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  • July12th

    Caleb the Worship Leader

    Author: Mary Beth | Posted in: Home Life & Family

    Caleb is crazy about all kinds of music, he loves to play his guitar and drum. If there were a Guitar Hero or Rock Band game for toddlers, he would be a pro. But his favorite music is worship music. He runs around the house singing worship songs all day, and he often insists that I sit on the floor and play his toy drum while singing the song of his choice. I have no talent as a drummer, so it can be somewhat challenging to play and sing. He also likes for me to play his Fisher-Price toy guitar which plays a few songs while singing his current favorite worship song, this, as you can imagine, can also be difficult. However, Mommy on the toy drums is no match for Uncle Allan playing the real guitar and singing. Caleb could sit and listen to him for hours; every time that Allan finishes a song Caleb calls out another one for him. He thinks Allan is his own personal worship DJ.

    We haven’t really tried to teach him any worship songs; he just picks them up at church or from the music we listen to in the car. We are always surprised by what he knows. Every week or so he gets a new favorite. For a while his favorite was “Refiner’s Fire,” then it was “How Great is Our God,” then “Praise Adonai;” yesterday he woke up singing “Come Into My Heart, Lord Jesus,” and today his new favorite is “Holy is the Lord, God Almighty.”

    I’ve been trying for months to videotape him singing, but he always refuses to cooperate. Finally, today Casey got some great footage. As you can see, he is using the wooden spoon as his guitar. He’s going to be a wonderful worship leader someday; I just hope he learns to stand still a little first. And yes, we’ll be getting him into music lessons as soon as he’s ready.

    Watch the Video

  • May27th

    Congratulations, Billy!

    Author: Mary Beth | Posted in: Home Life & Family

    My baby brother graduated from high school last week. If you’ll indulge me once again, I promise to keep the Billy-bragging to a minimum in the future. But I can’t write this post without mentioning that Billy was an honor graduate and a National Merit Scholar. I’m proud because he is my little brother, but he was also my student. Of course, I think he’s the smartest kid ever, but he’s also one of the most God-seeking men I have ever known. He’s heading to Wheaton College this fall, and we are all going to miss him terribly, but I can’t wait to see all that he will achieve.

    Looking at all of these graduation pictures reminded me of another graduation picture from the not so distant past. I guess he’s grown a little since then.

  • May21st

    Meet George

    Author: Mary Beth | Posted in: Home Life & Family

    For Caleb’s birthday, Uncle Allan and Aunt Lindsay gave him a Curious George doll. Caleb has been infatuated with Curious George ever since a friend gave him one of the books last fall, and he loves to watch the Curious George movie. When he opened the present, it was love at first sight. He and George have been inseparable since that moment.

    George has almost become another member of our family. He goes with us everywhere. George has been to Target, Community Bible Study, Walmart, Grandma’s house, house church, and bible class (these are the places that we frequent). George has been introduced to all of our friends, who were of course delighted to meet him. I have almost felt like George has become another child to me; I wash his shirt occasionally, clean him up when he’s dirty, and I even had to stitch up a hole in his tummy.

    I realized how attached I have become to George yesterday when we nearly lost him at Kohl’s. We had been shopping all morning with George and Caleb in the stroller; when we left the store and started to get in the car, I realized that George was missing. We rushed back in the store and searched for him everywhere; I even asked a couple uninterested clerks if they had seen him. Just as we were about to lose all hope, I found him lying on the floor in the home goods department. What a relief!

    My only comfort during all of the searching was that we have always tried to do our best by George. We have tried very hard to teach him about Jesus (through his various trips to bible study and church). Yesterday morning, before we left for the store, I walked into the kitchen in time to see Caleb put George in his booster seat, look him straight in the eye, and say emphatically, “Obey God!”, which is something I’m sure George needed to hear. I only wish George would give Caleb the same reminder from time to time.

  • April27th

    Birthday Boy!

    Author: Mary Beth | Posted in: Home Life & Family, Parenthood

    Today my sweet little Caleb is two years old! I cannot believe that two years ago today I was holding him for the first time. He was born at 3:43 in the morning after over twenty hours of labor followed by a c-section, but he was worth every second of it. He was such a beautiful baby; every once in a while he does something that reminds me of the baby he used to be. I miss that baby, but this little boy is pretty fun too.

