Intimidated by Ma Ingalls

We have been reading the Little House series, and I am beginning to seriously develop a complex because of Ma Ingalls.

That woman must have been something else. She not only happily trekked all over the country in a covered wagon, but she was able to keep her family alive throughout the journey. My crew wouldn't be so lucky in that situation. We would be very cold, very grumpy, and very very hungry.

I am not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination.

For years, we happily cultivated weeds and other miscellaneous growing things in an area of the back yard we called our "botanical garden," but really it was just a neglected pile of dirt that was too steep to mow.

I wish I could become a gardener, but truth-be-told, I don't like dirt,

or bugs,

or being too hot,

or tedious labor . . .

which places the whole gardening thing a bit (okay a lot) out of my happiness zone.

Luckily, my husband loves labor and dirt and he has taken the time to not only identify the bounty in our backyard, but to pull it from the trees, separate it from the weeds, and cultivate some wonderful-ness for our family (including self-watering garden beds). The kids seem to be following in his footsteps, and are thrilled to be turned loose every afternoon to pick, eat and enjoy. They love it.

Me? Well,

I'm afraid that if our local grocery store closed, my family would . . . have to drive farther to go to the grocery store. That's the reality of my life. We aren't self sufficient. We aren't even close to it.
But, despite my differences from Ma Ingalls, we are able to grow enough to make these little guys smile.
I guess that's all we need, because I'm not planning on pioneering through the wilderness in a covered wagon any time soon.