Wisdom from Days Gone By

The boys and I are nearing the end of the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I pulled out the book Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings, a compilation of articles written by Laura over the course of many years. It's amazing to me how much has changed and how much has stayed the same.

Regarding work:

"Why should we need extra time in which to enjoy ourselves? If we expect to enjoy our life, we will have to learn to be joyful in all of it, not just at stated intervals when we can get time or when we have nothing else to do. It may well be that it is not our work that is so hard for us as the dread of it and our often expressed hatred of it. Perhaps it is our spirit and attitude toward life, and its conditions that are giving us trouble instead of a shortage of time. Surely the nights and days are as long as they ever were." The Man of the Place - January 1920

Homeschooling:

"I believe it would be much better for everyone if children were given their start in education at home. No one understands a child as well as his mother, and children are so different that they need individual training and study. A teach with a roomful of pupils cannot do this. At home, too, they are in their mother's care." Said by Mrs. Findley in The Findleys Strive for an Education - August 1922

On simplicity:

"We heap up around us things that we do not need as the crow makes piles of glittering pebbles. We gabble words like parrots until we lose the sense of their meaning; we chase after this new idea and that; we take an old thought and dress it out in so many words that the thought itself is lost in its clothing, like a slim woman in a barrel skirt, and then we exclaim, "Lo, the wonderful new thought I have found....I believe we would be happier to have a personal revolution in our individual lives and go back to simpler living and more direct thinking. It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature." Sweet Williams - July 1917

On Joy in the Home

"Let's be cheerful! We have no more right to steal the brightness out of the day for our own family than we have to steal the purse of a stranger. Let us be as careful that our homes are furnished with pleasant and happy thoughts as we are that the rugs are the right color and texture and the furniture comfortable and beautiful!" How to Furnish a Home - November 1917

All of this wisdom and I'm not far into the book yet. I'm sure they'll be more to come!