Chesed

Saturday December 3, 2011

By Michelle December 3, 2011 Uncategorized 59 Comments

If this isn’t a lucky one, I don’t know what is. The famous Dorcas Smucker is giving away not one book, but all THREE of the books she wrote. I LOVE the way Dorcas takes the most ordinary things and wraps them up in words that make you laugh one minute and notice minute details the next. There are interesting snippets from her girl days growing up amish and tons of stories of current days with her fascinating family of six kids. I LOVE the way she raises respectful, free-spirited, intelligent, creative thinkers and I wish I were more like her … even as I’m shuddering thinking of orange pop specks all over MY kitchen ceiling.

Her writing is a fine mesh of story-telling, introspection and humor. And oh, the stories she tells.

Here are the words from the back cover of Ordinary Days.

“Imagine raising six spirited kids on a grass farm. Today. That’ll test any mama’s strength.
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 off the nearby freeway, moving into the thousand story house, enduring 15-year-old Matt’s lecture on respect while captive in the car. 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.”

One person will win one copy of each of her books:
Ordinary Days
Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting
Downstairs the Queen is knitting

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To enter, leave a comment on this xanga post. You can earn a second entry by linking to facebook or your blog. Come back and leave a second comment telling me you did so. If you do not comment with a xanga or facebook identity, please check back when the giveaway ends or leave your email address so that I can get the books to you. Giveaway ends Thursday, December 8th.

And just for fun …..

These books are perfect for any one really, but I’ve chosen to fix a fictitious gift basket for a mom in the throes of morning sickness. Not for the mom who is curled up into a fetal ball with her eyes squinched shut whenever she’s not heaving over the toilet, but for the mom who is sick, lying on the sofa a lot, and just miserable inbetween the trips to throw up. Because each chapter is it’s own story, it’s easy to pick up the book at different times and read a short part of it without feeling as though you lost the story line. Plus, Dorcas makes you laugh a lot. And laughing when you’re sick is a good thing. So here’s my basket:

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light weight blanket
books to read
and a video to keep the kids occupied for a few hours so you can actually stay horizontal for thirty minutes

To order your own copy:
email Dorcas: dorcassmucker{at}gmail{dot}com

or send your order and $12 per book to:
31148 Substation Drive
Harrisburg, OR 97446

or you can find them on Amazon

and very likely find them at your local bookstore.

Good luck!

**********This giveaway is closed ****************

59 thoughts on “Saturday December 3, 2011”

  2. amoshaun

    I do not own any of Dorcas’s books, but I have heard her speak and I follow her blog occasionally.  I love, love, love the way she can see humor in just about everything but at the same time she speaks to the listener/reader’s heart.

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  5. itsayoderworld

    Dorcas was here for our ladies’ seminar in 2009. I bought one of her books as a gift for my Mom (and read it myself first!), intending to buy for myself later. You know how that goes! Anyway, I’d just LOVE to have all 3 of these books to read myself and to share w/ friends!

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  9. onebusymom

    I don’t think I read any of her books. Lavon’s family is going to be at a beach house for the week after Christmas. I’m thinking this would be some great reading material. 🙂

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  11. kendrajoychupp85

    Just another recommendation from the peanut gallery 😛 I just told Phil these books are the kind you pick up to browse and end up sitting down and reading all day. You know – “Just ONE more chapter…” Go, Dorcas!

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  41. Anonymous

    I read her blog and heard her speak at a ladies seminar. I’d love to have her books, esp. since I read one when I was in the exact scenario you were describing… pregnant and sick.

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  45. deansgal

    ahhhh, my sister recommends these books. she says they make her feel like a normal mom with a normal family even when things are a bit out of control or crazy:) i’d love to read them.

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  49. down_onthefarm

    i love dorcas…and her books. i think that i own all of them…i’m not sure because i lend ’em out.

    she’s the kind of gal who makes me laugh while learning
    and somehow at the same time leaves me feeling
    *of all things!!!*
    normal as a woman, wife and mom.

    i’d love to meet her irl someday. but i have this idea in my head that i’d act like a complete bumbling idiot
    and she’d run away screaming for sure. 🙂

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