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Aug 10, 2023Liked by Julie Hester

“Making groceries” is a term we used to hear years ago from people who lived down the bayou and just this past Sunday a friend of mine said “I went to town to make groceries and ran into an old friend of mine from school.” 😂

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Always interesting to hear a bit of home unexpectedly, isn’t it?

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Ah, this is a delightful prompt on a sunny, 😎 14-degree morning. Thank you for the curiosity this one invites. And a happy, blessed birthday, Julie!

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Thanks Shannan! Hope you are warm and dry...

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Jan 10Liked by Julie Hester

As always, Julie, this is a beautiful prompt.I hope to join the writing hour one day soon, though I can't this Saturday. I hope your part in the Trust conference goes wonderfully.

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Thanks Babbie! It would be great to write with you again. I just sent you an email with a question.

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I don’t think you know how much i needed to receive this message in this moment ~ thank you Julie ♥️ and to all may the year ahead be one of wonder ✨✨

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Peace to you this season!

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I'm about a week behind in my substack stack 🙃 but sometimes that shows me all the more that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be...allowing the word on my sign today to be a grateful "now"

and to lean into my life meanderings not as missteps, but as steps of knowing myself.

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Love this, Sarah. Thanks

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Aug 23, 2023Liked by Julie Hester

This post is wonderful! The part about the ink helping us tell who we are. Brilliant! Thanks for all you do for those of us who some days don't know who we are, or what we feel until it comes out in ink on a page. 💓 MTP

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Thanks MT!

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Holy Mackerel!

I remember my mom shouting this out when she was surprised by something. I find myself saying this as well and my children just laugh. Thank you for this fun prompt.

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That’s a great one!

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I think so too! I say it a lot. LOL...my children laugh at me which nowadays we could use some more laughter.

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Several decades ago, one of my relatives wrote a college term paper on the made-up words my grand and great grandparents used in the Upper Midwest — a mishmash (ha!) of English and Norwegian words that took on their own meaning that only those growing up in that specific context understood. I would love to revisit that.

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Yes! Fascinating

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Definitely adding gallimaufry to the rotation. What a delight — eyes, ears and mouth all tangled up in one glance. 💯

Evagene turns 18 months old in a few weeks and she’s just starting to eke out the sounds of two- and three-word phrases. I can hardly wait until she names the world around her. It’d also be lovely if she didn’t offer full-throttle shrieks in the French cafe first thing in the morning too.

But to answer your question, when I was young, I was really fascinated by the sound and feeling of trying to say words in German. I wanted to know how to say them quickly and emphatically. Naturally, my little brother and I concocted word in our language kitchen. It was something like “oy-ven shzlagen fine” if spelled phonetically. We used it a lot in our plays. Thanks for this exploration. It was really nice to think back, think now and think ahead.

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I had a shrieker too. She had things to say. She ended up a voracious reader and English major, so there’s that! Love the phrase “name the world around her.” And the image of you and your brother speaking emphatic made-up German.

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Lallygag (to procrastinate), and my Mother reminded me daily that I was merely lallygagging and to get my ass out the door to school.

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Great one! Did it get you to school on time?

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That is the point, I wasn't anywhere near being late, she just needed a few minutes of "me time" before she started her workday.

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Reading your post made me think of the word, "drat." Which I don't remember being part of my family's language-history, but I personally use it quite often. I think I usually use it as an exclamation of disdain or frustration, sort of like "damn!" But when I looked it up, it's listed as a verb and its etymology is "a euphemistic alteration of the phrase God rot." Wow, what a surprise! God rot = drat! This whole exploration has been delightfully funny, and just the 5pm pick-me-up I didn't know I needed! Thanks, Julie!

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I say “drat” too and did not know this! Thanks for the laugh, and for reading.

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Some of my favorite words are the words my kids created when young. Basagna for lasagna. Short pants for shorts. Snoogle for family snuggle. I think

I might have created snoogle. When Anna was little she sang along to lyrics, ooh it feels good to be free which she/we changed to ooh it feels good to be three. Amy Krause Rosenthal uses the word flahoolick in her memoir. I love that word- just something a little extra. Taking a Lyft home after cycling 11 miles is flahoolick. Dipping dark chocolate in tea is flahoolick. Dressing up and inviting creativity in is flahoolick. Taking a daily plunge in the Spokane River is flahoolick. I love words that somehow describe the tremendous joy we can find in ordinary moments of our lives.

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Wonderful examples, Mary. And I adore the connection with the joy of ordinary moments. Also the reminder of words my kids made up. We still say "ash-lye" instead of "eyelash" and sing about "Brosty the No-man."

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Julie, what is “digitizing the Christmas lights?”…..sounds like a great idea!!

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Smart plugs! You can control them from your phone. Genius. https://www.kasasmart.com/us/products/smart-plugs

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Beautiful. Thank you for this.

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Thanks for reading, Elaine.

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