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. 

Word of the Week: Tractable

tractable /adj. /  easily managed or controlled, docile.  yielding.  easily worked, shaped, or otherwise handled, malleable.  amenable.  willing.  compliant.

tractable  /adj./  1.  This week my sister, Rachel, proved to be extremely tractable when I proposed starting up some morning exercise.  For whatever reason I exercise more consistently (who am I kidding...it is the ONLY time I exercise) when I have to meet someone.  Apparently I have a hard time letting someone else down, but no problem letting myself down.  (Sounds about right.)  We're starting with just walking...she just had a baby and I am just so frighteningly out-of-shape that anything more would be dangerous.  I loved watching the sun come up and visiting with Rach as we rounded the track together. 

tractable  /adj./  2.  On Tuesday morning I took Caleb to the bus stop as usual, but he was wheezing so loudly, I could hear him breathing over the radio.   I suggested that I take him home and then to the doctor and I was shocked to hear his tractable agreement.  He doesn't like to miss school for anything, but he was so tight-chested and miserable he readily agreed.  After a trip to the doctor, who expressed dismay over his "soupy chest" and tractably gave us three prescriptions,  Caleb spent the rest of the day like this:

Ethan was thrilled to have a friend join him in a Star Wars marathon.

tractable  /adj./  3.  I got a surprise visit from my cousin Jennifer and her kids on Wednesday afternoon.  My kids had "early release" and all the kids were begging for some entertainment.  We ended up going to the movie, which as it turns out, is a very fun thing to do in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week.  I loved having an excuse to "play" and even though neither of us wanted to see "College Road Trip" we ended up being very tractable, since that was the movie all the kids were begging for.  (Please note: I only recommend this "film" if you are trying to please 9 darlings and get completely out-voted.)

tractable  /adj./  4.  David lost his glasses last fall and has been completely reliant on his contacts since then.  This week his eyes were driving him crazy and by the end of the week he finally resolved to get a new pair of glasses.  On Friday night we skipped our usual "date" and went to get him fixed up...he could hardly stand it another minute.  He was cheerfully tractable as I made him try on pair after pair, but not quite as tractable when I tried to take a picture tonight of the pair he ended up with.  Here's his end of the conversation:

"Why?"

"Okay, but just my face."

"I have a good angle.  What's my good angle?"

"I said 'JUST MY FACE.'"

"This is not fair."

Bless his ever-tractable nature.

tractable  /adj./  5.  The Quilt Retreat countdown has begun and so tonight I enlisted my girls' help in making pincushions.  They are tractable to any activity involving fabric and had lots of fun stuffing these little fabric balls I made.  Happily, this proved to be the perfect task for their tractable little fingers.

Word of the Week: Querulously

querulously: /adv. /  with complaint. grumblingly, huffily or irascibly. peevishly. petulantly. testily.  acting sour, whiny or thin-skinned.

querulously  /adv./  1.  I am sorry to say that I'm even typing querulously tonight.  So those of you who only like really ebullient posts better keep moving.

querulously  /adv./  2.  I honestly thought I could rise above my word this week.  You know, do a whole post about how my kids behaved querulously, how the girl at Bed, Bath and Beyond only querulously let me return some pillowcases even though I had the receipt, but how, despite all that, I was able to maintain my composure and cheerfulness.  This was, unfortunately, not the case.  I am quite huffily sitting here reviewing my week, not sure whether to growl or weep, querulously berating myself for choosing such a stupid word.

querulously  /adv./  3.  I have been sick enough to be miserable all week, but not sick enough to stay in bed.  My husband has been sick this week too.  And by the time he heads for work in the morning he will have been in bed for 31 of the last 38 hours.  When he rose for a moment this evening I querulously asked him, "Shouldn't you be in bed?"  Ah yes, life with me is just heaven on earth.  Don't worry.  As sick as he sounds, he will be at work on time and all day tomorrow.  A miraculous recovery.  (That last sentence is supposed to be read with a querulous grumble.)

querulously  /adv./  4.  After months of querulously noting that my girls' hair just "never looks good," I took them for haircuts on Friday afternoon.  They were thrilled to be at the salon and delighted with the final results as well.  I loved that their haircuts made them look like little girls again, and made me relieved to think that they are still mine for at least a few more years.

