I might be the most impatient person with construction/high
volume traffic. I don’t know why—I wish I could change and become more Zen
about the delays (ohm) but nope.
Unless I know it’s an accident ahead (where I feel nothing but worry and
overwhelming gratitude for my safety) I get fidgety and anxious, every single
time.
So last year, when Baby Girl and I were on a road trip and we hit heavy
traffic on an unfamiliar highway, I had that familiar grrr feeling as the car crept along. Baby Girl was busy in the
passenger seat playing some sort of game on some sort of handheld device when I
asked her (our navigator) how far until our exit. (We still use printed maps
and do not own a GPS, though it’s on my to-be-bought sometime soon list.)
Baby Girl: Hold on one second…I don’t want to lose my
chicken.
Me: Chicken?
Her: In my game. [A second later] Ugh! I lost my chicken!!
Me: Well, I’m about to lose my chicken with this traffic.
And we laughed and laughed.
Just like that a new phrase was added to our family
phrasebook. It’s placed somewhere near the terms “yesterday night” for last
night and “folding the bed” for making the bed.
Around here if you’re “about to lose your chicken” you’re on
the verge of losing your mind/flipping your lid/losing your patience. It’s
amazing how fast a phrase can be incorporated into everyday vocabulary and
become, well, normal. Honestly, I think Baby Girl and I say it more than anyone
else, but everyone knows what it means.
I think the last time I said it was just yesterday with this weather
(“this cold is making me lose my chicken!”). (Did I mention it's -1 here??? But I digress...)
Do you have unique family phrases? And when was the last time you lost your chicken?
Do you have unique family phrases? And when was the last time you lost your chicken?
Ohm.
This isn't going to make my mom look good but ... when I was a kid, on the days she washed the floors, I'd come home from school and open the door to Mom yelling, "Take off your feet or I'll kill you." She meant my shoes, of course.
ReplyDeleteMoms are always forgiven when it comes to the cleanliness of the floors. That's not an easy job! Thanks for sharing, Barb. :)
DeleteI love little family inside jokes. Thanks for sharing yours with us!
ReplyDeleteJust this morning at Bible study a point was made about how we only learn patience (or only require patience) when we actually have to wait for something. So, if we want more patience, than by golly we have to be put in positions where we actually have to wait for something! Arg, right? As a mom of little kids I quite frequently feel short on patience and desire to be better in that area, so that little light bulb went off over my head as I digested, that indeed, if I want more patience or desire to be a more patient person, that I certainly have to be put in those situation that require me to wait....happily, as your Joyce Meyer quote above states. sigh. I am, indeed, a work in progress.
Kids require SO much patience. But are worth it. :)
DeleteI also learned A LOT of patience when I first started writing (back in the olden days), when I had to send off via snail mail query letters & partial manuscripts and wait, wait, wait for the mail person to bring me news. Nowadays it's all email, but the wait still feels interminable, esp. to new writers who sometimes have to wait 6 mo to a year for an answer on a query. Craziness.