Gracious Living

I spent 4 hours listening to the Little House on the Prairie audiobook this week while doing some work, and I am just bursting with some great insights! This is the book where the Ingalls family moves from their Little House in the Big Woods (of Wisconsin) and head west to Kansas in a covered wagon.



One of the main points that stood out to me was the family's ability to maintain a very normal lifestyle while traveling. They were basically on an extended campout, and rarely passed through any towns or saw any people.



Each morning they woke with the sun (if not sooner) and began the chores. Water had to be carried from the nearest creek for coffee and for washing breakfast dishes. The horses must be taken to water as well. Ma would begin making breakfast while the girls made their beds in the wagon.



Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie washed their faces and combed their hair and dressed nicely each day. After breakfast, Ma and the girls would wash and wipe the dishes and clean up the campsite. They would gather up all the twigs and throw them in the fire.



If it was a wash day, Ma would heat water that Pa had carried from the creek to do her laundry in. She would wash all the clothing and bedding, and then lay it out on the clean grass to dry in the sun. And then . . . gasp! She would iron. Out in the middle of the prairie, with no people and no towns, Ma sill ironed the clothes!

When the family gathered around to eat, Ma and Pa sat on the wagon bench, and Laura and Mary sat on the wagon tongue. They held their tin plates in their laps. Mary and Laura shared their tin cup of water.

There were times when Ma would remind Laura not to talk with her mouth full, or not to sing 'at table.' Laura thought to herself, "there is no table" but the rule held fast!

Mary and Laura must wear their sunbonnet while playing, to avoid becoming 'brown as an Indian.'

So, in the middle of the wide, wide prairie the Ingalls family continued to live as if they were in polite society. I think Ma felt so strongly that the wild country they were traveling in would not make her girls into wild hoodlums, that she insisted on living exactly the way they had back in their little log home in Wisconsin.

Contrast that with today. Every time I go into the grocery store I see at least one person wearing pajama pants and house shoes to shop. Or worse.

It seems that many people don't care. Simple grooming has become too troublesome for some. Table manners in restaurants (or at home) don't exist anymore. Children have little or no standards to meet regarding their behavior.

I'm not preaching the need for makeup and salon-styled hair, or drinking tea with your pinky stuck out just so, or even the popular "children should be seen and not heard" (although some days I have contemplated enacting that one).

But if Ma and her girls could maintain a gracious standard of living from their covered wagon in the middle of nowhere, is it too much for us to accomplish in our modern society?

I don't think so!

What Makes a Home

Laura Ingalls began her first school teaching job at the age of 15. She was teaching in a school 12 miles from her home. This meant that she must be boarded at the home of the Brewster family near the school for the two-month duration of her term.

She wound up with a terrible family; today we would call them dysfunctional. The lady of the home was either yelling or silent, but never friendly. The toddler screamed constantly. The man of the house was either gone or brooding in a corner. It was nothing like the cheerfully family Laura had at home. She had to sleep on a narrow couch in the same room with the family.

She didn't know how she would ever survive two whole months of this. She secretly hoped Pa would come get her for the weekend, but she knew it was a long drive for Pa's horses.

What a wonderful surprise it was when, on Friday afternoon of the first week, Almanzo Wilder showed up with his fast team of horses and a small cutter, or sled. He had driven the twelve miles to take her home! She would have a short break from the dismal home she was staying in!

The next morning:

"Good morning!" Carrie said from her bed, and Grace bounced up and cried, "Good morning, Laura!" "Good morning." Ma smiled when Laura entered the kitchen, and Pa came in with the milk and said, "Good morning, flutterbudget!" Laura had never noticed before that saying, "Good morning," made the morning good. Anyway, she was learning something from that Mrs. Brewster, she thought.

Breakfast was so pleasant. Then briskly, and still talking, Laura and Carrie did the dishes, and went upstairs to make the beds. While they were tucking in a sheet, Laura said, "Carrie, do you ever think how lucky we are to have a home like this?"

Carrie looked around her, surprised. There was nothing to be seen but the two beds, the three boxes under the eaves where they kept their things, and the underside of the shingles overhead. There was also the stovepipe that came up through the floor and went out through the roof.
Taken from the book These Happy Golden Years in the chapter entitled Sleigh Bells

Laura knew then that it is the people that make a home. She didn't have a fancy home. She shared a bedroom with her 3 sisters in the attic of her father's store in town. There were no fancy window treatments, no pictures on the wall; just a stovepipe and three boxes.

Downstairs was the same. They had homemade wooden furniture, a cook stove, a braided rug, simple tin plates and cups, and plain curtains on the windows. But to Laura, it was the best place in the world.

After supper, when Laura and Carried had done the dishes, Pa said as Laura had been hoping he would, "If you'll bring me the fiddle, Laura, we'll have a little music."

He played the brave marching songs of Scotland and of the United States; he played the sweet old love songs and the gay dance tunes, and Laura was so happy that her throat ached.

Laura knew that home could be anywhere: in a covered wagon on the wide open prairie, a log cabin in the woods, a house made of dirt, a claim shanty in the Dakotas, or a store building in town.

It's not the house, or the furnishings, that make a home. It's the people, the smiles, the kind words, the hugs, the music, the laughter, and the time spent together.

Today, a fashionable home is a thing to be desired. We all want one. Most of us dream of a new sofa, or a nicer bedspread, or the perfect flower arrangement, or the latest window treatments. A beautiful home is a good thing. But let's not forget what makes it truly special. It's the people who live there, and the love they share.

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home

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!