Through the different link-ups that I’ve been participating in this year, I’ve been stumbling upon lots of “new to me” blogs. When I saw that Jana was planning to host a Little House book club at the Townhouse Pioneer, I thought it would be fun to join in and re-read some favorite childhood books. Each month, one book in the series will be read and discussed via blog. As I reread “Little House in the Big Woods” I was quickly reminded of why the series has always been a favorite of mine. There are a lot of different thoughts that come to mind as discussion points for the book; however, since we are in Mother’s Day week I’m going to focus on mother as teacher. Throughout the adventures and the mundane that Laura and Mary experienced in that little house, Ma was right there – teaching them every step of the way. Some things were survival skills like putting up food for the lean winter months: in the kitchen; others were life skills like knitting and sewing for clothing; some were life lessons about how to treat others.
That is a theme that runs through every mother/child relationship – I’m pretty sure I’ll never outgrow learning things from my Mom. For this week’s Ten on Tuesday, Carole asked us to share “10 Things Mom Taught Me” – so here is just a small & rather random sampling from the things I’ve learned from Artisan Mom…
- Simple Hospitality – it doesn’t take much to provide an inviting environment to host friends and family in any situation
- The best strawberry pie recipe – more on this later this week…
- A love of reading
- Meyer lemons really make any dish better
- While I never picked up Mom’s great sewing skills, I picked up the basic mending basics from her
- Doing housework is a perfect time to pray for those you love
- A mug of hot tea can solve almost any problem
- Puzzles are fun! Jig saw…words…or numbers…
- You can find wonder in the smallest and simplest things – don’t get so caught up “in it all” that you miss these moments
- No matter how bad a day seems…it’s really not that bad…tomorrow is a new adventure to be had!
“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” – Abraham Lincoln
What has your Mom taught you?