Can't Stop A Papa

The Dread Parent Roberts

2010-08-23T12:06:00.001-04:00

When parenting, sometimes it seems that there are two people inside of us, fighting for control. Using the brilliant archetypes of The Princess Bride, we’ll call one “the Parent Buttercup,” and one “the Dread Parent Roberts.” ‘Buttercup’ is our unconditional patient love, and the ‘Dread Parent Roberts’ is our authoritarian need for control, which lashes out when our boundaries are crossed. ‘Buttercup’ is that sensitive part of us that gets pushed around and bullied by our children’s irrational self-centered behavior. The ‘Dread Parent Roberts’ is the part of us that gets calloused and tough as a matter of sheer survival. Sometimes ‘Buttercup’ gets captured by bandits or even the ‘Dread Parent Roberts’ himself. Sometimes the ‘Dread Parent Roberts’ gets so angry that he forgets that he is face to face with the ones he loves the most. I image a conversation between them (inside of me) going something like this:

Parent Buttercup: “I know who you are. Your cruelty reveals everything. You’re the Dread Parent Roberts, admit it!”

The Dread Parent Roberts: “With pride! What can I do for you?”

Parent Buttercup: “You can die slowly, cut into a thousand pieces.”

The Dread Parent Roberts: “Hardly complimentary, Your Highness. Why loose your venom on me?”

Parent Buttercup: “You killed my love.”

The Dread Parent Roberts: “It’s possible, I kill a lot of things. What was this ‘love’ of yours?”

Parent Buttercup: “My ability to love my children no matter how impossible they are. But when the kids are behaving badly your ship attacked, and the Dread Parent Roberts never takes prisoners!”

The Dread Parent Roberts: “I can’t afford to make exceptions. I mean once word leaks out that a parent has gone soft, children begin to disobey, and it’s nothing but work, work, work all the time!”

Parent Buttercup: “You mock my pain!”

The Dread Parent Roberts: “Parenting is pain, Highness! Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

Often times I feel like the Dread Parent Roberts has kidnapped my love. Often times I believe what he tells me; that parenting is pain. It may be that the Buttercup in me needs to push the Dread Parent Roberts down the hill. And strangely enough, the Dread Parent Roberts is really just a twisted form of the Parent Wesley, who is supposed to be married to the Parent Buttercup. We do need something that will protect our love for our children; something that looks at the Fire Swamp of parenting and says, “The trees are actually quite lovely.” As parents, there is a strange and adventuresome relationship between love and authority is us. Love without authority is like a princess captured by bandits. Not a very effective parent. Authority without love is like a cruel pirate. Not a very compassionate parent. We need both in the proper balance; the proper marriage. But getting to that marriage is often harder than we first think. Sometimes we have to go through periods of internal fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases and escapes. Sometimes it seems inconceivable that we could find peace and joy in parenting. But in the end there is the hope of getting to the true love and miracle of that wonderful relationship between a parent and child. And ultimately we need to remember to always look to our Divine Parent as a model, and ask for His help. And when we do, He’ll say, “As you wish.”

- Solomon Keal

Keal Family update (at last)

2009-10-10T14:21:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from the Looney Bin! At least that's a little bit like how it feels! These past 6 weeks have been the busiest of our lives so far!

Solomon began classes in Theological School on September 1st. He is in 11 different subjects this term, the most he will ever have in one term for his whole 3 years in Theological school (thankfully!) Most of his classes meet for three hours each week (some in one hour chunks some in three hour chunks and some in one and a half hour chunks) a couple of classes ar shorter but I think only three. most of these classes also have substantial homework expectations, and we quickly discovered that it is more work than Solomon can complete and still have time to spend with the family. This was very hard on Tirah in particular, but the kids also noticed his absence and were sad about it too. Fortunately some expert advice from a fellow theolog in his second year (why aim for an A? if you pass you get ordained! try to get a nice B average!) has helped him to figure out some good boundaries to get some family time and still achieve his goals in school. Despite the business of the schedule, Solomon is enjoying the work immensely! Each of his classes are subjects that he enjoys and finds useful.

As for Tirah: I am settling into being a stay at home Mom fairly well. it's very different than working full time, but I am finding the challenge satisfying as long as I maintain a good attitude! That of course is the hard part. I find that the repetitive jobs that need to be done (dishes, laundry, sweeping, bathrooms etc.) can become monotonous. But if I remember that I do this because I love my family and I want them to have a nice home and good food, and clean clothes, that makes me recall that this is actually important work and that makes it more gratifying. I am loving watching Solomon do work (school) that he is so suited to! he is insanely busy, but he so obviously enjoys what he is doing that it makes it much easier to be happy where we are. Thea and Cirdan are both in school now and that means that from 8 am until 12:15 when Cirdan finishes for the day, It's just Me and the two youngest at home. I am still learning to make the most of this time, both by giving more focused time to the little ones, and getting things done (like writing this!).

I'm sorry to admit that Solomon's schedule has a big impact on my mental state. I don't do very well when we don't get much face time, and I tend to forget at those times that I want to be a good stay at home Mom and a loving Wife. I try to hang in there, but there seems to be an inherent reality that I cannot change, that when we don't get tme to connect I get cranky. Ultimately it's a very good thing because it keeps our marriage in pretty good shape. I get so unhappy so fast when we don't get time together that we simply have to make time. But I wish I could be less needy sometimes so Solomon could get more done in school and not feel pulled in so many directions! This term I have decided is a test to see how much Solomon can handle, and that means his family is being tested too, and I will not let this craziness beat me!!!

Thea (6) is in first grade this year and loves school. In the past two weeks she has learned to read!!! We are so proud of her! Obviously she is at early reader level, and there are lots of words that she cannot get through yet. but just this eveining she read the first page of a little bear story almost all by herself! She enjoys going to school, but socially she is still integrating. she is coming in on a class that has already been together for Kindergarten and so they already know each other quite well. She is also a shy little girl sometimes, especially with children her own age. It's funny but she is much more outgoing when she is interacting with adults than children her own age. Perhaps it is because she has only ever received approval from adults she meets for the first time, whereas children her own age are not necessarily impressed by her maturity and cuteness, and therefore don't always become buddies right away. I don't know for sure, but whatever it is she is having trouble really becoming close friends with anyone her own class yet. I hope to have one or two girls over for a tea party to help along their friendships.

