Scenarios and Story lines

I feel your pain! I too have a hard time focusing on one family for a long period of time. My go to when I'm bored with this game is to make my sims do something I haven't done in a while, like go to Sulani or complete the Strangerville storyline. I also play rotationally until I have made too many decisions that have changed my gameplay enough that I need to start over. I have a really cool save file with Johnny Zest having married Candy Behr and is a successful comedian and he's even formed a solid friendship with his sister in law and has a pretty cool life with lots of friends and his own club entourage whenever he performs.

Another thing that keeps me engaged is reading about other people's experiences. I never had a painting goblin before too long ago when I read a post about it.