Word of the Week: Dilatorily

dilatorily  /adv. /   tending to delay or procrastinate.  slow.  tardy.  intended to cause delay, gain time, or defer decision.  sluggishly.  unhurridly.  lazily.  leisurely.  poky.

dilatorily  /adv./  1.  Before I start, I am dilatorily adding a note about last week's word, "pettifog."  Soon after I posted the note about my children getting along so well, I heard them arguing in the pool over the "Marco Polo" rules.  I said, "Hey stop that pettifogging!"  They stared at me for a minute and burst into laughter.  That was the end of the argument, but perhaps Amy was right about not really being able to use it in "normal" conversation.

dilatorily  /adv./  2.  Our plan was to leave for Michigan very early Saturday  morning, and so I was supposed to spend most of the week getting ready to leave--returning the library books, cleaning house, prepping my applique for the trip, sorting out and delegating my young women's responsibilities, washing the laundry and packing it up, finding temporary housing for the bunny, etc.   But I dilatorily stalled until about Thursday, mostly doing nothing or just this and that, swimming, yoga, sitting on the couch to cool off for an hour after I ran errands.  I don't know where the days went, but by Thursday it was seriously time to hustle.  We made it though...left our house at 3:27 Saturday morning, all packed up and ready to go.

dilatorily  /adv./  3.  We made great time on the trip, as David is not one for dilatorily moseying his way along.  I kept trying to take pictures, but it was hard to capture anything at 75 miles an hour.  We only stopped twice each day for food and bathroom breaks and the closer we got to "home" to faster he wanted to go.  In fact, by the time we reached Benton Harbor last night, he was hardly willing to stop and let the kids go potty.  He haphazardly parked the car, taking up three parking spaces, (there was no time to park properly!) and made us all literally run into Steak and Shake.   What in the world? 

I just managed to catch the arch in the background as we drove through St. Louis, early Sunday afternoon.

dilatorily  /adv./  4.  When my Grandma Spencer (now 94) came for quilt retreat in April, she gave me a disc with her recently completed life history on it.  She asked me to edit it for her and send it back.  She called me on Thursday night and asked how it was going.  Um....yeah, I'll get right on that.  I had dilatorily pushed it aside thinking that after youth conference, and after school was out, and after Girls' Camp, I would surely get to it.  I assured her that it would be my next top priority, and so I spent most of the 30-hours drive across the country editing her history.  It is long (over 250 pages) and amazing.  I had to stop in the mid-80's, but only have about 70 pages left to read and edit.   If any of her posterity are reading this blog, I most want you to know what a great love she has for her family, how dedicated she was to Grandpa and her children, what a tremendous housekeeper and hostess she is, and how very brave I think she is.  Of course you know all that already, but it's really, really true.  Really.

dilatorily  /adv./  5.  Over the next month or so, my blogging (and commenting) may be dilatorily done, as I will be busy playing and mothering and sunning and exploring and reading and resting and biking and camping and recharging and beaching and seeing and doing and living and being.    All things I really need to do.

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: Guerdon

guerdon  /n. /  a reward, recompense, or requital.  something justly deserved.  due.  what is coming to one.  accolade.  prize.  plum.  comeuppance.

guerdon  /n./  1.  A week or so ago David and I watched the National Spelling Bee on television and saw Sameer Mishra win the whole thing by spelling "guerdon" correctly.  Of course it became my next word-of-the-week.

guerdon  /n./  2.  I've written and rewritten this post about three times, but just can't seem to get it right...the natural guerdon for not writing for a week, I suppose.

guerdon  /n./  3.  I spent the first week-and-a-half of summer doing just about nothing, other than a few puzzles and spending hours and hours by the pool.  The guerdon for such riotous and irresponsible living was that on Monday and Tuesday this week, I had to play catch-up and madly run around town trying to prepare for Girls' Camp.  I am not really a "slow and steady girl"...more of a "full-blaze firefighter," who naps when things are just "smoking."  Apparently I need healthy dose of adrenalin to get anything done. 

guerdon  /n./  4.  About this time of year, when heat stroke is likely to happen at every possible moment, I start to wonder why I live here.  However, the guerdon for living smack dab in the belly of hell is that my parents are quite close by, and this summer this has especially been such a blessing.  My mom started cooking classes with my three older kids this past week and they have been in heaven, learning to make various "lunches" and all kinds of cookies.   I love that my mom makes up for the many shocking blank spots in my children's' life experiences and education. 

