One of the Best Things Mother Taught Me
Late Monday night I was working away trying to figure out the best way to write instructions for the paper towel tube Ingalls family figures we demonstrated during yesterday’s birthday party for Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Making them is easy, but we wanted to offer a PDF of instructions and patterns. Writing out the instructions for how to make them was a challenge. I ended up making a Laura figure and taking photos of the steps to illustrate the written instructions. That made it much easier.
One of my challenges was that I had already made the Pa and Ma figures before realizing that I had given them the wrong eye color. My solution was to use a blue marker to make a mark on white paper for Pa’s eyes and a gray marker to make a mark for Ma’s. Then I used a hole punch to cut out blue circles for Pa’s eyes and gray circles for Ma’s. I used a glue stick to glue them on over the eyes I had already drawn on. Though the idea worked great, it was a bit tedious to work with those tiny circles.
As the evening got later and later, I asked myself: “Why am I keeping on? Why don’t I just quit?” I then realized that I wasn’t quitting because, by her example, Mother had taught me not to quit. I realized then that I can’t remember a single time that Mother said, “Oh, I give up!”
Mother had very picturesque speech. When we moved from Mississippi to Illinois, the children and I all had strong southern accents. However, the children’s accents faded during our eight years up north. When we came to Tennessee for visits, they loved to hear Mother talk. On the way home we would hear kids in the back of the car saying: “Things Grandmother says” and then we’d hear words which they weren’t used to hearing—words like britches—in exaggerated southern accents. They were hilarious.
When things weren’t going the way Mother wanted them to go, she would sometimes declare, “I can’t win for losing!” She didn’t stop trying, though. She just kept on plugging away until she completed whatever it was she needed to do.
And so, late Monday night, I kept plugging away, and by the time it was needed, I had the tube doll instructions ready. Here they are in case you’d like to make some, too.
Ingalls Family Paper Towel Tube Figures
And here’s Laura’s recipe for gingerbread, something we also shared yesterday.
We were grateful to have participants from 32 states and from Berlin, Germany! It was exciting to see the chat box buzzing. I was mistaken when I said that you had to sign up before the party to be able to watch the recording. You can join in a belated birthday party for Laura by watching it here.
Watch the Birthday Party Recording
I am convinced that homeschooling mamas need to add perseverance to the list of important lessons to teach their children—perseverance in working and learning, perseverance in relationships with family and friends, and most importantly, perseverance in trusting and following God.
In His explanation of the parable of the sower, Jesus said:
But the seed on good soil
stands for those with a noble and good heart,
who hear the word, retain it,
and by persevering produce a crop.
Luke 8:15