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
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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A Trip To The South Pacific Brings Back Nostalgic Christmas Memories
by Lucy Engbring Every Christmas season it’s only natural to reminisce about past Christmases, and this year my mind is swimming in memories of one special holiday when we entertained two very happy, unexpected guests. They were young islanders from Palau, Moses and his sister Florence, sent to us by son John. They worked with …
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Choosing The Right Time To Visit Phoenix, Where It’s Sunny All Day Long
Recently I turned into a bona fide snowbird and went, along with daughter Susie, to visit son Jim in sunny Phoenix. I learned they now have 59,000 snowbirds who visit Arizona every winter. Snowbirds are people who travel south when the weather turns cold where they live. Most stay the whole winter in the desert, …
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Everyone In The World Has One! We’re Talking Birthdays Here
by Lucy Engbring On a beautiful, crisp autumn Sunday, daughter Susie and I, along with a record number of out-of-towners, were browsing through all the goodies at the Oktoberfest stands in Maeystown. The sunny day was special because it was also Susie’s birthday. Then I got to thinking that there must be hundreds, no, thousands …
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Put Pendleton, Oregon On Your Bucket List
by Lucy Engring After reading daughter Susie’s vivid description of her great visit to the Grand Canyon recently, I was again surprised to hear of the Northwest exploits of son John and his family. I wasn’t aware that a major annual rodeo is held every September in Pendleton, Ore. They say the Pendleton Round-Up is …
