What's Important?

As a child, it seemed as if I had endless time to do the things I wanted. As adulthood crept upon me that time seemed to vanish as I filled my life with important activities. After going a million miles a minute, doing mostly good things, I stopped long enough to reflect on my progress and realized that in my haste and busyness, I had often let the important things in life slip--prayer, reflection, solitude, quality time with God and with key people.

Somehow I had forgotten how or what it meant to "be still and know that [He] is God." Dr. Richard Swenson, an author who has  spoken directly to me with his writings on restoring balance to overloaded lives, discusses a number of remedies to creating margin (a space between the load we carry and our limits) in our lives. Sometimes they are simple in theory, but incredibly hard and counter-cultural in practice. For example, he suggests:

1. learn to accept our limits (physical, spiritual, emotional) and therefore say "no" when we are asked to do something beyond our limits
2. learn to control and be disciplined with time sucking technology (email, internet, facebook, xbox, to name a few)
3. be content (we don't need lots and lots of stuff) 
4. get out of debt (it can control you life and force you to live in a place of stress)
5. learn to set boundaries--Swenson describes a boundary as a "perimeter erected around your private life that the world cannot come crashing through." As an example of a boundary for his family, he explained that they do not answer the phone during family mealtimes
6. take Jesus' advice--don't worry about what you will eat, drink, wear. God will provide (Swenson is not advocating laziness, but contentment. Be content with what we have, or at least a more simple life that does not demand we buy a whole new wardrobe with every season)
7. before doing anything of significance, seek peace and clarity. Because God is a God of peace and clarity, not confusion and chaos

Coming to England was the gift our family needed. Away from all of the busyness, the technology, the social commitments, and the culture that demands more of everything faster and faster, we have the gift of stepping outside our normal life and reflecting upon it. Asking ourselves important questions like: what is important to us as a family as individuals? What do we value and are we living a life that manifests those values? What does God desire for our lives?  On what should we focus our energies and our time?

Traveling is not only an adventure in discovering other cultures and how to survive in another country, but also a place of reflection--looking back on where we have been, enjoying where we are, and looking forward to where we will go.


Signing out...
Charity


Visit this link to read a bit more of Swenson's wise advice for a balanced life
http://www.richardswenson.org/mom_excerpt.html

Loco London

Public transportation in the UK is pretty decent, both in the quality of the transport and in price, and often trains, planes, and bus services offer special deals to select destinations. It was one of these specials that lured us to London. We paid a measly ten pounds a person to get to there and back (about eighteen U.S. Dollars). And in partaking in this special, learned a valuable lesson for future reference...always read the fine print AND the local news.

Westminster Abbey

Our story goes something like this. Saturday morning rolled around and we rolled out of bed at an outrageously early hour in order to catch the bus to the train station. We caught the bus in the nick of time and arrived at the train station with minutes to spare before our train departed, or so we thought. After running from the bus to the inside of the station, Caleb breathlessly asked an agent if we were in time for the train, and to his dismay found that we were an hour early and that our train would arrive an hour later than planned in London. What we didn't know was that our tickets were only good for one, slow, train that left later than we wanted and returned much earlier than we had hoped. Not to be disheartened, we cheerily waited out in the cold for the train. We were determined to have a good day, albeit short, in London.

The London Tower

Once we finally boarded and seated ourselves on the train, we thought all our troubles were behind us, needless to say, we were mistaken. With each consecutive stop of the train, it filled with more and more passengers till finally every available seat and all standing room was taken up. It seemed as though we had picked the busiest day of the week to travel to London. Still we were unconcerned as we lounged in our comfortable chairs, that is until Justus had a catastrophic explosion in the region of his bum. Suddenly, I was forced to wade through the sea of people with Justus and diaper bag in tote on my way to the bathroom. Even though space was tight, all of the passengers kindly parted for us to squeeze by, and after a long time in the loo (aka toilets, water closet, bathroom), I emerged again with a clean Baby Justus in an entirely different outfit (since his first one was rendered unfit by the aforementioned explosion).

