In the Valley

There are times in our lives, even in our daily routines, when we forget about God.  From the death of a loved one to a stressful day, the temptation is to look within ourselves for our strength and direction. But if we are Believers, we must, even in the doldrums of a dreary day, look to God.   He's there in our weakness.  He's there in our sorrow.  He's there in the valley.

Adventures With Chickens

Gus is enjoying anything that has to do with our chickens.  He loves feeding them, watering them, tossing them scraps...

He loves collecting eggs...

 ...and he doesn't mind it one bit if he 'accidentally' lets them out of the coop. 

 Because nothing makes this boy happier than 

rounding up his chickens.

I cannot, however, say that the hens feel likewise.

From the mouths of babes...

I went to bed not feeling well last night, and Keilah readily agreed to get things started for me this morning.  When she brought to me EJ's handwriting paper, I had to laugh.  He doesn't always respond eagerly to his sister's ministrations, and so when she asked him to pick a verse from a Psalm to write out, this is what he chose:

"Come, Lord, and show me Your mercy,
for I am helpless, overwhelmed, in deep distress.
(Psalm 25:16)
EJ 9-19-2011"

Poor kiddo - I suppose I'll need to be back in the saddle again tomorrow, to rescue him from his despair!

Homeschool Blindspots

Reb Bradley recently wrote an article to parents, pointing out some of the areas that we clearly think we're on track with, but are often missing the hearts of our children.

The older our children get, the harder we have to work to keep communication unhindered, and their hearts fully ours.  When our kids are small, their responses to us are swift, loving, and forgiving.  The foundation of our children's hearts is easy to lay - training for obedience, discipline, and lots of hugs are the main materials needed to create a firm and reliable base for life.  As they grow older, and their God-given independent spirits start to emerge, WE as parents must put more effort, more time into them.  Unlike many other things in life, the job of parenting teens gets more involved, tenuous, and requires more deliberate forethought and action on our parts as time goes on.  Gone are the days of "Just obey Mama!" and "Yes, Daddy!", and here to stay are the late nights of talking things through, weeding out the ever-encroaching influences of the world, and doing all we can to prepare our children for life on the other side of the safety of our homes.

This article isn't just for homeschoolers.  If you're a parent, you need to read it!

Why I left Facebook

Dear Facebook,

I’m writing to say good-bye. I know it’s the coward’s way out, writing a letter, but because your hold over me is so strong, I think it’s what I need to do. Imagine a heroin-addict finally getting the resolve to ditch the drug, but wanting to personally say good-byes to his dealers...you get the picture. A letter is the best way out.

I’m leaving you for several reasons, really, but to be honest, the main reason is that I love you too much. (Hello, my name is Karen, and I’m a Facebook-aholic.) It’s not the fun and games you offer me; those aren’t a distraction at all. It’s just that I’ve realized that I have ‘itchy ears’ and I am consumed with reading everyone’s updates. Some folks will find this scandalous and absurd, but others will squirm uncomfortably because they know what I’m talking about. It’s humbling to admit, but they say that’s the first step. So there you have it.

There are other, important reasons I’m saying good-bye to you. For one thing, I’ve actually begun THINKING in Facebook Status Post. I will have a thought, and will stop and re-format it into a post for my wall. That’s a mighty powerful effect you’ve had on me, Facebook. And downright creepy. Worse, recently you allowed a friend to experience some horrific spamming on her Facebook page. She was innocent, but mortified, and that made me mad for her. What kept me mad was the realization that we all know that nasty-spam is a possible consequence of sticking around here, and we seem to be willing to take that risk. But here’s the deal: once you see images like that , they’re there - stuck - in your mind for good. You can’t wash ‘em out like streams of sweat at the end of a hard-working day. So it’s simple: if I don’t have a Facebook account, my page can’t be spammed.

It’s not that I won’t miss the benefits that you offer. I’ve reconnected with past acquaintances, been encouraged by intelligent posts. My connection with family members is stronger than ever. I love that. And I’ll miss that. But I’m thinking that the oh-so-last-year means of communication like blogging (yes, I’m picking it up again), email, and even the telephone surely can maintain those relationships and provide that encouragement.

