There's nothing like getting ready for a garage sale to force you to take stock. I had a week of looking through old toys: the blocks my son built huge towers with, the princess dresses my daughter wore even as she slept, the precious half-broken tea sets, the metal cars, the train sets and beanie babies...dozens them we were convinced would be worth something, like an old wine. I sat with these memories, touching the dinged up blocks and stained costumes. Waves of sadness passed through me and also some relief. There is nothing more intense and all-consuming than motherhood when your kids are little. I must have done it double-time. My body is still unwinding from it. When you're sitting on the floor with your child building block towers to the ceiling, only to have him gleefully knock them down, it's good to remember how fleeting it is. Always feed your own mind, heart and body. Cultivate friendships, nourish them. Dream about who you want to be when you grow up, because there's a whole other part that I'm just beginning. I was so thankful for that as I sat there with boxes and boxes of toys. I always thought I'd keep all the toys I'd so carefully and lovingly packed away, but life changes. I can picture myself moving one day when my daughter is in college -- and I now know that three years will come in the blink of an eye. And all this stuff is sentimental, but not a substitute for lived experience that lives in the relationships between me and my kids. I learned a few things at the sale: beanie babies aren't worth squat. Not one was sold. You can't even give them away. But the sale was a huge success; teachers and children and parents played with the toys and bought most of them. I made a nice chunk of change with which I bought my own grown-up toy: an ipod nano. It's my turn to play.