Our happy little family in front of Tower Bridge
 (not to be confused with London Bridge)

Baby Justus eats only at the finest locales--Tower
of London

Upon exiting the train in London, we were relieved to be free of the crowded space, but the relief was short-lived. What we thought was crowded turned out to be the norm in London. As we made our way from the Euston train station down to the Euston tube (underground subway), a whole new definition of crowded and busy greeted us. There were people of every different color, nationality, and walk of life, flying by, and all of them seemed to be in a hurry. Justus and I did our best to get out of the way, while Caleb braved the long queue (lines) to purchase our tube passes. With that done, we headed down down down the never-ending escalators to catch our first subway as a family. Justus didn't seem to be bothered by all the people rushing by, the noisy trains, or the escalators, he either slept or looked around with great curiosity. We hopped on a train bound for the famous London Bridge. As it turns out, the bridge we were looking for is called Tower Bridge, not the London bridge. This pertinent piece of information eluded us until we had already emerged from the underground, and by that time Justus was letting us know it was high time for him to eat. So we made our way through the hundreds of pedestrians and snuck into a back room of a half empty cafe called “Brood” where Justus ate the first half of his lunch. Next was finding our way to the Tower Bridge.

Caleb--hanging onto the bridge for dear life

A good walk commenced, another nursing session in front of the Tower of London occurred, and   a fruitless search for a diaper changing facility ensued all before we finally reached the bridge. But it was worth the trouble. The world famous bridge was incredible to behold—it looked like a castle hanging over the middle of the Thames River. Before leaving this man-made wonder, we faithfully captured Caleb's signature pose, jumping, with the Tower of London and the Bridge in the background.

Nothing like kissing in front of Big Ben

Our time was rapidly dissipating, so we then rushed to see the highlights: the largest Starbucks ever (one of my favorites)Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye, before heading back to the train station. Once safely at the station, we took our sweet time and ordered dinner before heading to our train. Had we known what lay in store for us, we might have scurried to the train much earlier.

Justus enjoying a stretch after nursing on the train floor

The train was packed. In fact, just squeezing onto the it was a feet in and of itself. There were people everywhere, all seats where taken, even the standing room was occupied. Baby Justus got the best deal, he happily slept in his stroller seat, while we stood sandwiched in between a dozen or so passengers. We thought for sure the train would empty out after a few stops, but we were badly mistaken, with each stop not a soul exited but several more did manage to slip on board. With all hopes of acquiring a seat dashed, I sat down on the train floor and fed Baby Justus his

dinner. Gratefully, no one seemed to notice that a baby was nursed and then changed right below their feet (changing him in the bathroom was out of the question since dozens of people stood between us and the coveted toilet and diaper changing station). To our surprise, no one on the train seemed to mind the cramped conditions, in fact many people were rather cheery about the situation, especially a rowdy bunch of beer drinking soccer fans who were returning from a lost game. By the end of the train ride, those fans had caused all kinds of ruckus and had effectively dirtied the bathroom beyond use.

Three and a half hours later, we arrived at our stop and stepped off the train with much joy. With every morsel of food eaten, every extra piece of Justus's clothes in use, and every one of us exhausted, we caught a bus, and then trekked home. Our trip was fast, furious, and by all accounts, crazy, but fun nonetheless. We did learn a few valuable lessons from the experience: read the fine print on those “special” deals AND read the local news (e.g. big soccer game in London). Had we known these priceless tips before commencing upon our journey, we might have been a bit more prepared for loco London. But like the wise old saying goes, “live and learn.” Perhaps for us it should be “travel and learn.”

There and Back...a date to Rode Hall and Gardens

Entering the Rode Estate

The popular saying "getting there is half the fun," held true for us in our day trip to the lovely Rode Hall and Gardens...however, we think the saying is missing something. For us it would go something like: half the fun is getting there...and back!

