The Easy Life

I've been, shall we say, stressed lately.
Keeping the house tolerable in this unusually hot summer (and one small window air conditioner to help it stay below 86)...
Getting the house ready for showings...
Keeping the kids from going crazy, when they have 4% of their books and 5% of their toys available to them, and it's too hot to play outside...

But we've been reading Little House in the Big Woods. All three kids love it (a feat that we haven't seen since our very first read-aloud: The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles), though about halfway through each chapter Hudson's ready for me to end.
It's making me realize just how easy we have it.
My idea of a "rough day" includes when I can't get the kids to take their dishes into the kitchen after lunch. Pa's idea of a hard day is meeting up with a bear without his gun.
They work hard for every bite they eat, every log to warm their house during their long, cold winters, every piece of clothing.
Jasmine told me they had the "best Christmas ever," and the kids had been each given two things, a piece of candy and new mittens (and Laura got her rag doll). TWO THINGS. Laura got three.

It doesn't make me want to go join the Amish or live off-grid, but it does make me re-evaluate my life and what it takes to make me upset. And it makes me wonder if we really should be a little bit more self-sufficient than we are. Because with a little more self-sufficiency, there's also more relying on God, which is definitely something I want (and something I want of my kids).

(apparently I do one of two things when I'm tired. I either talk incessantly, or get really analytical and pensive. And lucky for you, today I'm doing both!)