   

querulously  /adv./  5.  After picking more weeds on Saturday afternoon, the kids declared they were dying (from the heat) and querulously begged to go swimming.  I repeatedly told them how cold the water would be, but they declared, "We want to be cold."  In the end, I surrendered and took them over to my parents' house for  a dip.  After the first jump in, Ethan told me he almost drowned...that it was so cold he forgot how to swim.  So, I put a life jacket on him, but he didn't go in again.

  

querulously /adv./  6.  Two weeks ago I mentioned "a maelstrom" that I couldn't talk about yet.  Well, today my second counselor (in the YW presidency at church) got released to serve as our new Primary president.   For two-and-a-half years she has held me up and sustained me,  and I cannot think how I can do this job without her.  When the responsibilities have been too heavy to carry alone she has truly been the one to lend her shoulder, her hands, her time, her heart, whatever was required.  I shall so miss serving side by side with her, and querulously wonder if I have the energy and stamina to find a new counselor and "keep going."  Clearly, an attitude adjustment may be in order because somehow, I do not think "enduring to the end" was meant to be done querulously. 

Word of the Week: Ebullient

ebullient  /adj. /  overflowing with enthusiasm and high spirits.  bubbling. boiling with emotion.  full of joyful, unrestrained high spirits.  energetic.  lively.  very positive or happy.

ebullient  /adj./  1.  Caleb won first place in the "Health and Medical Sciences" category in his science fair on Friday night.  Ebullient almost doesn't describe the extent of his joy.  When they called his name his surprise turned to utter joy, his face flushed, and he ran for the stage.  I think all he could hear was the blood rushing in his ears because he couldn't seem to hear or speak for quite some time.

 

ebullient  /adj./  2.  The most ebullient moment for me at the science fair came at this moment:

I was proud-to-bursting watching him explain his project to the interested crowds.  I just stood there wondering how this could be my grown child, so old, so smart, so independent, and how I got to this stage of life without knowing it. 

ebullient  /adj./  3.  Thursday night, in the midst of everything else, Savannah and two of her friends performed a gymnastics number at the school talent show.  (They choreographed it themselves.)  She has never actually taken a gymnastics class, but this was not a deterrent.  She was absolutely ebullient, and out-of-breath, after her performance, and I (chagrined at my former reluctance) told her that she could take gymnastics in the fall.  After begging for years, she was beyond ebullient at this concession. 

ebullient  /adj./  4.  Saturday was the annual Lehi Days Rodeo, held just down the hill from our neighborhood.  My kids look forward to it every year, and they were utterly ebullient to be out in the sunshine, enjoying the rodeo events, the food, the concession stand (!), the petting zoo, and the free-roaming that comes along so rarely in 21st century childhood.

   

ebulliently  /adv./  5.  One of the events of the rodeo is the "Chicken Chase," where they let the kids line up (according to age) and chase chickens.  If you catch the chicken, you get to keep it.  Ethan lined up with the other four-year-olds and ran his legs off chasing down a chick.  He made a one-handed grab and snagged this chick, and then ebulliently raised it in the air in triumph.  My kids have done the chicken chase every year but this is the first year that Ethan competed and the first year we've ever caught a chicken.  When Caleb saw him running all-out, and knowing our little warrior, he said, "I knew he'd be just like that."

ebullient  /adj./  6.  At Lehi Days last year, Olivia talked us into buying a little chick, since no one caught one in the chicken chase.  She raised it for about four months before I decided we were a no-live-chicken house and we found a farm for her.  This year she brought her own money and bought a bunny.  She could not be any more ebullient about her new charge. 

ebullient  /adj./  7.   Lest you think our entire week was one ebullient moment after another, I offer this aggravation as evidence to the contrary.  I am less than ebullient over the spike in our temperatures this week.  This was my thermostat reading on Friday afternoon.  Yeah, that's right...that's how hot it was inside my house because running the air conditioning in February seems just wrong.  I skipped right over the first stage of grief and went straight to "Anger."  Our winter is over.  Argh!!