Caleb, being the romantic stud that he is, planned a special date
to the seemingly nearby country house and gardens called Rode Hall and Gardens. Now a country house to American's would probably be called a mansion, of the extremely old variety. For the British, country houses were unfortified grand homes complete with gardens, stables, and the like. They became popular in the 16th century, which happens to be the era in which Rode was built.  Besides the stately house, the main attraction for Rode Hall and Garden's was the ten acres of beautiful gardens, sprinkled with a very special flower called the snowdrop. The snowdrops are lovely to look at and bloom only a few months out of the year. And so it was that we set out one fine Saturday morning to visit the intriguing country home and gardens

Rode Hall

Before leaving, Caleb laid out the plan for the day: we will catch a bus in  Newcastle, then we will get off at Kidsgrove where we will figure out how to get to the gardens, either catch another bus, go on foot, or something similar. We will spend the better part of the day at the gardens and then figure out how to get back home.

We managed to catch the first bus on time and with the help of a few friendly passengers got off at the right stop, the only problem was we were not sure where to go from there. As a bus pulled up to the stop next to us, Caleb hopped on board, thinking the bus driver would surely know how to get to the gardens. Unfortunately for us, and all the passengers on board, the driver was the helpful type but he seemed to be a foreigner who knew his own bus route and nothing more. I watched in amusement from outside as the driver got out his driver's cubicle, turned to face all the folks on the bus, and asked if anybody knew where in the world the Rode Hall and Gardens were located and how one might get there. A few folks pitched in a few possibilities they did not know either. Since we had already gotten the kind driver off of his schedule, we thanked him for his help and took off down the road as if we knew where we were going. But the driver was not finished with us yet, he honked his horn, pulled up next to us telling us we should go to another bus stop across the road and ask that driver. We chuckled as he drove away, he really wanted to help.

The famed snowdrops

As we wondered into the town centre of the little place called Kidsgrove, I was on high alert for a discreet place to nurse Baby Justus, since we were already running late, but Caleb was on a mission to find a way to the gardens. Thus, I reluctantly agreed to accompany him into the local library to ask directions. For obvious reasons, libraries are not the best place for nursing, but it was too late to find another spot. To my relief, Baby Justus was an angel, he nursed quietly and didn't disturb a single reader.

Daddy and Son--warm and cozy in the tea room

 Little did we know how fortunate it was that we ventured into this little library. It just so happened that a local council woman (a local politician of sorts) overheard all three librarians and Caleb discussing directions and modes of transportation to the gardens. Upon finding that our little family was planning to walk the 3.7 miles there and back, she intervened and offered to give us a ride, which we gladly accepted. The council woman was quite friendly and had more than one amusing thing to say during our short ride. The most comical was her comment about the English expecting the best out of the colonies (since it was the English who founded them ;) and expecting the worst out of Australia (since that's where the English used to send their criminals).

Once we finally arrived at our destination, a  warm meal was in order and Rode Hall and Gardens had just what we needed, a tea room that served hot soup. The tea room, formerly the estate's brick barn, was warm and cozy and offered some excellent tea and hearty soup (anybody up for carrot and coriander or mint and pea soup???). This was, by far the most popular place on the entire estate, everybody wanted to come in and warm up from the chilly weather outside.

Charity--covering Baby Justus' face so he doesn't see the
nude statue in the background

After filling our stomachs and changing Justus's full nappy (remember that's what the Brits call a diaper), we set off to explore the gardens.  They were indeed beautiful, but we realized why an old man had warned us when we first arrived that you may need an "four-wheel drive stroller." The rocky paths were difficult to navigate, but the dirt paths which had become mud paths from the previous day's rain, proved to be even more of a challenge. Despite the stroller troubles and the cold, windy weather, trekking through the gardens turned out to be one of the highlights of our day and definitely produced the best pictures.

Caleb at the end of the garden path

We were not quite as fortunate on our return trip to the bus station in Kidsgrove, no one offered us a ride, so we gladly strolled the 3.7 miles back to town, where we wondered around for a while trying to figure out where the bus stop was located. Gratefully, the townsfolk were kind enough to point us in the right direction; we caught the correct bus which brought us back to our cozy little English home.

