Pack Rat

Every once and awhile I realize that the boys are not picking up their toys because there is no longer any place for the toys to GO. The toy chest is so full it hardly closes and toys get piled on top and in heaps on the floor... so then I go through the chest and do crazy things, such as putting parts of games back in their boxes, and weeding out the broken toys and games.

When I start doing this, Nicholas comes and stands over me. He watches me very carefully, and whenever I pick up anything that looks like it might get thrown out he begins exclaiming how he has been LOOKING for that! Look! See this broken toy phone? I MISSED this phone! And this deck of flashcards that has been scribbled on and torn up so that it only has fifteen of the alphabet letters? Finally! As I throw things into the trash can, Nathan picks them out, and when I turn around he's got them all either on a pile on the floor, or stuffed into one of their small knapsacks.

Steve is also a pack rat. A rather large closet in the basement is his appointed "computer stuff" closet, but recently it has started spilling out, it's contents leaking out into the rest of the basement. So I went through it, trying to get some order in there. And this is a difficult task, for someone like me, who can pick up a computer part and have absolutely NO IDEA what it does. I'm trying to sort these objects, but I have no idea if I'm doing it right. It's like trying to get a library in order if you don't read. You end up sorting the books by size or by color.

I also found out we have miles and miles of cables. I have no idea what these cables go to, or why we have so many of them. I do know that I was looking for one in particular this afternoon and I can't find THAT one. We also have lots of green computer chips and disk drives. I am not sure why we are hoarding them. And lots of huge square things with plugs, and also many small fans with wires coming out of them.

In the face of such horrific pack ratism I am making a concentrated effort to lighten my own load and unpack-rat myself. I went through my puzzles today - I must have fifty and I haven't done one in years because of small fingers and babies who like to eat the pieces, chew them, and spit them out in wads of soggy cardboard. I kept the ones I haven't done yet, and a few of my favorites, but the rest are going to the library when they start accepting donations again. Gosh, I hope there are no pieces missing.