Armed with their cookbooks...

guerdon  /n./  5.  I boarded the bus with my young women early Wednesday morning and spent four glorious days with them up in the mountains at Girls' Camp.  This was my third year at camp with these particular girls and probably my hardest one yet.  It seems like I always have more to learn, more to give, more to love.  But, the guerdon for all the hard work and exhaustion is the testimony meeting we have the last night of camp.  Nothing brings me more joy than to hear my girls' tender feelings about their Savior and his gospel.  And it makes me wish for a lifetime more of these experiences.

guerdon  /n./  6.  As some sort of ironic and sadistic guerdon for going to camp, I was asked to speak about our camp experiences in church on Sunday.  It was my usual mess...too loud, too many hand gestures, too emotional, too excited about my subject, way too passionate for Sunday morning.  The congregation just stared at me, and I'm sure most of them were thinking, "What is she getting so worked up about?"  The only redeeming part of the whole thing was that I got to share my favorite quote from East of Eden, which I altered to apply to my girls.  This is, just exactly, the way I feel about my young women, and my own beautiful children.  I only wish I was worthy of the gifts they truly are.

You have not bought these [girls], nor stolen them, nor passed any bit for them.  You have them by some strange and lovely dispensation.

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.

Word of the Week: Esuriently

esuriently  /adv. /  having a naked, uncontrolled hunger for.  with the desire to possess more of something than one already has or in normal circumstances might be entitled to.  hungrily, greedily.  graspingly.  avidly.  covetously.  voraciously.  even avariciously or rapaciously.

esuriently  /adv./  1.  For those of you who have been esuriently waiting for this post...the wait is finally over.  We are in full-summer mode around here and somehow the days are gone as soon as they've begun.  My blogging time has been suffering because, not only do I now have three more computer users around here, but I have found I actually need a bit of "alone time" to generate enough coherent thoughts to write something.  And obviously that is in short supply these days.  A happy trade-off though.

This was supposed to be my SPT for yesterday (and the week before)...Something Borrowed and Something Blue...better post it here or it may never get posted.  We "borrow" my parents' gorgeous pool almost every day from May to September.

esuriently  /adv./  2.  Usually by this time of year I am already esuriently wishing for winter, but the weather around here has been absolutely phenomenal.  On the last day of school, always traditionally an absolute scorcher, it was rainy and chilly and I snapped this picture in my car at about 5 in the afternoon.  Incredible.  I've never seen such glorious weather in May.

esuriently  /adv./  3.  I have been esuriently waiting for summer break since last September, but my longing became particularly fervent after Christmas.  The school year is wearing on me in so many ways and I live for the carefree days of summer vacation.  My kids were just as happy to be done and we have been happily doing "whatever we want" for the last few days.  This has included hours and hours in my parents' pool, and we even got David to join us for the day on Monday.

esuriently  /adv./  4.  David has spent most of his career esuriently wishing he was older.  He's always telling me how he is the youngest one on the team, and somehow this translates into how much respect he receives and how much capital his projects get.  This last week he got just a part of that wish, when he turned one year older.  We went to dinner and a movie to celebrate (I, for one, am deliriously glad that he was born) and he got a much-coveted "Blackberry" for his 36th year.  The only downside of this particular gift is that he will soon be completely connected to the hospital 24/7.  I hope that this doesn't turn into a gift that I esuriently wish I hadn't given him. 

esuriently  /adv./  5.  Caleb is a brilliant student and somehow managed to take 10 classes this year, including three new classes in Mandarin, Spanish, and Suzuki.  He reads and studies esuriently, and this has really paid off for him.  He was invited to the end-of-the-year academic awards ceremony where he received the Presidential award for straight A's the entire year, and was also awarded "Student of the Year" by his Suzuki teacher.  He was beaming with pride, but (I secretly think) he was also esuriently hoping that there were even more awards to be won.  I have no doubt that he has his eye on the "Outstanding Student of the Year" for next year.  Maybe even more remarkably, I didn't have to ask him about his homework all year...he is completely self-motivated, self-sufficient, and self-assured.  It is so easy to be his mother.

esuriently  /adv./  6.  I have a couple of videos I wanted to add to this post, but no matter how esuriently I stare at the Google video upload bar, it remains on "Processing."  So it may be a bit.  And my children are wanting lunch, so I will have to add them later.  Blogging is an entirely different endeavor in the summertime.

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: Sacrosanct

sacrosanct  /adj. /  very sacred, holy, or inviolable.  not to be entered or trespassed upon.  above or beyond criticism, change, or interference.  blessed.  hallowed.

sacrosanct  /adj./  1.  I wanted to blog yesterday.  I really did.  So much to say, so much to remember, plus a word-of-the-week catch-up.  But my sacrosanct blogging time has become much less so in the last few weeks and yesterday I was doing this:

Digging out from a week of household neglect.

sacrosanct  /adj./  2.   I spent from Wednesday night to Friday night at BYU attending Women's Conference with Tiffany, Kelly and Barb.  I almost didn't go, but the money we had spent on two plane tickets (more on that later) somehow made the trip sacrosanct, and I boarded the plane early Wednesday evening, and met up with my friends at Helaman Halls late Wednesday night.  Can I say how very much I love it that my friends do not change?  Those sacrosanct bonds are still there after all these years, all these miles, all these lifetimes of experiences.  I overheard Kelly talking to another lady about who she was here with, "That's my sister-in-law, and that's one of my best friends."  My heart just about burst.

sacrosanct  /adj./  3.  I love BYU and the memories of my happy, sacrosanct days there are precious to me.  My memories, however did not seem to help us get around campus.  Barb kept reminding us that she was following us because we had spent four years of our lives there, but there were so many changes that I found myself confused more than once.  Kelly and Tiffany and I blamed it on the fact that we had spent very little time on the "athletic side" of campus, but even the bookstore was confusing..."Wow, look at all these books.  I don't remember the bookstore having books before." 

I don't know why this moment was so funny...I was trying to get a self-portrait with "the Y" in the background and hilarity ensued.

sacrosanct  /adj./  4.  We spent Thursday running around campus trying to hit classes and then spent Friday worn-out sitting in the Marriot Center for the day.  I felt filled up in so many ways.  Recharged and ready to do my job again, and do it with more purpose and more love.  I was grateful for the spirit that I felt and the assurances I received from The Spirit that my work as a wife and mother is important, sacrosanct, and possible.  One of my favorite parts was at a scripture reading class when one of the sisters mentioned that her daughter had said, "I want so much for the things I do to be meaningful."  I can so relate to that feeling.  After the conference I feel more equipped to do the meaningful things and to recognize the influence I have.  After I reported to David all that I felt and experienced he remarked, "We need to send you there every year."  Indeed.

sacrosanct  /adj./  5.  I believe in youth conference.  To me, it is one of the best days of the whole year and an absolutely sacrosanct experience in the lives of my young women.   This year was no different.   We took our youth up to the Mogollon Rim and made a 30-mile bike ride to Camp Verde.  There were definitely some hard climbs and a few really nice downhills too (a bit like life), which all worked together to create an incredible, testimony-building experience with our youth.  As I drove home, the tears just streamed down my cheeks, so grateful for the chance to be a part of such an amazing experience, so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.  We were watched over and protected and I felt so blessed to be there.