Cirdan (5) is in Kindergarten, and is almost exactly the opposite of Thea. He is socially right in the thick of it, begging for playtimes with classmates regularly, and his favorite times in the classroom are playtime with his peers. Academically he is very challenged right now to even keep up a little with the rest of the class. I knew that he was not as far along as Thea was when she began school, but it is a good wake up call to see just where he is in comparison to his classmates. His Teachers and classmates love him though and I get feedback from everyone about how cheerful and enthusiastic he is in just about everything he does. So we'll keep on keeping on with him, and see how it goes! His teacher is great about watching out for him and giving him a little extra time and attention. she says that he fits in so well socially that she really wants to hang in there with him on the academics and trust that one of these days it will click for him. Oh and a fun add on, there was a presentation given at a recent Society meeting (I was not there) about BACS, and the Poster child for the resentation was Cirdan!

Jaden (2) is the Sunshine of my day these days. he is a cheerful smiling happy boy who is getting more grown up by the moment. he has started really conversing this month, and using whole sentences regularly. Just tonight during prayer time he actually said a prayer of his own. it went something like this "Tank you Lawd for suppo, no, lunch, no, doodles (noodles). hep us aaaallll seep well. AAAAAAAAmen."

Priceless! We had spaghetti for supper and he had three helpings! I have been trying to have the kids watch less TV and make what they do watch, the more interactive shows when possible. Jaden had gotten into a habit of watching the Pixar movie Cars almost daily, and he was able to recite it almost word for word, cute, but frightening. Anyway he now watches mostly Blues Clues which he pronounces "cues cues" and he does indeed answer the questions and interacts just the way he is supposed to. I am still trying to keep it to a minimum, but some of these days when I have not gotten much sleep thanks to late nights, and Zoe, I do resort to putting that on! I just began teaching a music class for moms and kids in age from babies through preschool, and he enjoyed the first class, hopefully he will get more and more comfortable with all the people and have more fun each time. Jaden also loves being an older brother! He daily asks to hold Zoe ( which I let him do as much as I can with supervision while sitting on the couch), and showers her with hugs and kisses. He is very aware of her needs and comes to inform me that "Zoe needs you" when she cries. I have to be careful of putting her where he can reach her as he wants to be as close to her as he can and does not wuite understand that he is to heavy to sit on her! It is a joy to watch him with her.

Zoe (5 months on Oct. 21) is growing by leaps and bounds! she is almost all smiles, and she is working hard on sitting up skills. I think she;ll get there soon. For now her favorite things are riding in the baby backpack, and sitting (standing really) in her Exersaucer (like a walker but it's a solid disk on the bottom, so no moving around the room). she had a bout of Colic the other night. I'm not sure what I ate that caused it, but it was vary sad how much pain she was in. It made me recall Thea's infancy and that with Thea I didn't know what I was doing wrong with my diet and she had screaming sessions every day in the evenings. so i was really counting my blessings with Zoe that it is only rarely that she is so upset. Solomon and I are really noticing the love and innocence that radiate from her in almost tangible waves. We have both experienced just needing to hold her and absorb that incredible aura she brings! The Lord really knows how to make babies irresistible! She has mastered rolling over and when she is on her tummy does an incredible "airplane" with all her little limbs and her head up in the air and just her tummy on the ground.

So that's the news from our house to yours. Please keep us in your prayers, as things are going to get harder before they get easier. But we are not doubting for a moment that this is the right path, we are just praying for the strength to stay on it!

Love,

Solomon "Grade A" Keal 32

Tirah "Super Mommy in training" Keal 29

Thea "Super Reader" Keal 6

Cirdan "Life of the Party" Keal 5

Jaden "Big Brother" Keal 2

Zoe "Angel Girl" Keal 4 months

Keal Family Newsletter, August 2009

2009-08-28T15:15:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

We have been living in our new house in Bryn Athyn for almost a month
now.
It's been a busy month of unpacking, visiting with friends and
family, and lot's of shopping. Thea and Cirdan will be going to
Kindergarten and 1st Grade in the Bryn Athyn Elementary School, which
now has a dress code. So we've very quickly learned the location of
many thrift stores in the area, and have been putting together a
school wardrobe for Thea and Cirdan.
As we near the end of the month and the beginning of school for Thea,
Cirdan and I, we are feeling mostly ready.

Zoe is now 3 months old. She smiles a lot, and has even blessed us
with occasional laughter and cute "talking." Just the other day we
tried putting her in the exer-saucer, which allows her to be in a
standing position. She loves watching her older siblings. Thea and
Cirdan and Jaden have taken to running or riding their trikes around
the front porch of our house. Often times letting Zoe watch this
racing event will calm her down when she's crying. And just like
Jaden at this age, Zoe also loves to be outside. She has moved
out of the bed-buddy, and into her own crib, set up in our bedroom.
Unfortunately she hasn't been sleeping very regularly lately, so
Tirah has not been getting good nights of sleep, but hopefully that
will improve. Zoe has been getting a little bit more used to me.
I've been able to hold her for longer periods of time while she
remains happy. Tirah has even had the chance to go out and about at
times, while I've had the four kids at home. But she definitely
still prefers Tirah to anyone else, especially when she's upset.

Jaden is now two. He has entered the realm of "two-hood" with a bit
of a whine. He has started throwing more tantrums lately. But he
still remains one of the cutest kids on the planet. We had a nice
little birthday party for him, here in our new house. It ended up
being a small party, but I think that was a good thing in the end.
Since we've moved, we've gotten back into singing lullabies to the
kids at night, and Jaden very often will sing along with, much like
Thea did at this age. It's wonderfully cute.

