DIY FACIAL WIPES

I used jojoba oil instead of coconut oil, added Vitamin E oil for wrinkles and carrotseed oil for sunscreen.  Essential oils - lavender, Thieves, tea tree and frankincense.  Used exfoliating rounds. 

Cunnin’

My daughter posted on Facebook about a “glass shattering” moment where she realized that the accepted term for a toilet paper roll was not actually “toot-toot”.  It was in our house as she grew up as it was in mine, but apparently not in other homes.  I told her I was sorry not to tell her sooner but it made me think of all the things we’ve created as family group-speak and brought into our daily lexicon.

I have my own that came from my family of origin as well.  We always called the back of the station wagon the “way back”.  It was just what we called it.  We never thought about anyone else calling it that; it was just a family thing that our friends and family accepted.  Of course they had to accept a lot of expressions from my parents that were different from the norm in sixties Phoenix.   You see, my parents migrated to Arizona – Buckeye, Arizona to be exact – in the mid-50’s from small town New England.  Sight unseen they packed up 2 little girls aged 2 and 4 and moved to the desert.   I cannot even imagine the culture shock but that’s another story for another time.

We grew up with the colloquialisms of my parents from thousands of miles away.  I am sure that by the time I came along 3 years later they had toned down a lot of those.  I know my father, teaching in rural Buckeye, had to in order to be understood by his students.  However, my mother stayed at home and socialized with the other women who were also mostly transplants.  Growing up I just accepted the strange things my folks said and rolled with them.  I was used to hearing my family – especially when we traveled back east for visits -  talking about calling for a “jitney” instead of a bus, “tonic” was soda and saying of “ayuh” instead of yes or just as acknowledgement to something being said.  We knew these were “New England” things and seldom used them once we got back west. 

Perhaps the frequency of our visits back to New Hampshire helped figure out the public/private difference in words and phrases. We’ll never know but it makes me feel that perhaps we sheltered our children and allowed the family group-speak too willingly. 

When my son was a toddler our rescued basset hound puppy got excited and would run around the house to burn off steam.  The first time we saw it he exclaimed “Look – him’s a cow!”  Now mind you the dog was female and we never really figured out if he misspoke cow instead of horse (the running and all) or just what he meant.  Nevertheless, it became the family phrase for when the dogs got worked up and dashed around the house as fast as a basset can dash. 

Then when the daughter was a little girl she would invariably take a sip of each and every drink I ever had.  During one long hot summer I presented the family with a rant about leaving my iced tea alone!  A while later the daughter sidled up to my iced tea glass, double-handed and took it to her lips as I looked on in horror.   At that point she smiled and said “onk, onk, onk”.  We all laughed and realized she was giving voice to the sound we made when drinking and busting my chops to boot.  It became a family word for a sip of a drink, spread to my siblings and my friends as well as theirs. "Can I have an onk of that?" It became accepted.

I have to admit as being as guilty as anyone to using phrases not commonly used.  I frequently heard my kids calling things that were wrong “Babylon” as I often did – a Rastafarian phrase.  Hell, my kids grew up knowing their father was born in Germany but not the town name because I had invented “IckySprickyDicky” for the town.  My husband invented the term “warffle” to describe swallowing something the wrong way.  We had many items from an inherited hope chest becoming “the stump” and snorkels being called “spits”.  The Farlows have their share of group-speak. 

However, now that my son has had a child I feel I need to inform them and anyone else who might hear it my mother’s use of the word cunnin’ or cunning to describe a baby/toddler.   It was accepted in my family but I doubt that even my husband (whose family has their own set of group-speak) knows and few outside our family have heard it.  Just lately, as I took pictures of my granddaughter to my mother for her to show her friends in her retirement facility she exclaimed as she looked at my sweet granddaughter “oh she’s just so cunnin’!!” It made me realize that we had a potential glass-shatter moment here too.

My mother used this phrase when talking to and about babies and toddlers for as long as I can remember. We accepted it growing up and I admit I used it at times.  To go for “Yankee slang” my mother dropped the “g” on the end of the word changing it from cunning to cunnin’.  I guess that’s pretty daring for a small town New Englander.  I am sure that I heard my grandmother say it when talking of my baby brother.  I think that perhaps my mother’s grandmother used the phrase as did the generations of Yankee women before her.  It certainly seems old enough when you look it up.

cun·ning

ˈkəniNG/

adjective

adjective: cunning; comparative adjective: cunninger; superlative adjective: cunningest

1.

having or showing skill in achieving one's ends by deceit or evasion.

"a cunning look came into his eyes"

synonyms:		crafty, wily, artful, guileful, devious, sly, scheming, designing, calculating, Machiavellian; More shrewd, astute, clever, canny; deceitful, deceptive, duplicitous, foxy; archaicsubtle "a cunning scheme"
antonyms:	honest

ingenious.

"plants have evolved cunning defenses"

2.

North American

attractive; quaint.

"the baby will look cunning in that pink print"

I don’t know if my mother ever used the word in front of my kids or not or if I ever explained the meaning/origin of it to them if she did and they didn’t understand.  I think now is the time before they are confused by the colloquialism uttered from my almost 88 year old mother..  It not a common adjective for babies and I think it’s probably a use of the word which is dying out.  That’s sad to think that a word I grew up hearing and knowing is going the way of the rotary phone. 

But there it is.  Change occurs; words come and go as do babies.  

I just know that my little granddaughter is extemely cunnin’.

DIY CITRUS BODY WASH

DIY CITRUS BODY WASH

•1/3 cup Dr. Brommer’s castille soap
•1/4 cup honey
•2 teaspoons jojoba oil
•1 teaspoon vitamin E
•2 teaspoons vegetable glycerin
•10 of Young Living Citrus Fresh Essential Oil
• 5 drops grapefruit oil
• 2 drops ylang ylang oil

Add all ingredients and fill up bottle with distilled water.

Shake well and before each use.