Addicted

I like lots of things. Some things I like a little too well. I've learned that I have what I call an "addictive personality." That is not a commentary about how others feel about me, rather, how I view things in my life. I think I get addicted easily to things that make me happy.

For starters, Chocolate. That's a no-brainer. Put a bag of that luscious melty yum yum in front of me and say goodbye to the bathroom scale cuz I'm not standing on it for a week. This would qualify ALL forms of the stuff...candy bars, cake, donuts, fountains, over fruit, on crackers, over ice-cream...you get the idea.

I also love computer games. I remember admitting this to another mom, and she simply said, "I can't imagine having time to even play a game." Oh. Well, I decided that I'm not so addicted that I can't budget my time, but my addiction is one of dominance. I want to play until I beat the game. I have 100% on my Spider solitaire record, for example. I've beaten Cake Mania, and well, all those other "arcade" type games available for download on my computer.

John has said that sometimes it's a good thing. For example, when I go to work on a project, I simply CAN'T pull myself away until it's finished. This comes in handy when we're all doing yard work or cleaning up the garage and basement. It's good for cleaning out closets and cars as well. Not so good when there is a big Enrichment meeting and there are tables and chairs and food and centerpieces to be put away and John is home alone with 6 kids, and I'm already an hour later than I said I would be.

And now, I'm addicted to digital scrapbooking. John bought me a program from Polaroid called "My Memories" that allows me to create pages on my computer. Then I send them to Blurb to be published. Our first book arrived a couple of weeks ago, and since then, I've published three more years of scrapbooks. Unfortunately, this addiction HAS affected my ability to budget time. I think it's because I can rationalize that I'm doing something worthwhile with my time rather than wasting time. I can turn off any computer game or put down a candy bar with no regrets, but something about scrapbooking makes me chant "one more page...one more page" while my kids run around the house with reckless abandon, pulling food out of the cupboards, littering toys around the living room, painting each others' body parts...

There is, however, one reprieve. I'm caught up. So even though the last two days were spent in sleepless hours finishing up the last book, there's nothing to look forward to for today.

And that's why I'm blogging. ;)

Maybe I'll become addicted to this, too.