We've taken the opportunity of the change in life associated with
moving to make some other changes in our habits. We've gotten back
into a very nice bedtime routine with the kids. After cleanup and
teeth-brushing are done, we read a story from the Word. And then we
read a story of the kids' choosing from our bookshelf of kids books.
Then we sing some lullabies and say the prayer, and then end with a
few more lullabies. This has really helped the kids settle down in
the evening, and I think helped them feel more comfortable in a new
house.

Cirdan is 5. He is looking forward to Kindergarten. He hasn't
really expressed any nervousness about it, which I'm assuming means
he doesn't feel nervous, which is great.
Here at our new house, his favorite thing is that we now have a Lego
room. Our house is a 5 bedroom house with 3 bedrooms on the 2nd
floor, and 2 on the 3rd floor. The 2nd floor has our bedroom, the
kid's shared bedroom, and my music studio. The third floor has
Tirah's craft room, and our guest room, which also doubles as the
Lego room. While I was growing up, my favorite toy was Lego, and
over the course of my childhood I collected quite a bit of it. Since
most of my Lego contained small parts, and because we lived in small
houses up until now, we hadn't brought my Lego out of storage until
now. But now that we have the space, and Thea and Cirdan are old
enough, all my Lego is out of storage and able to be played with.
Cirdan loves this, and often spends most of the day in the Lego
room. He especially likes the Lego knights and Star Wars Lego.

Here's a funny story. I can't remember now if this was Cirdan or
Thea who said this, but one of them did.
I was reading the story of Jonah to the kids. After the story we
started talking about it. One of the kids, Thea or Cirdan, said:
"It's a good thing that Jonah started listening to the Lord, and
doing what he was told, because if he didn't, then the Lord might
have given him an even worse Time-Out than the whale!" :-)

Thea is 6, and is entering 1st grade. I think she's a little bit
nervous about it, but much less so now that she's had a chance to
meet her teacher and see her classroom, and even meet some of her
classmates.
Thea has been able to set up a little "office" area at the top of the
stairs on the third floor. She also has a drawing area set up in the
very sunny dining room. And as always, she spends a lot of time
drawing and doing projects. She recently came up with a very
clever project: She took an old birthday party hat and cut the very
top off. She then drew a picture of stars and a moon, and taped the
page over the wide end of the cone-shaped hat. She then presented it
to us as a telescope. You hold it up to the light, look through the
small end of the cone, and you see the moon and stars. Very fun!

Tirah has been having fun getting to see so much of her family and
friends lately. Our life has definitely been more busy socially
since we moved, which right up Tirah's alley.
We're coming up on the 1 year anniversary of Tirah's mom's death, and
it's definitely been quite the emotional process for Tirah over the
last year. But combined with everything else going on in our life, I
think it's ultimately been a good emotional process, something that
has helped Tirah become aware of, and focus in on many aspects of her
spiritual state.
Tirah is about to face the challenge of being the stay-at-home mom
for 4 kids, after having worked for many years outside of the home.
We've had a wonderful summer of being at home as a family, and now
we're all about to be tested in this new life we've chosen.

Solomon is 32. He is looking forward to Theological School. He
hasn't really expressed any nervousness about it, which I'm assuming
means he doesn't feel nervous, which is great. ;-) This past month
has been such a whirlwind of logistics and general household tasks,
that I almost haven't had time to think about my new life as a
Theological School Student. Just a few days ago, Tirah's sister
Abby came by and babysat our four kids for us, while Tirah and I
escaped for some wonderful time away. We went to the Willow Grove
Mall, and sat in the Food Court eating french fries, and just talking
for an hour. I know I certainly felt like I was waking up out of the
stupor I was in, induced by the sheer busyness of our life. Tirah
had the wonderful idea of using one of the Lori and John Marriage
Exercises that we've learned to really dig deep into how we were
feeling. We were each able to express to each other how excited and
nervous we were about our new life. It was very enlightening and
conjoining for us.

This past month we were very happy to attend two marriage support
groups for the Theologs and their wives, led by Lori and John Odhner
of Caring for Marriage. Not only was it great for our marriage, but
a wonderful way for us to meet some of the other Theologs and their
wives.

This past weekend Carl Smith came down to visit, and we went to the
Bryn Athyn Swim Club pool. That was lots of fun. They have a kid's
pool that is only 1 and 1/2 feet deep. It was perfect for Thea and
Cirdan. And eventually they even got brave enough to try the adult
pool with us.

It's been interesting getting used to the idea that everything down
here is a lot closer together. In Kempton, anything that you had to
get to was between 15 minutes to 30 minutes away. Down here
everything is between 5 and 15 minutes away. In Kempton when you're
driving through a town, you know you've left the town because it
turns into farmland. Down here, you drive from town to town without
ever leaving the "town." It has been nice to have shopping trips
not take up so much of the day.

As I mentioned before, we have shopped at a lot of thrift stores in
the area. Our primary mission was to find school clothes for Thea
and Cirdan. But a by product of those shopping trips has been that
we've been able to buy really cheap movies! In Kempton, we used to
have Carl Smith's movie collection (hundreds of DVDs) in our home,
for people to come and borrow. And because that was the situation,
Tirah and I never bought movies, because we could always watch Carl's
movies, Since we moved, we're back down to our original small
collection of mostly VHS movies. But then all of these thrift
stores have huge collections of VHS movies (because everybody wants
DVDs these days) for around 50 cents a piece! So we've been able to
boost our movie collection very inexpensively.

