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Welcome back to
Mugs and Muffins! It seems like it's been such a long time... hasn't it?
At least for me it has. Anyway...
For any new friends visiting here today... Hello! You might be coming here as part of the
Tea and Trouble Brewing blog hop/giveaway tour and I'll just fill you in quickly.
Mugs and Muffins is a once-a-month "event" that I try to
regularly host here at
Treasured Up and Pondered. It's where I'll feature a guest post writer/speaker/giveaway and a recipe. Glad to have you come by.
For most of you, my readers, you've been waiting for this and are wondering... and well, as I've alluded to on Monday - something is/was abrewin'. Thank you to you too, for coming by. I hope I won't disappoint.
So, here it is! The time has come for me to introduce to you my guest speaker, all the way from the state of Oregon. Harrisburg, Oregon, that is; living in a 100-year-old farmhouse nestled in the lovely Willamette Valley.
Pull up a chair.
Pour yourself some hot tea! Your favorite, please.
And, of course, you'll need a
Cranberry-Orange Scone to go along with that. (smile!) Something I'm anxiously awaiting to try myself.
(I know we usually do muffins here but this recipe/idea was found in the back of this book, I am talking about today - and I felt it appropriate to go this route!)
Without further adieu... let's welcome our guest and friend... Dorcas Smucker!
Dorcas is the wife of a Mennonite Minister, the mother of six children and author of several books/memoirs. She is a once-a-month columnist for the Eugene Register-Guard, on Facebook
and is blog host for
Life in the Shoe. Dorcas has recently written a new book called
Tea and Trouble Brewing...and let me tell you, I laugh and I cry as I read.
I feel as though I've found a kindred spirit...
I've been reading along- only recently - as a friend of mine (Tricia E.) introduced me to Dorcas' books, and got me "hooked up" in this giveaway. I'm so glad she did. It's kind of funny...how such a small world it is we live in... and all of the many connections we can "find we have" with people.
Not knowing anything prior of Dorcas, I have found out that she and I know a couple of the same people, (I know. Her and I are going to have to talk about this) we share similar interests and my most favorite find while reading her book ...similar to my own, is her dry & witty sense of humor. The fact that I still consider myself a Mennonite, by some standard, (maybe not outwardly, but in my heart) obviously explains that scenario - right there. {smile!}
I get it!!
I've been thoroughly enjoying getting to know her and her family through these Memoirs...
Ordinary Days- Family Life in Farmhouse, Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting and Downstairs the Queen is Knitting.
I know you will, too.
I asked for Dorcas' permission to share a chapter, from her newest release, in it's entirety, in order for you to get a glimpse of how she writes. This was one of the hardest things to choose. Which one? I finally choose this particular chapter because it really, really resonated me. If you've read
Treasured Up and Pondered for any length of time, you know of my love-hate relationship with ants - and old, old Farmhouses! It's the farmhouses - I love! Ants not so much. Even though they are one of God's most amazing of Creation; the ones we're told to learn from. (Proverbs 6:6-8) But, oh how they rattle me!
I'm always up for a good and strong analogy with which to identify with and to be strengthened by. This chapter has given me pause... and something "new" to consider. I hope it will for you, as well.
The Ants of Marriage
~ Dorcas Smucker, Tea and Trouble Brewing
I had coffee
with my brother Phil and his wife, Geneva, last week, and after Phil went back
outside, Geneva and I talked about marriage. “You need to write a book about
marriage after twenty-some years,” she said. “How to keep it alive and
meaningful. How to keep the connection. There are no books out there like that;
I’ve checked — Barnes and Noble, Borders, everywhere. Everything is for
newlyweds, not for people our age. So that needs to be your next book.”
Geneva can be very
persuasive, especially when she looks at me like that over her coffee cup.
However, considering how I bumble through marriage and parenting without ever
quite knowing what I’m doing, I told her I would be the wrong person to write a
how-to book.
Nevertheless, it
was an intriguing thought as I drove south on Interstate 5 — what exactly does
it take to make a silver-anniversary marriage work? I consider Paul’s and my
marriage healthy, usually, but we spend far too much time meeting all the
demands on our time and consequently going too long without really
communicating. So do we have a good marriage or are we just too busy for
conflict?
When I came home,
my thoughts were quickly diverted to more tangible things, such as putting
groceries away, making supper, is Jenny coming down with something, and who was
the culprit who didn’t push down the last corner of this Tupperware lid and let the ants crawl all over the chocolate
chip cookies again?
Our house has been
invaded by ants for months now, little black creatures that by themselves look
innocent and even cute, but in massed crawling swarms are downright terrifying.
They arrived in stealth, located all the vulnerable entrances, then fanned out
and conquered the kitchen. Soon they took over new territories in other rooms
as well.
Nothing was safe.
We found them on the stove, the toaster, the counters; in the flour, the
precious European chocolates, the dishwasher, the new cereal. They were fond of
water, molasses, homemade cookies and electrical components.
Our son Steven
started playing a CD in his room and soon saw a disturbing river of ants
flowing out of his CD player. He investigated and found a city of them inside
among the wires, complete with a nursery of larvae. A few days later, I cleaned
behind the computer in the office and found hundreds of ants milling inside and
around the power strip along the wall.
Desperate, I bought
little plastic igloos that were supposed to lure and kill them. They did
nothing. My homemade window-cleaning spray with rubbing alcohol and vinegar
stunned them only temporarily. Tilex, we discovered, killed them instantly and
cleaned the counters thoroughly as well, but soon they were back for more.
The best solution
we found was liquid Terro, a clear syrup that we dropped in dime-size dollops
on little papers in the cupboards. The ants swarmed in black rings around the
droplets, like cattle around a tank, then they would all march away, touching
antennae with incoming ants. Then they
evidently died, because that particular area would be ant-free for a few days.