    Now he is the most active toddler that you can imagine; he runs all over the house playing with toys or dancing to music. Occasionally he can no longer contain the huge burst of energy bubbling inside of him, so he just erupts in loud yells or laughter. He did this yesterday at Chick-fil-a; everyone thought it was funny that he was so excited to eat lunch.

    He loves to show off how good he is at jumping. Anytime he feels that he might have an audience he gives us a little jumping show. He also likes to throw his body on the floor with complete abandon; it’s almost a game to see in what strange position he will end up. This game scares his momma a little bit.

    It has been so much fun to watch him learn to talk. He calls himself “Cay-bee,” and can say anything now. His favorite sayings are “Cool, dude,” “Go, Billy, Go,” and “Oh, man!”

    He also loves music. He sings all kinds of songs, some made up and some real. He amazes me at the songs he picks up. The other day he started singing part of the song, “Purify My Heart.” It’s been weeks since we had sung that song, but he was singing, “to be holy.” Now he can sing, “I choo to be holy, se apa for you my mater;” yes, it’s precious. The words aren’t always right, but the tune is exact. A few weeks ago, he started singing the “Happy Birthday Song;” we couldn’t figure out where he had heard it because we hadn’t been singing it. Then I remembered that one night when he was in his bedroom playing, one of us had sung it in the kitchen as a joke. A few days later the song was still floating around in his head. He also likes to sing the Jack Johnson song, “People Watching.” He asks for “moosih” all the time. If a song ends in the car, he starts asking for more before the next song starts.

    His other favorite thing right now is Curious George. One of our friends got him a Curious George book for his birthday last year. It is his favorite book to read. The Easter Bunny brought him the Curious George movie this year, and he asks to watch “George” every day. It is so funny to watch him watch the movie, because every time he acts like it is his first time to see the movie. He always says “Oh, no!” when George gets into trouble. Maybe he feels like he has a lot in common with George.

    We are so blessed to have this little boy in our lives. I can’t imagine how we lived without him. He is the most precious blessing God has given us. Thank you, God, for Caleb!

  • April23rd

    England Trip: Days 5 & 6

    Author: Casey | Posted in: Travel

    Casey and the Yeoman WarderWe started day five of our trip by sleeping in, which was very nice, and then we caught a noon train to Windsor. I have always wanted to see an old castle, so I heard that Windsor was the place to go.

    The Windsor Castle was amazing and everything I had imagined a castle to look like. Supposedly, it is the Queen’s favorite place to stay. Windsor was great, except for the weather. It was cold and rainy almost the whole time we were there. Luckily, we had come prepared for British weather, so we had our raincoats and umbrellas handy. After exploring the castle, we stopped at a nearby restaurant and had tea and scones. Then we hopped back on the train and returned to London.

    For our last day in London, we decided to visit a few places close by: the Tower of London and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The Tower of London has some very interesting history and it also houses the crown jewels. The Tower has some interesting guards called Yeomen Warders, so I stopped and had my picture taken with one of them.

    After visiting the Tower, we decided to head across the River Thames and explore the Globe Theatre. The original theatre was destroyed in a fire, so the current theatre is a reproduction, but it is an accurate reflection of what the theatre would have been like in Shakespeare’s day. We would have loved to see a play performed there, but unfortunately their play season doesn’t start until the end of April.

    After our visit to the Globe, we headed over to Covent Garden for some shopping. They had a really neat open air market with all kinds of things for sale. It was a great way to end a wonderful trip.

    I will always remember how much fun we had on this trip and I hope to bring our entire family here someday.

    View our photos from Windsor

  • April21st

    Day 4: Oxford

    Author: Mary Beth | Posted in: Literature, Spiritual, Travel

    On Saturday, we took a one hour train ride from London to Oxford. The trains in England were so convenient and turned out to be a wonderful way to travel around the country. I wish we had such a good rail system back here in the U.S.

