We have had a weird, long week. It hasn't been bad, but just somehow out of balance. Baby sleep troubles, thinking about moving (to a bigger house, not a different locale ... sorry dear friends!), a couple of headaches for the mama (I so rarely get them that it's been pretty odd), and very few ideas about posting here. And a lot of projects begun, but none completed. So.

Today seems a bit better. Elisabeth and I started reading Little Town on the Prairie today. We'd read all the Little House books through The Long Winter last year, and then took a little pause (mostly because we didn't have the others). We haven't been able to put it down! This has to be my favorite of the books. I love the evocative way that she describes the simple pleasures in keeping a home so well, and the satisfaction of taking comfort in home and family after a day of real work. It has nearly brought me to tears a few times today. (Well, it's been that kind of week.) More than once, I wanted to jump up and rush in here to exclaim to you all, "You have to read this now, friends!" And my real-life friends will chuckle when they read that it has me thinking about a housecleaning kick. ;)

Anyway, I want to leave you (and me) to look forward to the weekend (and the upcoming spring, which is not really so far away afterall) with some words from the book:

"Beyond the open door and window the prairie was dusky but the sky was still pale, with the first stars beginning to quiver in it. The wind went by, and in the house the air stirred, pleasantly warmed by the cookstove and scented with prairie freshness and food and tea and a cleanness of soap and a faint lingering smell of the new boards that made up the new bedrooms.

"In all that satisfaction, perhaps the best part was knowing that tomorrow would be like today, the same and yet a little different from all the other days, as this one had been."

uncommon grace