Usurped

Before we even had children, Andy and I fretted over the volume of primary colored plastic things that tend to crowd so many kid friendly homes. We worried that our little house could be overrun.  And now, even with a firm toy limit, I'm afraid most days our house appears to be decorated in a style that can only be described as a blend of Contemporary Little Tikes and Early American Fisher Price with a hint of traditional wooden puzzle piece and a splash of rustic naked baby doll.  What we hadn't entirely anticipated were all the "toys" that aren't really toys at all.  The brown paper bag, the wooden spoon, the empty yogurt tub and the butt paste tube, these and other junk items capture his attention and clutter our living quarters too.
And then there are the books.

Books in baskets, books on shelves, but mostly books on the floor. In every room.  Now let me be clear, we will never have too many books.  If we trudged through books and were smothered by books and had books spilling from the windows I would not complain about having too many books.  We read all the books.  We read them cover to cover, front to back and back to front, skipping some pages and reading others over and over.  Amid the primary colored plastic things and the bits of recycled untoys, dog hair piles up.  Dirty laundry runs rampant and dishes don't get clean.  Because now he brings me books.  So I stop scrubbing the potatoes and we read.  He brings me books and I leave the bedsheets in a heap and we read.  My books sit abandoned, magazines backlog, e-mails are left without response, because we're reading.
And then at night, after he's tucked into bed, I find books under the sofa and behind the armoire, in the bath tub and on the dog's pillow, books hijacking square footage and confiscating precious real estate, books taking over the house. And I know these are signs of a day well spent.  I pick them up and I catch myself thinking there is no home decor I'd find more appealing, nothing with which I'd rather be sharing my space.  And I know there is no way I'd rather be spending my time.
JEB