Word of the Week: Maelstrom

maelstrom  /n. /  a large, powerful, or violent whirlpool.  a restless, disordered, tumultuous state of affairs.  a violent or turbulent situation.  bedlam.  turmoil or chaos.  pandemonium.  fuss.  flap.

maelstrom  /n./  1.  I've had it with this word.  Plagued by maelstroms all week, I am ready for a new word.

maelstrom  /n./  2.  Most of my week was spent inside an internal maelstrom of my own making.  (Incidentally, they are almost always of my own making.  Why is that?)  I was in complete turmoil thinking and planning for my class at our Relief Society Mini-conference.  Doubting and fussing for days and days.  And truthfully, it did not go quite as I planned and then I fussed about that disaster for the rest of Saturday.  The previous session had run over and so they told me they were going to cut my class by ten minutes and hoped that wouldn't mess me up.  I was too flustered and nervous to regroup and rearrange what I was going to say right on the spot and so I thought it ended rather lamely.  But, the maelstrom has passed, leaving only a bit of regret in its wake, and, after two months of thinking about it, the talk is thankfully out of my head.  That is something, I suppose.

Against my better judgement, I have included this picture for those of you curious about the dress and the hair color. 

I added the ribbon "for extra beauty," as my Olivia would say.  As you can see, RIM won the jewelry argument. 

A pity, really.

maelstrom  /n./  3.  I was such a maelstrom of emotion when it was all over I told my husband, "I either need to go running, go on a bike ride, have sex, or have a good cry."  As none of these seemed related to each other in any way, he just looked at me in wonderment.  I really don't know how he survives my maelstroms.  It's been a good year since I've done any running so that was sure to end badly.  And truth be told I think David was a bit nervous, given my state, about the emotional landmines of option three.  So in the end, we went on a bike ride, but I quit halfway through and asked to go home, where I had a good cry.   Did you know the word "maelstrom" comes from an actual, famous, swirling, tidal current off the west coast of Norway, hazardous to safe navigation?  That was me exactly:  hazardous to safe navigation.  Poor man. 

maelstrom  /n./  4.  I took my kids to the dentist on Thursday morning.  There was a bit of a flap about missing school for the first hour, but eventually I commandeered them into the car and to the dentist.  The dental assistant came and got me when they were examining Ethan and asked, "Does he have a thumb habit?" 

I have never in my life seen him suck his thumb and so I said, "No." 

The dental assistant looked skeptically at me.  "He doesn't have a thumb habit?" 

Concerned about my future orthodontic bill, I said, "No.  Does he look like he has a thumb habit?" 

 She looked at me askance and didn't say anything.  Her eyebrows said, "Look, lady, I've seen a lot of these and you are not scoring any points by lying to me." 

I started hunting around my brain, thinking that maybe all this time I had been lying to myself.  Maybe he really does have a thumb habit and I have blissfully ignored it for four and a half years.  Could that be?  Casting around for something that could producing her skepticism, I said, "He has a blanket habit." 

By this time we had made it back to the examining room and she said, knowingly, to her friend, "He sucks on his blanket." 

Realizing my mistake, I said, "No he doesn't suck on his blanket.  He just carries it around." 

She looked at me like I was losing my mind.  What would that have to do with his mouth?

So then she turned to Ethan and said, "Do you suck your thumb?"  At which point he promptly stuck his thumb in his mouth and began sucking, showing her that, yes, he could actually suck his thumb.  She turned her supercilious eyes at me as if to say, "Well?  Now what are you going to say?"

My cheeks were on fire.  She thought I was lying and Ethan was doing his best to prove her right.  Fighting a maelstrom of embarrassment and consternation over this false accusation, I said, "I have never seen him do that.  He does not have a thumb habit.  He's just showing you that he can suck his thumb if you want him to.  Really." 

She just looked at me and finally said, "Uh huh."  But her eyebrows said, "Me thinks she doth protest too much." 

