Sunday, April 27, 2008

Update on Life

I'm not really sure what happened this week....I look back and see I haven't blogged since Monday. It wasn't like my week was unendingly busy, but somehow it slipped by really quickly. We did have softball or teeball every night of the week, other than Friday, and one on Saturday afternoon. And I took the kids into the city on Thursday to see my aunt Pat one last time before she left to go back home. My sister hosted us for the day, and we had a nice time--we took the kids to the park in the afternoon, and spent the rest of the day talking and laughing. We got home extremely late because the eastbound LIE had 5 exits closed for construction, which meant we had to funnel onto the service road (though thankfully, once we got on it, the ride was quick--I envisioned the entire thing being a miasma of traffic!) Plus the weather was gorgeous, so we were outside and I did a lot of garden work.

Today I did something I have been meaning to do for a year--I cleaned out our shelves of children's books. We have SO MANY children's books, most of which are wonderful. But there are some dogs--the Disney retellings which are wordy and stultifyingly boring, the Berenstain Bears stories that frankly make me want to bash my head against the nearest wall, the Pooh and Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer books that just do not translate to the printed page. (I am not talking of the original Pooh stories; rather the stupid stories written by idiots that you pick up at a drug store or in a trash heap.) Then we had a few doubles, which happened either because we got overzealous at a book sale, or because my sister gave us books her kids outgrew that we already had. Then there were books that are just too young for our kids now--the potty training stories and some of the duller board books. (I kept Dr. Seuss, Sandra Boynton and Jan Brett and classics like "Goodnight, Gorilla"--but the simple ones for babies, no need for them.)

I also reorganized the books so that we have a completely new stash on the first floor for story time, and so that all the big girls' books are together and arranged sensibly (all the Laura Ingalls books together, all the Roald Dahl, Harry Potters, Nancy Drew, Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, etc. are together) and so that all the easy readers are in one place for Ben--I never realized how many we have of those--between Little Bear, Amelia Bedelia and Henry & Mudge books we have about 25! Then I also got some books that are more geared for schoolwork, which might go unnoticed upstairs, and took them down to the shelves by the fireplace. The next step is to clear up the board games downstairs and the sideboard in the living room which holds games and puzzles--make sure all the pieces are together and that they come upstairs where we are much more likely to play with them. Then I'd like to go through the toys and puzzles in the family room, because I know we have a lot down there that no one plays with. And, of course, there are some books downstairs that I haven't gone through yet....looks like our church yard sale on May 31 will be getting an infusion of kids' things!

Anyway, it feels good to clean some things out and to get things organized. The painting really needs to begin now, so the more of this kind of thing I accomplish now, the better!

--Jen

1 comment:

Chloe [-headbang-] said...

Wewt for cleaning out old stuff! I have way too much old stuff I need to get rid of, but I'm such a packrat, so I don't think I'll be getting anymore space in my room any time soon...haha.

--Chloe [[xD]]