Dorcas Smucker - Ordinary Days: Family Life in a Farmhouse

To Paul,

Always there, always supportive, always loving.

Acknowledgments

I appreciate the many people who helped bring about this book: Ilva Hertzler, who wrote to The Register-Guard editor, urging him to feature me as a regular columnist. And, on the strength of that one letter, he did. Grant Podelco, my first editor at The Register-Guard, who accepted an unknown writer and shepherded me with the greatest kindness. Mark Johnson, my second editor, who pretty much let me have my own way. I always appreciate people who do that. Jessica Maxwell, who likes to say that she is pathologically helpful. I was blessed to be on the receiving end of your generosity. The Red Moons Writers Group, who gave me valuable insights and believed in me. I hope I can help you as much as youve helped me.

My deepest thanks to Paul, Matt, Amy, Emily, Ben, and Jenny. You love and encourage me, laugh at all the right places, and let me write about you. Steven, you joined our family after this book was written, and you brought us wonder and joy. And thanks to God: you are the gracious giver of all good gifts.

Credits

All the essays in this book were published in The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, except for Traditions, which previously appeared in Generations, the newsletter of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program in Albany, Oregon. All of the essays in this book, except for Emilys Song, Aunts, Oregon Coast, Judgment Day, and Escapes, appeared in an earlier book, titled Ordinary Days: Letters from Harrisburg, by Dorcas Smucker.

Scripture references on pages 17, 143 (first reference), 144 (first reference), and 145 are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, KING JAMES VERSION. Scripture references on pages 47, 135, 139, 143 (second reference), and 144 (second and third references) are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Cover art and design by Wendell Minor

Design by Dawn J. Ranck

ORDINARY DAYS

Copyright 2006 by Good Books, Intercourse, PA 17534

International Standard Book Number-13: 978 1-56148-522-2

International Standard Book Number-10: 1-56148-522-5

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006005149

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner, except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, without permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Smucker, Dorcas.

Ordinary days : family life in a farmhouse / Dorcas Smucker.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-56148-522-2 (pbk.)

1. Country lifeOregonWillamette River ValleyAnecdotes. 2. Smucker, DorcasFamilyAnecdotes. 3. Willamette River Valley (Or.)Social life and customsAnecdotes. 4. Willamette River Valley (Or.)BiographyAnecdotes. 5. Schmucker familyAnecdotes. I. Title.

F882.W6S55 2006

Table of Contents

Introduction

M y relatives were wonderful storytellers. Fertsayluh they called it in Pennsylvania Germanthe art of spinning tales and of seeing the quirky and unusual in the most ordinary events.

At family reunions, my Aunt Vina would mesmerize us with stories of how Grandma cured warts or the time the cat ate the dishrag. Even if we had heard the story a dozen times before, we always savored that same delicious waiting as the story progressed and anticipated that expertly timed ending when the room exploded in laughter.

I dont fertsayle much at family gatherings, but I like to think that I learned from my relatives to see the profound and the humorous in simple things. I have many opportunities to do so, living with a husband and six children in a 95-year-old farmhouse in Oregons Willamette Valley.

This book is a collection of stories about our lives, telling of simple blessings and ordinary days. Many of these stories refer to our five children. After this book was written, we welcomed a sixth child into our family: Steven, an active, imaginative, 10-year-old boy from Kenya.

These essays do not appear in chronological order, and they are meant to be sipped one at a time like a mid-morning cup of tea, rather than devoured in one sitting like Thanksgiving dinner. I hope they will echo in your own life, reminding you of family times, lessons learned, and Gods loving touch on all of us.

Family

Expecting the Unexpected

O ne of the first things I noticed about my friends house, when I stopped in last Christmas, was that her Nativity set looked like it hadnt moved an inch from where she first set it weeks before. This friend, I should add, doesnt have children.

I have five children and, at my house, I never knew what my Nativity set would be doing when I walked into the living room. Sometimes I found Joseph and the shepherds lying on their backs because 1-year-old Jenny thought they needed to go night-night. At other times, Ive found my 10-year-old using the figures to act out the Christmas story, with Mary pinch-hitting as a wise man and riding off on the camel.

I cant help but compare my friends life, with its order and routine, to mine, with its constant unpredictability.

When our first child was born, I didnt know what to expect in my new role as a mom. Fifteen years and four more children later, I still dont. This was a journey into the unknown, with unexpected curves in the road and surprises around each corner. Motherhood keeps me guessing, always a bit off balance, braced for a twist in the plot when things appear most predictable.

For one thing, I am often amazed at how much it hurts to be a mom, from the pain of childbirth to the sick, bottomless ache when a child is lost. Even more, I am stunned by the joywhen I hold each child for the first time, when the lost ones are found, when I get a hug from a difficult child when I least expect it.

Another unexpected twist is the questions. I always knew that young children ask a lot of questions. What I didnt expect was when, where, and on what subjects. The most startling ones were hissed in my ear when I was absorbed in the sermon at church.

Mom! Do you have a baby in your tummy or are you just fat?

Did you know the Blackbird airplane flies so high that the pilots have to wear space suits?

In addition, there are what I call Clear Blue Sky questions, which pop out with no preliminaries.

Did we go opposite of the other people?

How does Becky hold carrots?

Whats that stuff beside the other stuff?

Appearing out of nowhere, these questions make me dizzy, and I end up asking 10 or 15 questions myself before I figure out what theyre talking about.

As a mom, my plans seldom work out like I think they will. My fear of snakes and crawly things is, I believe, a learned phobia, and I was determined not to pass it on to my children. So I let them read National Geographic books with explicit photographs of snakes and even took them through the reptile house at the zoo. Oh, look at the pretty snakes, I gushed, and tried not to let them see me shudder.

I was successful: none of my children is afraid of snakes. But I was much more successful than I planned to be. Matt wants a snake for a pet, and Emily sits in the garden and drapes earthworms over her hands. One day, when the baby was fussy, Amy gave her a rubber snake to chew on. I turned around and there she was, blissfully gnawing. I gasped, horrified, and thought, This wasnt what I had in mind at all. All I wanted was for them not to be afraid to walk through tall grass.