Dorcas Smucker lives in a 90-year-old farmhouse near Harrisburg, Oregon, with her husband and five children. She weaves the threads of ordinary days into stories that first charmed the readers of the Eugene, Oregon, Register-Guard, and are now gathered in this collection. Join her as she hangs wallpaper with her husband, copes with lambs in the kitchen, and survives the annual whirlwind of grass-seed harvest. Share her terror when her son learns to drive, remember Grandma’s Amish funeral, and learn to love the cat that showed up on the front porch. And, most of all, find the wonder and joy hidden in unexpected places and ordinary days.

Letters from Harrisburg

Literature & Fiction

Smucker, Dorcas

History & Criticism

Pleasant Word

Imagine raising six spirited kids on a grass farm. Today. That'll test any mama's strength. 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 driving off the nearby freeway, moving into the "thousand-story house." Then there was the four-week road trip, which, Dorcas says, "My sister-in-law warned me would be like putting your whole family in the bathroom and staying there for three days." There are no recipes here. But there is story upon story. Dorcas has three daughters and three sons. And she has a voice—encouraging, doubting, entertaining, but never taking herself too seriously. Often slightly off-stride, and with disarming humility, Dorcas keeps finding resource in her life at home.

Ordinary Days: Family Life In A Farmhouse

Parenting & Relationships

Parenting

Good Books

Get ready for another rollicking reading ride -- when you can't tell if the tears you suddenly find on your cheeks are from laughing or from crying. Dorcas Smucker once again writes so vividly about life with her six kids that you'll be convinced you have a place at their table, your own seat in their van, a list of chores with your name at the top, and a small hankering for trouble -- just like one of the family. She and her kids are innocently funny and usually well-meaning, trying hard to manage all their energy and their peculiar points of view. Jenny asks questions endlessly like, "What's inside your lips?" Matt has serial obsessions -- animals to astronomy. Ben drops caterpillars down the gaps in the porch floor and has a 12-year collection of scars. Emily moves effortlessly from being a whirling Queen of the Smuckers to posing as a pompous science lecturer. Amy phones home to report that, "New York City is not dangerous," and "We girls walk outside at night." And 9-year-old Steven from Kenya joins the family, soon demonstrating the same compulsion as his new brothers by throwing balls in the living room. What makes this collection a stand-out is Dorcas' "Mother voice." With each new development, she's clear about the outcome she's hoping for, less certain about how she'll accomplish it, willing to confess the way things unfold. Dorcas Smucker, writer and mom, is bravely honest and hilariously humble. She never fails to give courage to any parent who reads these joyride chapters, while relentlessly entertaining.

Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting: More Family Life In A Farmhouse

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Downstairs the Queen Is Knitting is Dorcas Smucker's brand new chronicle of family life with six fast-growing up kids. Downstairs the Queen Is Knitting follows Dorcas' two earlier and beloved collections, "Upstairs the Peasants Are Revolting" and "Ordinary Days." The kids are a bit older now, and Dorcas and Paul's marriage is longer and deeper. But Dorcas sees with more disarming clarity than ever, and she writes piercingly about life on and off the grass farm as the kids move toward more independence. Downstairs the Queen Is Knitting will entertain you, and ultimately it will soothe your soul.

Downstairs the Queen is Knitting

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

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.

Sunlight through Dusty Windows: The Dorcas Smucker Reader