Like riding a bike, right?

Hello friends! I was shocked to see I actually put up a few posts last year. As I grow more and more skeptical of the online social networks, I thought I’d revisit this site.

My kids are now 15 and 17. Alas, their reading has declined in inverse proportion to their smart phone use. We cleared out their bookshelves of things that held their interest for a minute, but not longer. We kept the ones they loved, I loved, that were inscribed, or that would be hard to replace. It was interesting to see what they thought could go (all the Origami Yoda books–they spent hours crafting from those) and what they wanted to hang onto, and we were mostly in agreement.

I took 2 boxes into Half Price books, and left with this short stack of goodness (the one illegible spine is Sharon Olds’ The Golden Cell.) Over 20 years ago, I worked at HPB for an year, so I know the buying process is subject to the vagaries of supply and demand. We got a tidy sum for our well kept offerings, more than enough to cover hers and his purchases for me and my husband.

Also, I am now the shortest person in the house. My younger likes to intone “shooort” as he looms over me, but I keep insisting that I am just fine, thank you. After books, the boys and I cleared out all clothes they outgrew, which I took to 2 resale shops (probably my last time at Once Upon a Child) and many items were re-salable. The remainder I’ll donate.

We’ve diligently sheltered at home over the pandemic, and one of the things we learned about ourselves is that no one likes to clean and we all have a higher tolerance for dirt and a lower one for clutter than we thought. Now that most of us are vaxxed and the last is soon to be, I feel us moving out of inertia back into the world.

Today’s errands were a beginning. Sort of like this website post!