It's a Southern thing

I took the youngest out today to teach him a skill I think will serve him well in life. On the way home, a Yankee friend from our Northern states called my cellphone so I told her about wee lad's new fun, and she had no idea what I meant by the word. I thought she was perhaps just not bright. When she disconnected I called another friend from the West Coast. Again, I had to explain what I meant.

I checked Answers.com when I got home and came up empty. Google found only a few mentions, all Southern. I checked by phone with a few Southern friends; they all knew the word. Clearly, therefore, this is a Southern word, if not an outright Southern phenomenon.

So let me clue in the rest of y'all.

creekstomp
verb, Southern U.S.
To go walking in a creek in a manner that purposely gets your feet wet. One doesn't leap from rock to rock and squeal when one's foot slips in, for example. This can also be done on horseback (traditionally bareback); again the intention is for the horse to walk directly on the creekbed.

It's okay to stand alone...

So, I'm talking to my neighbor about kindergarten and giving her the skinny on the bus schedules and how lunch will work this year for our boys and she kept saying how she hoped our kids were on the same bus and in the same class and doing the same things together. Now, while this is harmless and well-meaning, I was thinking "I want my son to have his own experiences in the first days of his school career". I'm not the most studious person around, but I'm bright enough to recognize that he may miss out on OTHER experiences if he's pinned to the neighbor's kid--who has a tendency to cry about almost any and everything. I would like it if my son could possibly meet some new kids and sit with new kids on the bus. Broaden his horizons, if you will.

Five years ago, I would have just thought "Yeah, they'll have each other", but I've grown enough to know that at the beginning of his school career, he should be open to all things that are social (positive things, of course). I want to keep him that way--he's charged and ready to go, too. He positively cannot wait to step foot on that bus, see his new classroom, meet his new teacher, and mingle with new friends. That's what I want for him, as I see he wants it for himself.

One thing I missed when I was a child, that I've just gotten comfortable with as an adult is being okay with being my own person and doing my own thing.

individuality: n. 1. a. The aggregate of qualities and characteristics that distinguish one person or thing from others; character. b. An individual or distinguishing feature.

Hey, lion

I recently heard an idiom I've never heard before. I cannot, unfortunately, remember the context - only the idiom. It's a wonderful turn-of-phrase, though.

beard the lion
idiom
Confront a danger, take a risk. This term was originally a Latin proverb based on a Bible story (I Samuel 17:35) about the shepherd David, who pursued a lion that had stolen a lamb, caught it by its beard, and killed it. By Shakespeare's time it was being used figuratively, as it is today. Sometimes the term is amplified to beard the lion in his den, which may combine the allusion with another Bible story, that of Daniel being shut in a lions' den for the night (Daniel 6:16-24).
"beard the lion." The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992. Answers.com 16 Aug. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/beard-the-lion