Intellectuelle   Sheena

Having returned from our travels in Scotland I thought it was about time I introduced myself properly, now that I am officially listed in the sidebar. It's an exciting honour to be considered an intellectuelle!
I hope to crank up the brain cells later in the week and get around to creating a post, until then you can peruse my profile.

Name: Sheena Strain
Birthdate: September 1972
Birthplace: Bedford, England ,
Current Residence: London, England
Languages: English, tiny bit of Gaelic.
Ethnic heritage: despite being born in England, I am 100% Scottish. I was raised in a small fishing village called Achiltibuie, it’s in the North West Highlands of Scotland.(Google it!)
Family: Married to David, we have two boys Euan, (4) and Joel (2)
Education: Attended the local primary school with about 22 other pupils, my High School years were spent in the secondary school in nearby Ullapool. I did my nurse training in Glasgow. After graduation I spent a year in Australia and Thailand before returning to work in a hospital in Dundee, Scotland.
Occupation: I’m a full time mum at the moment.
Hobbies: Reading , blogging, gardening, especially on my allotment where we grow a variety of fruit and vegetables. Issues that interest me are urban mission, womens role in church, evangelism, Christian parenting, current affairs.
Denomination: My husband is a pastor of London City Presbyterian Church, we belong to the Free Church of Scotland which is a small evangelical and reformed denomination.
Testimony: I was raised going to church although my parents weren’t professing Christians at the time. During my late teens and after I left home I stopped attending church, except on weekends when I returned home. After I graduated from Nursing school I decided to spend a year travelling and picked Australia as the destination. One evening, midway through my year there I felt a very strong urge to pick up and read the bible my father had given me. I felt I’d reached a crossroads and there was no going back, I gave my life to Christ that night.
Currently reading: ‘Above all Earthly Pow’rs’ By David Wells
Favourite book: I don’t know if I have one to be honest. I’ve just finished Mark Driscoll’s “Confessions of a Reformission Rev” and found that to be a really enjoyable read. I would heartily recommend “The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith.
Favourite author: Perhaps the most influential author for me has been R.C. Sproul. His commentary on Romans in particular helped me come to a clearer understanding of reformed distinctives.
Style of music: I like a wide variety of music, I tend to listen to BBC Radio 2 rather than CD’s these days.
Favourite musicians: Coldplay, U2, the Finn Brothers, the Proclaimers, Capercaillie, The Battlefield Band
Favourite visual artist: Hmmm. My husband is really the arty one, I can’t say I really have a favourite.
Last Good Movie Seen: It’s been so long since I’ve been to the Cinema I can’t remember. I would really like to see ‘The Queen’
Favourite movie: I don’t have one, but I like ‘so I married an Axe murderer’ and ‘Restless Natives’.
First Car: Volkeswagon Polo
Inspiration: Organised mothers, My husband.
Personality type: INTJ - apparently
Pet Peeve: The current media kowtowing to Islam, it continues to be acceptable to tear strips off the Christian church, but there is little constructive criticism of Islam.
Cuisine: We like all sorts in this house, but we do lean towards curries. We are privileged to live near a large East London market where I have access to all sorts of wonderful ingredients.
Favourite color(s): yellow
Favourite flowers: Sweet Peas
Favorite time of day: Post 7pm when the kids are in bed and I can sit down.
Favourite season: Summer, it’s usually much warmer than what I was used to in Scotland, though it’s by no means tropical!
Favourite place to be: At home with my husband, and if we had the cash we would like to return to the States for a holiday.
Unhealthy obsession: it varies, but I am prone to ruminate unhelpfully over certain issues.
Weaknesses: I’m very messy
Aversions: people smoking, some so-called ‘biblical’ methods of child rearing. Legalism
Long term goals and/or dreams: I would love to see the ministry here in London flourish and grow, I would also love to have an abundant allotment garden.

In a recent BBC Newsnight interview, Madonna, dressed in black and sitting in a carefully staged set that would have been more appropriate in the Adam's Family mansion, defended her decision to begin adoption proceedings with baby David Banda.