When I was young, I had a couple of pen-pals. I did my best to keep in touch with them, but as you would expect, we haven’t been in contact for years. So I’ve been thinking about how you’ve re-defined friendship, Facebook, and I’ve decided to not go with the flow. Friendship, and its close sister ‘community’, are face-to-face relationships, pure and simple. The relationships you promote are superficial. Shallow? I know this from experience: when happening upon a real-live personal contact with a Facebook “friend”, I’ve found it to be awkward at best. Just because we comment on each other’s photos and posts doesn’t mean that we have a real friendship! It’s a VIRTUAL friendship, and it’s inconceivable for one that’s maintained solely on Facebook to be anything more than the sum of its posts. Just as no one can maintain 300+ pen-pals, I can’t maintain you; I can't carry your prayer burdens; I can't keep up. I have too many other things in my life to accomplish.

So, you see? I’m a bit disillusioned. Not because you fell short. But because you went beyond what I was expecting, and in such ways that I find it easy to bid you farewell.

If anyone here would like to stay in touch, well, I’d love it. I feel safe saying that because I know that not all five-hundred-seven of you are you going to want to, because we’re not really friends, are we? (Please don’t take offense - I’m not trying to be mean. Just blame Facebook for making us think we’re closer than we really are.) :-)

Finally, two things: First, I highly recommend that sympathetic readers keep their eyes out for a new documentary coming out (hopefully) before the year’s end. “Captivated” documents the science and stories behind our world-wide obsession with media. I’m sure it will be informative and eye-opening. Second, if you’ve been considering spending less time online, here’s a great blog post by a Christian gal who is doing it successfully.

So now adieu, dear Facebook. Life is so full of real, wonderful joys, and I’m off to rediscover them. Oh! Do you hear that? The children are cheering!! “Mama’s back!” they’re chanting. Now that - the delight of children - is something worth being addicted to!

Fondly, but firmly,
Good-bye.

Some Encouraging Words from John Piper

Pastor John from 1981:

First, a woman who fears the Lord is not anxious about the future. Look at verse 25. I love this line, and I praise all you women who are like this: "Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come." Satan dangles in front of her the specter of tomorrow's troubles, but she glances up at the almighty God at her right hand (her magnificent German Shepherd!) and laughs at Satan's folly.

Second, the woman who fears the Lord has practical wisdom. Verse 26, "She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue." We've been taught from grade school on that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10), so it's no surprise that the woman who fears the Lord "opens her mouth with wisdom."

Third, the woman who fears the Lord is strong. Verse 25, "Strength and dignity are her clothing." Verse 17, "She girds her loins with strength and makes her arms strong." She will be morally strong. Proverbs 23:17 says, "Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day." The woman who continues in the fear of the Lord will have power to resist all the allurements to envy, to desire what she shouldn't have.

Fourth, a woman who fears the Lord will live not for herself alone but for others, especially her husband, if she is married. Verses 11, 12, "The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not harm all the days of her life." A woman who fears the Lord will not squander the family's livelihood on frivolous purchases, but will have the complete trust of her husband because she is for him and not against him.

Excerpted from A Woman Who Fears the Lord Is to Be Praised.

Media Fast Over - New Domain Name!

The media fast only lasted a month, but our main blog writer has lost interest in our blog. The allure and ease of Facebook has taken another great blog author. May she rest in peace. (But since we are Believers we also hope in resurrection ~ come on Sweetie forsake Facebook and return to your first love).

Most recent news is we are moving from Comcast to Qwest for internet service. Comcast so called 20Mbps blast service means about 3-5Mbps in my neighborhood and Qwest is promising 12Mbps all the time and with the savings of having my office line from Qwest also we are saving close to $40 a month. The most painful part is being caused by the fact we used the Comcast domain for our email. I signed up for this account when we moved into this house many moons ago and it is scary how many different accounts we have tied to these email addresses.

So I am taking the big step of registering our own domain. So now this blog can be access via www.engstromfamily.net. We will have new email addresses once the name servers are finished getting propagated. Never again will an ISP enslave me to their substandard bandwidth because they own my email address.

Media Fast

Spring is here and with it the annual Engstrom month long media fast. See you again in June....