It's All Connected: It's All About The Little House

My sister and I squealed with glee when we found a full set of Little House On The Prairie books at a flea market yesterday. This is the time of the year when I reread Laura Ingalls Wilder's charming books of growing up in a pioneer family. But, the set of books I always read belonged to my daughter, Farm Girl, and she took them to read to her own three little girls.

The set I bought look to have been well read and that doesn't bother me a bit. ~

I absolutely love all the details of every day life that the author wove into her stories! My favourite books in the series are Little House In The Big woods, where Ma and Pa use ingenuity, skill and hard work to provide a cosy home and life for their family and Farmer Boy, the story of Laura's husband Almanzo growing up on a prosperous farm in upstate New York.

It inspires me to plant and weed, can and preserve, and provide for myself in a wholesome, self sufficient fashion. It's also just plain fun to read Almanzo's memories of bounty that his hard working parents were able to provide in his youth.

"He stopped just a minute at the pantry door. Mother was straining the milk at the far end of the long pantry ... The shelves on both sides were loaded with good things to eat. Big yellow cheeses were stacked there, and large brown cakes of maple sugar, and there were crusty loaves of fresh-baked bread, and four large cakes, and one whole shelf full of pies ..."

Don't even think of reading this book if you are on a diet!

I settled right into a chair on the porch, with a cup of Chai tea, and began to read. ~

This time around, I feel even closer to Laura Ingalls. I know the family personally now. It was one of those strange things where you are following a blog and making the odd comment and I liked the comments another reader was leaving. She also was a blogger. Then I noticed her name. Could it possibly be? Could I really be looking at someone named Laura Ingalls Gunn. Now, either her mother was a big fan of the books or she was a relative and I had to check out her blog Decor To Adore and find out.

She is Laura Ingalls Wilder's great granddaughter. I was so excited that I wanted to run around the house yelling Pa, Pa!

And she's everything you would hope she would be because don't we just hate to see the offspring of icons turn out badly? I do. ~

She's a professional decorator, full time college student, photographer, crafter, wife and mother. She's kind and thoughtful and shares her joys and even some of her troubles with her readers. She takes us with her on her travels and her years as a military wife have made her into a very good traveler.

She shares her decorating knowledge, her interests and her creativity with us and she's very conscious of keeping it all to a budget. ~

You really should pop over to Decor To Adore. You'll like her. I promise! Then, you can tell your friends you are friends with the family, too.

I think Laura Ingalls Wilder would be pleased that my granddaughters are loving her books as much as their mother and I did. The live on a farm and can relate to the tasks that every member of the family had to do to make it all work.

I even think she would laugh to see Amish Girl balancing her pet chick on her head! ~