Me, I am my kids' teacher

it may not come again, and I want to remember!

No, we haven't watched Ice Castles. BUT we are coming to the end of something very sweet. The Little House books. We are slow, so this has taken us a couple of years. I read the first two and Farmer Boy but then we found the audio books at the library, so we then started listening in the van on the way to fencing, or play practice, swimming and other errands. We've had to wait for the next book to become available, or we'd listen to something else for while.

It took me a while to grow to love the actress's (Cherry Jones) interpretation of Pa, Caroline, Laura and even Nellie Olsen's voice. But now she is perfect, and she's almost like part of our family. She has ridden with us many miles. One awesome thing about listening to unabridged books on tape is that the usual reader (mom) gets to enjoy also without performing. So I can laugh when I want, tear up or back up the disc if we need to catch something again. And it stretches the theater of our minds.

Then there's the fiddle playing.

We are on the last chapter of the Happy Golden Years. Laura and Almanzo were just married by the Rev. Brown and are on their way to the new house he built for them on his claim. Ma has just made a white wedding cake. There are only a few minutes (pages) left of the book. I'm not ready for it to end. (Not that there's a shortage of additional information about Laura and fam., or field trips to their farm in "nearby" Missouri!)

Lydia and I squealed a few chapters back when Almanzo asked Laura if they might become engaged. And we both caught our breath when the chapter announced "Haste to the Wedding."

We remember when that Wilder boy first drove his beautiful team into town and the horses, not the boy, took Laura's breath away.

We remember the long hard winter when they ground wheat in their coffee grinder (non-electric). I've tried to grasp at the sensibility, submissiveness and strength of Ma and have prayed my children will appreciate the hard work, honor and simplicity of those amazing times.

Such a marvel that when Almanzo and Laura were courting, they would see each other once a week, during a Sunday buggy drive. They did not text, email or call each other every night. She never pined away for him and forgot her chores or studies because work had to be done.

When the family sacrificed to send Mary to the College for the Blind, she didn't come home all year. She didn't catch a plane or a train home for the weekend, Thanksgiving break or Spring Break.

Laura felt spoiled with more than two dresses.

A delightful evening included a dinner of fresh potatoes and peas from the garden, maybe some salt pork or a spring chicken, and a pie for dessert ... and it was capped off with Pa playing his fiddle. They didn't even think about turning on the TV.

And Ma would never sit at the computer like this, so I guess I'll get up and get my hands busy because as she says "busy hands make cheerfulness."

Posted in: on Thursday, June 14, 2007 at at 9:16 AM