Big Woods-Now is Now

But Laura lay awake a little while, listening to Pa's fiddle softly playing and to the lonely sound of the wind in the Big Woods. She looked at Pa sitting on the bench by the hearth, the fire-light gleaming on his brown hair and beard and glistening on the honey-brown fiddle. She looked at Ma, gently rocking and knitting.

She thought to herself, "This is now."
She was glad that the cosy house, and Pa and Ma and the fire-light and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.

Big Woods-Summertime

Pa was pleased. It was all so pleasant, the doors and windows wide open to the summer evening, the dishes making little cheerful sounds together as Ma washed them and Mary and Laura wiped, and Pa putting away the fiddle and smiling and whistling softly to himself.

"Jack" the brindle bulldog

Laura's Grandma and My Grandmother

This chapter from Big Woods is one of my favorites. I can picture the scene: music, dancing, laughing, food!

"then they helped themselves from the long table loaded with pumpkin pies and dried berry pies and cookies and cakes."

"All the beautiful skirts went swirling by, and the boots went stamping, and the fiddle kept on singing gaily."

"Then Laura woke up, and she was lying across the foot of Grandma's bed. It was morning."

I could have written a similar chapter about visiting my Grandmother. Food plays a big part in my memory. I remember cutting biscuits, snapping beans, going to the produce market, getting a snow cone on a summer night-simple fun! I always think of her when I cook certain foods, like sweet corn!
No, we didn't dance, and we had a t.v. but I have good memories of the family eating together, feeling lazy after a big meal, the guys watching sports on tv, and visiting with cousins. I am thankful for those times.

Little House in the Big Woods

"Inside" the little house

Some topics we are discussing: Louis Pasteur, rabies, bacteria, vaccinations and the nervous system. I have many goals with this book, but one is for everyone to appreciate how hard the pioneers worked.