    Our day in Oxford was our favorite day of the whole trip. We met Mr. Ron Brind, of C.S. Lewis Tours, and he drove us through town showing us the places where C.S. Lewis taught and lived. I have been a fan of C.S. Lewis almost all my life. I remember when my parents gave me a copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for my seventh birthday. Later, when I was sixteen, my dad gave me a copy of Mere Christianity. From that point on, I have had the greatest respect for Lewis as a Christian thinker and writer. Sometime when I was a teenager, my dad read The Great Divorce aloud to our whole family; it provided us with a lot of opportunity to think and talk about our faith. When I was a junior in college, I took an English course on C.S. Lewis. I still think it was the best course I took throughout my college career. We read most of Lewis’s works during that semester, and I also reread all of the Chronicles of Narnia as I was taking the course, so for about four months my life was saturated with C.S. Lewis. It was a great semester.

    Mr. Brind is a native of Oxford and was childhood pals with Douglas Gresham, after Douglas’s mother, Joy Gresham, married C.S. Lewis. Mr. Brind is devoting his life to raising “Lewis Awareness” in Britain. He confessed to us that Lewis is much more popular in America than he is in Great Britain. Mr. Brind hopes to correct that; he is also working to see that Lewis gets the acknowledgment in Oxford that he deserves.

    We started our tour of Oxford at the Randolph Hotel. Mr. Brind told us that Lewis often met with friends at the bar in this hotel, and the “Tea Scene” from the Anthony Hopkins version of Shadowlands was filmed inside the hotel. We then drove by University College where Lewis attended as a student, Keble College where he was stationed for Army training, and Magdalen College where he taught for nearly thirty years. We also saw a house in Oxford where J.R.R. Tolkien lived and the hospital where Lewis and Joy Gresham’s marriage was blessed.

    One of our favorite parts of the tour was visiting Holy Trinity Church where Lewis and his brother Warnie, and later his wife Joy, attended. Lewis and Warnie are buried in the church graveyard. We were able to sit in Lewis’s pew, where there is a plaque acknowledging him. It was truly a wonderful experience to visit the church where Lewis worshipped for so many years.

    We then were taken to “The Kilns,” where Lewis lived. Most Americans refer to Lewis’s house as “The Kilns,” but our knowledgeable tour guide, Mr. Brind, informed us that it is actually the plot of land that Lewis’s house and the surrounding houses stand on that is called “The Kilns.” We got to wander around the woods and lake where Lewis walked and swam, and then we were able to tour the house. Currently the house is owned by the C.S. Lewis Foundation out of California; they allow students to live in the house during the school year and use it during the summer for conferences. While we were very thankful to be able to tour the house and to see the rooms that Lewis used, we were a little disappointed that the house is not more like a museum and less like a dormitory.

    We ended our tour at The Eagle and Child Pub, where Lewis met weekly with the other Inklings, a discussion group which included J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. They met in what was then the back room of the pub, nicknamed “The Rabbit Room.” The pub has been extended since that time, but “The Rabbit Room” is still intact and there are pictures and signs commemorating its use by the Inklings. We ate a traditional English lunch in the pub, “bangers and mash,” and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The pub was extremely crowded and there were rowdy college students surrounding us, but it felt completely appropriate that we were ending our C.S. Lewis tour in one of his favorite spots, where he was no doubt often jostled by riotous college students.

    After lunch we explored Oxford a bit, before catching our train back to London. We spent the evening at St. Martin’s Theatre, where we saw the famous play by Agatha Christie, The Mousetrap. And yes, we know who did it, but we are sworn to secrecy.

    See Pictures from Oxford

  • April17th

    Day 3: Bath

    Author: Mary Beth | Posted in: Literature, Travel

    Pultney BridgeOn the third day of our trip, we took a train from Paddington Station in London to the town of Bath. I was really excited about seeing Bath; I had read so much about it in Jane Austen’s novels, so I couldn’t wait to see it for myself.

    We started at the Roman Baths. It was really interesting to see the structures that the Romans built in the 1st century AD. We also saw the Pump Room, where many in Jane Austen’s day would go to “take the waters.” We decided not to partake of the waters. It didn’t smell too good, and I could only guess that it would taste even worse.