One of the things that has made our life a little stressful this past
month is that our mail has been a little goofy. Because of a series
of circumstances, our mail could end up being delivered to one of
about 4 different places:
1. For some reason, my forwarding request, back at the Lenhartsville
post office, didn't go through right away, so some of our mail was
sitting up in Lenhartsville, with no where to go.
2. Here in Bryn Athyn, we have a street address, but like most
Theologs I planned to pick up my mail at the Theological School. But
if a piece of mail had only our street address on it, and not the
College Post Office Box number, then our mail could end up sitting at
the Bryn Athyn post office, with no where to go.
3. If, perchance, our mail managed to get to the College, but went
through the hands of someone who didn't know I was a Theolog, then it
could end up sitting in the College Students mail box, with no where
to go.
4. If it managed to get to the Theological School, well, for the
first half of the month, I didn't have a mail box there!
It's all getting sorted out now. I've talked to the Bryn Athyn post
office, I've talked to the College and Theolgical School offices, and
I've started seeing forwarded mail, so it's all good.

F.Y.I., if you want to send us mail, please be sure to include PO Box
717 on the address, or even add it to the Zip Code, like this:
Solomon and Tirah Keal
865 Fetters Mill Rd.
Bryn Athyn PA, 19009-0717

We love our house here. We are definitely going to be spoiled by
it. After 3 years of school, and very likely being sent somewhere
else, we very probably won't have a house this big again. So we're
trying to live in the moment, and enjoy our time here. We have a
fireplace in the living room, and I now have a real piano. Can you
believe I haven't owned a real piano until now? Just keyboards.

One of the things we love about Bryn Athyn is the variety of church
services here. We've been able to take our kids to the younger
children's service at the Cathedral every other Sunday. And I
believe it's every Sunday once school starts. There's a
contemporary service every Sunday. There's the Ivyland Church, and
the Lord's New Church nearby. And just this year, they've started a
new service called New Church Live. New Church Live makes the
contemporary service look like the traditional service. It's
definitely stretching a lot of people's perspectives on what is
worship. In many ways it's more like a Christian Rock Concert that
what a lot of us would call "church" based on what we grew up with.
I think it's good. It's still in the early phases, and I think it
needs some tweaking, but I was very grateful for what it did for my
spiritual life the week I went to it. And they're also started New
Church Live for kids, so eventually our whole family can go to it.

On Monday I go to Orientation, and on Tuesday our new life begins.
Wish us luck!
I'll try to send family and house pictures soon.

Thank you to all of you who helped with our move. We could not have
done it without you!
May the Lord bless you all!

Love,

Solomon (32)
Tirah (29)
Thea (6)
Cirdan (5)
Jaden (2)
Zoe (3 months)

Keal Family Newsletter, July 2009

2009-07-24T13:58:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

It's been a busy couple of months trying to get ready to move to Bryn
Athyn. We will be moving over the weekend of August 1st and 2nd.
We'll be packing the truck here in Lenhartsville on the 1st, and
unpacking the truck in Bryn Athyn on the 2nd. And by the way, if
you live in Kempton we would love your help on the 1st, and if you
live in Bryn Athyn, we would love your help on the 2nd.

Zoe just turned two months old on the 21st of July! Unfortunately,
like many of our kids, she has been suffering from colic and over-all
fussiness. But between fussy bouts, she is the cutest thing ever.
As she has gained weight and gotten a little older, she is starting
to look more and more like her siblings. And we've also been graced
with the occasional smile lately, which is just heavenly!

All of our kids have at some point in their infancy had nicknames.
And without trying to do so, all of our kids have had nicknames that
began with the letter "B". Thea was "Boo" (inspired by the Pixar
movie "Monsters Inc."), Cirdan was "Bear," and Jaden was
"Bubba," (because the first noises he made were "Buh Buh").
Recently Tirah was watching a nature show on TV that was documenting
the work of some people who save orphaned baboon babies, and raise
them to be re-released into the wild. These little baby baboons
were not only very cute, but they also looked a little like Zoe! (or
she looked like them) So we've been trying out the nickname
"Baboon" with Zoe. I don't know if it will stick or not, but it does
start with a "B"!

Jaden will be two years old on August 11th, just after we move to
Bryn Athyn. He is our little ray of sunshine. At first we were
worried that he might feel replaced by Zoe as the baby of the
family. But he absolutely adores Zoe, and at the same time seems to
take some pride in feeling like a bigger boy because of her. He
kisses her, and rocks her in her swing, and sings lullabies to her.
He is, however, very much a Papa's boy. I think he's O.K. with the
fact that Zoe takes up a lot of Tirah's time. After all, he has been
used to Tirah being at work, and me being at home for most of his
little life. The real test will be once I start school full-time. I
don't know how he'll react to that. It will probably be a hard
adjustment for him.

Here are a couple of cute Jaden stories and quotes:
One time I was reprimanding Cirdan for doing something wrong and I
had to threaten to give him a time-out after I counted to three. So
I counted to three:
"One.... two... three!"
And then from the corner of the room, without looking up from his
toys, Jaden called out, "Four."

Lately Jaden has been learning the Lord's Prayer. He's been hearing
his older siblings say it every night for the past year or so, and it
has finally sunk in enough that he has decided to join in. Much
like his older siblings at this age, it sounds a bit like this:
"Fodder.... Heddens.....Name!.... Come.... Done.... Eert!.... Day....
Bed.....Debts.... Debtors!.... Not..... Shayshun.... Evil.... Dum....
Tower.... Jori....Edder.... Amen!" He actually says even more of it
than that these days, but that was one of his first renditions.

Cirdan turned 5 years old on June 13th. We had a very fun birthday
party with family and friends, and he did a very impressive job of
sharing his new toys with other kids. He still has his difficult
times, but we're able to get through to him a lot more often.
Here's a cute Cirdan story:
We were reading the Christmas story one night, because that's what we
happened to be up to in our nightly readings, even though it's summer
time. I read the story and then asked a couple of questions at the
end. One of the questions I asked was, "Do you remember what the
choir of angels said when they visited the shepherds?"
They got the first part right: "Glory to God in the Highest!" but I
had to prompt them for the last bit:
Solomon: "... and on earth..., peace... and...."
Cirdan: "Quiet!"