Half the fun was indeed getting there...and back

ARRRRRGGG - A Man Post

          Close your eyes and wander with me (Caleb) back to the 13th century...wait, don't close your eyes, or else you will miss out on this phantasmagorical (a sequence of dreamlike real or imaginary images) adventure. Our latest journey takes us initially to Cardiff, the capital of Wales. After a 4 hour bus ride, we decided not to join the rest of the Keele Uni. student group we were with and see Cardiff, instead we hopped on a train for a 20 minute ride into the mysterious Welsh countryside. Our adventurous spirit paid great dividends. After we disembarked from our steal ride and a short walk through the small town of Caerphilly, our eyes widened with amazement as we soaked in the grandeur of Caerphilly Castle. Its walls so thick and rough looking. Its towers, splendid. And, its sheer size, would shrink the most valiant warrior down to an insignificant spec. Its immense size combined with its "manly" beauty stroke a cord in my inner being. My mind imagined all kind of scenarios where a grand army with an evil king had come to attack Caerphilly castle and take away the fair Lady Charity. Of course, he would first have to infiltrate the castle and defeat the renown-templar-warrior Lord Caleb of the Pendleton clan, at which he would fail miserably.

          My mind returns to present day and as we start to explore the castle we find out that Caerphilly Castle is one of the great medieval castles of western Europe. Several factors give it this pre-eminence - its immense size (1.2h), making it the largest in Britain after Windsor, its large-scale use of water for defense and the fact that it is the first truly concentric (walls with moat within walls with moat) castle in Britain. The scale of its water defenses - with no rivals anywhere in Europe - and concentric lines of defense the castle was virtually impregnable against contemporary siege methods. Of the time of its building in the late 13th century, it was a revolutionary masterpiece of military planning.

      


We ended up spending the whole day at the castle. Besides the castle's grandeur, another one of the beauties is that it is not infested with tourest since it is not very well known and it is off the beaten path. As such, they allow people to climb to all the towers and explore the rooms in the castle. Despite the castle being mostly untouched by the Civil War of 1642-1648, damage inflicted by Cromwell's Parliamentary Army (the same army I mentioned in my previous post) in 1648 is said to have led to one of the most notable features of the castle, its leaning south-east tower. The tower stands 60 feet high and leans 10 feet out of the perpendicular. It leans more than the Tower of Pisa.

       After a wonderful exploring of the castle, baby Justus, Lady Charity and Lord Caleb were very hungry and settled on the steps for an authentic and delicious Welch pastry sandwich for the adults, and for baby Justus, some sweet milk from sweet Charity.

This week's jumping picture :)   

We hope you've enjoyed, we look forward to sharing more of adventures. In fact Charity is already working on the next post, which is more on the delicate side. 

I would like to close with an ancient prayer:

Come, Holy Spirit

As the Green Flames of spring

Sweep through the woods

Promising plenty 

Come sweep through our lives
And bring fruit in us

Your goodness

Your joy 

And your loving kindness

Cheers! 

Adventure to Ancient Chester

First train ride

To say that I (Caleb) was excited to go to Chester is an understatement. After 3 weeks of study at Keele University I was ready to get out and see some of the beautiful British country side and cities. Not because Keele is a terrible place, in fact I like Keele very much. It's like a college mixed with a university in country setting, but I'll talk more about Keele in a later post.

Entering Chester Old Towne 

Chester is the first city we have visited since we arrived in England. After an early morning bus ride to the train station and a 40 minute train ride we arrived in Chester's town centre. Chester has a lot of history starting from its foundation 2000 years ago by the Romans. In fact they built a wall that still stands. The Chester wall is one of the few remaining walls that completely surrounds the city. It is considered one of the best perserved walled cities in the British Isles. The wall has been added to throughout the years and it served as a strong hold in the British Civil War (1642-48) where King Charles I saw his army (Royalist) fall to the Parliamentarians  from Phoenix Tower located on Chester wall, which still stands today. The issue between the Royalist and the Parliamentarians; the king had to much power and parliament did not and as such the people didn't either. After the war the king's power was greatly reduced and as such it was the start of English royalties decline in power and prestige.

