When That Pet Peeve Works In Your Favor

I love my husband more than anyone else in the world.  I do.  I absolutely do!  But, since he is different from me, and we live together, and we are both sinful (shocker, I know), he can also drive me insane!  He can infuriate me where I, the person who hates yelling, will raise my voice.  I have been known to also do the opposite and go into the "silent treatment" (and as you should know by now, I love to talk), all because I was annoyed to my maximum capacity by the one person that I cherish more than anyone or anything on this earth... how can I love someone so much and also want to hurt him so severely?!

I am mostly kidding, of course, mostly... and BELIEVE ME - I annoy him just as much as he annoys me.  We are imperfect people who share every room, vehicle, possession, dollar, and the same sarcastic sense of humor!  Things are bound to cross the line every now and then into the "that bothers me" territory!  It is unfortunate that we don't always share points-of-view, opinions, or habits, but that is impossible anyway.  Thankfully, for the most part we get along quite easily.  And we love each other enough to give grace when the other person needs it... most of the time.

I think most married people would say that the things you absolutely love about your spouse can also be the same things that sometimes get on your nerves about them... For example, I love that my husband is detail-oriented, because most of the time I am not.  I love that he is outdoorsy, and he likes to camp and fish and hunt and hike.  I love that he is creative and handy, and he can build shelves in the garage in an hour.  I love that he can teach himself to sew a hammock cover instead of buying one so that he can save us money.  BUT, I don't like how one of these hobbies or projects starts out as a little tiny thing he sees needs to be done, but it turns into a 3-week project with tools and materials spread out all over the dining table, on top of the piano, and on the kitchen counter.  It means many sessions of YouTube videos in the background noise in my home as he rewatches or researches further the steps to finish whatever the current project is...  like I said, the things that you can love most about a person can also sometimes be what makes you want to punch them in the throat (not that I would do that... though I am thoroughly human and find it tempting at times)!

But yesterday I experienced the opposite as a newly-discovered truth... I learned that the things that drive you crazy can sometimes be the things that make you love them more!

Case-in-point: Yesterday Keegan, our 14-month-old son, spilled and squished Goldfish crackers into the living room rug. My husband starts to jokingly say that "we can't have nice things because you let the kids snack in the living room".
My reply, with a smile to give him back what he's dishing out, "Oh, if it were up to you, we'd never do anything fun because it might make a mess."
He shoots right back, giving me a hard time about "if it weren't for me, we'd have mice and all sorts of mess around here", which might be partially true because I am not the tidiest person... neither of us are offended, because we both know that I do clean.
So I make the victorious remark - a question, really. "So, how many times in 6 years have you vacuumed this rug?"...
His answer was obvious in his humbled-head-hung-low in grinning "shame".
I win.
He gets the vacuum out of the closet.
I think he is going to vacuum the rug.

Instead my husband proceeds to the trash in the kitchen. He takes the vacuum apart, cleans out all the hair wrapped around the brushes, and then he proceeds to go get all the attachments out of the box! He lays them all out on the dining table, and starts to YouTube videos on these attachments.

I watch all of this from the couch astonished as the minutes go by... And I am starting to get annoyed by this, thinking 'So the vacuum gets cleaned, and now we know in-depth how to use each attachment, but the cracker crumbs that set all of this in-motion are still in the rug?!' So I started doing some things around the living room and kitchen to keep me from saying something I shouldn't.  He is still watching videos and holding each attachment as he learns about each one.

And just as I can't take it anymore, my husband gets up and cleans out the bag-less vacuum container and filter outside in the yard, puts on an attachment and cleans some webs inside the windows. Then he vacuumed around the fireplace. Then the whole rug, not just where the crackers were...

Then he cleans the windows with cleaner and newspapers. Then he goes upstairs and comes downstairs with laundry to go start a load...

So, usually when he sees one tiny need and it turns into a 3-week production, I get a little angry.  Sometimes I get a little concerned that he may be ADD and OCD... and it is all I can do just to make sure he is not DOA!!! But this time his downward spiral was with cleaning, and I have never loved this man more!  Thank you, Kyle, for being so thorough in your cleaning whirlwind.  It warmed my heart and sucked up the cracker crumbs!