A Little Reward

So, I have been reading this book on housekeeping. Now, before you knock it hear me out. It has cool tips like: to get coffee stains off of your kitchen counters, mix these two common household ingredients together and wah-lah (or 'voila'- if my friend that teaches French is reading this...oops.). Anyway, the book motivated me to move couches and get serious about cleaning my rug. Three hours later my rug is cleaner....I assume....it looks the same to me. And I am bracing myself for afternoon snack, which always seems to end up all over the living room, even though Andrew is securely fastened into a plastic chair and does not tend to throw food (or does he?? hmm....).

Anyway, you might have noticed that I craft a lot. And sometimes I think things like, "After I clean under the couch and get Andrew down for a nap, I'll reward myself with some creative time." But, the thing is, I have a little creative time everyday- well almost. Nap time is usually creative time. So, the reward thing doesn't work because even if I had sat on the couch all morning (instead of cleaning under it) I still would have ended up with this cutie card this afternoon.

So, where does that leave me? Questioning again this whole thing. Is this a good use of my time? Shouldn't I be feeding the hungry (well, besides Dave and Andrew, and the posse that ends up here on Thursday nights), and clothing the naked (well, um, besides the obvious)? Why do I need to justify doing the hobbies that I love?

How do you, dear reader, justify your fun stuff? Or do you feel like you need to?

So, if craft time wasn't the real reward for cleaning under the couch (since I would have done it anyway), what was the motivation? I think my siblings would agree that we all have a touch of OCD that comes in handy now and again.

A friend of mine claims, and I absolutely agree, that OCD is not all bad.