Word of the Week: Effulgently

Editor's note:  I intended all last week to do a proper Mackinac post, with more pictures and lots of details, but here I am doing another word-of-the-week post with only a little SPT and holiday good wishes separating this "wow" and last week's.    A bit of vacation lag, I suppose, but I have more good intentions for this coming week.  (Ugh...I started this post two days ago and am watching all my good intentions die a slow, sad little death.)

effulgently  /adv./  shining forth brilliantly.  radiantly.  giving off light readily or in large amounts.  brightly.  luminously.  resplendently.

effulgently  /adv./  1.  We spent the week at David's parents' house, enjoying their little town and all of its charms.  David was born and raised here, but he never talked very effulgently about it, though I find it nothing but delightful.  I went to yoga at a little studio downtown on Tuesday afternoon and took a much-needed class.  On Thursday evening, we went to a concert by the Tridge (which is a 3-sided bridge) and then walked around Main Street window shopping and had pizza and the best ice cream I think I've ever had at Pizza Sam's.  We went back for more ice cream on Friday night and closed the place down.

effulgently  /adv./  2.  David and I went to dinner with our very good friends, Gary and Sara, on Wednesday night.  David and Gary grew up together and have been friends their entire lives.    Sara moved in during high school, and I happened along last and just feel lucky to know any of them.  It doesn't matter how long it's been since we've gotten together, it is instant joy to be reunited.  When we're with them, I laugh until the endorphins are just charging through me, and I feel crazy in love with all of them.  It really makes me just incredibly happy, and I left dinner smiling effulgently and wishing it wasn't so late so that we could talk for a few hundred more hours.

I snapped this picture on Sunday afternoon after the baptism of Sara and Gary's second son.  They blessed their fifth baby in Sacrament meeting this same Sunday.  We felt so lucky to share in all their joy.

effulgently  /adv./  3.  On Thursday we went to the Chippewa Nature Center and saw a whole lot of nature.  I kept throwing my arms out and saying, "Look at all this nature!"  To which David only indulgently smiled.  It really is quite astounding though.  The kids wanted to find frogs and armed with buckets and a fishing net they headed through the tall grass near the ponds.  Luckily, they didn't end up covered in poison ivy and actually found two very tiny frogs.  The girls effulgently carried them around in their red, plastic buckets, naming and mothering them, and sniffing a bit when it was time to let them go.  (We found out later that you have to step in the muck and wade through the nature to find the big frogs, but the girls were happy enough with their tiny ones.)  We saw cardinals and blue jays and other birds I've only read about or watched play baseball.  It was just incredible to see them in real life. 

On our way out we stopped by the Chippewa River and I told the kids to take off their shoes and wade in the river.  They said, "What's wading?"  Okay, there are some serious gaps in their childhoods here.  So I demonstrated and Caleb and I waded out to the middle of the river, just for fun.  The girls waded out and found some freshwater mussel shells and Olivia reverently declared them, "The most beautiful thing I've ever seen" and proceeded to fill her bucket to the brim.

effulgently  /adv./  4.  Our plans for the 4th of July  changed a bit mid-day, and we ended up staying in town for the fireworks.  We had a spectacular show on the grass near the Tridge and didn't even get eaten by mosquitoes as the city sprays the park really good in the days leading up to the show.  My favorite part of every show is watching my children's faces light up effulgently as the "bombs burst in air." 

(Incidentally, we had sparklers a few nights later as it was after midnight when we got home from the "big fireworks."  Of course Ethan burned his hand on the sparklers and cried anytime his hand was out of cold water the rest of the night.  My just desserts for bad-mouthing the Arizona legislature, I presume.)

effulgently  /adv./  5. We made it out to Wixom Lake on Saturday and had a great time tubing and jet-skiing...there was no waterskiing as the lake was busy and choppy, but my back was grateful for the reprieve.  Savannah was completely terrified of tubing, as last year she had a bad experience on the lake and wasn't about to forget it.  (One of the things my girls do best is remember their sufferings and/or tragedies.)  After a bit of prodding, I talked her into going with me on a "nice, slow ride" on an "easy tube," and she reluctantly got on with me and placed a white-knuckle grip on the tube.  We had a bit of trouble at first because she wanted to go so slowly that the tube couldn't plane on top of the water and we kept going under which completely terrified her.  But eventually we found a speed she could handle and she grinned effulgently at me and said, equally surprised and chagrined, "I like tubing.  I didn't know that." 

