4th of July

It was a beautiful 4th of July on the Dakota prairie. Laura, Carrie and Pa had gone into town for the 4th of July celebration. It wasn't anything fancy; the town was too new for that. But there were firecrackers, horse races and lemonade! Before the horse races began, the crowd gathered to hear the Declaration of Independence read.

Laura and Carrie knew the Declaration by heart, of course, but it gave them a solemn, glorious feeling to hear the words. They took hold of hands and stood listening in the solemn, listening crowd. The Stars and Stripes were fluttering bright against the thin, clear blue overhead, and their minds were saying the words before their ears heard them.
From Little Town on the Prairie in the chapter entitled Fourth of July


After the Declaration was read completely through...
No one cheered. It was more like a moment to say, "Amen." But no one knew quite what to do. Then Pa began to sing. All at once, everyone was singing,

My country, 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing...

Long may our land be bring,

With Freedom's holy light.

Protect us by Thy might,

Great God, our King!

The crowd was scattering away then, but Laura stood stock still. Suddenly she had a completely new thought. The Declaration and the song came together in her mind and she thought: God is America's king.

She thought: Americans won't obey any king on earth. Americans are free. That means they have to obey their own conscienceses. No king bosses Pa; he has to boss himself. Why (she thought), when I am a little older, Pa and Ma will stop telling me what to do, and there isn't anyone else who has a right to give me orders. I will have to make myself be good.

Her whole mind seemed to be lighted up by that thought. This is what it means to be free. It means, you have to be good. "Our Father's God, author of Liberty-" The laws of Nature and Nature's God endow you with a right to life and liberty. Then you have to keep the laws of God, for God's law is the only thing that gives you a right to be free.

Taken from Little Town on the Prairie in the chapter entitled Fourth of July

This all took place just under 100 years after the Declaration of Independence was written. There was no argument at the time about whether America was a Christian nation. Of course it was! Even a teenage girl living on the wild prairie knew that. She knew the Declaration of Independence by heart, and she knew the Bible. She easily surmised that God is America's king, and that with the right to be free comes the responsibility to be good. It sounds so simple, but it is what generation after generation of Americans just knew.

There was a similar thought in 1773 among the Colonists:

"...most Crown-appointed governors remained submitted to their king, and one wrote to the Board of Trade in England: "If you ask an American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ." Which may have given rise to the cry which soon passed up and down the length of America by the Committees of Correspondence: "No king but King Jesus!"

Taken from The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall and David Manuel in the chapter entitled No King But King

This is interesting on so many levels, but I will just add this: Americans are free. No one tells us what to do. We (meaning the Founding Fathers) decided that we needed laws to a certain extent to keep the peace and have structure. But beyond that, we are our own bosses.

Keep that in mind every time a bill goes through Congress that would threaten your freedom. Does it match up with the original intent of the Constitution? Does it guarantee your liberty? If not, then it is un-American.

Laura had just taken a job in town sewing shirts. It was her first paying job. All of her wages were given to Ma (voluntarily) to help send her blind sister, Mary, to college.

All the week, she looked forward to the pleasures of bringing home her wages to Ma. Often she thought, too, that this was only the beginning.

In two more years she would be sixteen, old enough to teach school. If she studied hard and faithfully, and got a teacher's certificate, and then got a school to teach, she would be a real help to Pa and Ma. Then she could begin to pay them for all that it had cost to provide for her since she was a baby. Then, surely, they could send Mary to college.
From Little Town on the Prairie in the chapter entitled The Month of Roses

The sentence that jumped out at me was that Laura "could begin to repay (Ma and Pa) for all that it had cost to provide for her since she was a baby." That is a profound concept! This thought, as well as the desire to help send Mary to college, came from a truly generous spirit.

It is a real testament to the selfless and loving attitude that the Ingalls family lived out in their daily lives. As I mentioned in my welcome post, each family member worked for the good of the whole family. They all had interests and talents, but none of them pursued them selfishly. They were a very strong family unit, and the comfort and good of the other members of the family were important to everyone.

Imagine the peace in a home like that! It is true that "it is more blessed to give than receive." When you give from the kindness of your heart, it truly blesses you, too!

Sundays

Every Sunday Mary and Laura were dressed from the skin out in their best clothes, with fresh ribbons in their hair. They were very clean, because they had their baths on Saturday night.



On Sundays Mary and Laura must not run or shout or be noisy in their play. Mary could not sew on her nine-patch quilt, and Laura could not knit on the tiny mittens she was making for Baby Carrie. They might look quietly at their paper dolls, but they must not make anything new for them. They were not allowed to sew on doll clothes, not even with pins.



They must sit quietly and listen while Ma read Bible stories to them, or stories about lions and tigers and white bears from Pa's big green book, The Wonders of the Animal World. They might look at pictures, and they might hold their rag dolls nicely and talk to them. But there was nothing else they could do. From Little House in the Big Woods in the chapter entitled Sundays



We all know the commandment in the Old Testament instructing us to "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Today, that is rarely followed in America. We go to church, but do we really keep the Sabbath holy?

"Six days you shall labor and do all your work

but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

In it you shall do no work:

you, nor your son, nor your daughter..."

Exodus 20:8

To may of us today, the Ingalls family may seem somewhat legalistic. But aren't they really just obeying the commandments? I am 37 years old, and in my lifetime I've seen Sundays change in our culture. When I was young, stores were closed on Sundays. If you didn't have milk, too bad. You just had to wait. Today, most stores are open, some with token Sunday hours (12-6), some with normal hours.

Now, I realize the New Testament gives Christians freedom from this command. But Romans 14:5 says to "let each be fully convinced in his own mind." I believe the Ingalls (Ma and Pa specifically) continued to obey this command out of respect for the Lord's day and because their conscience demanded it of them.