Grrr. 

maelstrom  /n./  5.  I had two nieces born this week.  One to my sister, Rachel and the other to my brother, Jared.  Lora and Jane.  Darling names, darling girls.  Having two girls of my own, I know the kind of maelstroms my brother and sister are in for.  Savannah was in a complete fuss last night...sleep finally claimed her...and I smiled to myself a bit (after it was over) thinking of all that lay ahead of my siblings, and the charming, maddening maelstrom that is life with girls.  (See #3.)

 

maelstrom  /n./  6.  I can't talk about this final maelstrom of my week "out loud" yet, but it is tumultuous indeed.  You'll have to take my word for it.  A change I can hardly bear to contemplate is in the works.  It has me quite distraught...I told David on Saturday, "This is sorrow of the acutest kind."  (You'll find this hard to believe, but I do tend to exaggerate my emotional life, particularly when I'm in the middle of the Jane Austen collection on Masterpiece Theatre.)  It truly is not as grave as I've made it sound, but hard for me nonetheless.  Like I said, I'm am very ready for a new word.

Word of the Week: Inimically

inimically: /adv./  acting unfriendly, hostile.  injurious or harmful in effect.  hurtfully.  unfavorably.  perniciously.  detrimentally. 

inimically /adv./  1.  At our house we have a division of labor.  I do the inside work, and I help David with the outside work.  Huh?  Ugh.  I come from a long line of amazing, green-thumbed gardeners, but I have nothing but inimical feelings towards my yard, and all the work out there that never gets done.  Our year-round growing season makes me crazy.  And somehow the yard is always last on my priority list.  But occasionally, the weeds begin to get utterly ridiculous, and I start imagining dirty looks from the neighbors, and I know "it's time."  On Saturday, grumbling inimically and cursing the fall and the noxious weeds and briars and all that, I organized the troops and we headed out to make our yard presentable.  Mission accomplished.  It is just barely "presentable."

inimically  /adv./  2.  David and I have a standing Friday night date.  And it's not what you think.  Every Friday night at 8:30 we watch the McLaughlin Group fight it out.  We're junkies.  (And maybe, dorks.)  Always entertaining,  sometimes informative, inevitably random and loud, we love it.  From John McLaughlin's interruptions of, "WRONG!"  to Eleanor Clift screaming "Excuse Me!" and Pat Buchanan prefacing everything with, "Look, John..." we enjoy a very lively roundtable regarding the week's political news.  And the thing is, no matter how inimically they go after each other they never take it personally, and deep down you can tell they might even like each other.   After last Friday's usual raucous discussion, David looked at me and said, "They're crazy."  Well.  Yes.  And also, for me, the only bright spot in the current political landscape.

inimically  /adv./  3.  Caleb is winding up his science fair experiments and we have all been shocked to discover that Purell Hand Sanitizer does not behave inimically to germs at all!  He found absolutely no change in the growth of the bacteria on his hands after using Purell.  (I'll spare you those pictures.  Dis.gus.ting.)  I have quite happily believed for some time that I was killing germs left and right as I freely dolled out this stuff to my kids.  This is, sadly, not the case.  So we're back to soap and water around here.

inimically  /adv./  4.  And speaking of bacteria (I'm starting to feel like a need to make this a new category), at the end of last week, Olivia showed me what I thought was a spider bite on her lower leg.  I told her we would just watch it for a few days and it would be okay.  But by Saturday it was a huge, red, puss-filled, angry, inimical blister, and I could see that whatever once was, it was now clearly infected.  I took her to the doctor on Monday, concerned about MRSA and other serious complications.  He was concerned as well.  So after culturing it, he put her on a full-course of "the only out-patient antibiotics that are working on this stuff" (his words).  And we are crossing our fingers that it will work on this very inimically disposed bacteria.