This was a "before" shot...Savannah is still uncertain about the decision to trust me.

effulgently  /adv./  6.  This week we also got to see David's brother, Jon, and his sister, Cyndi, and their families.  We spent most of the 4th together and then went to the lake with Cyndi and Jason (her husband) on Saturday.  My kids loved playing and swimming with their cousins, and I love that they get to spend these rare moments enjoying each other.  On Sunday we went to church with Cyndi and Jason and their kids, and Caleb sat with them in the row ahead of us next to his cousin, Tyler.  I had to swallow hard against the rising lump in my throat as I listened to these two, sitting side-by side, effugently and loudly singing out the words of the hymns, especially as they belted out, "the veil o'er the earth is beginning to burst."

Ethan and Caleb on the lawn with their two "Michigan" boy cousins.

effulgently  /adv./  7.  My in-laws are so good to let us come and invade their sanctuary for four weeks (can you believe this kind of hospitality?!), and are so generous to the kids with their time and hugs and care.  David's mom has MS and so she is down in bed a bit, but the kids just love to climb on her bed and get their one-on-one chat time.  The kids guard these moments jealously and sneak up to see her whenever they can.  Both of David's parents have such of gift of really listening and the kids just soak it up.  They emerge from these impromtu sessions beaming effulgently and busting with pride and self-esteem.  Bless them. 

Word of the Week: Pettifog

pettifog  /vt. /   to bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters.  to argue over petty things.  to practice chicanery of any sort.  to raise unnecessary or trivial objections.  pick to pieces.  carp.  cavil.  niggle. nitpick.

pettifog  /vt./  1.  This week was the final week of swimming lessons (for Ethan) and diving lessons (for the other three).  I think we're all happy they're over.  Ethan is a great swimmer, but I put him in lessons anyway this year so that he could improve his strokes.  He did not enjoy his lessons (that's putting it mildly) and spent much of his time in the lessons crying and much of his time outside of his lessons begging not to go.  It was clear that he thought learning to "use his arms" and "kick his legs" was just pettifogging his own natural technique.  Plus there's no chicken fighting in swim lessons.

pettifog  /vt./  2.  One of my favorite things about my children is how much they enjoy being with each other.   Without much pettifogging, they can spend hours and hours playing together.  I snapped these two pictures, the first after a long day of swimming followed by warm baths, and the other on Sunday evening. 

I wish I could freeze my life right here.

pettifog  /vt./  3.  The girls had their dance recital this week, which meant a dress rehearsal as well, which really meant that they got to wear mascara and red lipstick twice in one week.  Their idea of heaven.  This past year has been a difficult one in my girls' dance "education," with a studio move and a change in studio ownership.  Throughout the year I had pettifogged my grievances to David, but all of that faded away as I watched my girls on stage last Friday night.  Beaming.  Dancing beautifully.  And so happy.  Savannah blew kisses as she lept offstage.  I blew them right back.

I snapped this picture after we did their hair...just waiting for the curlers to dry.  They are decorating David's Father's Day gifts...all I had was Christmas wrap, so we turned it wrong-side up and they made their own personalized wrapping paper.  Darling girls. 

pettifog  /vt./  4.  David took Caleb and four of his friends to the Diamondback's game on Saturday night to celebrate Caleb's 11th birthday.  We used to have a rule about parties only every four years [Marie, try not to die], but the kids (and especially David) have worn me down.  They all had a great time (Caleb's review:  "It was wonderful!") and the only thing they had to pettifog about was that the Diamondbacks got beaten badly.  Caleb acknowledged that they did get to see a lot of home runs though.  Too bad the Royals were the ones hitting them.

The ballpark was giving out free hats...the perfect party favor, I think. 

pettifog  /vt./  5.  I started yoga classes this week, and I'm completely hooked.  There is a moment in every class where I just about burst into tears though.  The teacher is so gentle and the invitation to relax and release all the tension I'm carrying around is so sweet, that I just about start bawling.  My favorite part is that there is no pettifogging.  My teacher doesn't even let us pettifog ourselves.  She encourages us to just observe, not judge.  So I accept and observe my tight hamstrings and the poses I can't do and (at least in this one area of my life) I don't judge.  It is unbelievably tender to be so kind to myself, and it feels so good that I am even considering practicing this outside of yoga class.  My husband would be thrilled.

