.  Anne leaned over and whispered in my ear:  “We ought to contract our shopping service out.  We could make money doing this, you know, promoting a store’s stuff!”  I don’t know.  Maybe the Etcetera Shop was relieved when we finally left, although I suspect they were at least thankful for the bump in business that we possibly contributed to.

Well, we never did get that business off the ground, but we are gleeful and excited about starting a series of podcasts.  I’m not sure how Anne and Mollie feel about it, but I’m crazy about the fact that this will give me an excuse to loll about on the ‘phone with my sisters once or twice a week.  I’m working on a sign for the library door “PODCAST IN SESSION:  PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB.  Bring fresh coffee at the half-hour, please, and a fortifying snack if you don’t mind.”

You can access our podcast by clicking on the music player below. If you have any questions or topics that you’d like us to discuss, please feel free to enter them below in the “Comments” section.  And thank you.  I hope you enjoy the new Three Sisters Podcasts!

• ← The End of the Dreaded Varmint
• On Becoming a Grandma/Granny/Amma/whatever →