One of the many accusations levelled at her in the media has been the idea that she picked out the child in much the same manner that one would choose a puppy in a pet shop. In the interview, she refuted this and describes how she first saw David as part of a documentary film that was being made relating to her Foundation. She went on to defend her decision to remove the baby from Malawi, despite the fact that he has a father and allegedly a Grandmother who visited him regularly. She denied any knowlege of a Grandmother and insisted that both a Malawian Government minister and the man who runs the orphanage told her that no-one visited the boy.

Quite apart from the all the obvious questions that this whole adoption debacle raises, one issue that remains unchallenged is the part the media played in this. The simple version of the story, as portrayed in the press, would have you believe that Madonna flew into Malawi astride a broomstick, picked out the child she liked the look of with complete disregard for his family and Malawian law. Not only that but she hoodwinked Malawian officals, the boys father and her adoring public into believing that she did this with the boys best interest at heart, something which couldn't possibly be true of someone like her.

But of course it's never that simple. Bastions of journalistic integrity such as the Guardian, The Times and others of similar ilk, would never dream of spinning such a story, they are only interested in exposing the truth. As well as the tireless pusuit of truth, they are of course concerned for the welfare of the child, something ably demonstrated by the way in which they, along with others, welcomed him with flash photography during his arrival at Heathrow Airport.

Ok, I'll dispense with the sarcasm, but I think it's interesting to note the scathing criticism Madonna has received over this issue, yet the adoption of a baby from Africa by Angelina Jolie last year was noted only by a few lines in the Guardian's 'in brief' section

This was first posted this at my own blog earlier in the year. I hope it might offer some encouragement to any new mums who are reading here.

Channel 4 aired a programme last night entitled “Extraordinary Breastfeeding.” In it the they met various women who were breastfeeding their children well beyond the expected Western ‘norm’ of 1 year. Many of them were feeding children aged between 2 and 4 years, whilst one mother was still breastfeeding her 7 year old daughter. Such practice might, I suspect, have self-styled breastfeeding experts such as Gary Ezzo and Gina Ford reaching for the Valium bottle. Many people would be appalled to hear about these families thinking it inapropriate or just plain wierd that they would want to raise their families this way, even medical experts around the world have varying guidelines on how long it is beneficial for children to be breastfed.

I fed our first son for almost two years, though after his first year it was usually only before bed. I have recently stopped feeding our second son at 16 months due to us all being unwell for a couple of days and my supply sadly disappearing overnight. I have been fortunate in that I have never encountered any negative criticism regarding breastfeeding, unlike some of my friends who have been asked to leave restaurants, or to feed their baby in the ladies toilet.

So what’s a parent to do then with so much contradictory advice?

Sitting in the shade away from the searing heat of the African sun, Tabita feels the first twinge of a contraction. With a mixture of anxiety and hopefulness she knows that the journey into motherhood has begun and the birth of her first child is not far away. With her husband out working she leaves the tiny hut she shares with her husband to seek out her mother who lives in the same remote village. Later as the evening beckons, they return to Tabita's hut with the contractions becoming more frequent and increasingly painful.

The sun rises on the second day and despite a long night of labour, there is no sign of the baby. Rising from her bed Tabita squats on the floor of her hut, pushing urgently she trys to coax the baby out, but to no avail.

Our host Joe Carter writes today about partial birth abortion which has been affirmed by the Supreme Court and will soon be made illegal.
He posts details of a cross-examination of Dr. Stephen Chasen, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, by counsel for the Government.

The discussion is graphic in it's descriptions of the procedure but worth reading if you can. it's also thoroughly depressing to realise that Dr Chasen, with all his ability, experience and influence would choose to be an advocate for infanticide instead of , well, something that actually helps people, which is after all what doctors are supposed to do.

Meanwhile on this side of the Pond The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says there has been a big rise in the number of doctors who are "conscientious objectors". BBC news reports that:

Experts say the decline in the number of NHS doctors willing to perform abortions has also declined because they are able to "pick and choose" the areas they train and specialise in - and very few opt to carry out terminations when they can choose other areas such as fertility medicine.

I read with interest Sarah's recent post on defining 'Church Lady' and all that she stands for. She exists in the UK too of course, only here she might also insist that you wear a skirt to church and stay in the background making tea and serving 'traybakes' after the service.

It's a shame that conformity to a set of 'Church Lady' type rules is often viewed as the ideal picture of a Proverbs 31 woman, when the reality is that by insisting on others adherence to the 'rules' you instead become a legalist.