Farmer Boy

Last night I finished reading my favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder book to my children, Farmer Boy. All of her books are just as interesting for me as they are for the kids. She explains the way that things were done so many years ago, and truly, I believe that I was made to be a farm girl!

In this book, as with them all, the children respect their parents. I respect the parents!

In my very favorite passage, Father teaches Almonzo about money. Almonzo is nine years old and in town with his family for the independance day celebration. He has asked his father for a nickle to buy lemonaide. This is his father's response:

"Father looked at him a long time. Then he took out his wallet and opened it, and slowly he took out a round, big silver half-dollar. He asked:

"Almanzo, do you know what this is?"

"Half a dollar," Almonzo answered.

"Yes. But do you know what half a dollar is?"

Almanzo didn't know it was anything but half a dollar.

"It's work, son," Father said. "That's what money is; it's hard work."

"You know how to raise potatoes, Almanzo?"

"Yes," Almanzo said.

"Say you have a seed potato in the spring, what do you do with it?"

"You cut it up," Almanzo said.

"Go on, son."

"Then you harrow - first you manure the field, and plow it. Then you harrow, and mark the ground. And plant the potatoes, and plow them, and hoe them. You plow and hoe them twice."

"That's right son, and then?"

"Then you dig them and put them down cellar."

"Yes. Then you pick them over all winter; you throw out all the little ones and the rotten ones. Come spring, you load them up and haul them here to Malone, and you sell them. And if you get a good price, son, how much do you show for all that work? How much do you get for half a bushel of potatoes?"

"Half a dollar," Almanzo said.

"Yes," said Father. "That's what's in this half-dollar, Almanzo. The work that raised half a bushel of potatoes is in it."

Almanzo looked at the round piece of money that Father held up. It looked small, compared with all that work.

"You can have it, Almanzo," Father said. Almanzo could hardly believe his ears. Father gave him the heavy half-dollar.

"It's yours," said Father. "You could buy a suckling pig with it, if you want to. You could raise it and it would raise a litter of pigs, worth four, five dollars apiece. Or you can trade that half-dollar for lemonade, and drink it up. You do as you want, it's your money."

Of course, Almanzo ends up with a little pig in the end.

For ways to use the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as curriculum go here to view the Prairie Primer and other books that go along with the Little House books... but don't try to get the Prairie Primer on Paperback Swap... I think I'm number 48 out of 64 or something on the waiting list!

Ah... I just love those books!

The Magazine Giveaway Winner Is....

AMY!

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Something to treasure...

My brother-in-law has come to live with us. Sadly, after 28 years of marriage his wife left him this last summer. The silver lining out of this terrible tragedy is that Rusty is becoming part of the immediate family.

Since moving in here, he's been slowly going through all his possessions. He's trying to pare down years of kitchen ware, clothes, boxes and boxes from his former family of four (his two children are grown and gone, one with a child of her own). Needless to say I've been the recipient of many items.

Today he really blessed me. He came up with two of his mom's cookbooks. I was never able to meet my mother-in-law as she passed away before I married my husband. From what I hear from those who knew her, she was quite a cook. For years I've been trying to find recipes to recreate many of the much-loved meals and special snacks that she made for her children. Trying to get the right Christmas cookies and beef strogonoff recipes have been especially challenging. I am so happy to say that they can be found in the two volumes that Rusty gave me today.

I with cherish these books and pass them along to my own daughters. I hope that they love them as much as I do and think of their grandmother, long ago, working in her little kitchen as they follow the lists of ingredients written in her own handwriting.

Exercise

Sorry. I know it's a little early in the morning to start talking about such a subject. The very word elicits fear in the hearts of couch potatoes the world over. But, take courage. Facing those fears is the only way to grow... um... gain... um, I guess I really mean loose.

Not that you can't loose weight without exercise. Because you can. I did. I lost 97 lbs. without one leg lift. Truth be told, it's because I couldn't get my hiney up off the couch to lift my leg. (We won't mention that I found a way to get up to get to the kitchen.) Truly, exercise was just not an option for me at (mumble, mumble) pounds. Too much. Too hard. I started off just changing the number of calories that I ate every day and it worked.

Then one day I started to feel... sort of squishy. Ever make homemade bread dough? You know what I'm talking about then.

By this time I was down quite a bit and decided it was time for phase two of the plan to come in to action. But how do I do this?

When I was younger I enjoyed the luxury of a gym membership - and the luxury of large blocks of time in which to spend at the gym. I wasn't in denial here, I realized that these days were long gone.

I thought about getting up early in the morning to exercise. Then I hit the snooze button. Morning comes all too quickly in my house.

Taking walks around the neighborhood with all the kids in tow? I used to get a lot of use out of a double stroller when I had two little ones. With number 3 I added a front pack and kept going. Somewhere along the way though, those walks ended. It was SO much work just to get everyone ready to go on the walk. There were SO many stops on the way to look at this and that and then there was the crying, arguing, fighting and complaining. You know what I mean.

So I had to think of something totally new and different, because I am in a totally new and different place in my life.

I finally hit on a perfect solution for me. Now I exercise in the late afternoon, right before dinner. Using a variety of tapes (my favorites are Kathy Smith, Corey Everson, The Firm) that I already owned, I do floor and step aerobics along with some strength training every day.

We have an upstairs room that isn't used often, it's waiting for a remodel. My husband hauled a TV with a DVD/CD combo up there and I put it in the middle of the room, facing one side. On the other side of the room I put three old twin mattresses on the floor and brought out the hoppity hops, a small slide and rocking horses out too. It brings a whole new meaning to the words "home gym".

Just about every day, while you will find Sissy and I sweating to the oldies, the five other children are enjoying a hour or so of loud and physical play. We are all together and I don't have to wonder what so and so is doing. This way, we've been able to consistently exercise for weeks now.

It's really worked for us.

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Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

My Girls

Family Library

'Member back in September when I re-organized the school room?

I took all of the many, many books out to make room for things like kids. I took them upstairs to an extra storage room, where they lay for quite a few weeks until I could devote a little time to them. It was very difficult for me to decide on a cataloging system for all those books. I didn't want to go quite so far as to go totally dewy decimal but I wanted to be able to go to the shelf, find a subject and get the ones I wanted in seconds.

I ended up with one floor to ceiling shelf of chapter book series, one the same size of chapter books A-Z by title, one of picture books organized by either fiction or non-fiction by subject, one section of biographies, one of missionaries, one section of geography and, lastly, history. So far, everything has fit in to those categories.

After many an evening spent sorting books, I finally have five shelves of orderly titles.

I wanted to make "going to the library" a special thing for my children. During Hanukkah, I made library cards for each of my readers. Macho Man was especially excited to see that he'd have access to all those books that he'd been missing since September and a few more he'd seen me haul home in thrift store bags.

I also "hired" a librarian. Her name is Stella Librella. Have no fear, she isn't as scary as she looks. See photo above. :)

So, from now on, Thursdays at 1:30 (also coincides with nap time!) at our house, the library is open. The children who have cards may come in and check out three books. The wonderful thing is that I know who has what, who's book is on the floor, etc. Oh, they have the option of writing a one page review of a book in exchange for an extra book at check out the next week. Sneaky writing assignment, if you know what I mean! :)

Although I still try to get in a weekly trip to the neighborhood library, I have to scrutinize titles and carefully sort through many books to find a few good ones for my children. It is wonderful for them to have the opportunity at our library to choose anything they find interesting. I know that all of the books we have here are "safe" to read, exhibiting our values. And, it's a lot of fun.