Out with the old - literally.

With the beginning of the new year, a lot of change is taking place at our house.

On New Year's Day, I spent about 4 hours sorting, organizing and in the end, throwing away 2 huge trash bags full from my kitchen. Change has come, and gone are the days of sitting for hours with Anna at that counter, doing workbook pages, painting, coloring, play-doh-ing. One whole corner of my kitchen counter was taken up with all of that "stuff", not to mention the 2 storage drawer things UNDER the counter full of more of the learning and craft gear. My dear daughter is growing up, her world is bigger, her time home is less, we had to make a change.

One change begets another. The change that came yesterday was to the toy "nook" upstairs. The nook has been home to the little kitchen center and the baby doll gear for the last almost 4 years. I decided that the toy area needed an overhaul. Keeping toys for younger children out and available has always been not such a big deal, we have the room for sure. But what came to me the other day is, well, the house isn't full of kids playing like it used to be. It used to be 3 or 4 days a week there were between 5 and 15 kids of varying ages playing here. That really doesn't happen anymore, and I decided, I want my house back. I threw out another 2 big bags of things missing pieces, broken, torn or otherwise no longer useful items. I stored the baby dolls and their gear in the toy closet, and packed up all of the pretend food and toy kitchen items. Ready to go to their new home. Buh-Bye.

Funny thing is? Anna was completely unfazed at the toss fest - she would pass through and say "yeah, I don't play with that anymore...". I have moved on to her bedroom today. If that is how she feels, I say strike while the iron is hot!

In the final installment today of "out with the old" is more personal. As most people know, I am not really the best patient in the world, my doctors don't see me for oh, 4 or 9 years at a time..one particular thing I have been avoiding since I was 30 was a colonoscopy that I had to have. I was supposed to have one at 40 too. Thanks Dad, really...your little bout of colon cancer doomed your kids to these tests every 10 years or so. Well, I never did the age 30 test, so I decided that I'd do the age 30 and age 40 requirements at the same time. My appointment is at 8:15 am tomorrow. I have had almost nothing to eat since yesterday at 1pm, so I am hopeful my "prep" won't be as awful as I think it might. To make matters more annoying, I was supposed to pick up some liquid (3oz. total) that I was to drink, 1.5oz. at a time, twice this afternoon. I found out this morning when I went to buy it that it has been recalled by the FDA. This necessitated a call to the Dr. who then had to call me in a prescription for some other stuff. The other stuff looks very very bad. I could have handled 2 "shooters", but now, I have this 4 litre jug of god knows what, that I need to drink 8oz. at 10 minute intervals. "WHAT???" The instructions from the pharmacist were, "it tastes better chilled, and don't sip it, just drink it down as quick as you can each time." Oh, and buy baby wipes, you'll need them.

Out with the old I guess...I am giving myself until 4 pm, then I am going to start to drink the stuff - we'll just have to see what all transpires.