I look a little too happy at 5:30 in the morning.  What in the world?  I love youth conference.  My talented and ever-helpful sister, Rachel designed our cute t-shirts.  Aren't they fabulous?

sacrosanct  /adj./  6.  After being quite the absentee wife this last week, I am so grateful for the sacrosanct way that David loves and supports me.  I had to get two plane tickets to Women's Conference because of our youth conference and he didn't even roll his eyes.  I came into town about 10 o'clock on Friday night and he ran for ice and coolers and the hamburger buns that I had forgotten.  This was after his afternoon run to Costco for all the perishables.  And before climbing into bed just past 1 a.m.,  he helped me do a quick Powerpoint presentation for the next day's conference.  He is a wonder.  Mostly because he not only just puts up with me, but constantly and completely supports me in my madness. 

Word of the Week: Chimera

chimera /n. /  a fanciful mental illusion or fabrication.  any imaginary monster made up of grotesquely incongruous parts.  a dream, fantasy, or delusion.  a fantastic, impracticable plan or desire.  pipe dream.

chimera  /n./  1.  My plans and goals this week to write more posts between my word-of-the-week posts were apparently only a wistful chimera, made (no doubt) in a moment of supreme delusion.

This was my SPT for "Green Week."  Eating (and loving) hummus are about as green and granola as I get.  When David saw this picture in my camera he said, incredulously, "Did you really take a picture of yourself with hummus?"

chimera  /n./  2.  Savannah faced off against the Terra Nova tests (our state's test for 1st graders) this week.  Her anxiety and terror had turned these into a chimera of unbelievably difficult and horrendous proportions.   She was just sure that she would never be able to go to second grade.  She was literally coming apart when I sent her to school on Monday morning.  We did a few breathing exercises, said a prayer, and went through all the "worst scenarios" possible...all to no avail.  She could not be mollified or comforted.   I finally gave up and sent her off anyway, tears still streaming down her cheeks.   She came home with a bashful smile.

chimera  /n./  3.  The kids had a rare Friday off school and so we took full advantage of it and headed up to the mountains to camp.  It has been steadily getting warmer and warmer here and I was under some kind of delusion that it is, therefore, hot everywhere.  This turned out to be more chimera than reality.  We froze the first night and so the next day, I sent David into the nearest town with instructions to spend enough money at Walmart to keep us warm.   He did.  And commented that we could have stayed at the Best Western for cheaper.  Well.  At least I remembered to pack the swimsuits.  Yes, really.  Hey, there was a pond nearby.  And the kids may have wanted to swim once the thin crust of ice melted.

S'mor-ing it with my boys. 

chimera  /n./  4.  Ethan is completely in his element while camping.  We almost didn't go, due to the length of my current to-do list, but then while I was madly trying to cross a few things off it, Ethan said, "Mom, this is the best day of my life.  We're going camping today."  New list:  "Things to pack for camping."  (Somehow swimsuits instead of sweatshirts made it onto this list, but I digress.)  We went camping with "friends-with-toys" and Ethan was in all kinds of bliss riding quads and playing in the woods.  At one point he went flying off one of the quads (driven by a five-year-old) and after landing face down in the dirt shouted, "That was AWESOME!"  He turned into quite the chimera of dirt, popsicle, and campfire smoke.  Like I said, completely in his element.

chimera  /n./  5.  My kids rode quads for the first time this past weekend.  I was beyond nervous about this, but somehow they miraculously escaped injury and catastrophe.  (This even despite Olivia's uncanny tendency to turn her handlebars the exact opposite way she wanted to go.  I explained that you turn it just like a bike, but somehow the motor confused the whole situation.  I had a brief view of an inevitable moment coming during Driver's Ed. training.)  They had such a riot riding around, but their dreams of actually owning one of our own is simply a lovely chimera.

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.