Word of the Week: Non Sequitur

non sequitur  /n. /  an inference or a conclusion that does not follow from the premises. a statement containing an illogical conclusion.  a reply that has no relevance to what preceded it.  a remark having no bearing on what has just been said.  nonsense.

non sequitur  /n./  1.  The premise of making a "word-of-the-week" is that, theoretically, I should be able to write a sentence using any word and apply it to my real life.  However after thinking and mulling over this word for an entire week, I can see that this premise is a non sequitur in and of itself...and I find myself at a loss of what to write.

non sequitur  /n./  2.  With gas and groceries at ridiculous prices, I find our budget getting tighter and tighter.  Much to my dismay.  We also have plans for a summer roadtrip to Michigan for which we've been trying to save our pennies.  To me this means that we have no room for costly home repairs or new appliances in our current budget.  My appliances, however, see this as a non sequitur and have decided this would be a perfect time to stage a revolt.  Last week the refrigerator we keep in the garage for food storage and milk couldn't take the heat one more day and died unexpectedly, taking two gallons of milk and 4 pounds of butter with it into the afterlife.  And then today my dishwasher, instead of fastidiously washing the dishes as usual, dumped three or four gallons of water onto my hardwood floor, making no attempt to mop it up afterwards.  Clearly the appliances should have been invited to our budget meetings.

non sequitur  /n./  3.  We have been slow in just about every way this past week.  Slow to go to bed, slow to get up, slow to dress, slow to make beds and clean up breakfast, slow to start dinner, slow to do any real chores in favor of swimming and doing puzzles.  Just slow.  With no signs of speeding up.  My sister Rachel was commenting to me that she told my mom to give us a couple of weeks to rest up and then we'd be "back to normal."  This may turn out to be the biggest non sequitur of the year, as I can't imagine getting back up to real-life-speed until I absolutely have to.  (Sometime in August.)

non sequitur  /n./  4.  My parents hosted us for dinner last night, after a whole afternoon of sun and swimming.  During this perfect summer supper of grilled chicken and pasta salad and sweet corn-on-the-cob, I commented that I needed to change out my winter dinners for summer ones, and redo my menus.  Olivia enthusiastically agreed and chimed in with her non sequitur that we had been eating winter dinners and added the evidence that just the other night David had grilled hamburgers and brought them to the table on one of our Christmas snowman plates.  We laughed and laughed at her misunderstanding and my dad commented that we ought to come to dinner more often, as it was much more entertaining with my kids around.  I have to agree.  Dinnertime is one of my favorite times of the whole day. 

We got stranded at my parents' house all evening while David went to help a family move...the kids sat down to read for a minute while we cleaned up the dishes.  A quiet, perfect moment in the summer gloaming.

non sequitur  /n./  5.  It's dance recital season around our house, which meant dance pictures on Saturday morning this week.  This is always a little exercise in torture.  The idea of me as a "dance mom" is a complete non sequitur.  And if my girls ever need evidence that I love them madly...this is clearly it.  I sat there painfully uncomfortable in this giant dressing room with all these other women, with their curled, colored, and highlighted hair and trendy jewelry, all wielding mascara, lipstick, gel, and bobby pins like professionals.  I never feel quite so odd, clumsy, and frumpy as I do at these moments.  And while all the other moms stood coolly by their portable costume racks and prepped for the next costume change, I scrounged through my purse for a safety pin to hold Olivia's top up because I forgot to alter it.  (Didn't even bother to have her try it on before the actual picture time, truth be told.)  RIM had a field day with this brilliant oversight. 

Oh, yes... I do it for love.

Service and the First Casualty of Summer

Olivia finished her hat for Sister Bartel, a lady in our ward who is fighting cancer.  She was quite proud of the finished product and even though this hat may be a bit warm given our current season, we hope the thought counts for something. 

When Olivia delivered the hat, Sister Bartel was sleeping.  Her husband said she had had a very difficult night, and I was glad Olivia got to deliver a bit of joy the day after such a rough night.

The girls then made plans to make "a whole box full" of small hats for David to take to the hospital for "all those sweet little babies"  (their words).