Word of the Week: Eschew

eschew  /vt./  avoid and stay away from deliberately; to avoid or shun.  abstain.  forego.  renounce.  evade.  refrain.  duck.

eschew /vt./  1.  I eschewed most of my housework this past week in favor of finishing East of Eden.  After about 200 pages I just couldn't leave it alone.  It was an absolute masterpiece.  Brilliant.  And, I hope, life-changing.

eschew /vt./  2.  After my most delightful experience in East of Eden this week and Anna Karenina last month, I am seriously considering eschewing (for a little while) any books not considered " a classic."  There is so much outstanding and remarkable literature out there that I have never read, and I find that these classics have a perspective on the human condition that is true, universal, and timeless.   For me, they provide an impetus for change...as I see myself in Anna, in Cal, in Liza, in Cain.

eschew /vt./  3.  Ethan and I managed to eschew the inside of our four walls, in favor of the outside with three glorious trips to the park this week.  A blanket, lunch, and books.  Heaven.  At least for one more month.

eschew /vt./  4.  At David's prodding, we eschewed all our Saturday chores (yes, the weeds in my front yard continue to flourish) and headed north to find some snow.  We spent the day at Wing Mountain sledding, and building snowmen, and getting sunburned.  It was boiling hot and eventually we eschewed our winter gear and shucked our coats and hats.   Ethan was  a daredevil, and my bottom is complaining today that I am much to old for such fun, but we could not have had a better day.

 Caleb and I even attempted an igloo...harder than it looks.  (I realize I'm eschewing most of my self-respect and dignity by posting this photo.)

eschew  /vt./  5.  I have an absolute hatred of and phobia towards public restrooms.  I will do almost anything to eschew them.  This is not easily done with small children.  My phobia is so intense I have been known to send my children in alone...standing guard outside...because my terror is almost insurmountable.  However I have learned a few tricks along the way to use only in extreme emergencies.  On Saturday, while we were sledding at Wing Mountain Savannah needed to go.  There are only porta-potties on the mountain and after Savannah took at look at them, she could not bring herself to use them.  She was completely desperate.   I taught her my  tricks [much too absurd to share] and she conquered her fear.  I had no idea these were the kind of skills I would pass on to my daughters, but there you are.

eschew /vt./  6.  I swallowed my pride this week, and renounced my dislike of ballroom dancing.  (I have a no exception rule eschewing and banning any kind of dance show on our television.  This has not changed.)  But they are offering free dance lessons at the hospital (random and weird, I know) this month and David and I went and learned the waltz on Wednesday night with some of my young women.  It was surprisingly fun (even though we were still counting "1-2-3" out loud at the end of the night) and made me tempted to come back for the fox trot this week.

I just need to be six inches taller...even four would make a difference, don't you think?

Word of the Week: Piquancy

piquancy  /n./  agreeably pungent or stimulating to the taste;  exciting, agreeably interesting or attractive; an interestingly provocative or lively character.  punch.  spice.  allure.  charisma. 

piquancy  /n./  1.  Our dinner conversation has taken on a delightful piquancy in the last couple of years.  It seems the older my kids get, the more fun these conversations become.  Most nights David and I are all eyes and stifled giggling, secretly sharing the humor and piquancy of our children over our water glasses.  On Tuesday night Caleb announced, "Yesterday was National Corn Chip Day and we didn't do anything to celebrate."  Guess we should have broken out the "picante" salsa.

piquancy  /n./  2.  In desperation today, I cut my bangs too short.  I am trying not to dwell on it too much...I just keep telling myself that it adds a certain piquancy to my face that only increases my charm.

piquancy  /n./  3.  I've had several comments asking how I choose the word of the week.  When I started my blog I started seriously thinking about words again.  Just words.  They would roll around in my head and I found that each one was a kind of little magic.  Amazing all that one word could convey.  Amazing how just one of them could describe a moment, an emotion, an experience, perfectly.  And each carefully chosen word could add the piquancy, the punch, to what I was feeling.   When this all started I was in love with "mollify."  That word rolled around inside me for a few days...I don't know why...and it started me thinking that I would like to celebrate words for just what they are, a perfect idea wrapped in a few letters.   

Most of the words I use for the word of the week, I find while I'm reading something.  Though, I came across "lugubrious" while watching a program on PBS with my husband.  He asked me what it meant and I thought, "Word of the week!"  Most of the words I know, or have a vague idea of what they mean, but I also love finding a word I've never used, like "charily." 

