Liber Tea Luncheon #3

This month, each family chose a book from The Little House series. Our family chose Farmer Boy. (BTW, I know that book titles are suppose to be underlined, and I do not know how to do it on blogger, so I just look like I don't know proper grammar.) Every time I read Farmer Boy, I am reminded of how few skills I really have when it comes to being self sufficient. These people literally produced everything that they used in their families. I love how beautifully the processes were laid out from start to finish. For instance, the author describes the process of making their own clothing from shearing sheep all the way to the final article of clothing. Perhaps one of the most fascinating things to me that they did was cutting their own ice out of a frozen lake, and the process of storing it for summertime use. They knew the meaning of work.

Another thing that inspired me from this reading was how much value they placed on the few things that they had. The children were taught from an early age to take care of the things they had. They depended on these things. Even their play things and toys were lovingly cared for because they only had a few items that they absolutely loved. My children do not "love" their toys in this way. Is the problem that they have too many things, or that I have not modeled proper care of things, or something else. Perhaps a combination of many things.

We had our 3rd Princess Academy Liber Tea Luncheon this past Friday, hosted by the Claunch family. We again had a wonderful luncheon, valuable discussion, and we had what I would call "mini-factories of production." We learned the whole process of preserving vegetables the old fashioned way, without canning or freezing. We started with picking the vegetables, washing them, cutting them, and then starting the process of "lacto-fermentation." I am truly learning so much.