Simple Home Living: About Twenty Five Years Ago. . .

. . . I lived on a small Texas "farm" and raised a few dairy goats. My girls were five and seven at the time and both had responsibilities to carry their little milk pails out to the barn, coax the doe onto the milk stand, put some sweet grain in the feeder and then milk them.

When I think back to that time I remember it being hard - but good. I thought nothing of it to send them to the barn to take care of their "morning chores." It was a natural part of life that I think today, is often missed.

Character was developed. Thanks was instilled. There was no sense of entitlement, but instead acceptance and appreciation. It was a hard but good time in my life and I know that partly they're the women they are today, because of those hard but good times. My little girls (now thirty-four and thirty-two) learned the value of hard work and they learned to conquer their fears. If you know them, you'll have to ask them about the "pecking chicken."

Perhaps because I know that these sorts of things are important in life - it's one of the reasons why I so love living together with our daughter(s) and their husbands and all the grandchildren (at one point we all lived together and at another time the other daughter and her family lived with us). I get to re-instill and model (along with my husband) those principles of working hard and not complaining while doing it.

I want them to know that eggs come from chickens and that carrots grow in dirt and that you can eat pansies. I want them to learn to be thankful. As a matter of fact, every time we bring in the daily ration of eggs, I exclaim with utter joy, "Look what God gave us today! Who wants to thank Him?" And they both, usually, chime in, "I do."

What are you doing to instill life skills and principles into the little lives around you?