    After wandering around a bit to find lunch, we listened to an audio tour of Bath on our iPods that I downloaded from the Bath Tourism website. It was great fun to listen to the commentary while we followed a map through the streets of Bath, and, because of the tour, we were able to find many sites we would never have found on our own. Our favorite spots in Bath include Pultney Bridge, the Royal Crescent, and the Circus. The town has changed very little since the 18th century, and the surrounding countryside is so beautiful that it ended up being a wonderful way to spend the day.

    See Pictures of Bath

  • April16th

    Our England Trip: Days 1 & 2

    Author: Casey | Posted in: Travel

    The Pickers in LondonMary Beth and I just returned from a week-long trip to England! Having never been outside the U.S., I was extremely excited to see everything that England had to offer. After seeing so many amazing things we couldn’t possibly combine it all into one post, so we’re going to split up our trip into several different posts. I hope this helps you feel like you experienced England with us!

    Our flight from D.C. to London was about as bad as it gets. About midway through our flight, we had to turn around and fly back to Halifax, Canada in order to drop off a woman who had a medical emergency. So, our flight was about three hours longer than expected. Despite the long flight, we were very excited when we began to see the coast of Ireland through our window. Everything was green and beautiful!

    After landing at Heathrow we took a train into Paddington station, and from there rode the “tube” to our hotel. After checking in, we decided to go out and see the sights! Our first stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral. The exterior was amazing, but it was closed for a special service, so we didn’t get to see the inside. So, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and decided to head for Royal London.

    We took the tube to the Westminster station, and after coming up the stairs we could immediately see Parliament and Westminster Abbey. It was awesome! Big Ben was towering over head and I could see it sparkling in the sun. I was blown away. The weather was very mild and sunny, so our trip was off to a great start!

    After taking some pictures on Westminster bridge, we walked to Trafalgar square and then to Buckingham Palace. We saw some very beautiful parks along the way, St. James’s park being one of them. The Palace was very beautiful with all of the tulips and other flowers blooming all around. We got to see some of the famous Buckingham guards and took many pictures of them.

    After seeing the Palace, we went over to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. It was extremely interesting to see where all of the Allied plans were crafted during World War II, but towards the end we were extremely exhausted, so we headed back to our hotel for some much needed rest.

    Day 2

    We started our day with a wonderful English breakfast, courtesy of the Ridgemount Hotel. After breakfast, we headed to Westminster Abbey. I was once again amazed how beautiful this old church was. This time, we went inside and took a tour of the abbey. We spent almost two hours walking through the church and seeing all of the famous people who are buried within the walls of the abbey. We saw the tombs of Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, and many others. I was amazed to hear that a church had been on that site since around AD 200! It was almost overwhelming to think of all of the people who had worshiped and prayed in that place. This was one of my favorite places we visited on our entire trip.

    After a lunch of fish and chips, we went to the British Library. We saw manuscripts by Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and many others. It was quite interesting. After our visit at the library, we headed over to the British Museum. We saw some of the highlights of the museum, including the Rosetta stone, and then headed back to our hotel for a little rest.

    That night, we went to Covent Garden and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant at the Piazza. After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

    » View the photos from our England Trip

  • March25th

    Fresh Design

    Author: Casey | Posted in: Hobbies, Random Thoughts

    I’ve decided to freshen up our site for spring. The weather is starting to get warmer and I wanted the site to reflect that. I’ve always thought that my last name is quite unique, so I wanted to make a play off of that by changing the site name to “Pick*nic.”

    The new theme’s layout is based on Brian Gardner’s Vertigo theme, but as you can see, I’ve changed it up quite a bit. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments. If everyone hates it, I’ll scrap it and start over!

  • March17th

    Fifth in State!

    Author: Casey | Posted in: Home Life & Family

    Billy the WrestlerThis weekend we all went to see Billy wrestle in the State Tournament. This was only his first year in wrestling, but he did amazingly well! I was blown away by all of the huge guys he was wrestling and beating!

    Since his school can only have one wrestler per weight class, Billy had to move up to the 171 LB. weight class, but he weighs about ten pounds less than that. So, he was essentially wrestling guys that were heavier and stronger than him, but he still beat them. AMAZING!

    Billy’s last match was excellent. He pinned his opponent in the second round with only one second left on the clock. We were all yelling and going crazy, and Caleb even got in on the action. It was a lot of fun.

    Billy, we are all very proud of you. Way to go!

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