Yesterday morning the girls met my mom over at her church building to help with a few humanitarian projects.  They designed quilts and were in the process of making soft, toy balls when Olivia, wielding a pair of sharp scissors, cut off the tip of Savannah's finger.  Savannah tearfully vowed that she is never making balls again.

A bit of trauma and the subsequent drama does not translate well into "service with a smile."  This injury in conjunction with the insult of a middle ear infection has Savannah feeling quite besieged by bad luck and worried about the next 73 days of summer ahead of her.  I can only thank heaven for Children's Tylenol.

Word of the Week: Gainsay

gainsay  /vt. /  to deny, dispute, or contradict.  to speak or act against, oppose.  to refuse to admit the truth, reality, value, or worth of.  controvert.  disaffirm.  negate.  oppugn. 

gainsay  /vt./  1.    Summer has arrived in our part of the world.  Just like that.  Our winter has been long and glorious.  In fact we still haven't hit 100 and we're in the latter part of May.  Unbelievable.  But then today it's supposed to shoot up to 110.  I made Caleb go change into shorts when I saw him this morning.  No one can gainsay the fact that summer is really here with these kind of temperatures.

gainsay  /vt./  2.  For years and years, David has gainsayed my contention that he works a lot of hours.  But this last week was particularly bad, and promises to be so again this week.  The hospital is rolling out a new "paperless clinical documentation" (he made me say that) and this has meant even working overnight.  In addition to this it was also "Hospital Week" (Woohoo! I hope you all celebrated) and this meant visiting all the shifts to serve dinner and treats.  He even dressed up Hawaiian-style (wish I had the pictures) to spread house-wide hospital cheer.  Not even he can gainsay the fact that he spent very few hours simultaneously at home and awake last week.

gainsay  /vt./  3.  My Aunt Margaret sent my girls a surprise package this week: new outfits for their American Girl dolls that she had designed and made herself.  Their shrieks of glee were followed by awe at Margaret's sewing skill.  They would heartily gainsay anyone as being as talented and clever as their great-aunt, who was quickly promoted to grandma status ("one of our Grandma's") and their dolls have worn nothing but the darling clothes she sent since the package arrived.

 

gainsay  /vt./  4.  Savannah's eye tooth started getting loose this week.  She has been begging me to take it out since Thursday.  I told her it wasn't ready yet, but she would not be gainsayed.  Yesterday she worked at loosening it and at bedtime implored me again to try and take it out.  It came out and she was thrilled.  She giddily exclaimed that she has now lost 10 teeth, the most in her 1st grade class.  Aha!  The ulterior motive revealed.  School ends in four days and she has been "tied" with another boy in class for "most teeth lost."  She just pulled into the lead.

gainsay  /vt./  5.  Olivia has been coughing for weeks now, but towards the end of this last week she was getting particularly bad.  I had gainsayed the need to go to the doctor because it was "just a cough" (surely viral) and assured her that eventually "it will clear up on its own."  As I was doing her hair on Friday morning she kept getting paler and paler until she looked positively faint and told me she was going to be sick.  She slept for an hour or so and then begged to go to school.  The same thing happened this morning, so after a weekend of serious coughing and another "vagal episode" this morning, we went to the pediatrician.  He jokingly told me that maybe I should stop doing her hair, and then told me that she had two really bad ear infections and pneumonia.  What?  Oh, good heavens.  That mother-of-the-year award is mine for sure. 

gainsay  /vt./  6.  This week we had our Laurel Transition Dinner for my five young women who are graduating and moving on to Relief Society.  There is no gainsaying how very much I love these girls, what a powerful force for good they are, and what a blessing it has been to serve them.   In the past I have been really bad at documenting my quilts...first of all they are really hard to take a picture of without a proper studio and usually I'm in such a rush to finish that I don't have time to snap a picture.  But I did manage to take a couple this year, so for the my record:   

 

gainsay  /vt./  7.  For me, the pleasures of motherhood are really very simple.  Ethan and I took advantage of a rare empty "to-do" list on Thursday and met my sister and her kids at my parents' pool for lunch and a swim.  After Ethan's swim, I wrapped him in a towel and pulled him onto my lap.  I cannot gainsay the absolute joy of holding his trembling, shivery body, towelled and damp against mine.  Our days alone are numbered.  My days of being able to hold him like this at all are dwindling rapidly.  And this thought makes my heart beat hard and fast, because it's swamped and drowning and gulping for air.