It's been interesting getting used to having 4 kids, and learning how
to keep track of all of them. Thea and Cirdan are allowed outside by
themselves, but Jaden needs supervision if he goes outside. Not
long after Zoe was born I remember doing a quick mental calculation:
"O.K. I see two kids and a baby, alright good." But after a second
I remembered that we have 4 kids not 3! Sure enough Jaden was
happily playing outside, very proud of the fact that he got out there
without getting caught. I need to somehow update my mental
calculations when I try to keep track of our kids.

Thea and Cirdan have been getting ready for school in Bryn Athyn.
Thea will be in 1st Grade, and Cirdan in Kindergarten. They both
got a chance to see the school when we went down for their
evaluations. I think Cirdan's pretty excited. He's a very social,
friendly boy. He always says "Hi" to strangers, and likes to play
with other kids.

The Kempton Kindergarten is a little different from the Bryn Athyn
Kindergarten. Because the Kempton Kindergarten meets only 3 mornings
a week, and the Bryn Athyn Kindergarten meets 5 days a week, they
cover a lot more material in one year in Bryn Athyn. So Thea may
have a little catching up to do. But it's mostly things like knowing
lower case letters, and counting to 50, and over the summer she has
not only shown interest in learning those things, but she's gotten
pretty good at them. So I think after she gets used to the newness
of a different school, she'll fit right in.

This summer, Thea and Cirdan have really enjoyed playing on our quiet
little street here in Lenhartsville. They've become good friends
with two other kids who live up the street from us who are 5 and 3:
Theo and Clara LaMastra. And between playing with those kids, and
Tirah and I having our hands full with two babies at home, we've
loosened the apron strings a bit with Thea and Cirdan. When we
first moved into this house, we wouldn't have let them run up and
down the side-walk and cross the street without us with them. But
this summer that's what we've been doing. I think it's been good for
everyone. It's given Thea and Cirdan more freedom and independence,
especially when our time is taken up with taking care of Jaden and
Zoe. And it's also given us the chance to practice "Letting Go";
always a hard thing to do as a parent. We feel sad that we'll be
moving away from this quiet little street, and the home that it has
become.

On June 24th, Tirah and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary!
Even though Zoe was still very new, we were able to go out! We got a
babysitter for the three oldest kids, and we took Zoe with us. We
went to Wegmans and got our traditional anniversary meal: chicken
strips, french bread, yummy cheese, Martinellis Sparkling Apple
Cider, and then of course, a very yummy dessert of healthy "no
refined sugar" ice-cream and cookies. And we took that meal with us
to the local drive-in theater and we watched the latest Pixar movie:
"Up". We also took one of the seats out of our van, and brought the
baby swing with us, and we were able to put Zoe in the baby swing in
the minivan while we watched the movie and ate our dinner. Zoe
fussed a bit, but we were able to watch most of the movie. It was fun.

Since we won't need two cars in Bryn Athyn, we sold our Subaru
Outback wagon to my mom and dad, and we used that money to buy
ourselves a really great anniversary present: a Sleep-Number bed!
It's been really great. I've never slept very well, and I've
noticed a big change in the quality of my sleep. It's also a King
size bed, which we've been thinking of getting for a while. So now
we all fit when the kids come tumbling in in the morning.

Towards the end of June we got to visit with my cousin Lesley from
New Zealand, and her husband Jonathan Longstaff and their two kids.
It's always fun to visit with other parents our age who are going
through the same things we go through every day. There's a great
sense of comradeship in that.

After the really fun Kempton 4th of July celebration, we headed out
to Ohio to visit Tirah's dad and two of her sisters for a week.
That's right, we drove 12 hours both ways with a 6-week-old baby! I
know... what were we thinking?! But actually it went as well as
could be expected. It's actually closer to a 10 hour trip, but we
stopped as often as the kids needed to. And we had a great time
visiting with Tirah's family in Ohio. Vacations are an odd thing to
attempt when you've got little kids, because no matter where you go,
the poopy diapers and tantrums and chaos follow you too. We were
really just moving our crazy schedule to a new location for a week.
But it is more than that. It's a nice change. And especially at
this time of our lives, it was nice to not think about all we had to
do to get ready to move for a whole week. Thank you Morfar for
making that possible!

So now we're down to packing, packing, and more Packing. It's a hard
thing when you've got a newborn in the house. Fortunately we've had
help. This Sunday (July 26th) after church, we'll be having a Going-
Away party here at our house, or a "House Cooling" party, as Tirah
likes to call it, since we never had a "House Warming" party when we
moved in, just over a year ago. If you're in the area, please drop by.

The next newsletter I write will be from our new house in Bryn
Athyn. Aside from my 4 years in college in Bryn Athyn, I've lived
in the Kempton area since I was 8 years old! Because Tirah and I
both went to college in Bryn Athyn, and we have many friends and some
Echols family there, there are many happy things about moving. But
it will be very sad to be moving away from all of my family, and my
childhood home. Plus, our kids have grown up with my parents as a
regular part of their lives. This will be a big change for them.

So there is happiness and sadness about this move. It's a change,
and change is always hard, even when it's a good change. And I think
this will be a good change for us.

That's all for now.

Love from,

Solomon (32)
Tirah (29)
Thea (6)
Cirdan (5)
Jaden (almost 2)
Zoe (2 months)

Keal Family Newsletter, Summer 2009

2009-06-06T17:13:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Well, I have two big pieces of exciting news to deliver in this
newsletter!

First of all, I'm happy to announce that I have been accepted into
the Academy of the New Church Theological School! For those who are
unfamiliar with that; it is the seminary for our church which is a
Christian church called the General Church of the New Jerusalem.
http://www.newchurch.org. So I will be in school for three years,
and then hopefully entering the role of a minister in our church!

What this means is that we will be moving to Bryn Athyn PA. The
Academy is now offering a stipend for Theological School
students. So I will be getting paid to go to school. Which means
that Tirah will be able to quit her job and become the full-time stay-
at-home mom for our children. The Academy also has housing for us,
which we have seen, and it is very cool. It's a beautiful old 5
bedroom house in Bryn Athyn on Fettersmill road. The old Ken
Synnestvedt house, for those that know where that is.