Black and White

We  walked all around the city wall (2 miles). Justus, trekked right along with us. He spent a large portion of the time sleeping, but when he was awake, he is quite the wonderful little baby. Soaking in the sights with wandering curious eyes, a studious look on his face, and smiles interspersed throughout. He is quite the wonderful little traveller, just like we knew he would be.

We got spend the whole day in old town Chester. The main street has some unique black and white buildings that have been converted into shops and some have been around for over 500 years.

Chester Wall w/ Phoenix Tower

Of course, to follow in my long established tradition, I had to get a jumping picture. I chose Chester Castle, which was built in 1070 and with additions in 1788 & 1813.

Chester Castle

Chester Cathedral

After all the walking our appetite was ignited and our quaint-restaurant-radar was raised to full power. We ended up finding a delightful little tea room called the Three Kings, at which I enjoyed a traditional lamb meal and Charity a scrumptious sandwich. A few hours later the 40 degree weather drove us to get some hot chocolate at the most magnificent coffee shop. Chester cathedral which is over 1000 years old and the second largest in England had a large room which used to be the dinning area for the monks, is now a large coffee shop. At this point, Justus, the epitome of a good baby--sleeping, eating, and smiling, decides to test out the incredible acoustics of the cathedrals coffee shop by crying. It was funny, but we left promptly since we didn't want to disrupt the rest of the people who where enjoying the serene setting. 



Our day came to an end with a night stroll through Old Towne and then a train trip back home. Just like most old cities in England, one day is not quite enough to enjoy all they have to offer or scratch the surface of the historical wonders that lie beneath. However, we felt we were able to enjoy ourselves and learned quite bit about England and Chester's history. If you come to visit, this is a great one day option we might take you to ;-]

Settling-In to our New Home

Our ever-blooming mini daffodil
(even Charity has a green thumb in England) 

Our conservatory

The living room, dining room, and office

We have officially been in England for a month now, and we are finally settling into our new home and life. Things in the house are as we want them to be; we know our way around town well enough to get everything we could need: groceries at Morrison's, produce at the market, bread at the bakery, baby stuff at Baby Boo, books at the library, immunizations at the Midway Medical clinic, socializing at the some local Mum's groups, buses to Caleb's school, just to name a few. Besides disliking those nasty immunization shots, Justus is thoroughly enjoying his new life. He is all smiles, at times a giggling machine, and an absolute joy to his Mamma and Daddy.

I suppose being settled is a comfortable place to be because all of the sometimes frightening and exciting unknowns are not so unknown. Which begs the questions, is it good to be comfortable? Or should we always be moving forward to the next unknown?

It's the kitchen!

The Whirlwind to Here

St. Giles Cathedral in Newcastle-under-Lyme

Conservatories. I do not believe we have the lovely little things called conservatoreis in the U.S. This is  unfortunate because they are quite nice (in the American sense, if you said "quite nice" in the British sense you would be saying almost the opposite, as if they were not nice at all!). They are especially lovely on cool sunny days like today. As I sit here in our conservatory, what we might call  a glassed-in-porch or sun-room back home, soaking up the rare rays of sun, gazing out on a medieval cathedral, and musing over the whirlwind of events that have brought me and my two boys, Caleb and Baby Justus, to Newcastle-under-Lyme, United Kingdom; I feel inclined to jot them down, not only for posterity's sake and the sake of my loved one's back home, but also for my own sometimes failing memory.

The Cronenbergers visiting baby Justus on his birthday

 I shall start with the most joyous and life changing event of them all, the birth of Baby Justus Finley Pendleton. This special occasion took place on December the first, the very day he was due to arrive. So many wonderful details surround the birth of our first child: a marathon at three months, miles of walking, birthing classes, maternity leave, coaches and assistants, an early arrival at the hospital, an irritating heart monitor, some painful pushes, an umbilical cord around his neck, a room full of supporters (Caleb, Casy, Emily, and Mom, not to mention the medical staff), and a beautiful boy, to name a few. But Justus' story is a special one, needing its own entry/post. So for now, know that Justus was born naturally (vaginal delivery with no drugs); he was and still is extremely healthy and beautiful; and he has brought with him a sweet and happy spirit and indescribable joy to our already happy lives. Note: Justus actually has a blog of his own, so if you would like to know more about his story, special milestones, and the like, leave me a comment or shoot me an email and I will invite you.