Word of the Week: Wistfully

wistfully  /adv. /  characterized by longing or yearning.  to be reflective in a pensive or even melancholy way.  with musing.  suggestive of deep thoughtfulness.   

wistfully  /adv./  1.  I wistfully composed quite a few posts in my head this week while I was in the shower.  However they never actually made an appearance on my blog due to my workload outside of said shower.  I am now wistfully dreaming of a waterproof laptop.

wistfully  /adv./  2.  Olivia finished reading On the Banks of Plum Creek this week and so we headed for the bookstore on Thursday afternoon to get the next book in Wilder's series.  On the way home I overheard this conversation between the girls after Olivia extolled the virtues of all things Laura Ingalls Wilder:

Savannah:  Why are you talking "western"?

Olivia:  Maybe I am a western girl.  (and then very wistfully)  Someday I'm going to go out west, like to Kansas or Wisconsin and be a western girl.

We are almost as far west as you can get, but apparently geography is not Olivia's strong suit.  However, wistfulness definitely is.

wistful  /adj./  3.  There is just about nothing that makes me so happy as to see my children consumed by great literature.  I have nothing but wistful, sentimental feelings towards my own travels through the books of my childhood.  And so this scene brought me nothing but exquisite joy:

In my defense, I did do Olivia's hair this morning, but then what we laughingly refer to as "The Ranch Incident" happened at lunch...

We arrived home from the bookstore, but the girls were so engrossed in their new books they were completely unaware and uncaring that the car had stopped.  I finally fetched them out 10 minutes later when I was sure they would die of heat stroke.

wistfully  /adj./  4.  This weekend was our ward's Fathers and Sons Outing.  The boys had a great time camping and hiking with David, but especially loved shooting bb guns.  David reported that Caleb is a terrific shot and almost the first thing out of his mouth when they arrived home was that maybe we should get Caleb a gun for his birthday.  What in the world?  That was definitely on my list of sentences I never thought I would hear.  I immediately protested.  ("He'll shoot his eye out.")  Even more concerning, Ethan has already started wistfully campaigning for a bb gun of his own for his birthday.  Somehow I don't think this will end well.

My little warrior looks a little too comfortable with this Red Ryder bb gun.

wistfully  /adv./  5.  After wistfully longing for summer vacation since last September, we are down to single digits...only 9 days left.  I can hardly stand it.  I have big plans for nothing, and all of it spent together.  My idea of heaven.

wistfully  /adv./  6.  I spent much of the week sewing quilts for my five laurels who are graduating in less than two weeks.   This has meant quite a few hours in front of my sewing machine and, unfortunately, even a couple hours of one-on-one time with my handy dandy seam ripper.  I started the quilting on this one, but hated the design and ended up pulling it all out and trying something else.  I am thrilled with the final result, but wistfully wish I had those unpicking hours back.

The pattern is ridiculously simple (a must when you're mass-producing 5 quilts in a week), but aren't the fabrics just yum?

Word of the Week: Objurgate

objurgate  /vt. /  to express strong disapproval of, to criticize severely.  to reproach or denounce vehemently;  upbraid harshly.  berate.  chide.  scold.  reprove.  admonish sharply.  dress down.

objurgate  /vt./  1.  Most of the objurgating that goes in in my house goes on in my own head.  But these last two weeks I have gone running almost every day, not only exorcizing my exercise demons, but also,  surprisingly, clearing my head of my usual self-chastisement about anything and everything.  Perhaps CIM is appeased by endorphins.

objurgate  /vt./  2.  I am right in the middle of trying to quickly plan a ward youth conference.  Our stake youth conference was cancelled recently, but I could hardly bear to watch the date come and go without doing something with my young women.  I believe in the power of youth conference.  The young men's president and I came up with an idea that we thought would be fabulous, "Le Tour de Vida Eterna" (more details in a couple of weeks) but many others have objurgated almost every aspect of our plans.  Despite these objections we are pressing forward and now I'm only nervous that their criticisms will be validated in the end.  I've had a hard time figuring out which part is the "opposition in all things" and which part is the real and valuable, good counsel.  (Guess I was wrong about definition number 1 after all.  Apparently I can still find plenty to beat myself up about.)

