Jobs Jar

Okay, you probably all winced when you saw the title of today's blog.  But this kind of Jobs Jar is different, and you might even like it.  I do.  Or at least I like the idea of it.  While I finished setting it up yesterday, I haven't actually used it yet.

Let me explain.  David went to New Jersey for a bonsai meeting, and I took the time to do some housework that had been hanging fire (anyone know where that expression comes from?) for a long time.  Earlier I had cleaned the top of our antique 2-door cupboard pantry and tidied the items that had to stay there.  Then D decided to build a new shelf for it.  One side always had shelves where we keep canned goods, etc.  The other side was more of a closet, and we used it for brooms and such.  Okay, the "such" was actually whatever had to be put somewhere to get it out of the way.  Very convenient, very messy.  D managed to build a shelf without attaching it to the cupboard (which would have been bad to do to an antique - of course, we already diminished its value when we were young know-nothings by removed the uuuugly milk paint).  Then he put all of our cleaning supplies in it.  Tres organized and neat.

Sunday, not to be outdone, I took everything out of the side that always had shelves, cleaned the shelves and tops of cans and re-shelved everything in a tidy, logical way.  This pantry is now a thing of beauty inside and out.

Lest you be cringing already, the above chores with the pantry do not qualify for my Jobs Jar.  Nor does the laundry, bread and cake baking, or any of the other chores I did.  Get it?  What I did yesterday were chores, and I don't like the idea of a jar containing chores that I'd have to do (clean out the garage, sweep behind the washer and drier and water heater in the basement, pick up all the pens, pencils and assorted lost items under the sofa, for example). 

No, my jar contains slips of paper with quilting or other crafty UFO's (UnFinished Objects) and quilting/crafty projects for which I bought the fabric or whatever but haven't had time to start.  Here's how it works.  D will reach in and pull out TWO slips of paper which he hands to me without reading them (some specify gifts I want to make).  I'm allowed to read both, and then I choose the one I want to do. 

By calling it a Jobs Jar, I have the sense that when the job is finished, I will be rewarded - not with money, but with a sense of accomplishment.  By drawing two slips out of the jar, I am allowing myself a choice - what we used to call a "psych out".  D helps by selected two pieces of paper so he knows I'm working on UFO's and my stash.

Until my final Challenge is completed, I won't get the Jobs Jar out, but at least it's set up for me.  

What do you think of the idea?