The images you see in this post are snapshots from around my family room and kitchen on Tuesday, January 7, 2014. Those piles have since moved around and spread out some.

Today my sons went back to school after 19 days off for the holiday break. That is by far the longest grade school break I’ve ever dealt with, perhaps even as long as some college breaks.

We had a great time: we did a ton of sightseeing around Colorado, the boys enjoyed time with their grandparents, and had hours…upon hours…upon hours of video game, Kindle game, and TV time. But now it’s time to ratchet all that back and hunker down, at least till Spring Break in 2 1/2 months.

One of the perks of their going back to school is that I have the house to myself now for the first time in nearly 3 weeks. I have been able to keep it pretty clean…and sometimes even with their help! But something happens when my sons are home.

Little things start to accumulate everywhere. Over the holidays this usually involves stocking stuffers.

The kids begin to leave little piles of “stuff” all over the house. I do my best to keep it somewhat neat and orderly…but believe it or not, the kids are using this “stuff”. They will suddenly play marbles…or pick up a sheet of jokes from our Christmas crackers…or decide to whittle a stick…or enjoy a block of Pez in their new Perry the Platypus dispenser.

The center of my coffee table has a decorative wire basket that I use to attempt to keep the “stuff” under control. Before long, you can’t even see the basket, you see the pile of Rubik’s Cubes, stuffed animals, SparkFun kits, and Nerf blaster darts.

I try to keep the piles of “stuff” nice and neat at least. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a pile of random “stuff”…and when I visit other peoples’ houses, even with kids around, there doesn’t seem to be this “stuff”.

Where do you put it all? Don’t your kids play with toys? What’s wrong with us?

</rant>