What Would Ma Ingalls Do?

Besides have an irrational hatred of Native Americans and wear a hoop skirt anyway?

I have undertaken a lot of things in the last year, started teaching Sunday School, baking my own bread, cooking nearly everything from scratch (including sour mix, more on that later) and recently homeschooling. Needless to say my own lax standards of house keeping are compromised by my schedule and the daunting destructive capabilities of my toddler daughter. My seven year old doesn't help much either, but at least she stays out of my way more often than not.

So I started thinking about all the various chemicals, appliances, and modern conveniences I have and I wonder how come I can never seem to get on top of my housework? What would Ma Ingalls do? She had no running water, had to grow her own food, sew her own clothes, linens and even toys for the children and her house was always clean. Of course how much dusting could there be when she only had the one what-not and the single china shepherdess? However, my point remains the same; why does house work always take all day? Did cave women grunt, "Me need to clean cave, but exhausted from big mammoth hunt?"

Needless to say the last thing Ma Ingalls would have done was write a long blog post about it. So if you'll excuse me I am off to polish my what-not and bake some cornbread.

What do I do all day?

Somebody recently said my Facebook posts were looking awfully domestic lately. I immediately felt kind of sad and defensive. Here is a list of things I do every day.

*Clean things
*Feed people
*Run errands
*Watch the Daily Show

What could I be blogging about other than my "domesticity"? I am a stay at home Mom. I go to church almost every week. I volunteer at my daughter's school. I bake bread, I have recently taken up quilting. I buy organic foods at a co-op. I made a lot of my own baby food and my kid wears cloth diapers. Am I a tie-dye wearing hippie mama? No. Am I a calico-wearing quiverfull churchy mama? No. Am I a crisp shirted Martha Stewart perfectionist mom? Hahahahaha. No. Am I a modern day June Cleaver? No. Am I a "Yummy Mummy" with perfect hair and nails? Nope...

I'm just me, the same old Suzanne, now with two kids. I have frizzy hair and I rely on jeans. I am an intellectual who never finished college. I am a sci-fi loving nerd girl. I am a red lipstick loving diva. I am a reader and a poet. And of course, I am a very busy woman. I have to clean-up after and feed my kids so I try and make that as interesting as possible, teach myself new cooking techniques, create recipes, learn to bake. I haven't figured out a way to make the cleaning more fun but maybe soon. If I had more time or less children maybe I'd take up painting, or go back to acting, or do more with my writing. But I *do* have two kids that I love with all my heart. I just can't love them with all of my twisty-twirly brain. So, with no time to learn a new art, I apply my rather prodigious ambition to the domestic arts. In essence I am a multi-tasker, keeping myself and the kids amused, fed, educated and maybe, sometimes, on a good day, inspired. I make my kids laugh, they make me laugh. They teach me things, hopefully I am teaching them. Meanwhile the earth keeps turning, the dishes pile up, the sun goes down and another day ends. My sphere of domesticity leads me to think about things, why does bread love salt as we learn in King Lear, when I know now that salt kills yeast? Baking bread is chemistry and poetry, keeping the rainbarrel full and I am a meterologist. Reading the kids books; I am an early learning specialist. Applying bandaids and dispensing antibiotics; I am a nurse. I write thank you cards and christmas lists. I forge letters from the Tooth Fairy. I am still my husband's girlfriend and his best friend and I have a circle of long time friends whom I love and cherish. I am the big sister and the oldest daughter and the granddaughter that loves to watch the Oscars.

I am always me, the girl who could never settle down.