i'm an old-fashioned gal

Yep, I'm an old-fashioned girl. I love homemaking arts and being at home. My favorite books are the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I can't decide which is my favorite--Little House in the Big Woods or Farmer Boy. I enjoy these two books in particular because they have so many details of farm life--the work of a farm, butchering, making candles, making fabric, making cheese, smoking meat, etc. etc. So I decided I'd do a book review chapter-by-chapter of Farmer Boy.

FARMER BOY, chapter 1

Almanzo's clothes are described. How the wool that made the fabric came from his father's sheep and what his mother used to dye the wool. I bet the only thing that was "store-bought" were the buttons.

They walked a mile and a half to school. In the snow. Deep snow. I can't imagine too many kids doing that these days--either they ride the bus or their moms take them to school. That would be character-building--to walk a total of 3 miles a day in cold weather and not grumble about it.

Apparently bullying knows no time boundaries. Those big boys from Hardscrabble Settlement sound like quite the bullies. I'd be scared too, if I knew they only came to school in the winter and for the express purpose of beating up the teacher. I do wonder, though, why other families in the school didn't do something about it. Like tell those boys they couldn't come to school or something.

Interesting that a term was defined as the length of time it took for the teacher to spend two weeks with each family. Wonder how many families were in the school.

I like the standards of expected behavior: no whispering, no fidgeting, keep your eyes on your book. Students today could take a page from the pioneer school book.

Well, that's it for chapter one. More tomorrow.

so long, marlee

Well, it was great while it lasted but this week Marlee Matlin got voted off Dancing with the Stars. She had two low scores in two weeks and apparently the fans decided not to keep her. I'm disappointed because I really enjoyed watching her but I'm also proud of her for making it this far and showing the world what she could do.

Thanks for a great ride, Marlee.