I Love Laura and some odd Randomness

Have you ever picked up a piece of clothing on the laundry room floor, thinking it has fallen from the clean pile you're carrying, then you smell it, just to make sure...and it's not?



Today we were having our Art Class outside, so that the kids could draw roses from life, when a boy from church came walking his bike down the street. I asked how he was doing, and he said, "Well, I'll probably have to get stitches." Then he showed me the 6 inch gash on his calve where his bike chain had sliced him open! It was at least an inch deep and as wide! Gross. Thank goodness DH had just refreshed my first aid skills a couple of weeks ago when he taught us first aid to prepare my young women for Girls Camp, and left his first aid supplies sitting in the living room (Gosh, I knew there had to be a good reason). I had him come in, cleaned the wound, wrapped it up, and called his grandma to come get him, so she could take him to the emergency room to have it sewed up. I'm feeling very Clara Barton.

Why I LOVE Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on The Prairie (I'm reading it to the Babies every night before bed.) -

"Then his (Pa's) eyes twinkled at Ma and he told her to open the square
package on the table. "Be Careful," he said. "Don't drop it."

Ma stopped unwrapping it and said: "Oh Charles! You didn't!"

"Open it," Pa said.

In that square package there were eight small square of window glass. They
would have glass windows in their house.

Not one of the squares was broken. Pa had brought them safely all the way
home. Ma shook her head and said he shouldn't have spent so much, but her whole
face was smiling and Pa laughed with joy. They were all so pleased. All winter
long they could look out of the windows as much as they liked, and the sunshine
could come in.

Pa said he thought that Ma and Mary and Laura would like glass windows
better than any other present, and he was right. They did. But the windows were
not all he had brought for them. There was a little paper sack full of pure
white sugar. Ma opened it and Mary and Laura looked at the sparkling whiteness
of that beautiful sugar, and they each had a taste of it from a spoon. Then Ma
tied it carefully up. They would have white sugar when company came.

Best of all, Pa was safely home again. "

::Big sigh::

Here's another great excerpt that made me just wish for a little cabin in the middle of nowhere.

"Pa turned the chair upside down, and he pegged the curved pieces to it's
legs to make the rockers. And the chair was done.

Then they made a celebration. Ma took off her apron and smoothed her smooth
brown hair. She pinned her gold pin in the front of her collar. Mary tied the
string of beads around Carrie's neck. Pa and Laura put Mary's pillow on the
chair-seat, and set Laura's pillow against its back. Over the pillows Pa spread
the quilt from the little bed. Then he took Ma's hand and led her to the chair,
and he put Baby Carrie in her arms.

Ma leaned back in the softness. Her thin cheeks flushed and her eyes
sparkled with tears, but her smile was beautiful. The chair rocked her gently
and she said, "Oh Charles! I haven't been so comfortable since I don't know
when."

Then Pa took his fiddle, and he played and sang to Ma in the firelight. Ma
rocked and Baby Carrie went to sleep, and Mary and Laura sat on their bench and
were happy."

It makes me so grateful for all the blessings we have, and yet when I read those books, I crave that kind of simplicity. Gratitude for all the little things we take for granted, like windows, is such a huge part of being happy in this life. Making celebrations of everyday events can help our children learn gratitude and optimism too.



How did we all become programmed to believe that the world owes us video games, Tivo, newer cars, bigger houses, and a Wii fit?