Late-summer crabs, a bathroom renovation, and Back to School Night (7 Quick Takes)

~1~

When I was growing up, my family had steamed crabs very rarely—usually when out-of-town relatives were visiting. My husband spent more time near the water, so he had them more often.

Our children typically enjoy crabs once or twice a year. This summer we hadn’t had steamed crabs yet, so we’ve been talking about buying some and enjoying a crab dinner. Last night, we picked up some warm spicy crabs and sat on our deck and chatted and ate. Our children lost interest after a few crabs, and it was great just to sit and crack crabs and talk.

When we were stuffed with crab, I called my sister Treasa and her husband George and offered them our leftover crabs. George arrived at the door not long afterward, and we gave him a bag of the extra crabs to enjoy.

~2~

While George was picking up the crabs, my older son asked him to be his sponsor for his Confirmation. I can’t figure out how we are already talking about the sacrament of Confirmation for this child who was just a toddler a minute ago. Now he has to pick a Confirmation saint, fill out the registration form, and prepare to receive his next sacrament.

I remember my Confirmation so well, even though I was in eighth grade at the time. Time goes so quickly.

~3~

We had Back to School Night this week for our younger son, and I was longing and longing for a virtual event rather than an in-person one. As I was parking so far away from the school that I took a photo of the street sign, I was feeling especially unhappy about the in-person situation.

Then I ran into friends. Once I got inside, I discovered that one of my fellow school mom friends had saved me a seat. I had the most wonderful conversations with the teachers, including one who was so friendly and kind when I went to the wrong classroom—and knew both of our boys.

I even met the mom of one of my son’s friends, and we were so excited to meet each other, at long last, that we skipped the next class to exchange numbers and stories. There is nothing like the thrill of connecting with someone you’ve wanted to meet. But there’s also some excitement to skipping class on Back to School Night. I felt very rebellious.

Maybe in-person Back to School Night isn’t so bad after all.

~4~

Our dryer broke a week or two ago, so we’ve been relying on our drying racks and end-of-summer sunshine to dry our clothes. John handles all the laundry, so the situation has been much harder on him than on me.

Because he is so smart and handy, he ordered the replacement part online, watched YouTube videos, and repaired the dryer. It seemed so heroic.

That should really be part of pre-Cana conversations. Will you be able to repair broken things around the house? And, when you can’t, will you recognize that you need to call a professional in a timely way?

~5~

This was the first week both of our children were back to school, and we are all exhausted. I know we’ll hit our stride one day, but we are not there yet. Hope everyone who had a bumpy transition back to school this fall is finding their rhythm. Change can be hard, and school can be really tiring—even when it’s all going perfectly smoothly.

During the craziness of the week, we were joking about how we had a toilet (a clean, new one) in our bedroom during our renovation project, and our younger son went and got his flashlight that has a red setting and lit it up. It looked like something out of a creepy movie, and we laughed about it. You have to laugh, especially during the ridiculous weeks when you have a toilet in your bedroom.

~6~

But our bathroom renovation project is complete! We are thrilled with the results because it is gorgeous and functional and the last big project that I see us taking on for quite some time.

I can’t really take credit for much because John and Artur, our contractor, picked out all the tiles, and the only decisions I made were things like ordering a vanity based on a tiny picture on my phone. That’s more of a leap of faith than a thoughtful decision, I would say, but everything worked out.

Construction is so disruptive that part of the joy of the completion is just having the house to ourselves again. John was vacuuming our bedroom every night to get rid of all the dust—and that was happening even with all the precautions and tarps and plastic sheeting and everything we were trying to do. Like much of life, construction is just messy.

~7~

My younger son loves fish and chips, and his favorite fish and chips are at Go Fish! and Go Brit! in Rehoboth Beach. So, naturally, a few weeks ago, when we were in Rehoboth, I found myself ordering from the Go Fish! carryout and waiting for the order to be ready. I noticed that the Queen was standing nearby, or at least a cardboard cutout model of Her Majesty.

My son didn’t feel like taking a photo of me with her, and he didn’t want to be in it either, so I took a simply terrible selfie with her. It is possibly the worst selfie I’ve taken, and I’ve taken many. But I had to go back to find it—ridiculous as it is—after the sad news of the Queen’s passing this week.

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