Old Books.

Something else ruthlessly sorted during the Great Household Purge of May 2013 were the family room bookshelves.  When the boys were young we'd been fortunate to receive a lot of hand-me-down books from my cousins and my half-brothers, and I held on to them for a long time, in grim denial of how quickly kids grow up.  But it was time to face facts - the boys have grown too old for picture books, and we didn't have enough room for the books they actually do read.

I wanted to send those old and beloved books to a good home, so I contacted some other cousins with very young children and offered them up.  Then I set to work.  Obviously some books needed to stay with us:  Dr Seuss, Harry the Dirty Dog, Charlie and Lola, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Q Pootle 5 stand out amongst a small selection of sentimental favourites. But the rest were put in boxes. And more boxes.  And then a few bags as well.  The cat supervised.



I think my cousins were a little bit surprised when Mister Fixit arrived in Woodend with the booty.  I may have glossed over just how many books I'd be sending their way, and we threw in some beloved and hard-to-part-with baby toys and puzzles as well.  But a couple of days after the treasure arrived, I received a text from the cousin with the 2-year-old.

"Just thought you should know that over the past few days we've hardly been able to leave the house.  This is because all B wants to do is read  story after story, first in his room, then on the couch, then at the table, then in the big bed.  After he's finished stories he wants to do all his new puzzles.  This really has been going on for several days.  Thanks for the great hand me downs.  We are all really enjoying them."

Meanwhile, I was able to display all the remaining books in a horizontal or vertical position, which means the kids are now game to pull out books to read.  No more danger of being crushed by an avalanche of books, I'm happy to say. The cat agreed it looked much better as well.