Whatever Happened to Laura Ingalls Wilder?

I am a winter person. I'm at my happiest when the air is crisp, the leaves are falling and the smell of a bonfire is in the air. The other day, when I didn't have to work, I stayed at home all day. I got the house clean (ish), I had fresh bread baking and I had some chili on the stove. I had a nice fire burning in the wood stove and the house was warm and fragrant. This is my time of year.

Though I am prone to place Ms. Laura Ingalls Wilder on a pedestal every now and again I can't say that it's totally without warrant. And, to be fair, I'm really placing the idea on the pedestal and not the actress and TV series. How cool would that lifestyle have been? Nobody rushing out the door to get to work on time, no cell phones, no TV. Just time to keep your house in order, cook good food for your family and spend time together. No, I am not forgetting the fact that they could have been eaten by wolves or bears or some other creature at any time, I'm just not talking about that right now.

I get that it would have been hard. Really hard. That little log cabin could NOT have been warm. And why did they always have to sleep with those bonnet things on? It couldn't be related to the vanity of how their hair looked because I never saw them bathe. Not once. Ewww.

But still...I would've been cool with riding the horse drawn wagon to town. I would've been good with the one room schoolhouse as well. The kids always looked so happy as they trotted off to school with their little, tin lunch pails (I'm going to check Ebay for one of those - how quaintly nostalgic). I never did understand how they got to school on time seeing that it was like a 10 mile trip one way, but whatever, it worked.

Even the dresses were cool. How nice would it be not to have to worry about what to wear all the time. They had all of two dresses and one for fancy stuff. That along with the one pair of shoes would have gotten me out of the door a LOT faster. Still, I think I would leave the bonnet thing behind...