But the next day a new colony would take over a new drawer, swarming over the
brown sugar.
I went online for
help. “Exterminators don’t work,” said most pages. “At least not for long. Try
to find and destroy the nests, and especially, try to locate and kill the
queen, the source of the problem.” Impossible, in a house this size and age.
My daughter’s
friend Felicia said we should pour a bag of sugar around a tree in the yard.
“It’ll lure the ants outside,” she insisted. Yes, outside, where I was sure
they would reproduce in vast numbers with that food supply, and then come
swarming back inside tenfold when the sugar was gone.
Meanwhile, life
kept galloping on, and Paul and I passed each other coming and going.
Valentine’s Day came and Paul got me pink roses. In spite of that gesture, I
got irritated at him for going around school all day with his thick jacket on
with only the bottom snap fastened, which makes it ride up in the back, which
lacks the dignity he needs as a teacher. He was annoyed at me for leaving the
lamp on to read at night when he wanted to sleep. I reminded him again about
that everlasting remodeling project upstairs that he’d never finished.
Our poor old
marriage. We needed a date, maybe going out to eat, just the two of us. I had
in my purse four gift cards, for three different restaurants, that we were
given for Christmas up to two years ago and never used. Paul told me to line
them up on the dresser right by his pens and keys, so he would see them and
remember.
I used to think it
wasn’t Truly Romantic unless he read my mind, or surprised me, but now we both
know that’s a destructive deception, and after 20-odd years I can be forthright
and tell him what I need.
So we sat in a
booth at Olive Garden, both on one bench seat, not for cozy romance but so he
could hear me better, and we ate and talked and were happy to know we still
enjoyed each other’s company. Then he drove us slowly home in the thickly
falling snow and asked me if I was scared. No, I said, he knows what he’s doing
and I can trust him.
We talked about
marriage things that are hard to bring up, about how that makes me feel when
you say that, and what we should do or say instead. We did not have to reassure
each other that we are in this marriage to stay, because we both know that.
We watched the
falling snow seemingly curve and rush toward the windshield, and we remembered
the night we drove in snow just like that and hit a moose and lost our van and
nearly our lives, and then we were quiet, thinking of what we’ve survived
together.
After we came home,
I thought about Geneva’s idea for a book as I sprayed the ants in the sink and
washed them down the drain.
Inspiration struck.
“I got it!” I crowed to the family. “Keeping your marriage healthy is like
fighting ants!”
Emily, the dramatic
ant-hating daughter, was horrified. “Goodness gracious, is it really that
awful? Why would you ever want to get married?”
Oops, maybe not
such a good analogy after all. And yet ...
“Think about it,” I
said, “all the comparisons.”
Nature and life and
Newton’s laws are not conducive toward either a clean, ant-free kitchen or a
happy marriage. Both are won by fighting against natural regression. Everyone
you ask will offer you their own wonderful solution, but it’s less about easy
magic than about persistence, vigilance and hard work, pouncing on the
destructive little beasts that come crawling out of the corners. And you have
to identify the root problems.
Clever, I thought.
Emily still looked skeptical, but then, she is very young.
School was called
off the next day because of the snow. Paul cut sheet-rock and hauled it upstairs
to finish the everlasting project — and to make me happy. I turned off the lamp
so he could sleep, because I love him. He didn’t kiss me goodnight because he
had a bad cold and didn’t want me to catch it. And all that will never make
much of a how-to book for a long-term happy marriage, but it works.
See what I mean?? Dorcas makes you think. She is funny. She is real. In all of her essay's or stories - you can see her faith is strong, authentic and in complete trust to her Creator's orchestration. She is a woman who is not afraid to share her life and life her life to the fullest. Her cup runneth over...and yes! even the saucer.
All I can say is Dorcas had me at "hello!" And yes! to her daughter's quandary? Marriages are that much worth fighting for and more...
Per the Author's request - the following information is made available to you:
To order a copy, for yourself, go to
Amazon , to pay by credit card.
If you would prefer to pay by check, please send $15 (postage is included in this price) to Dorcas Smucker,
31148 Substation Drive, Harrisburg, OR 97446.
**Dorcas also has a special right now. All 4 of her books for $40.00. Again, postage is included.
***
Of course, this book, a signed copy of
Tea and Trouble Brewing is on for the
GIVEAWAY today, and the giveaway will run to the end of the week. I will draw an entry through random generator on Saturday, at 12 noon, EST. Winner will be notified, on Saturday.
{now... CLOSED!}
To enter the giveaway:
*
For one entry. Leave a comment here on my blog. Tell me: Are you a Tea Drinker? If so, What is your favorite kind of Tea? Or, if you care to share, What's your current trouble?
*
For a second entry. Follow Dorcas' blog -
Life in a Shoe . Let me know!
*
For a third entry. Sign up to follow my blog - Treasured Up and Pondered. Let me know!
Pass the word! REMEMBER you have until Saturday, at noon, to get in on this. (Facebook comments must be redirected here to the blog in order to enter.) If you have trouble commenting, email me and I'll add you in. (aitsbevy@yahoo.com)
***
Now, for that Scone Recipe.
I hope you don't mind but I found a recipe for these scones in the back of Dorcas' book...and a photo of scones via Pinterest. The recipes are extremely close...
With Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow - and plans to be away from home all day - I knew you would understand if I didn't make the plate of scones up myself. These, however, are a must try...in my book. Don't they look Delish? I can almost smell them... they look so fabulous.
Hope you enjoy!
***
Thank you for stickin' around today. I hope you'll be back.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! May you enjoy it most with your family and friends.
Remember. We truly do have much to be grateful for. We are blessed with more then we deserve. God is Good! Amen?
Blessings!
