Well! I hope you can just hear the exasperation in my voice. I have been listening to the fifth book in the Elsie Dinsmore series — Elsie’s Children — with my daughters while my oldest son was on a mini-vacation. As the book progressed, a comparison was drawn between one mother, Lucy Ross and another mother, Elsie Travilla who is Elsie Dinsmore all grown up. After listening intently to the entire section and the various discourses between mother and children — I came in the house one day and said half-jokingly to my eleven-year-old daughter, “You know, I think I am more like Lucy Ross then I am like Elsie Travilla.” and she said (and I quote,) “I KNOW.”
Can I just scream now? I mean, I didn’t really want her to agree with me. Then she said something like, “You know, I think you would learn a lot about mothering if you read all of the Elsie books.” But, when I asked in a really shocked tone for her to repeat herself, she changed it to something like “I really learned a lot about how a mother should act when I read the Elsie books.”
Either way, that is a whole lot of humble pie!!! I mean, isn’t she learning a whole lot about how a mother should act from me????
Keeping in mind that Lucy Ross is not a Christian and I actually am so I at least a little different in that my mothering ineptitude is covered by the grace of God, I must point out that Elsie Travilla is Absolutely Perfect In Every Way and I AM NOT!!!!
Seriously, this has caused a whole week of introspection. I am not sure it should have; but there you go. I haven’t written on my blog since that moment. I keep wanting to right this marvelous and pious post about how insanely like Elsie Dinsmore I have become, but folks it is just not going to happen overnight — and today was just one of those days that convinces me its not gonna happen in fifty years.
When I get to heaven though, I want to be just like her :). I’ll probably write something more applicable about this when I am not quite so exasperated by the whole thing.
Read the books, they are really good. Convicting even.
{{I did not receive any compensation for writing this post. None at all. Not even a free book. 🙂 }}}
I guess I’m happy Addison never wanted to read all the Elsie Dinsmore books.
They really are great books, but I can totally understand Addison not wanting to read them. The first book is so hard to read, because it is pretty repetitious and really, really sad. After the father becomes a Christian in the second book, the series improves pretty quickly. We listened to the first book on audio as a family, and I had to force myself to stick it out :).
I feel your pain. My daughter wouldn’t read past the first book when she was younger, but I read them from The Gutenberg Project later. Yeah, I felt like you did! Just remember it’s fiction-at least that’s what I told myself to make me feel better!