utah.

word of the day: utah \ˈyü-ˌto, -ˌtä\  the 45th state to be admitted to the union; population 2,550,063

The sky is blue.  Granted, as I look out my window, I see leave-less trees and brown grass, but the blue sky is smiling through.  Its cloudless hue only reminds me that spring is on the cusp which makes sitting inside grading research papers all the more bearable.  How else do I know spring is near?  My toenails are painted, I wore flip-flops two days in a row, and I made myself an iced vanilla latte this morning.  

[insert sigh of contentment]

Oh, and it's Spring Break.  And a glorious break it has been.

As you can see, I don't use the word "glorious" lightly.

Jake and I became 'people of the mountains' this week as we visited Nate in Utah. Did you know that Utah means 'people of the mountains'?  Fittingly so.  You can't go anywhere in Utah without seeing a mountain.  I decided while we were there that everything is better with a mountain in view.  Everything.

Grocery shopping is better.

Card playing and drinking coffee is better.

Playing basketball is better.  So is watching.

Shoot, even McDonalds ice cream is better (as if it's not good enough already).

The common question around a school come spring break is, "Are you going anywhere?".  I found that every time I told someone that we were Utah bound, they would get this confused look on their face and then ask, "Why?" like it was the strangest destination possible.  Well, let me tell you people--Utah rocks.  

I forced Nate to take us to Park City, because the sappy tourist in me wants to see all the hot spots.  I could have spent hours upon hours on the Main Street alone.  

I love a good tourist trap even though it probably makes me a prisoner of consumerism (that one's for you dad).

We also spent some time at the Sundance resort which is way more low key than Park City but just as fabulous.  The only disappointment of the experience was that I didn't get to meet Robert Redford.  It's been said that Jake looks like a young Paul Newman and I was hoping that would be our in if he stumbled into the cafe or something.  Unfortunately he didn't make any unexpected appearances or I'm sure he and Jake would have been fast friends.

Jake spent an entire day snowboarding Sundance with Jon and Nate.  

What did I have to do for an entire day, you ask?

Again, better with mountains.  

But now we're back to the plains. Ginny is fast asleep on the couch and Jake is watching some old show on Retro TV (because we don't have cable and Oprah is on CBS instead of basketball).  The research papers quietly whisper to me from their perch on the kitchen table as if their presence alone isn't enough to remind me that they're there. 

I've heard the phrase, "I guess it's back to reality" a few times since being back which I suppose is true.  But if back to reality means blue skies, iced drinks, and beating Jake in my March Madness bracket, I'll take it.

Yeah, I'll take it.  

However, even though we're home, I think it's safe to say that a little piece of our hearts now remains in Utah.  But, then again, that was to be expected.

procrastinate.

word of the day: procrastinate \prə-ˈkras-tə-ˌnāt, prō-\ to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done 

Today's word was chosen because these are currently staring me in the face:

 

 My 9th graders turned in their research papers on Thursday and Friday, so now I have 150 world problems to read up on.  I even bought new pens for the occasion.  It's hard to start though because then I can't stop until they are all done.  So for now, I'm going to tell you that I went to a baby shower today.

I bet that wasn't the picture you were expecting to follow the phrase, "I went to a baby shower today," huh?  It's actually the only picture I took from the day because it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.  Funniest/creepiest.  The game is that if your ice cube baby melts first, you win.  

I thought putting mine next to the burning candle was a surefire win.  Then Sarah chewed hers up and put my candle idea to shame.  Darn it all. 

I got some new jewelry in the mail today.  This was especially exciting because when I got dressed this afternoon (yes, this afternoon), I thought to myself, "Those new earrings I ordered would look really great with this outfit." 

 

 You can't see the outfit (or the earrings for that matter), but I was right.  

Have you ever noticed that on Wheel of Fortune the wheel inevitably favors one of the contestants?  Someone generally gets all the luck, someone else wins at least one puzzle, and someone else spins "Lose a Turn" every single time.  In case you didn't know, I'm really good at Wheel of Fortune.  

For instance, I just guessed the puzzle "Largemouth Bass" with the following letters:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ S S

It literally happened while I was typing.  Scout's honor.

All right, well the stream of consciousness is running out and the research papers are beckoning.  And by beckoning, I mean staring at me uncomfortably. 

But, before I get to productivity, you should know that I got the Final Puzzle tonight.  Unfortunately Sam couldn't hear me yelling through the screen, or he would have gotten it too.

_ R _ I N

_ _ _ E S

Brain waves.  No big deal.

celebrity.

word of the day: celebrity \sə-ˈle-brə-tē\ the state of being celebrated : fame

I'm a sucker for award shows.  Seriously.  Give me a red carpet, fancy dresses, and overdone acceptance speeches and I'll be entertained for the duration of the show. 

