caroline ingalls

I'm not quite sure when it happened. It was definitely later rather then earlier in life. My father grew up on a farm and with every visit we made there I have no recollection of anything stirring within me. Nope, the closest I can come to identifying a time and place was while we were living in Morocco watching Little House on the Prairie. For a year and a half of our lives our family had the amazing experience of living in North Africa. My second baby was born there, but I don't really want to remember that part. The part that I really remembering loving, was how much more our lives were simplified there. I loved going to the little market nearly every day. I loved learning how to cook from scratch. I loved walking more then driving. I loved not watching TV.

When entertainment called, it usually took the form of an imported season of Little House. And with each episode my heart was stirred. I wanted to simplify more. I wanted to learn all those 'inconveniences' that have so conveniently been replaces with 'modern convinces'. I want to grow our food. I want to cook our meals. I want to know how to knit and sew and many other things that I do not know how to do. In short, I would like to be Caroline Ingalls. But Caroline learned those things from her mother and my mother could not teach me them if she tried. She considered it a blessing to not have to know. I consider it a curse. And I'd like to be able to teach my daughter just in case she would like to know, too.

{image found at Laura Ingalls Wilder}