In my pondering today, I am reminded why country living is appealing to me…I am a people person that likes being alone (sometimes).

I have a few fears.  Not a lot, just a few, three actually. Unfortunately, I can’t even post pictures of my fears because it would freak me out.  They are not what you would call ‘normal fears’… To quote my wonderful SIL, “I have no respect for your fears, they are stupid.” (Gotta love validation from your family).

#1  Clowns: I will say that it made me nervous to even type ‘fear of clowns’ in the google search because I was afraid of what would show up (and I am sitting alone in a dark room).  I am not exactly sure when this fear started, but I associate it with the Jack in a Box I had as a small child.  The song “All around the Mullberry Bush” in that tin box sound makes my heart race.  I have tried several things to get over it, but nothing helps.  Okay, some of it MIGHT have helped, but I didn’t have the strength to keep trying.

Recently I watched a few of the Halloween movies while the kids were at their dads.  I love scary movies, I like the rush of being scared, of trying to guess how and when the director is going to try and scare the audience.  However, I watched them on a day when I was leaving for town and not returning until after dark, when everyone else on the hill (my entire family) was out of town, and I would be returning by myself…  Here is a very comical and somewhat accurate ‘drawing’ of my house (don’t ask how long it took me to draw it):

The toilet is against the back wall in the bathroom. —->

Yeah, I don’t see ‘graphic design artist’ in my future either….but I digress.  This is a very old farm house, and the add on’s, while having made it more livable also have made it more laughable.  I want to stress that fact that I am VERY thankful for this old farmhouse and my landlords (aka parents), and we/they have done a ton of things to improve it and make it a great place for me and my children.  With that being said, ‘locking’ the house is pretty much a joke. (Per my mom’s request, you are NOT getting my address LOL).  The front door #3 stays ‘locked’ most of the time, unless we are feeding the cats, or grabbing something out of the deep freeze.  The back door #1 isn’t capable of locking, and the inside back door #2 only locks with a hook.  I came home late, walking slowly from the car to the house, my heart pounding and singing “Who’s in the middle of the dark…God is” in my head, so not to panic and run like a crazed woman into my house.  I pulled the back door shut, entered the kitchen, hooking the door behind me, checking that the front door was ‘locked’ and closing my bedroom door to ensure that I would at least hear if someone started knocking down doors.  I snuggled into bed with George, my 37 year old teddy bear (I am still single, and why is becoming evident to me), and fell asleep.  I woke up around 3 am with a full bladder, due to not making a bathroom stop on the way to bed.  As I got up and stumbled back through the house and into the bathroom, feeling good about all of the ‘locked’ doors, I sat down on the toilet and rubbed my eyes, looking up and realizing with a tad bit of horror that I was looking straight into the laundry room…I didn’t shut and ‘lock’ the bathroom door on my way to bed, so someone could have walked into my house without even TOUCHING a ‘locked’ door.  Long story shorter?  I turned on every light back to my room and slept with the lights on!

#2 Grasshoppers and Sprickets:  SHUDDERING just typing the words.  Snakes, mice, spiders…none of them bother me, but ‘jumpy’ bugs?  They creep me out!  Needless to say, living in the country, you can’t really get away from them.  Nothing is worse than pulling up  to the house and having them jump all over the vehicle.  I have been known to lay on the horn until someone comes out of the house to get them off before I leave the safety of my rig!

#3 Left hand curves:  Yeah, I know…”Shut up Sarea.”  This has actually gotten better over the last year.  Notice it is curves, not turns.  I can usually breath through them, but if there is guard rails, it makes me more panicked.  Like I said, it is getting better, and living in the country, driving on country roads makes it easier to avoid the curve.  How you ask?  Because I tend to drive in the middle of the road.  Once my children said (spoke loudly and with great conviction) “Mom, you are on the wrong side of the road!”, to which I replied “I pay taxes for both sides of the road!”

If you enjoyed this and missed my first “Country Living” post, you can click  here to see it.

Oh, and don’t worry about me…next to my bed is a shotgun and it is loaded!  ;-)  (Out of children’s reach of course!)

Talk to ya’ll later!