The Ingalls family followed all 10 commandments. They lived them. It was second nature, so it was easily passed on their children.

Bonus: Laura was 5 years old at the time this story took place. She was knitting! Mary was 7 years old, and she was making a quilt! That quilt is on display at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri.

Delayed Gratification

During The Long Winter, a Christmas barrel arrived from the Ingall's former church in Minnesota. In it was a bundle of Youth's Companion, periodicals for Laura and Mary to read.

"Come, girls, put the bundle of Youth's Companions away. We must get out the washing while the weather's clear so we can." All that day Laura and Carrie and Mary looked forward to the Youth's Companions and often they spoke of them. But the bright day was short. They stirred and punched the clothes boiling on the stove; they lifted them on the broom handle into the tub where Ma soaped them and rubbed them. Laura rinsed them, Carrie stirred the blueing bag in the second rinse-water until it was blue enough. Laura made the boiled starch. And when for the last time Ma went out into the cold to hang the freezing wash on the line, Pa had come for dinner.

Then they washed the dishes, they scrubbed the floor and blacked the stove, and washed the inside of the windowpanes. Ma brought in the frozen-dry clothes and they sorted them and sprinkled them and rolled them tightly, ready for ironing. Twilight had come. It was too late to read that day and after supper there was no lamplight because they must save the rest of the kerosene.

"Work comes before pleasure," Ma always said. She smiled her gentle smile for Laura and Carrie and said now, "My girls have helped me do a good day's work," and they were rewarded.

Next day...

" I'm afraid, girls, this will be a poor Christmas," Ma said. "What with these awful storms and trying to keep warm, we've had no time to plan for it."

"I have an idea. What do you think of saving my church papers and your bundle of Youth's Companions to open on Christmas day?"

After a moment Mary said, "I think it is a good idea. It will help us to learn self-denial."

"I don't want to," Laura said.

"Nobody does," said Mary. "But it's good for us." From The Long Winter in the chapter entitled Merry Christmas

Wow! It's interesting that Mary instantly knew that self-denial was a good thing, and she was willing to suffer. But where did Mary learn it? From Ma, of course. Ma, by example, taught several important things through this one incident:

1. Christmas does not have to be shiny, new, expensive surprises. They had no money, but they had a way to make Christmas fun. The stories in the Youth's Companions were unread, which made them new!
2. The winter was already dragging on and getting old, with 3 day blizzards with a one day break in between, no more school, no visiting friends, and few supplies. Ma could have indulged the girls and let them read stories all day and put off the work until another day. But she knew character training was important.
3. Ma always said "work comes before pleasure" and she added a gentle smile and a positive word. Notice she didn't yell. She smiled a gentle smile and told the girls how she appreciated their work. "...and they were rewarded." Today we call it positive reinforcement, and if you've used it, you know it works wonders.

On Christmas day, after they ate their dinner:

"Come, girls," Ma said. "We'll get these dishes out of the way, and then we'll open our papers and have a cosy afternoon."

Laura opened the bundle of Youth's Companions and she and Carrie looked eagerly at the wealth of stories printed on the smooth white paper.

"You girls choose a story," Ma said. "And I will read it out loud, so we can all enjoy it together."

So, close together between the stove and the bright table, they listened to Ma's reading the story in her soft, clear voice. The story took them all far away from the stormy cold and dark. When she had finished that one, Ma read a second and a third. That was enough for one day; they must save some for another time.

"Aren't you glad we saved those wonderful stories for Christmas day?" Mary sighed happily. And they were. The whole afternoon had gone so quickly.

Simple Living

Welcome to Prairie Sense. If you are a fan of Little House on the Prairie, you've come to the right place. If you're looking for simple solutions for everyday life, you've come to the right place.

Let me introduce myself. I am a mother of 5 and a second generation homeschooler. I've been reading the Little House books since I was about 10 years old. I've read the entire series too many times to count. As a child, the stories were entertaining. As an adult, I've found they are full of wisdom. When I had children, I couldn't wait to read them aloud as a family. Now my daughters  read them on their own, and we also like to listen to them on unabridged CDs.

I'm a bit of a purist, so I don't watch the TV series at all. : ) I think the books are better. However, you are welcome to both! If you've only watch the TV series and have never read the books, put down that remote and rush to the nearest library! Start with Little House in the Big Woods and don't stop. You will thank me!

For years I've had ideas for this blog floating around in my head (even before there were such things as blogs). Finally, here it is! The articles will not be in any particular order, but I will reference the book I took the idea from.

Here, in a nutshell, is why I was inspired to do this:

Laura's family ate fresh, frozen, smoked or dried meat and fresh vegetables and wild fruits. They made their own clothes, curtains, quilts, pillows, hats, and baskets. They only wore shoes in the winter or at church. They only had school in the winter. They woke up with the sun, and went to bed when it set. Very little money was used. Meals were simple, fresh, and appreciated. The family ate together. They didn't need health insurance, and rarely saw a doctor. There was no welfare, only charity. They didn't have the "need and want" mindset we do today. School children didn't "test" except to move up to the next reader. They did without whatever they could not get. The Sabbath was holy. They whole family worked together in the house, the garden, the fields. They memorized Scripture. Children listened in church and were expected to repeat the sermon back to their parents. There was no youth group. There was no TV, radio, or anything electronic. Entertainment was music, singing, reading and reciting. The family unit was strong. Each member of the family worked for the good of the WHOLE family. They didn't feel entitled to anything. They knew that whatever they wanted must be worked for.

I would love to hear how Little House has influenced you and your family as well. Thank you for reading, and enjoy!