Well apparently I'm not the only one.  And apparently, when you turn the Oscars into a bracket style event, people get pretty into it.  The only rule for attending?  You have to bring an item of food that has something to do with a nominee.  

And let me tell you, people have got style.

 These cookies had Snickers baked in the center.  Hence the 'treat within a treat'.

 Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of 'Mr. Tortilla Head.'  Chipotle Quesedillas with Guacamole eyes and a sour cream smile.

 Jake's first attempt at smoking buffalo wings.  He's yet to smoke something that isn't super delicious. 

 The only thing that's missing here is a picture of the ice cream 'Coens'.

And of course, the night's winner for most creative food item:

Perfect.  

Oh and there was a red carpet.  And paparazzi.  Because it's not the Oscars without either of those things.

Quite frankly, I don't think any of us really cared about the celebrities themselves.  Every now and then I think you just need to celebrate something.  For me it was the fact the Melissa Leo beat out Hailee Steinfield for Best Supporting Actress and that I randomly picked the winner of the Best Documentary Feature.  But either way, I think life needs a little celebrating every once in awhile regardless of how it will affect you at 5:30 the next morning. 

So here's to celebrating the little things this week and for enjoying them with the people around you.

 Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to attend to...

basilisk.

word of the day: basilisk \ˈba-sə-ˌlisk\ a legendary reptile with fatal breath and glance 

Every time I see the word "bask" (see previous post), I think of the word basilisk.  Why?  Probably because I'm a Harry Potter freak.  That and because they contain similar letters, albeit very different meanings.

My week went from basking to basilisk real fast.  So here I sit, with a bag of frozen peas cooling the sinus headache that has overtaken my forehead, thinking about all that remains unchecked on my to do list. 

But I write.  And you should know that Jake is holding the bag of peas to my forehead so that I can write. 

I suppose I could bemoan my long week and tell you about everything I have to do, but 1.) that would be super over-dramatic because it wasn't even that bad and 2.) nobody wants to read a blog full of complaints.  I don't like to be a Debbie Downer.

I will however tell you that one of my classes accused me of making up a word on Tuesday.  Honestly. I was trying to encourage them to memorize a list of indefinite pronouns so I said, "It would behoove you to commit this list to memory."  Come on.  Who wouldn't say 'behoove' instead of 'it would be a good idea'? 

Well apparently 'behoove' didn't sound like a real word, so they made me look it up and read them the definition.  I obliged and then asked them to never again insult my intelligence.

It was a basilisk of a week though because everything happened at once.  Remember those weeks in college?  Three tests, two papers, and one all nighter?*

I blame the sinus headache on the basilisk week.   But alas, everything got done and those unchecked boxes will be checked off before the end of the weekend.  I'll take the sinus headache over irrational stress any day.

I finished Forgotten God by Francis Chan last week and should probably devote an entire post to my thoughts, but in reflection of my week last week, I'll just leave you with this:

Would you be willing to take thirty seconds right now just to dwell on the fact that God is in you?  Astonished? This is not a distant, loose connection.  This is the spirit of God choosing you and me to be His dwelling place.  That means that as I write, the Spirit of the living God is inside me.  I might wake up on a particular day feeling physically tired or stressed or impatient, and humanly speaking, those things would probably define my day.  But the reality is that I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  And because of this reality, stress and tiredness and impatience don't have to define my day.

I'm not always a very calm person.  I can easily become consumed by time and deadlines. I can panic at the thought of being ten minutest late to a meeting.  I can throw myself into a tizzy even at the thought of not getting something done.  But it always gets done.  And because of that, the basilisk weeks of life have no power over me.  

It took all that was in me not to insert a really tacky Harry Potter analogy there.

*I never actually pulled an all nighter in college.

Chan, Francis, and Danae Yankoski. Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit. Waterville, Me.: Christian Large Print, 2010. Print.

bask.

word of the day: bask \ˈbask\ to take pleasure or derive enjoyment

It's a day for basking. My house is clean, the windows are open, and my Ingrid Michaelson Pandora station is humming in the background.

Let's talk about Ingrid Michaelson for a second.

She's my current playlist of choice and she (Pandora I suppose) did not disappoint today. When I pushed play this afternoon, the first song that played is the one you are currently listening to right now. However, if you're like me, the second you heard music playing from my blog you hit 'mute' because it's difficult for you to listen to music and read at the same time. I understand. But go ahead. Pump up the volume. Bask in the sound.

