Prairie Mom

Back in September, my mom bought me a souvenir magnet that says, “Prairie Mom”. We had just seen the theater production, Little House on the Prairie – which was full of nostalgia for us. My mom has a really nice set of the books that I read 3 or 4 times all the way through (from Little House in the Big Woods to The First Four Years) as a child and we watched the show faithfully each morning for many years.

I wonder how much Laura helped shape my dreams?  As a little girl I always thought the best possible outcome would to own an old farm.  I didn’t want to be a farmer, I guess I didn’t want to marry a farmer either – I just wanted the farm!  I wanted the land, the old house, the cellar, the old barn full of intrigue and cats, the big shady trees… I don’t think it was all of Laura’s influence.  My family always spent time outdoors, and we even had chickens for many years in our backyard (and it wasn’t a farm! they were redwood dwelling chickens).

So while the old farm is still a dream (maybe one day!) I think I’m already starting to become a prairie mom in our townhouse – a 21st century prairie mom!  A few things that I’ve noticed about myself recently:

1.  I’ve started to enjoy sewing and quilting a lot more this past year.  It’s so fun to create things!

2.  I’ve never bought a jar of baby food.  It’s been easy and fun to make puréed  fruits and veggies when they are young, and then I just start to grind up our dinners with a hand grinder (the very one used when I was a baby – thanks mom for passing it on!).

3.  I got a bread-maker for Christmas (thanks mom and dad!) and have started making all our families bread, rolls, and my latest passion: bagels!

4.  A few weeks ago I made our first batch of homemade laundry detergent!  I heard about this first on the Duggar family’s show.  I thought it sounded interesting, but figured it was a lot of hassle.  That turned out to be wrong!  There are 3 ingredients (all found at my local Cub Foods store) and it literally took me 10 minutes to make a 5 gallon bucket of it!

5.  I love cooking pumpkin from scratch – yummy pies, cakes, bread, soup, etc!!!

In light of today’s economy it may make more sense to call me a frugal mom, but as much as I love saving money, I also love thinking back to “the olden days” when things were less processed, more natural, and didn’t give you cancer!  That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I think there is some truth to it.

Some ideas/dreams still on my to do list:

1.  Have a large vegetable garden.

2.  Fill my pantry with my own home-grown jars of vegetables.

3.  Have my own chickens – fresh eggs!

and much much more!

yummy homemade bagels topped with “Slug Slime” from my favorite bagel shop in Humboldt Co – Los Bagles.

Breadmaker dough, shaped and boiled, then baked to perfection!