Welcome to The Nut House

Sometimes the kids think I am a little "off".  Oh heck, let's be honest, there are many times they think I am just plain nuts.  Which would explain the Christmas gift I got that is hanging by the service door.  "Welcome to the Nut House".  I rearrange furniture all the time.  The kitchen get reorganized and no one can find dishes or food.  I like old movies and 70's music and Barry Manilow is one of my favorite singers.  The kids will tell you that is about all that the proof that they need to have me put in  "The Home". I confessed a while ago about my compulsion to purchase "As Seen on TV" items.  I refuse to get help to cure that.  By the way, I just bought the "Perfect Hose" and I can't wait to use it!

We have a large yard and a lot of flower beds.  We also have a vegetable garden.  Lots of grass to mow too.  Now as a kid, I wasn't crazy about yard work.  I thought I lucked out by being a girl, because mowing was a man's job, so my brother got stuck with that.  Well, let me tell you - I was wrong about that!  One of my prize possessions is my Kubota tractor.  I love getting out on it or the middle sized tractor to mow.  You can put on head phones, or just sing out loud while driving back and forth across the fields and yards.  It is relaxing and mindless work.  It gives you time to yourself and time to be alone in your thoughts or prayers.  I absolutely love it! 

I have also spent years trying to convince the kids that weeding is good for the soul.  You get on your hands and knees and extract those pesky weeds out of the dirt.  There is some weird satisfaction in getting the whole root out.  It is a simple job that brings great joy when you stand up and look at the beautiful flower beds that you have created.  You have had your hands in the dirt, maybe sweating in the sun and you feel strangely fulfilled.  Yeah, the kids aren't buying it.  They would rather go to the dentist and have teeth pulled than weed with me.  Funny, the dentist works to get the roots too!

I have beaten one of my compulsions and that is registering to win Publishers Clearing House.  When the kids were little I would order things from there in the hopes of being the next big winner.  Someone has to win, right?!  It developed into quite a nasty habit.  I really got hooked on the two for one deals.  Order 75 flower bulbs and get 75 free.  I couldn't stop.  And I couldn't remember what I had ordered.  Eventually, we spent one entire day planting hundreds, and I do mean hundreds of bulbs that I had ordered.  The kids begged me to stop.  But I couldn't.  I ordered the can opener that doesn't leave sharp edges and got two for the price of one.  I understand why it didn't leave sharp edges, it wouldn't even open the can!  The kids begged me to let them use the electric can opener.  I got great deals on food storage containers and all kinds of cool gadgets.  The kids wanted me to get help for my problem.

I don't know how I did it, but I finally made the decision to quit cold turkey.  It was hard to walk away from the opportunity to win millions, but I made it!  I got a packet from Publishers Clearing House in the mail today.  I opened it, just to see what they were selling, and maybe I could enter just one more time!  I got caught by "Pook" who asked me if in all of the entries I had made, had I ever won a single dollar?  He was right, and the packet went in the garbage.  Maybe I need to sign up for Contest Anonymous.  No, the kids will keep me clean.  They don't want the work that comes with those flower bulbs!

In my defense, I got the "Sounds of 70's" collection!  Nothing beats that!