Word of the Week: Reticent

reticent  /adj./  habitually silent or uncommunicative, disinclined to speak readily.  reserved.  taciturn. having a restrained, quiet, or understated quality.  bashful.  hesitant or shy.  tight-lipped.  clammed up.

reticent  /adj./  1.  Not being a reticent person myself, it might surprise you to know how much I really like this word.  That first syllable is so quiet you hardly know what's coming before it's already upon you, and then the last syllable bashfully quiets the word back down, as if it's sorry it spoke at all.

reticent  /adj./  2.  For whatever reason, I've been reticent to talk about last week, as I don't know how to capture it accurately.  In many ways it was just a dumb week, with a number of wasted days thrown in the mix.  But last night at dinner, David said something like, "We need to post those pictures of..." by which he meant I need to post those pictures.  And this only made me even more reticent to share any of it because its my blog after all, etc.  But here I am, reticently repenting. 

Maybe one reason I'm so disinclined to be reticent is that I look just plain weird with my mouth closed.  I need more lip to cover my teeth properly.

reticent  /adj./  3.  We had our family picture taken on Monday and Tuesday this week.  Yeah, that's right, it was a two-day affair.  I will only say that this was not by design.  (I will not say why...I am determined to stay reticent on this point.)  But this felt like a couple of wasted days because of all the prep it takes to get us looking presentable.  It's a job, believe me.  Our last good family picture was taken when Ethan was one and I was bound and determined this year to get a real live, official family picture taken.  Now we are anxiously awaiting the proofs.  I am two parts gleeful anticipation and one-and-a-half parts fearful trepidation.  I wanted it to be colorful...and it was.  David is quietly concerned about this and would have preferred us to all match.  Luckily for me, in our whole married life he has never once said, "I told you so."  (Even though he could have about a million times.)

reticent  /adj./  4.  The kids had Tuesday off school and so we went to the drive-in movie after our almost-family-picture on Monday night.  We blew up an air mattress for the back of the car and let the kids lay on that, while David and I sat on camp chairs outside and were, surprisingly, plenty cold by the end of the show.  (Though I'm reticent to complain about the cold because we've waited so long for it to arrive.  In fact, we're back to hot again today and I was boiling in bed last night.  It's not beginning to feel anything like Christmas.  The flannel sheets are going on the beds in a week...we're all going to have to sleep naked.)

 

reticent  /adj./  5.   Tuesday was spent family picturing (again) and playing games (it was a minor holiday).  Wednesday I had to go to the school to help with scenery for the upcoming 2nd grade play and the rest of the day was eaten up with mothering interruptions.  By Thursday I was starting to panic about my upcoming talk and the state of my house.  (My usual cleaning day is Monday, so by Thursday even RIM couldn't think straight.)  I am reticent to admit that I am pretty much a non-functioning human being when my house is a mess, or even (dare I admit it) when I "feel" like it is dirty.  So I scrubbed my way to sanity and then spent the next couple of days working on my talk for stake standards night on Sunday evening.  And my kids asked several times, "Aren't you done with that yet?" (I told you it was a dumb week.)

reticent  /adj./  6.  On Friday night we went to the Fall Festival at Caleb's school.  It's mostly a fundraiser, but they have dinner and a few carnival-like games.  We didn't stay for long, but the kids had a good time and got their fill of cotton candy and snow cones, which has to last them until the Lehi Rodeo in the spring.  Savannah asked David to hold her cotton candy while she frosted a cupcake at one of the booths, and he was reticent to admit that it was significantly smaller when he handed it back to her.  There was a gorgeous full moon that night and on the way home I pointed it out, to which Olivia said, "That's a perfect moon for running away."  What the?  Just when I was planning to ask her if she was happy at home she followed it with, "If I was an Indian that would be a perfect running-away moon."  I have no idea what happens inside her mind.

reticent  /adj./  7.  For a post on reticent, this certainly isn't very, is it?  I won't be a bit offended, if you stopped reading at number 3.