On Playing Dolls

I don't want this to seem something complicated. Life is complicated. Playing dolls is not. But playing dolls -- I believe -- can help a girl to handle the complicated things that will come her way in life some day.


I've learned a lesson raising four children. It's a lesson that has thrilled me at times, but sometimes has been painful. Children do what they see their parents do.

The day before Christmas 2007, I woke up feeling very overwhelmed. I was working outside of my home (just a season, I tell you) and it's easy to get overwhelmed. I was thinking, how will I get the gifts wrapped, or even finish buying the few things I need, and rest well tonight, and enjoy Christmas Day, knowing that I have to be back to work the day after Christmas?? I had a deer-in-headlights moment and did a totally abstract thing. I hung up my new 2008 calendar. It was probably meant to be. The quote for the month of January 2008 was exactly what I needed to see.

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)

I held that thought close. I decided to pick the sweet, simple things out of all the thoughts swirling through my mind and focus on them. Playing dolls with my little sweetie-pie was one of the first things to pop into my mind. The second thing was how much I wanted to see my mother and my sister (and how much they wanted to see me), so wrapped gifts were not as important as I could build them up to be. The important thing was me having a soft and sweet spirit and enjoying the important things. I decided just to relax and enjoy the days ahead. After all, my daughter is watching, and so are my sons.



This is all about playing. It's about doing something simple. In doing the simple things, though, we often paint such a larger picture that it's hard to see the whole masterpiece at one time. The Year of the Doll House is about doing a sweet, simple thing, and doing it day by day.

There's a precious thought that a dear friend shared with me recently. It keeps coming back to me in all that I do. It's helped me to focus on the sweet, simple things.

"...precept upon precept; line upon line...here a little, and there a little:" Isaiah 28:10

Precept upon precept and line upon line -- little by little. That's how big things are built.

Lynn