I found this quote in one of the Montessori books I was reading yesterday.  It’s talking about incorporating your children into the work of the home, but it spoke to me, for myself.

Work should never be thought of as a chore, but as an activity that leads to a sense of order and completion.

(from How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way, by Tim Seldin – which, by the way, has a lot of good stuff in it, but also some typical-of-the-Montessori-community antibiblical views of child-rearing, especially where discipline and obedience are concerned)

I think that part of my difficulty is that I have a very goal-oriented personality, and it seems that none of the “activity” around the house ever does really lead to “order” or “completion.”  The house is always still a mess, nothing is ever finished, etc.  So it begins to feel pointless.  But even the difference in connotation between “chore” and “activity” is significant.  And maybe I need focus more on figuring out how we might actually be able to achieve the goals of order and/or completion.