In my group of homeschool moms that meets once a week, we have a “Moms’ Class.” In this class we learn how to be better mother mentors for our children. I am loving the class this year as we are reading one book a month and discussing it the last week of the month. So far, we have read Anne of Green Gables, My Louisiana Sky, and Little Women. All wonderful, principled, and charming books!

This month we are reading the book shown above. My first impression was, “Oh OK. I’m off the hook. I’ve already read that book. I’ve watched the Sound of Music (the movie about Maria Von Trapp’s life) a gazillion times (when I was a kid, in the ancient pre-streaming days, it was shown only once a year around Easter, I think on NBC, and my sisters and I would always watch it). I’ve also read another book about her, shown below. This was years ago, when I had four little children, and I went on a Maria Von Trapp learning jag.

I decided I wanted to revisit her story anyway. I’m glad I did! I’m learning so many things I don’t even remember reading the first time. More on that later. Her book has so many principles for mothers to embrace. She had such a hygge life! We modern-day moms can learn a lot from her.

When I was a young mom, I found a copy of a recording of her speech she gave at BYU, at my local public library. The one thing I remember from that speech is that she said, “The most important thing in life is to find the will of God and do it.”

Now that I’m reading the above book, I am finding she wrote that more than once in the book.