Something came over me when 'Everybody' came through my speakers. It was a cross between boogie shoes and dance fever, but boy, I was feelin' the beat. It started as a simple step-touch around my house with my hands in the air. Yes, that's right. I was literally throwing my hands in the air as I skipped around my couch.

But it didn't stop with just a simple skip. No, no, no.

You had better believe that the tapper in me broke out the triple time step. I tossed off my clogs (that's for you, Paish), found my center, and did a few 'stomp, hop, shuffle, step, flap steps' in my socks on the tile floor. My grand finale was complete with a few double pirouettes--only one of which I landed cleanly.

Yeah, I've still got it.

That's what kind of day it is. A day to clean the house while the sun pours in through every possible crevice. A day to dance around the living room with reckless abandon. A day to sit in a lawn chair for an hour staring at the sun in hopes that just an ounce of it will be left on your face.

It's a day to bask.

Ginny basked too. In fact, Ginny basked in the sun so much that she escaped the fence twice this afternoon. I followed her across two lawns with a jar of peanut butter in my hand. It was the best idea I have ever had.
She wasn't rewarded so handsomely after her last escape, though. When she shimmied under the fence the second time, she ran back to me with a streak of mud covering her belly. Instead of peanut butter, she got a bath. This is how she felt about that:
It's ok, Ginny.

Happy is the heart that still feels pain.
Darkness drains and light will come again.
Swing open your [clean] chest and let it in.
Just let the love love love begin.

Go ahead. Rewind the song back to the beginning. Maybe you need to take a spin around your living room, too.

sans.

word of the day: sans \ˈsanz\ without

I left my house this morning sans socks.

Sans socks, people.

I particularly enjoy the word sans and try to replace it for 'without' whenever possible.

I'll have that latte sans whipped cream.

Please turn in your papers sans errors.

During worktime, my classroom is sans sound (it's actually not).

Perhaps most frequently I have been sans ideas for blog posts.

Actually, that's not entirely correct. I think the problem has been that I have too much to say and am unable to figure out how to say it. I suppose you could say that I'm sans focus.

Do you ever have a strong feeling that God is trying to teach you something? Lately everything I read, listen to, and/or discuss contains very similar themes. It's like God has me on the cusp of something and I'm not quite sure yet where he's taking me. So, because I'm sans focus, the thoughts keep spinning around in my head and all I can do is pray they soon fit into an order.

Which I know they will.

Another thing I know is that God wants me to live sans distraction which is a discipline I don't practice very consistently. It's hard to abide with God when I'm Facebook stalking while watching television. It's hard to listen when there's constant noise. In fact, when I think about it, it's hard to listen when there isn't noise because I'm not used to the silence.

Sans distraction doesn't come as easily as sans socks.

But it does come with greater rewards. And I'll take that any day.

On a semi-related note, I stumbled across this video (click here) the other day while trying to figure out whatever it is that God wants me to know. Can you tell there will be more on the subject?

If you want your thinking to be challenged, take two minutes and watch it. Then let me know what you think, because I'm still trying to process what the implications are in my own life.

And, try to incorporate the word 'sans' into your vocabulary at least once this week. You'll be sans disappointment.

ado.

word of the day: ado; heighten fuss or concern--to do

...and there live we as merry as the day is long.
-William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

I love a good to-do list. Actually, I'm not sure if it's the to-do list itself or the act of checking things off my to-do list that I find more satisfaction in. Either way, when you combine the list with my love of post-it notes, you've got one very happy, slightly anal-retentive girl on your hands.

This, for example, is the to-do list I made right before I left school yesterday:

When you're a teacher, things are constantly being added to the to-do list. In fact, I have taken to carrying around post-it notes with me because if I rely on memory alone, something is bound to be forgotten. I made this particular to-list in anticipation of the possibility of a snow day today.

Possibility turned reality thanks to the Blizzard of '11. And by blizzard, I mean that when I look outside, not a branch is blowing in the wind.

But I'll take it, because here it is nearing 11:00 a.m. and I'm still sitting on the couch sipping tepid coffee with my feet wrapped in a blanket.

I made a new to-do list this morning when I woke up.

First order of business?

Jake was home with me until 10 this morning, and his snow day request was some coffee cake. Why not add it to the lazy morning list?
Check. While the smell of cinnamon and butterscotch pudding permeated from my oven, I situated myself on the couch for one of my favorite things to do with a cup of coffee in hand.
That takes me until now. The house is quiet and Ginny is on her perch by the window. The television is off and I think it's going to stay that way for the remainder of the day. The snow is a smooth blanket on the ground outside and I am content to laze about the day from the warmth of my house inside.

It is all much ado about nothing and I am merry as the day is long. Except for that one piece of the to-do list that will nag me all day long...

It can wait... :)