We will be moving in August, and I will be starting school in
September. We will really miss living in the Lenhartsville/Kempton
area, but we are also really looking forward to living in Bryn Athyn
too.

Let me fill you in a little on the process that led me to making this
decision. Here is an excerpt from the application essay that I wrote:

After I graduated from Bryn Athyn College of the New Church with an
interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Religion and History in 1999,
I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life. I had
interests in many things including Religion, History, Art, Music, and
Writing. I also had an interest in courting a certain young woman
named Tirah, who is now my wife. I considered the ministry as a
calling to pursue, but I decided that at that time in my life I was
lacking in certain traits that I thought to be important in the role
of a minster. These traits included things such as: being able to
speak well in public, being a natural leader, and being comfortable
in large social gatherings. It also mattered to me that Tirah had no
interest in being a minster's wife, and that being the daughter of a
General Church minister she was very familiar with the downsides of
that lifestyle. And so because I had the ability to get a job
working for a contractor in Kempton, I took that job while I
continued to consider other long-term career ideas.
In 2001 Tirah and I were married, and after about a year we started
a family. Meanwhile I spent much of my free time working on music as
a hobby and a side-business. Because of downsizing in the
construction company I worked for, I was laid-off after 5 years. It
was a scary time of life, with now 2 small children to support.
After much soul-searching and praying, we decided to take a leap of
faith and see if I could earn a living for our family from music.
Several months later we determined that it would take years to earn a
living from music, and that we needed a more immediate solution to
support our family. After more praying and soul-searching, and many
discussions about masculine and feminine roles with my Pastor, Lawson
Smith, we decided that it would work for us (for the time being) to
switch traditional roles. So Tirah got a job while I stayed at home
with the kids and tried to pursue a music career in the hopes that it
would eventually make a living for our family. And I must say that
we found surprising benefits for all of us in this less traditional
and somewhat less than ideal situation. I will talk more about those
benefits later.
Just last year, after almost 5 years of being a stay-at-home dad,
Calvin Odhner was telling me about his experience as a theological
school student, and he told me that he thought I would make a good
minister. Calvin and I had worked on music projects over the years
in my studio, and invariably we would find ourselves distracted from
the task at hand, and find ourselves talking about spirituality and
the Church. Throughout the previous 10 years, whenever the idea of
the ministry had come up, I continued to dismiss the idea based on
my original conclusions after graduating from college. And that is
what I initially did with Calvin's suggestion this time. But after
talking with him, something made me stop, go back, and really
consider it. I spent some time looking back at those 10 years. I
began to notice the things that led me to becoming a different person
today. I began to realize that my conclusions of 10 years ago didn't
necessarily apply to today.

Some people talk about experiencing a "call" to the ministry. For
me, I think it was more like "call-waiting." I think that the Lord
may have been dropping little hints to me, sort of like the beeps on
a phone, while I spent 10 years talking on the other line.
As I looked back, I noticed that some of these "call-waiting" beeps
included:
1. Becoming interested in the work of marriage support, learning how
to lead a group, and - along with Tirah - starting our own marriage
support group.
2. Leading a workshop for one of the "Caring For Marriage"
conferences, along with Tirah.
3. Working to try to get a contemporary service started in Kempton.
4. Working on the committee for the creation of a new Kempton Worship
Song Book.
5. Leading a discussion group on how the pop-culture book and movie
entitled "The Secret" compares to the doctrines of the New Church.
6. Compiling a series of quotes from the Writings about the Lord's
Prayer for the purpose of helping myself and others to really think
about the Prayer while praying.
7. Becoming interested in comparing various translations of the Bible
and how that helps one to gain a better sense of the underlying truth.
8. Feeling inspired to start work on the eventual (hopeful)
publication of religious books of various kinds including a
children's book, a novel, a Bible workbook, and a New Church
parenting book based on the insights I gained from being a stay-at-
home dad.

Until recently, I had seen most of the above listed "beeps" as simply
hobbies: These were things that I felt called to spend time on,
despite the busyness of being a stay-at-home dad with a home-based
music business. I began to think with excitement about the
possibility of marriage support being more than just a hobby; of
discussion groups becoming regular classes; of having more time and
ability to help start a new worship service; and of the book ideas
that I've had as being possible material for sermons. I have a love
for the "beeps" I mentioned above. And the idea of having the chance
to spend more time doing the things I love is a part of what I find
attractive about becoming a minister.
Recently, both Tirah and I have felt a desire to switch roles again.
And when I mentioned the idea of the ministry to Tirah, this time she
didn't hate it. In fact she liked the idea! She too had gone
through a process of looking back to find that the conclusions she
made years ago, didn't necessarily apply today.
Individually, each of these things didn't seem like a call to the
ministry. But looking at them collectively began to seem like a
call. It started to feel like this could be right for me; for me and
Tirah; for me and my family. It felt like it could be the Hand of
Providence. I think the Lord was trying to call me, but I was on the
other line.

After 10 years, I no longer have the same reservations about my
leadership, social, and public speaking abilities. Not only have I
now had some life experience with each, and also don't fear them as I
once did.
I'm inspired by the story of Moses when he said "O Lord, I'm just not
a good speaker. I never have been, and I'm not now, even after you
have spoken to me. I'm clumsy with words." (Exodus 4:10) And when
Gideon said, "But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the
weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my
entire family." (Judges 6:15) I too have struggled with a lack of
self-confidence. And yet, the Lord was able to turn Moses and Gideon
into effective leaders. These stories tell me that it's not so much
about what I can bring to the ministry, as it is about what the Lord
can bring out of me.

I will not be giving up my music. I will be putting it on the back-
burner for a while, but I'm not turning off the flame. My music
business may slow down for a bit, but I really hope that I can use my
music in my ministry. I'm inspired by the work of Christian artist
Chris Rice, who used his music as a means to minister to young people.

