Cookies, crab cakes and cousin fun (7 Quick Takes)

~1~

We had lots of time with cousins this week, spending time with three of my siblings and their children—14 total. It feels so good to reconnect in person after so long, and it was wonderful to see the children all getting along. Who knows when we’ll next be together since so many of them live out-of-town, and that made this visit particularly special.

One evening as we were sitting and chatting on my parents’ screened-in porch, my father slid a cooling rack onto the table and started filling it with chocolate chip cookies, fresh and sweet and just out of the oven.

Family…happy kids…warm chocolate chip cookies. Life doesn’t get much better than that.

~2~

I’m excited and nervous about the start of school. We desperately want to send our children back to school so they can learn in person and be with their friends. But I felt better about sending them to school a month ago than I do today as we watch the news around the virus.

Are we looking at a year of calls from the school nurse and quarantines for our children? It’s so unappealing. But maybe it will be a good year in ways I can’t quite see—just as this past year was full of growth and joy in ways I couldn’t have anticipated.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us.

~3~

Having cousins in town meant late nights of baseball, basketball, and board games. I am tired from a week of regular life along with running our boys back and forth to my parents’ house, where the cousins were staying, and to fields. But our sons had the best week, and I’m so thankful they had this time with cousins and family.

During one outdoor kickball game, the ball got stuck in a tall tree next to my parents’ yard. The children—and some of the adults—tried everything they could think of to get that big blue ball to fall out of the tree. They threw other balls up into the tree to try to knock it out, and one of those balls got stuck, too.

Finally, a gentle breeze came through and shook the branches and sent the ball back to the ground.

It seems like some kind of metaphor for life since we could have just waited for it to fall. But everyone did have lots of fun trying to knock it out of the tree.

Note: Since I wrote this my children and others who were there tell me that the ball was, in fact, knocked out of the tree by one of the balls that was thrown. I know what I saw, and it’s my blog, but for posterity’s sake, I feel I should include this controversy, which might become part of family lore.

~4~

We had the best time with our 12-year-old nephew who stayed with us for a week and a half, and we miss him already. He fits right in with our 11- and 13-year-olds, and they make their own fun all day long.

At one point, I realized they had started on the puzzle we borrowed from my parents last spring when the pandemic was just beginning. We hadn’t touched it in more than a year, but when you have someone new in the house, you look at things differently.

Cousins are such a gift.

~5~

In keeping with my goal to make sure my nephew knew that a week at Aunt Rita’s is always fun, we looked into introducing him to his first steamed Maryland crabs. But crabs are ridiculously expensive. So, I made homemade crab cakes instead—which were also not cheap but were absolutely worth it. He thoroughly enjoyed them.

My sons are good eaters, but having my nephew ask for seconds—and sometimes thirds—made me smile.

~6~

Our pet finches had the chance to meet new cousins (second cousins? third cousins? twice removed?), and I loved watching my nieces get to know them. There is nothing like an appreciative new audience.

I kept hoping the birds would decide to take a bath in front of them because their splashing is just so much fun to watch. They never did. But the girls enjoyed watching them swing and sing and eat their corn on the cob.

We are so lucky to have our sweet little finches—and our nieces who enjoy them.

~7~

One afternoon my brother and I took our children to our alma mater, St. Pius X Elementary School, to play on the basketball court and fields. Our boys were all so hot and thirsty that I offered to run to the grocery store to get everyone a drink.

I wondered whether the dirt hillside we used to shimmy down would still be there between WMAR and the grocery store so I wouldn’t have to walk out to the main road to get to the store. I also wondered whether my 45-year-old knees could do what my 10-year-old knees used to be able to do, or whether I would slip and fall.

As it turns out, the hill has been paved into a set of steps, which was much safer and more convenient. Somehow, though, I felt a little wistful about the days when we would sneak through the hole in the fence to slip down the dirt hill. But this is a huge improvement.

Change can be good, you know.

Find more quick takes on Kelly’s blog, This Ain’t the Lyceum, including a post from Kelly on Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month, and have a great week!

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