IRONING ON THE PRAIRIE?

I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie series to my girls during read aloud time after lunch. It has been a nice way to get a little break and some together time in.

We were reading the chapter where Pa and Ma are scoping out a place for their new homestead and Pa goes off to hunt some wild game for supper.

Ma and the girls tidied up the campsite and washed the dishes. Then, Ma washes the clothes and lays them out on the prairie grass to dry. After the clothes dry she puts a blanket with a sheet over it on the seat of the wagon and proceeds to iron the dresses and other clothes.

As I read that I started thinking about the complaining I do. I have lots of amenities that make my jobs easier but I slip into a grumbly mood sometimes. I was thinking how Ma just did those chores without even questioning why she should.

I mean let's talk about this. They were out in the middle of nowhere. There was no one around for miles and they certainly weren't expecting company. It had to be hot and dusty. She did those chores because that is just what she did. She knew that those dresses needed an ironing so, by golly, she was going to iron them.

I want to do my homemaking not out of obligation but a willingness to make my house a home. I have been reading a book called "Home Comforts" by Cheryl Mendelson. It was recommended over by Bev over at Scratchin' the Surface.

Cheryl says,"She lived her life not only through her own body but through the house as an extension of her body; part of her relation to those she loved was embodied in the physical medium of the home she made. My own experience convinces me that there is still no other way to make a good home than to have attitudes toward home and domesticity modeled on those of that traditional woman. But most man and many women do not want to identify themselves with homes that they create through which they offer themselves to others. Advertisements and television program images offer degraded images of household work and workers. It is scarcely surprising, then, that so many people imagine housekeeping to be boring, frustrating, repetitive, unintelligent drudgery........ And I am convinced that such attitudes toward housekeeping are needlessly self defeating. You can enjoy keeping house. No one is too superior or intelligent to care for hearth and home."

I have to admit I am one that has had the attitude that house keeping is drudgery. I am trying to change that. I want to have a better attitude toward my home. I am trying to look at things differently than I have in the past. This book has been a real eye opener for me. I like her ideas and the way she looks at house keeping. I am off to make my house feel like a home.