Spring Cleaning

Today was Mother's Day. My husband was gone all day, feeding the masses. My children were enjoying having some time to watch movies, play games, and read books. I did a bit of light housework and then I walked into my library. There was dust. There were cobwebs. There were stacks and stacks of unshelved books teetering on the floor. Something had to be done. I have put off walking into this room in my house for months. I didn't want to face this beast that had run a muck. It was just too big. Today was the day.

I lack enough shelf space in my house for all of the wonderful books in my collection. I know this, but what can be done about it? I also lack the space in my house for more shelves. It was time to deal with the facts. I have too many books. It hurts to say so, but it is the truth. It was time to make some tough choices. I had to cut some loose to take better care of the ones that I was keeping.

On the chopping block were:

Holiday books- Each child got to pick one book for each holiday to keep. The others are going. 4 books on each holiday is plenty. Holidays are about traditions, and the kids picked the books that they remember me reading to them most. Some are fun picture books. Some are storybooks. Others discuss the meaning of the holidays. There ended up being a pretty good mix.
Bibles- Honestly, how many children's Bibles does any one household need? We have 4 children so 4 seems to be the number that comes to mind. I have counted over 20 in my house. Keep in mind these are huge, thick books that take up a lot of space. It is time they go to a home that they will get some attention in, one that is not mine.
Books based on TV shows- How did I even end up with these? I have a collection of Kim Possible chapter books? Seriously? How did that happen? I think the books are multiplying down there, because I did not, at any point in time, purchase these.
Little Golden Books- These are my families treasures. I have 2 boxes full of these beautiful little wonders. Oh, they aren't going anywhere, other than off of my shelves. I have stored them neatly away and will hide them in a closet somewhere. My kids just don't read them anymore. I don't read them to the kids. As young children, they are a bit wordy. James doesn't have the attention span for them. Meg has the attention span, but now wants to read on her own and the Little Golden Books aren't written at her reading level. Several of them are also Disney movie books. Looking at these books is like walking down a timeline of my childhood. I am not ready to part with that, and my mother would never allow me to, but since I don't have the space for them on the shelves, off into storage they go.

So after several hours of sorting, boxing, and bagging, my library is still a mess. It is getting better, though, and with some time and attention I can see myself enjoying the space again. One of the benefits of cleaning the library, or even being in there at all is that the kids, all in turn, came in to see what I was doing and picked up a book without even thinking about it. That is why my house is full of books. That is what it is all about.

Books We Read

We read a lot here. We used to keep track of the books that we read on a poster, but we ran out of room and we just fell out of the habit. In looking back at that old poster, though I began to realize just how much we read in this house. We have a library with close to 4,000 books in our house (that is in great need of organization). I loved going to the library as a child and was always heartbroken when I had overdue fees that prevented me from checking out books. I started our home library 10 years ago and it has grown and grown. We read together and independently. We read all kinds of books. We have a very long list of books that we want to read and not enough time in the day to get to them all. I remember working 45 hours a week and wishing I had more time to read. I have more time now, but it never seems like enough. I want to read more.

I personally read a lot of young adult fiction and non fiction. I read a lot of books on teaching and learning. I read a lot of cook books and books of poetry. I read a lot of everything, with the exception being parenting books. I don't like them. There are so many parenting books out there. Many of them contradict each other and none of them know my children. The make many generalizations that have nothing to do with my family. With so many books and so little time, I just skip them.

Meredith likes to read nonfiction. She also likes the Redwall books. She tends to read many books all at the same time. I don't know how she keeps them all straight.

Matthew likes books that are funny and adventurous. He really enjoyed the Percy Jackson book series.

Margaret is just learning to read. She still claims that she can't read, but she has read several readers to me. She is still learning and growing. Then again, aren't we all?

James loves our story times. He has his favorite board books, but will listen to anything.

I will be posting book reviews by the kids and myself later on, but for now, I'm off to read with Margaret.