Family-isms

Have you ever noticed how every family develops their own special dialect?  Many things shape our family dynamic, but one of the biggest are the words and phrases that once used, suddenly find their way into our family vocabulary and become “family-isms.”  It is what makes us unique, and it is one of the fun things about being a family!

There’s no way I could make an exhaustive list of all of ours (just as I’m sure you couldn’t either!), and some probably wouldn’t be all that appropriate (just being real here), but here are a few for you to chew on:

Hopgropper:  otherwise known as a “grasshopper” – this was via our oldest son.  We hated to correct him because it was so cute.

Congradjurations:  Our niece told my husband this when he graduated from college.  She was 4.

Dandyflowers:  also known as “dandelions” – the lovely flowers my oldest daughter liked to pick for me when she was little.

Budwhiskers – One day, we were parked outside a liquor store (no, this isn’t a joke) while my husband ran into a store nearby (it was the only parking place we could find – honest).  After looking at all the advertising signs outside the liquor store, my son quipped, “Who would want to drink Budwhiskers?”  After I stopped laughing, I realized he had only read part of the word and made up the rest – something he did frequently.  So, now whenever someone in the house mispronounces a word, we say, “Budwhiskers.”

Niffy Bear:  When our 5 year old was 3, he was telling us about a bear who was sniffing all around.  He called him a “niffy bear”, so now, whenever we see or hear someone sniffing, we call them a “niffy bear.”

“B Fly Up in the Sky”:  This is something my oldest daughter used to say in a sing-songy voice every time she saw a butterfly, so we’ve continued that tradition.

Charsagna:  We have a friend who never, and I mean never, follows a recipe, and what she makes always has some crazy unexpected twist to it.  Her name is Char, so whenever I make something where I have to replace an ingredient, we call it Charsagna stemming from the day I had to put macaroni noodles in the lasagna because I forgot I didn’t have lasagna – that dish was lovingly named “Charsagna.”  This word is also a verb as in, “I Charsagna-ed the recipe.”

“Squirrel”:  from the movie UP – said anytime anyone gets distracted by something totally random (or says something totally random), but most often when it is my husband.

“God’s House”:  The other name for “Church” – coined by my oldest son when he was about 4.

“Smeff”:  Said when you cannot remember what you were going to say – must be said with passion.  Comes from early on in our marriage when Ty and I were having a rather heated discussion about something neither of us can remember when he started tripping over his words and finally blurted out, “Smeff!”  Which quickly brought us both to tears laughing.

Friendly Peas:  Every time my kids went to Grammy’s house, they were served chicken nuggets and friendly peas.  There wasn’t anything special about the peas (besides the fact they were slathered in butter), but apparently, they were friendly.

“Sop it Up with a Biscuit”:  I am not from the South, but we have friends who are.  This comes from one of those friends and is heard any time I serve biscuits.

“I’m the only Viking!”:  If you’ve read my Large Family Homeschooling ebook (available in pdf and just recently Kindle!), you’ll know this story and how it has translated to our homeschool.  It comes from Gregg Harris who tells a story of how all the vikings rowed themselves to the battle.  This phrase is said when there’s only one “viking” working on a chore and they feel there ought to be more people helping them.

“My stomach is eating my backbone”:  translation = I’m hungry

“I’m stuffed like a tick”:  translation = I’m full

There are so many more I could add here, but it’s hard to remember them all.  They roll off our tongues every single day – almost mindlessly.  They permeate our family culture.  They are rarely used outside our home because others wouldn’t understand us.  It is our native tongue, it is the language we speak when in our natural habitat.  It is a part of who we are as a family.  Yes, it’s good to be family!