And most of the word choices are not premeditated.  I keep a running list of piquant words that catch my attention, or that I don't know, and then choose them at random.  The post at the end of the week ("Use the word in a sentence and it's yours forever" kind of idea) is just a fun way to wrap up my week and remember random bits of my life.

piquancy  /n./  4.  On Saturday night we went to a production of La Man of La Mancha in St. George, Utah.   Don Quixote's piquancy pulled me in and made me want to leave my own reality for a bit and dream.  Thank heaven for the poets in our lives.  It was a charming play and the music was fantastic!  How can you not get chills when you hear "The Impossible Dream"?

piquancy  /n./  5.  The reason we drove to St. George was to celebrate my Grandma Olga's 94th birthday.   I hope I have as much piquancy as she does when I am her age.  She just barely gave up her driver's license...not without a fight...and it is not unusual to find her mucking out her curb, waxing her garage floor, or hauling dirt to fill flower pots on top of a retaining wall.  She is a witty wonder besides.  She always has humor and a clever comment...when we began singing "Happy Birthday," she started belting out, "Happy Birthday to Me!"  She wears her testimony on her sleeve and has lived a life dedicated to her family and her God.   Plus she is a brilliant writer and an inspired poet, two of my favorite qualities in a person. 

Word of the Week: Lugubrious

lugubrious  /adj./  mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially in an affected, exaggerated, or unrelieved manner.  crestfallen.  disconsolate.  glum.  woebegone.

lugubrious  /adj./  1.  Sometimes the word-of-the week makes me feel a bit cursed...like a crystal ball for my coming week or a fortune cookie that is always right.  This makes me think I should be more careful about my choices.  Nevertheless, the word was "lugubrious" and I felt it haunting me all week.  I was completely lugubrious most of the day Tuesday preparing for New Beginnings, feeling like my to-do list was too long.  I felt utterly woebegone by Wednesday, when I faced a crisis of confidence, and by Thursday night I was wholly disconsolate over the state of my house and laundry.  David will be thrilled when this word-of-the-week is behind me.

lugubrious  /adj./  2.  We went on another family bike ride on Saturday.  We usually try to ride along the canals (safer than the roads with the kids)  but we got a bit lost trying to find a connecting canal to where we wanted to go.  There was a steep hill that we thought might connect them and so I walked down to check it out.  Olivia decided to ride down and got going way too fast.  I could see her barrelling down the hill, utter terror on her face and at the bottom a large, deep canal with no barrier between her and the water.  I screamed for her to brake, but this only made her bike fishtail and so I stepped in front of the bike, sending both of us and the bike flying into the dirt, but thankfully not into the water.   As you can imagine, she was extremely lugubrious about the crash, especially mournful about my bruises, but her lugubrious spirit perked up a bit when we pointed out that she was still dry...and alive.

lugubrious  /adj./  3.  Ethan has been lugubrious every week at church since he moved from Sunbeams up to CTR 5.  His lugubriousness has even started on Saturday evenings, knowing what is coming, and escalating to tears by the time we are taking the walk to class.  I think this stems less from his lack of desire to "choose the right" as it does from the fact that his last teacher was a wonder...better than Barney and Captain Kangaroo and Mary Poppins all rolled into one.  Every Sunday we ask him what he learned and he can't come up with anything...too busy being woebegone to listen, I imagine.

lugubrious  /adj./  4.  We had big plans for a big family reunion with David's side of the family this summer on Lake Charlevoix in Michigan.  Unfortunately, the reunion was cancelled and we have been quite lugubrious about our foiled plans.  But on Monday we finally got over our dismal disappointment and started making plans of our own.  Actually got out the calendar and the atlas...both good signs.  Got online and checked out rentals on Mackinac Island...also a good sign.  Hopefully the lugubriousness is past and the excitement of planning another Michigan family vacation can begin in earnest.

lugubrious  /adj./  5.  I will probably do another post about this in the next few days, but I just found out that President Gordon B. Hinckley, the prophet and president of our church, died this evening.  How dearly I loved him.  How glorious must have been his reunion today with his darling Marjorie.  What a life of love and service.  I am lugubrious about our loss, but so happy for his homecoming...it must have been quite a gathering, though he probably only had eyes for his sweetheart.  My heavy heart will miss him terribly.

I don't think this amazing lady was lugubrious a day in her life...oh, I how love them both!