How to Get Your Husband to Do a Project...Without Being a Major Nag...

As much as I adore my husband he sometimes needs a nudge in the right direction to get something completed. I hate being a nag so sometimes it takes a little bit of creativity to get the tasks at hand done.

Take yesterday for example. I have been wanting to remove six bushes in front of our home since we bought our house almost five years ago. I would bring it up to Leo and he would try to tell me to leave the bushes or he would agree with me and eventually that project would get buried under a pile of projects.

I brought it up again yesterday after he had finished mowing and weed eating the yard. By this time he was pretty tired. I, on the other hand, had been inside with my three girls dousing out the flames of arguments galore. I decided that it was then or never to get the bush project completed.

Once I started to dig I thought that it was not as bad as I had imagined. I dug up one bush a few years ago--but had to chop part of it out of the ground with a small ax. I'm pretty sure I accidentally threw away the ax because it has yet to turn up again.

Sorry, I seem to be going off the topic at hand. Anyway.

I'm out there digging and I cannot for the life of me get the first bush out of the ground. There was a massive root that would not budge. I decide to move on to a different bush--I would tackle the first one later. As I was digging bush number two I come across what I thought was a bone. Turns out it was yet another massive root.

By this time Leo had made it outside with the girls. He's sitting on the porch and laughing at me. He tried to direct me and give me tips but I'm too damn stubborn  but I decided to ignore them. I didn't need help--I was determined to do this on my own.

As minutes marched on and I now had two out of the six bushes partially uprooted he couldn't take it anymore. I think it was from the part in the man brain that doesn't like to see a damsel in distress. He got up, held out his hand and I grudgingly happily handed over the shovel.

See how that turned out? I begged for years to dig up the bushes. He put it off. I went out, started to dig and he immediately had to step in and get it done. I am now coming up with a master list of other projects that "I" want to get completed...