Letting Go... of Books

What's Cookin'?

Here is a great tutorial for homemade mozzarella from Cultures of Health.
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/30-minute-mozzarella-cheese-recipe

What's Schoolin'?

Does it sound totally ridiculous that I actually got teary-eyed when I first pulled out all of my picture books to sort through into keep/sell piles?  It hit me that I can easily say how my in-laws need to down-size and let go of what impedes their current needs, yet I hold tightly to something as insignificant in the scheme of salvation as some picture books!  So, yes, I got a little teary-eyed, gave myself a mental shake and what-for, and set to the task.

Here is a picture of the contents of 1 of the 2 shelves I sorted (and my ubiquitous coffee mug - adrenal crutch!).  Somehow the "keep" pile keeps getting higher and higher!

I feel like I'm letting go of a professional stage and past, but don't really have a new 'professional' stage or niche to fall into at this point in life (but I need one!).  I'm not sure whether to stay where my old strength was or to branch out into the new.  Work with building elementary curricula and support materials; or move into high school curricula/support... or even something out of my 'professional profession' (I like making up words and phrases!) - something really new like physical items to sell or the real food movement... I'm sort of like a meandering teenager who is not sure what to do with his/her life... but needs to do something.  Anyway, enough of the philosophical ramblings :).

What's Going:
Amelia Bedelia, Berenstein Bears, Clifford, easy readers, easy chapter books, even a Jan Brett book (!), seasonal books, etc, etc.  I culled over 100 books!!

What's Staying:
All of my Spanish picture books, anything that had an inscription or was a gift to one of the children, books I use for writing workshop lessons or personal narrative lessons, books that I remember specifically reading with the girls when they were little, books with topics youngest has yet to really delve into (like more complicated picture books for any of the habitats/biomes or the Magic School Bus Earth Science ones), books that I used for really cool lessons, and copies of books that I had when I was a little girl (not the actual books, just the same titles).  It could use another culling... 

How would you cull out your picture books?  Do you dare?  Are you ready?  I wasn't ready, but I dared, and now I'm glad I did :).

Here is a picture of somewhat sorted piles: