I had one of those rare weekends where my husband was not home most of weekend because he had to work the Home Show for his company so, I decided to take on a few of the things on the “Hunny Do List” at our house.

I figured I could take on a few of the things like changing the light bulbs in our kitchen.  What’s the big deal with changing some light bulbs, you might ask? Well, I am 5’ 5 1/2", we have 10 foot ceilings and I am afraid of heights.  Not to mention we don’t just own a standard step ladder. You see we own not one, not two, but three “Little Giant” ladders.    I was proud of myself just for carrying it in to the house through the garage without hitting my car.  Then I managed to figure out all the different locks and adjustments to get it set up so I could climb up and change the light bulbs.  I was on a roll, but that accomplishment was not what made my daughter announce “Mom was a ‘manly’ woman.”

It happened while we were out yesterday with my neighbor and her two sons.  We had gone to breakfast and then we were going to catch a movie.  We had about 45 minutes before the movie started and I wanted to stop at Home Depot to buy my light bulbs and my neighbor was going to run a quick errand just up the road so we had agreed to meet at the movie theatre.  I was making good time in the store, I found my energy saving replacement bulbs and I even found this wacky looking replacement bulb for the range above my stove and then my phone rang.  It was my neighbor and she had run over something in a parking lot and it blew her tire.  I told her I would be right there to change the tire.  Just like that, I couldn’t remember the last time I had changed a tire on my own but, I said it with such confidence I even believed it was a normal thing for me to do.

When I arrived she was trying to get the wrench out of the cloth bag it came in but, it was sewn into the bag so I had to cut the bag open with my Grandmother’s pocket knife and then I went to work on the lugs.  I couldn’t break them free by hand and neither could my neighbor so, at that point the boys were saying “I wish Mr. Don or my dad was here.”  That did it.  I positioned the wrench on one of the lugs and stood on (okay jumped on) the wrench and the first one broke free, then the second and the third and so on.  I got the tire changed, my neighbor got the flat tire in the trunk and we still made it to our movie with time to spare.

That evening, we were in the car on the way to dinner at a friend’s house and my husband was commenting on all the things I crossed off the “Hunny Do List.”  He was impressed that I changed the bulbs in the kitchen ceiling and under the range and I had dug out the pool cover and covered the pool with my daughter’s help, etc.  While we were talking about the day he had to swerve to miss something in the road and I nonchalantly told him to be careful because I didn’t want to have to change another tire today.  He was surprised and started asking questions in an astonished tone.  As I was explaining the story to him my daughter chimed in in a very proud voice “Mom was a very ‘manly’ woman.” We both looked at her and began to laugh as she tried to explain that she meant mom wasn’t all girly and prissy when she changed the tire.  Everyone in the car had a good laugh and it made me feel good that my daughter was so proud of the way I handled the situation.