*Boy Howdy* Revisted

As a follow up to yesterday's post...here are a few more things I don't know:

This morning at scripture study we were reading 3rd Nephi, chapter 11...when Jesus visits the Nephites.

Savannah asked (about resurrection), "But how does that work?  I mean, I don't get it.  How exactly does our body actually come back to life?"

And then Olivia, "And how old are we going to be?  I hope I'm nine.  I want to be nine forever.  Can I be nine when I'm resurrected?"

And among these imponderables, there was also this.  Do you remember this quote by Sister Hinckley?

"...the only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it.  You either have to laugh or cry.  I prefer to laugh.  Crying gives me a headache."

This morning my head and cheekbones and swollen eyelids wonder why (especially given my lifetime of experience) I still haven't learned this.

Word of the Week: Deprecate

deprecate  /vt./  to express earnest disapproval of; to urge reasons against. to depreciate or belittle. denigrate.  underrate.  pooh pooh. 

deprecate  /vt./  1.  I've always loved this word, especially the "self deprecating" combination, the way it defers and shrugs before it even really gets going, but I'm happy to see its week end.  With "deprecate" on my mind, my inside voices have been too negative and whiny to stand for much longer.   

deprecate  /vt./  2.  I spent much of the week deprecating Squarespace's new V5 version and the difficulties it created in my life.  But by Friday, I had worked out most of the bugs, created a new banner, and figured out the best way to upload pictures.  Whew.  Now if I could only figure out the other issues my computer is having...is it the memory, the modem, or the 10 million megabytes being taken up by Caleb's computer games?  I know just enough about blogging and computers to be dangerous. 

deprecate  /vt./  3.  One of things that David finds most aggravating about being married to me, is the way I deprecate big birthday celebrations.  (I ascribe this to nature and nurture, by the way.)  I find regular life taxing enough, and so I always quail a little bit at the monumental effort required for birthdays.  Especially the parties.  Despite all this, I encouraged Savannah to invite her friends over for a swim party (at my parents' house) on Friday afternoon.  I picked up a pizza and grapes and ice cream bars at Costco and we had an impromptu party with three of her best friends...no invitations, no presents, very little expense, just fun.  I'm expecting my Olympic medal any day now.

deprecate  /vt./  4.  Yesterday I taught my first gospel doctrine class.  And I'm not being the least bit self-deprecating to say that it could have gone better.  For the most part, people just stared at me, like, "Okay lady, go ahead and teach me the gospel.  I'm just going to sit here and watch you make a fool of yourself."  And we had really good material yesterday too...tons to talk about, but apparently I don't inspire that kind of really good classroom discussion.  The highlight of the lesson was when I used colored chalk to diagram the wars and epistles that went back and forth between the four main characters (Moroni, Helaman, Ammoron and Pahoran [my personal favorite]), but that was over in the first ten minutes.  David ran to Walmart for me at 9 o'clock on Saturday night for colored chalk.  Bless his heart.  He wanted to help, but there was just no help for it.

deprecate  /vt./  5.  My sister, Rachel, and I taught another body image class on Tuesday night and had another round of serious technical difficulties.  You'd think by now we'd have it down, but no.  This time we showed up without a cord to connect the proxima to the computer (an fairly important part it turns out) and so I had to call David to come to our rescue.  Even after he brought the cord we still couldn't get it to work and so he came in and tried to help us while I started the presentation.  I told Rachel later that it's either the devil or the Lord trying to stop this presentation and I'm not sure which one it is.  I was immensely grateful for David's expertise and IT support, and felt I ought to take back all the deprecating remarks I've made over the years about not having a "handy husband."

deprecate  /vt./  6.  One of the highlights of my week, again, was watching the Olympics.  I intended to go to bed early last night (I mean really intended), but I thought the closing ceremony was just so incredible that I stayed up and watched.  And then I couldn't leave without hearing Mr. Costas sign off one last time.  We have quite a relationship now and I just couldn't help myself.  (Did you hear the comment about laying the egg in the bird's nest?  Classic.  Be still my beating heart.)  And no matter your feelings about the Olympics in general, you just can't deprecate the efforts of Beijing and the Chinese people in their hosting of these most spectacular games.  I am quite at a loss as to what to do now.

Eight Reasons to Celebrate Savannah

Savannah turned eight just after midnight early this morning.  In her honor here are eight things I love about her:

1.  Savannah is a huge Jane Austen fan and even at her young age has learned to appreciate the charms of Mr. Darcy.  Whenever she has a "sick day" we pull out Pride and Prejudice and escape into the Bennett house together.  Once, when she was six, she leaned over to me in church and pointing at one of the priests at the sacrament table, whispered, "Mom, that boy looks just like Mr. Darcy."  I nudge her every time we see him now.

2.  Of all my children, Savannah likes to sleep-in the most.  This is something I dearly love about her.  She is also the one most (emotionally) affected by lack of sleep.  This is something I completely understand about her.

3.  She loves tic-tacs.  Given her choice in the candy isle, she will pick these or Junior Mints every time.  She is crazy about the new Cherry and Passion Fruit tic-tac combo.

4.  Savannah was the first child we had that looked like me.  And, bless her heart, she doesn't seem to mind when people point out that she looks "just like her mother."

5.  I have had to apologize to Savannah more than any of my other children, and maybe even more than all of them combined.  She has a tender heart and has taught me more about being kind than any one else in my life.  I've even had to drive to school on a number of occasions and ask her for forgiveness.  She always graciously grants it. 

6.  She is a fabulous dresser and has excellent, sometimes eclectic, taste in fashion.  She combines things in a way I would never think of and always looks darling.  I consider this a real gift (David buys most of my clothes) and I'm always asking her, "What do you think of this?" when we're out shopping.  I trust her fashion instincts implicitly.

7.  She has a constantly itchy back and loves to have her back scratched every day.  She comes and sits right next to me and doesn't say a word, just kind of bends her neck and I know what she wants.  She loves to be touched and turns to putty if you rub her shoulders, scratch her back, or massage her head.  I have used this technique on many occasions to diffuse a tense situation.

8.  She started a tumbling class this fall (after at least a year of asking) and I have never seen such a smile on her face.  She loves it, counts the days til her next class, and you can see her glowing all the way across the gym.  I'm so glad she wore me down.

After a very difficult pregnancy, a 24-hour labor and delivery, and a few very painful days of a complicated recovery, I insisted that we make her middle name "Grace," since I was sure that I had only survived it all through the grace of God.  Savannah continues to live up her name and reminds me each day about the need for true grace as I muddle my way through motherhood.  I love her dearly.  Happy Birthday, baby girl.

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: 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.