The birth of Justus was not the beginning of the whirlwind nor the end, but it was a major event and a good place to start this story. Prior to his birth, we were busy taking classes at the University of Texas at San Antonio, training for and running a full marathon (Caleb), working at BIF Technologies, attending prenatal yoga several times per week (Charity), trying to match-make for a few friends,  attending child birth classes weekly and sometimes twice a week, writing essays in hopes of winning study abroad scholarships (which were successful, thank God), and closing out our lives in San Antonio as best as we could. As one can imagine, once Justus came into our lives things became even crazier than before. The only difference? We had an extra little person who required two full-time adult's care, received a steady stream of visitors, necessitated constant laundry duty, and brought with him bundles of joy, which, to our delight, he freely shared.

Within three weeks of Justus' birthday, we had applied for his passport, visited the pediatrician twice (clean bill of health at both appointments), hosted a slew of visitors (Nellie and Shelly get the award for traveling the farthest), shopped in preparation for England, packed our entire two-bedroom apartment, moved the the contents to storage. The last two items were accomplished only with the help of many dear friends, most notably Ryan, Casy, Juline, Nellie, and Shelly.

Christmas at the Sanford's

For the next several weeks we were nomads, living out of our suitcases. The hospitable Sanfords hosted us at my old and dear home. Christmas with the Sanfords was so much fun, especially the caroling hayride in Reagan Wells canyon. The only sad part was that I had to walk around like a hunch-back. To my surprise, the staff at the hospital knew what they were talking about when they said not to lift anything heavier than the baby. I tried and ended up with a back out of whack and pain comparable to early labor pains. Merry Christmas.

Pendleton's at the Guadalupe River

The whirlwind continued...New Years with the Pendleton clan out at the Haven River Inn in Comfort, TX. We had a wonderful time in praise and worship the first day and a lot of fun the other two days.  Next, a four day Christian Listening training, and frantic packing before take-off. The Christian Listening course was wonderful, but as the end drew closer and our departure to to England nearer, we began to worry that we could not get read in time. Gratefully, He works all things together for good--our flight on Monday January 10ths was canceled due to icy conditions and rescheduled for the 13th. God sure knew what He was doing, we needed every hour of t hose three extra days.

When the 13th arrived, we braced ourselves for the unknowns--security, boarding, and oversees flight with a 6 week old baby in tow. We were quite a site, entering and leaving the airport: I carried a mid-sized pack and pushed Justus in the stroller (somehow we snuck the car carrier onto the stroller as well); Caleb had the rest: 2 mid-sized packs, 2 back-packers packs, 2 duffels, and 1 big rolling suitcase. We looked like a traveling carnival ;) Between the two of us, a great baby, and gracious airport personnel, we arrived in England in one piece. Justus was a champ from the time we stepped into the airport to the time we stepped into our rental car at Manchester, UK. What he did during the traveling: ate, slept, and smiled (and of course one other thing that we won't mention here). His ears never seemed to bother him either on take-off or landing.  Halelujah!

View from our room at Old School B&B

After renting, or letting as they say over here, we headed for Keele and the Old School Bed and Breakfast. OUr hosts, Val and BIll, were the epitome of hospitality, going out of their way to help us find a place to live, feeding us an extra meal (fyi grocery stores close early on Sundays in England), and befriending us.

Six days after arriving in England, Caleb miraculously found us a lovely, furnished place to live. Our landlord, David, is a wonderful and kind older man who has seen to it that we are comfortable and informed about the area. Our place is about a seven minute walk to the grocery store and town centre, which is a lifesaver since we don't have a car here.

So there it is, the short (or long depending on the reader) story of the whirlwind of events and activities that have dropped us off in England.