Little House

 Two months ago I was walking down one of the aisles in the library looking for a book for Z, when I came across the Little House on the Prairie Series.  I had never read these books as a child, which was strange since I had loved books like Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Secret Garden etc.  I decided to pick up an anthology of the first three books and take it home.  Immediately I was hooked and decided that the 50 Shades Trilogy that was sitting on my shelf could go back to my friend who gave it to me...unread.  There was no way I was going to go from reading about Laura and Almonzo's innocent courtship to reading about Christian's very different ways of courting ;)

 

So in between reading books on Waldorf Education, Chick Lit and my magazines...I was reading these books.  They are super quick reads, took me one to three days to get through each one and I have really enjoyed them.  I loved learning about what life was like during the 1800's in the west and the books reminded me of my days of playing Oregon Trail.  Did you play that computer game??  Did you know they now have it for Wii or you can go to this site and play the original Apple II version!

A month ago I told my friend Claire that I was reading these books and she told me that her friend had been on that show Frontier House.  It was a show on PBS about 10 years ago, where they sent 3 modern day families to live as pioneers.  Scott and I had watched parts of it at the time and I could not believe that her friend was the newlywed woman on that show!!  I spent the next two days watching all 6 episodes on YouTube...I could not get enough of "Prairie Life" :) 



I have one more book left in the "Little House" series and it makes me a little sad.  I have even reserved Season One of the Show from the Library to keep this Prairie thing going a little longer.  I have loved my time reading about Laura's life....a life that is completely opposite of mine.  They faced so many hardships and challenges, and worked so hard from sunrise to sunset.   These books (and the show Frontier House) have helped me to realize just how lucky we are today that we have such luxuries as dishwashers, stoves, electric heat, indoor plumbing, grocery stores and even simple things like toilet paper!!!  The Pioneer time period is often romanticized about but the truth is that the "simple" life they had back then involved back breaking work and a lot of sacrifice.  I am so grateful for what we have today!