objurgate  /vt./  3.  David and I took Greg and Becca (David's brother and his wife) and Beckie (David's sister) to dinner at Olive & Ivy on Friday night.  Our excuse was to show them the Scottsdale night-life, but my real motivation in going to this particular restaurant was the bruschetta.  Of course.  There is simply nothing to objurgate about this divine appetizer.  I am always tempted to go in there and order about five of these in lieu of my entree.  It's embarrassing how much I love this stuff.

objurgate  /vt./  4.  I rarely have necessity to really objurgate my children, but tonight as we were about to kneel for family prayers, Olivia made the offhand comment that Savannah probably would not do well on her tests in the morning because she wasn't going to bed early enough.  (Savannah's testing week begins tomorrow.  Why can't the school just do it all at once and get it over with?  We are seriously cracking under the pressure here.)  Savannah broke into sobs, completely devastated, and absolutely sure of her inevitable failure on the morrow.  I sternly objurgated Olivia, reminded her of her own anxiety only one week ago, and told her how disappointed I was in her complete lack of empathy.  Grrr.

I looked up from making dinner on Thursday night to find my girls outside in their towels.  Rather than objurgate them for their immodesty I simply pulled out my camera...they said it was an "emergency"...they had forgotten to bring the bunny back in after playing outside with her, and just remembered in the shower.  For heavens sake.

objurgate  /vt./  5.  Thankfully my girls are usually best friends, kind and accommodating and sweet.  They play really well together and usually their only requirement is that it be something "creative."  Their latest idea is "stop-motion" movies with their American Girl dolls.  Admittedly, I did a bit of objurgating when I found out they were using my camera, but was quickly won over when they showed me their creations.  Here is their first movie...entitled "BFF"...yeah Mom, that's "Best Friends Forever."  (In case you can't quite follow it, the story line goes:  two BFF's are walking their pets, then go to school, exchange BFF notes, which makes them so happy they do the splits and a back-flip.  Oh, I love these girls.)

objurgate  /vt./  6.  Though I usually do nothing but querulously objurgate when I talk about the monthly Cub Scout pack meeting, this week's (with all of its usual problems) was such a thrill for me as a mother.  Caleb received both his Webelos badge and his Arrow of Light.  With David's help, Caleb has made great personal progress in his scouting program.  I can hardly believe he's almost a full-fledged boy scout, and wonder how I made it through 34 pack meetings already.  In this case I am relieved and glad that all good things must come to an end.

 

Word of the Week: Assiduously

assiduously  /adv. /  constant in application or attention, completely.  comprehensively, from A to Z, from top to bottom.  fully.  in and out.  thoroughly, through and through.  backwards and forwards.  whole hog.

assiduously  /adv./  1.  My efforts to assiduously document and record my life, my thoughts and my feelings on this blog, have definitely been stymied this week by the demands of my ACTUAL life.  I noticed that I posted 22 times in March (not counting my blessing log) and only twice so far in April.  The truth is that from now until mid-June my life is not my own and my lists are longer than my days.

assiduously  /adv./  2.  I really tried this year to assiduously use the orange crop from the "mini-orchard" in our yard.  Despite my efforts to eat and drink and give away my citrusy goodness...my trees were still full.  Yesterday the "professional" orange pickers cleaned us out and left my trees nothing but green.  It leaves me with that same feeling as when I take the Christmas decorations down...a bit forlorn and a bit relieved all at the same time.

assiduously  /adv./  3.  This past week was testing week for my kids.  Caleb and Olivia both had AIMS tests all week and this created quite a bit of anxiety especially for Olivia.  Caleb was a bit worried until the  first day when he figured out that the tests were going to be very easy.  Olivia, however, assiduously maintained her nervousness throughout the week and even when David congratulated her on "it being over" she said, "Well, now I'm nervous about my scores."  I was in charge of making sure we all ate hot, healthy breakfasts with plenty of protein and "brain foods," which I assiduously performed, surprising even myself. 

assiduously  /adv./  4.  David gave me a "night away" for my birthday and so my sister, Emily, came and played all-around-wonder-aunt to my kids on Friday night.  On Saturday morning she took the kids down to the church building for our ward's "Pancake Games," which eventually dissolved into a pancake food fight, but also involved all kinds of pancake competition, including hanging from the "pancake gallows."  Ethan (who doesn't like to lose at anything) assiduously hung on for dear life, but in the end was bested by a three-year-old little girl.  Much to his consternation.  This disappointment has not prevented him from proudly wearing his pancake medal (think an actual schellacked pancake) around his neck full-time since then.