I'm really excited about the possibilities that lie ahead. I'm
excited by the thought that my unique personality traits, talents and
interests could be a useful addition to the role of the General
Church Ministry in service to the Lord, the Church, and the world.

The other exciting news we have is that we have a new baby girl in
our family! Her name is Zoe Joralyn Keal. She was born at home on
Thursday May 21st, at 4:00 PM. She weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces at
birth. We now have 2 boys and 2 girls. "Isn't this cozy? Girl,
Boy, Boy, Girl." (Name that paraphrased movie quote.) Every one of
our children now has at least one brother and sister.

Zoe was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, torso,
and limbs. Even after she was untangled, she remained very purple
until a few minutes of breathing turned her a nice healthy pink.
She has very dark hair, and a lot of it. No sign of a red-head this
time. She'll probably have Tirah's hair color.
Mama and baby are doing very well. Tirah seems to have bounced back
very quickly after this birth. We took Zoe on her first car trip at
only a week old, and we took her to Bryn Athyn at only a week and a
half old.
The kids adore her, especially Jaden. He constantly wants to hug and
kiss her, and do Ugga Mugga with her (rubbing noses).

"Zoe" means "Life" in Greek. We think a lot about life these days:
We are all about to enter new phases of life. Thea begins 1st grade,
Cirdan begins Kindergarten, Tirah begins the challenge of re-entering
the role of stay-at-home mom with 4 kids, and I begin Theological
School. And of course this new life in our family in the form of Zoe
herself. This is the first birth in our family when there has been
something scary about the birth itself. With the umbilical cord being
wrapped around her body, Zoe's heart-rate was low in the womb, and
for the first couple days of her life she struggled with choking on
her own saliva. And so we think about the fragile precious nature of
the life that we are given from the Lord. And then we think about
the Lord Himself, Who is the source of all life, and Who is LIfe Itself.

"Joralyn" is Tirah's sister's name. A name which I believe was made
up by Tirah's mom (Correct me if I'm wrong Echols Family). As the
story goes, Jori was going to be Jorum if she was a boy, but she
ended up being a girl, so they created a feminine version of Jorum.
Tirah and Jori made a "deal" with each other when they were
kids. They both liked each other's names, so they each decided that
they would name one of their children after their sister. So Zoe's
middle name is honoring that childhood deal, as well as honoring Jori
herself, and the whole Echols family; an Echols Family name. And the
name also honors Tirah's mom as the creator of the name.

It wasn't until after we had named Zoe, that we realized that she has
a really cool nickname already built in: "Z.J."

Zoe was baptized by her grandfather, Clark Echols, on Memorial Day,
May 25th. All of my family, and many of the Echols family were able
to be present for that.

Moving up: Jaden will be two-years-old in August! He's not a baby
anymore. He's a little toddler. The other day he came running into
the room screaming for joy at the top of his lungs. We stopped him
and asked him to please stop screaming because Zoe was asleep
upstairs. He looked at us, and said, "O.K.", and he then proceeded
to run out of the room screaming. He says that a lot. He's always
been a very agreeable little kid. But I'm starting to catch on that
when I tell him to do something or to stop doing something and he
says "O.K. Papa!", it really just means, "I don't know what you mean,
but I acknowledge that you're talking to me Papa!"

But actually he really does understand a lot about what goes on
around him. Recently he has started telling "knock-knock"
jokes. Mostly they are his own version of the "knock-knock" jokes
that he hears Cirdan and Thea making up. Jaden's usually go
something like this:
Jaden: "Knock Knock!"
Me: "Who's there?"
Jaden: "Nana"
Me: "Bananna who?"
Jaden: "Janen!" Or somebody else's name.

Jaden has also really started developing his imagination when
creating little games for himself. Very often I will hear him
creating little dialogue when he's talking on a toy phone or when
he's making two of his toys talk to each other. Very often the
dialogue goes starts with something like this:
"Hi Thomas!"
"Doing?"
"Good."

His vocabulary increases every day, but there are a few words that he
still doesn't quite get. For example he hears me refer to my musical
instrument of choice as either a "piano," or a "keyboard." In his
little brain there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to what
the difference between those words is, so he's decided to mush them
together to create one word that describes that instrument, and that
word is: "Keener."

Another funny thing that he got confused on for a while was, when he
saw someone mowing the lawn, he would say that they were doing the
laundry, or rather in his brain: doing the "lawn-dry."

Cirdan will be turning 5 in about a week. As I'm sure I've said
before, age 4 in our household seems to be the hardest, and it's been
really fun to see Cirdan maturing out of that phase into his soon-to-
be 5-year-old state. Sure, he still gets mad, and screams, and
throws tantrums, and hits and takes toys, but Thea still does that
too occasionally. But there's definitely been a shift. He seems to
be more aware of himself and his surroundings. He, like Thea, seems
more interested in learning things now. Here's an example from just
the other day:
Cirdan comes up to me and says, "Papa, is 'Twinkle Twinkle' a song
about Jesus?"
And I say, "No."
And he says, "Good." and then walks off singing, "Pinkle Pinkle
Piddle Par!"
Not only was he aware of the rule we have about not singing songs
about the Lord in a goofy way, but he was aware of it enough to catch
himself at it, and check with me about it. I was blown away by that.

Thea just graduated from Kindergarten. She is a bright, creative,
sensitive, young girl. She's is constantly drawing, or playing the
piano, or making up songs, or creating elaborate games. She also
thinks a lot about things. Recently, after talking about Adam and
Eve, she asked me:
"Papa, how did the Lord make the first people? Because people start
as babies, but who was there to take care of the babies? Were the
first people babies or grown-ups?" Not an easy question to
answer. It's the chicken and the egg question. I had to begin my
response with, "That's a REALLY good question!" I love the fact
that my kids are getting old enough that I can have real substantive
conversations with them.

