I'm throwing things away.

I'm throwing things away.  I never do that!  I freecycle a ton of things.  We recycle everything we can.  Bean and I even save her bread crusts to feed to the birds.  But I am throwing things away.  A part of me feels rather guilty.  I can't help it, though.  It is the only way I have figured out how to compromise.  I'm throwing away Bean's plastic barrettes - one at a time.  I hate them.  Neon colored, "whimsical" kitties playing guitars - the last vestige of our life before we started getting rid of plastic.  They must go.  But Bean loves them.  She loves the ritual of reaching in the jar and picking out one (for a ponytail or half ponytail) or two (for pigtails).  She loves it.  So how can I just freecycle the lot?  How can I talk her into only having the pretty metal ones with the rhinestones?  The butterflies and dragonfly and the pretty mosaic bar?  I found them in my barrettes when I cleaned out my jar a few weeks ago and put them in hers.  She has worn them more than the plastic since, but occasionally she still picks the bright puce birds.  So I have started throwing them away when I find them out of the jar.  When Daddy has taken them out and left them on the bathroom sink upstairs at bath time, or they turn up on my desk.  One by one, they are disappearing, to be replaced with smaller metal ones, or real ribbon.  The only ones that I have even hesitated on are the blue bows.  These used to be her signature pieces - her blue bow barrettes.  She wore them every day, in pigtails, for weeks.  She loved them.  But they have lately been replaced by hot pink poodles.  I am looking at one lone baby blue bow barrette, sitting on my desk right now.  And I can't bring myself to pitch it, because it holds all of the joy of a two year old who has just learned to purse her little lips and say "Blooooooooooooooooooo!"  It is nearly real, though she has forgotten...