assiduously  /adv./  5.  Since Easter, my girls have devoted themselves assiduously to all things "craft."  This week they took up knitting on round looms.  Olivia is making a hat for a woman in our ward who has cancer and Savannah took the small loom and made a hat for her American Girl doll.  She was nothing but absolutely delighted with the result.  The girls informed me that they are going to knit all summer long, to which Caleb remarked, "That's just what people need.  Hats and scarves for summer."  Olivia superciliously replied that they were "stocking up for winter." 

assiduously  /adv./  6.  After being "at the breaking point" for some time, David and I assiduously applied ourselves to R&R this past weekend.  We spent a night and day at the Sanctuary resort in Paradise Valley (aptly named, by the way).  The resort was spectacular and the get-away was wonderful, even if it was only 28 hours long, not that I was counting.  This is my idea of the perfect birthday present.  Alone time with my one-and-only.  Just what I needed.

I know David will want me to post these pictures of our incredible room(s).  This is for you babe.

Word of the Week: Noodge

noodge  /vt. /  to keep urging, asking in an annoying way.  nag.  to annoy persistently, pester.  agitate.  beleaguer.  disturb.  harass.  plague.  bother.  henpeck.  bedevil.

noodge  /vt./  1.  My to-do's noodged me all week, dogging me night and day with thoughts of "Oh, I need to remember...", until I finally relented and actually wrote them down.  This proved to be a fantastic idea (making me significantly more efficient) until Friday afternoon when I misplaced my list.  An unfortunate turn of events, and yet, I muddled through with only a few moments of complete stupor.

noodge  /vt./  2.  Ethan complained all week that his ears hurt when he swallowed.  After days of noodging me to "go see Dr. James" I called the pediatrician and we showed up just before lunch on Thursday morning.  We waited to see him for about an hour and when we finally did, Ethan got a clean bill of health.  No ear infection.  No strep throat.  Somehow this didn't make me happy.  Dr. James suggested that Ethan stop swallowing (since that's the only time his ears hurt) to which Ethan replied, "When I don't swallow my tummy hurts."  Ethan, of course, giggled through the entire exam and Dr. James noted that he must be feeling "really bad" to be this cheerful, and I grudgingly played the part of the insane mother.  By the by, Ethan's ears are still noodging him when he swallows.  Grrr.

noodge  /vt./  3.  This week was the Pine Wood Derby.  My personal idea of the 7th circle of hell.  I noodged David all week to help Caleb with his car.  The weigh-in was Thursday night anytime from 7 til 9, (you had to have your car ready and weighed in by then to compete on Saturday).  My boys showed up with their car at ten minutes to 9.  Sounds about right.  Caleb won 4 out of 6 of his races, a decent showing for a boy whose dad does not own a saw of any kind.

(Here is one of his wins...his car is in the far lane...)

noodge  /vt./  4.   Friday night David and Olivia had date night.  Olivia's Achievement Days class had a daddy-daughter bowling and pizza night and, as you can imagine, she was in 7th heaven.  The event started at 5:30, but Olivia was so worried they would miss even one single moment of fun, she started her campaign early, calling David every five minutes starting at 4:30 and noodging him home. 

noodge  /vt./  5.  David's colorectal screening event went about like you'd expect.  Apparently it takes more noodging than a postcard (he sent 1200 out to the community) to get people to come in and get their colons screened.  David said, "It's a free service.  You'd think people would want a free test."  Um.  No.  People don't want their colons screened even for free.  Surprising.  Seriously though, despite a few technical problems, he was happy to say that the were able to give out 150 tests and maybe most importantly, David decided it was time to get his own examined.  I was happy to hear that my last 6 months of not-so-gentle noodging is finally going to pay off.

noodge  /vt./  6.  My list was long this week and so this spilled over a bit into David's life as well.  The yard was especially atrocious by Friday afternoon and we had about 40 people coming for dinner on Saturday afternoon, with no time or way to do anything about it.  I felt like I had noodged David all week about so many other things that I calmly accepted the state of my yard "as is" and prepared to just serve such good food that no one would care about the state of my weeds.  And then.  A friend in my ward quietly and secretly mowed my lawn and pulled my weeds while David and I were sleeping early Saturday morning.  When I discovered her, she simply shrugged and explained that no matter how much she noodged, I would never let her help me, so she just decided to do something without asking.  An angel with a lawn mower.

noodge  /vt./  7.  No matter how I try to resist it, the milestones in my darlings' lives noodge me to realize that time is passing and my babies are not actually babies anymore.  Savannah had her baptism preview tonight.  When they handed me the invitation I thought, "I don't have an eight-year-old."  And had to turn it over to see Savannah's name on it before I connected the dots.  This is a "noodging" I would prefer to avoid all-together.  Another accountable child.  It's a bit hard to swallow past the lump in my throat.

