About Lucy Engbring
Lucy Engbring is the matriarch of the Engbring family. After marrying a military man, Jerry Engbring, the family and their growing brood moved from place to place until settling in rural Valmeyer in the 1970s. The Engbring kids are now grown and scattered across the Earth's four corners, but her family makes frequent visits to the Bluff House.
Lucy's essays cover a wide range of topics, including her past and current travels, as well her family's fascinating adventures.
Life At The Bluff House
Old Photos Help Make Wonderful Memories Of The Past Come Alive
By Lucy Engbring The days seem to be much longer than they used to be. Sometimes they drag on forever. And yet, I ask myself, how did the last four months disappear so quickly? It’s an oxymoron for sure. But what an ideal time these long weeks have been for rummaging through old photos that …
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Going Through Old Files Brings Back Many Wriggling Memories
by Lucy Engbring During the long wait to get back to our normal pattern of living, I spent plenty of time going through years and years of camera photos, boxes and boxes of them. These photos were taken, not by smart phones, but when people used real cameras, then took their role of film to …
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Don’t Let This Pandemic Chapter Erase The Momentous Memories Of The Past
By Lucy Engbring Another day comes, we adjust our face masks again, go for groceries, make sure to wash our hands. No one wants to get this pesky virus. We’re too busy trying to stay healthy. But overlooked, and almost forgotten in this upside-down world of ours, is the fact that this year, 2020, is …
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During These Lock-Down Days, Our Kids Keep Surprising Us With Original Ideas
By Lucy Enbring Maybe this virus thing the whole world has been dealing with isn’t all that bad. There has to be a little “good” in there somewhere, and I think I’ve found it. It’s been a real challenge for all the children who are left with whole days of nothing to do. It’s the …
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Is This Self-Quarantine Getting You Down? Go Fishing With Your Kids!
It’s been quite a show to watch how adaptable so many citizens are, especially when we’ve been cooped up in our homes for the past eight weeks. (I often have to ask, “What day is it?”) TV news has been showing what the neighbors have been doing. There’ve been car parades to help celebrate birthdays, …
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We All Need To Hang In There For The Duration – This Too Shall End
As I write this on Easter Sunday, I’m laughing at myself. As a life-long church goer, I didn’t want to miss Easter Mass. But in this time of turmoil, with churches closed down everywhere, I knew that there would be services on TV. Do you suppose that the Cardinal who gave the sermon at St. …
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Drastic Lifetime Changes Are Here – Settle Down And Find Something To Read
As I write this, with the whole world in turmoil, what better time to stop and take inventory of our busy lives? With the cancellation of almost everything near and dear to us, where do we go from here? I’ve already seen signs of panic at the grocery store, which looked like a war zone …
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Doing “Snowbird” Duty In California’s Sunny Capital
The plan worked so well last winter I decided to do it all over again this year. Sacramento’s mild Mediterranean weather is some of the best to be found along the West Coast. Spending time with daughter Mary and husband Jim meant being pampered morning, noon and night. No cooking, no washing dishes, no cleaning, …
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A Trip Into The Past Brings A Mixture Of Sad And Happy Memories
How tickled I was to get a call from son John, knowing he was back in the States after a long visit to his old haunts on the islands of Palau. He spent two years there in the Peace Corps after college and wanted to see how things have changed. And change they did! The …
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It’s Not Only A New Year, But A New Decade – Are You Ready For It?
When was the last time we experienced such a rushed Christmas season like the one we just had? The whole holiday came and went so fast, didn’t it? Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed that every task I had to accomplish was done on the double, in a hurry, so that you could move …
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