Sad and happy at the same time

Today I've spent a good amount of time going through books.  We have more books than we can fit in our house; much of our collection is stored in boxes in our dungeon (crawlspace).  They are all inventoried so if we need something we can find it, but it's still not convenient to have 50% (or more) of the family books packed away.

Many of those books are really not needed anymore, but we all have a hard time getting rid of old books. A couple of years ago I went through a period when I refused to get rid of any good books at all. I was afraid that everything decent is doomed to go out of print.  I have calmed down a bit since then, but I still plan to hang on to the best of the bunch.  But, we still have books that, while good, are not classics that must be preserved.  I am getting better at letting go.  The kids, not so much.  (I leave the seminarian out of this.  He never gets rid of anything.)

From time to time I will get out boxes of books from early in our homeschooling days and ask if there are any we can give away. The answer is almost always no. 

Today was different.  The kids were ready to get rid of some books!  Most of our medieval history was wiped out - at least those books for the 10 and under set.  Books on knights and castles - all going.  It's sad in a way. Those were well-loved books. But they aren't going to be re-read by my kids.  And they aren't such classics that we need to hang on to them for the next generation.   They were good books, but not great books.

It's kind of funny to see a boy saying "I don't even remember that book" about one he said he adored and could not bear to part with just a year ago.  But, that's what growing up will do for a guy.

We are keeping plenty of books.  There will be good storybooks for the grandchildren.  But we don't need to keep it all.  

It's a little sad, but it's nice to move some things out of the house.  I feel a little less burdened with every bag that goes to the library, or to a friend.  If we move, we'll have that many fewer boxes to load onto a truck.

And, it's nice to see my kids growing up. They have plenty of books ahead of them.