My tender feelings about Savannah reminded me of a poem I love.  Says it perfectly...

Sentimental Moment or Why Did the Baguette Cross the Road?

by Robert Hershon

Don't fill up on bread
I say absent-mindedly
The servings here are huge

My son, whose hair may be
receding a bit, says
Did you really just
say that to me?

What he doesn't know
is that when we're walking
together, when we get
to the curb
I sometimes start to reach
for his hand

Word of the Week: Nonplus

nonplus /vt. /  to put at a loss as to what to think, say, or do.  bewilder.  to render utterly perplexed.  puzzle completely.  baffle.  astound.  dismay.  daze.  boggle.  flummox.  

nonplus  /vt./  1.  I almost didn't go on Spring Break.  The to-do list almost won.  Given the perfect time we enjoyed and the joyful decompression that occurred, I am completely nonplussed as to how this can be.  How can I let any "list" win over this kind of joy...and yet it seems to more than I would like.   I am nonplussed at this obvious character flaw.

nonplus  /vt./  2.  We drove to Santa Barbara on Wednesday,  arriving in LA about 1 or 2 in the afternoon...well out of the "rush hour traffic" window and yet, I was nonplussed to find myself in the midst of this:

nonplus  /vt./  3.  Last night I watched Masterpiece Theatre's version of Emma.  And was nonplussed to find that I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I had planned to.  I think I just really and truly dislike Emma herself and am nonplussed at how and why Mr. Knightley falls in love with her.  And then this morning I found this: "Prior to starting the novel, Austen wrote, 'I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like.'"  Job well done.

nonplus  /vt./  4.  The weather is starting to heat up already here and that means the scorpions are starting to reappear, nevertheless I was still nonplussed to see this one scurrying across my kitchen floor yesterday morning...it had been so long since we had seen one I was beginning to think we had them all eradicated.  Unfortunately, this is not the case.  (Kel, in case you were wondering, this is one for the "con" column.)

nonplus  /vt./  5.  My washer has been on the fritz lately.  It washes just fine but then gets confused when it's time to rinse.  In its confusion, it stops and wonders what to do next.  In order to get my laundry done, I figured out a way to trick it into thinking it's washing when it's really rinsing.  This means a whole little "protocol" that has to be followed in order to do a load of laundry.  Annoying, but clearly cheaper than calling the repairman.  Then this morning, I was utterly nonplussed to discover that the washer has overcome its confusion and was cheerfully running through all the cycles with no problem whatsoever.  I am all bafflement at this happy and fortuitous turn of events.

nonplus  /vt./  6.  The only bad part about our California roadtrip was the price of a gallon of gas.  (Not to mention the price of 78 gallons of gas.)  I was nonplussed at the cost to fill my tank, but luckily this was offset by the benefits of filling "my other tank."  Nevertheless, after 1100 miles, the rest of my March budget is clearly a bit nonplussed at what's left.  Budgets rarely understand psychological needs...they are somehow always ridiculously consumed by the physical needs of food and shelter and clothing.

nonplus  /vt./  7.  Olivia has been lately begging to "do some knittin" (her words).  Somehow this little activity has never made it to the top of my to-do list and so last night after Easter dinner, my mom got out the crochet hooks and patiently taught the girls how to chain.  Though this has resulted in mostly nonplussed expressions and piles of knotted yarn, the girls are loving their new "talent" and have grand plans to knit their American Girl dolls scarves and sweaters for the coming summer.

 

nonplus  /vt./  8.  I think our bunny, Pepper, was nothing but nonplussed on Saturday afternoon when the girls dressed her for the Easter egg hunt at my parents' house.  Oh the humanity.

Actually it could have been worse.  Luckily for Pepper, they were nonplussed to discover that their little doll shoes wouldn't stay on.