Sunlight through Dusty Windows: The Dorcas Smucker Reader

Sunlight through Dusty Windows: The Dorcas Smucker Reader

by Dorcas Smucker
Sunlight through Dusty Windows: The Dorcas Smucker Reader

Sunlight through Dusty Windows: The Dorcas Smucker Reader

by Dorcas Smucker

Paperback

$17.99 
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Overview

Imagine raising six spirited kids on a grass farm—today. Newspaper columnist Dorcas Smucker and her brood live out their days in full view in this collection of musings—picking blueberries while watching for bears, hoping for angels while driving off the freeway, moving into the “thousand-story house,” and enduring lectures from teenage children about the virtue of respect. Three books in one, this collection includes Smucker’s Ordinary Days: Family Life in a Farmhouse, Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting: More Family Life in a Farmhouse, and Downstairs the Queen Is Knitting. Often slightly off-stride and with disarming humility, Dorcas finds endless materials for stories and life lessons in everyday happenings. As she says, “I, like my mother, feed my children mashed potatoes and stories. I repeat the ones I heard from Mom and turn our family escapades into tales to be repeated while washing dishes or snapping buckets of green beans on the front porch. A story is much more than just a story, of course. It is entertainment, identity, interpretation, and lessons. This is who we are, this is why we do what we do, this is important, that is not, and don’t ever whack your brother’s finger with a hatchet like your dad did to Uncle Philip.” This delightful trilogy includes some of Smucker’s best writing. She covers topics and dilemmas everyone can relate to while also inviting readers to explore her Mennonite family’s more personal experiences. Her voice is humorous, encouraging, and at times, doubting, but she never takes herself too seriously. As you read, her stories will entertain you and ultimately soothe your soul.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781680993073
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date: 09/05/2017
Pages: 504
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Dorcas Smucker is a mother of six and a Mennonite minister’s wife. She is the author of Ordinary Days: Family Life in a Farmhouse, Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting: More Family Life in a Farmhouse, and Downstairs the Queen Is Knitting. In addition to blogging and speaking to various groups, Dorcas also writes a column, “Letter from Harrisburg,” for the Eugene, Oregon Register-Guard. She resides in Harrisburg, Oregon.

Table of Contents

Introduction 5

Family 7

Expecting the unexpected 9

Matt Learns to Drive 13

Just Like Mom 17

Wallpaper Gifts 21

Emily's bong 26

Two Babies 31

Dealing With Matt 36

Seasons 41

Harvest 43

Daffodils in Spring 50

Summer Vacation 54

"Hunting" Season 58

Autumn Harvest 62

Christmas Memories 66

Relatives 71

An "Irrelevant" Generation 73

Orval 78

Aunts 83

Becky 88

Oregon Fruit 93

Traditions 96

Places 99

Angels on Interstate 5 101

1000-Story House 104

Road Trip 108

Winds of Change 114

Muddy Creek 118

Oregon Coast 122

Lessons 127

The Cat Who Came to Stay 129

Turning Forty 134

Judgment Day 139

Panic and Pears 144

Escapes 148

The Gift of an Ordinary Day 152

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