Now, as I said before, even Thea still throws tantrums. One night
as I was putting the kids to bed, and Thea was throwing a tantrum, I
was struck by this analogy: Thea was demanding that I get her
blanket from downstairs, and I was asking her to ask nicely, but she
was refusing. Thea was being rude to me, and therefore she was not
getting what she wanted. Her own actions were preventing her from
getting what she wanted from me. She was angry at me, because I
wasn't doing what she wanted. Even when I reminded her that if she
spoke politely, I would love to help her, she remained stubbornly
rude and angry.
Isn't that just like how we sometimes treat the Lord? We may not
get what we want in life, and we get frustrated or mad, and we think
it's because the Lord hasn't given us happiness, when really it's
because we're refusing the let the Lord give it to us, because of our
own actions and attitudes. It's amazing to me how often the truths
of the Lord's reality are played out for us on this little stage
called life.

About a week before Tirah's scheduled maternity leave began in May,
Tirah realized that she wasn't going to make it mentally. She was
thinking so much about the pregnancy, the baby, our life, parenting,
etc., there was no room left for work. So she decided to use some of
her paid vacation, and she went on maternity leave a week early. So
Tirah was home for most of the month of May. I was able to take her
to the Kempton Ladies Banquet on the 9th. At the time, we thought
that Zoe might come at any minute. Our midwife was hoping Tirah
would have the baby then because she was about leave on a week long
vacation. Well as it turned out, she went on vacation, and got back,
long before Zoe was born, so it all worked out well in the end.
As I said before, this birth was a little scary, because of the Zoe's
heart rate being low in the womb, and then seeing her all tangled up
in the umbilical cord, and all purple. With the intensity of child
birth, it didn't really hit us until later how things could have been
so much worse. This was the first time our midwife told us that we
might have to consider going to the hospital. Fortunately, we didn't
have to go, and Zoe was born at home, and is alive and well, thank
the Lord! Tirah is very much in love with her new little daughter.
After Tirah's mom died last year, Tirah has had a renewed
determination to tackle the challenge of parenthood. So, while it
will be really hard for her to jump back into full-time parenthood as
I begin Theological School (especially now with 4 kids!) she is
looking forward to the challenge and the learning process that
parenting is. We are all beginning new adventures this year.
It's really nice that Tirah and I have now walked several miles
(about 4 years) in each other's shoes, which I think will be
extremely valuable experience for maintaining a healthy marriage as
we make these huge life changes. I will get home from work every
day and have a pretty good sense of how she's feeling, and vice versa.

So that's the news in our family.
We hope that you are all doing well!

God bless!

Love,
Solomon (32)
Tirah (29)
Thea (6)
Cirdan (almost 5)
Jaden (almost 2)
Zoe (2 weeks)

Keal Family Newsletter, Spring 2009

2009-04-15T17:24:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family.

Boy has life been busy lately. I keep waiting for life to get back
to Normal, because then I will have Time to do all the Important
Things I want to do. But as Dr. Seuss so aptly put it: life is no
fun if you're stuck in the Waiting Place.

Part of my intent with this series of "monthly" email newsletters was
to capture some of the wonderful developments that I get to witness
as a stay-at-home dad. It's hard not to feel bad that I haven't
captured all of them because of missing months. But once again, life
is best lived in the present, not the past. Maybe as I write this
newsletter some of the cute things I have watched my children do or
say over the past couple of months will come back to me.

My last real family newsletter was in November, and then a quick
Christmas newsletter in December. A lot has happened since then.

Starting with the cutest member of our family:
Jaden Micah is over 1 and 1/2 years old. He is capable of walking up
and down the stairs on his own (which is nice because "No more baby-
gate!"), and he can even do a few steps without holding on to the
railing. He has a constantly growing vocabulary. Just yesterday I
heard him say "Amazing!" His favorite toys are cars, and
specifically the toy cars from the Pixar movie "Cars." His favorite
character being Lightning McQueen who he calls simply "Queen," and
then close seconds being "Mater" and "Doc." I will often find
Jaden face down on the living room rug with cars lined up inches from
his eyes, and then I will hear a tiny voice say, "Eddy, Et, GOOOoo!"

Since Tirah and I have finished our album of Love Songs, Jaden will
often point at the iPod and say, "Mama singing?" to ask to hear her
singing on our album, especially when she's at work. Jaden says,
"Mama a work." when Tirah's at work, and then when I start telling
the kids that Mama will be home soon, Jaden will say, "Mama
homing?" sort of a squooshed version of "Mama coming home?"

His vocabulary includes words like, "Tractor," "Truck," "Puppy Dog,"
"Diaper Change." He can count to 10 with a fair amount of
accuracy. And recently I heard him put together this sentence:
"Thea and Cirdan are outside." It sounded more like: "Thea a Canan
a ouside," but he got all the important parts of the sentence into
his observation. One evening when Tirah mentioned to Jaden that
supper was ready, he called in a loud voice into the living room:
"BODY.... COME.... ABLE!" ; essentially his own version of "Everybody
come to the table!"

Jaden also likes to pretend to talk on the phone. Sometimes he will
pick up a domino and put it to his ear, pretending it's a phone. I
often think: what a different world our children are growing up in,
where a domino is just about the right size for a pretend cell phone
for a kid. I can just imagine that our grandchildren will be
talking on little Star-Trek-like communicator pins, and that cell
phones will be seen as big, bulky, and old-fashioned.

Cirdan Ewan is 4, and he'll be 5 in June. I think I've mentioned
before that the age of 4 in our house seems to the hardest. He works
hard at flexing his Will, and practicing his "No!" He pretty much
refuses to eat supper, and Tirah and I have decided to stop fighting
him. We ask him to sit at the table with us, but we don't force him
to eat food. He just has to deal with the consequences of hunger,
and he usually does that by being delightfully starving in the
morning. (That "delightfully" was smothered in sarcasm by the
way.) We feel very much like Bill Cosby: "We don't care about
justice, we just want QUIET!" It's amazing what a difference there
is between eating supper while having polite pleasant conversation,
and eating supper while exchanging yells and threats. Lately, we've
been choosing the former. Maybe we're being push-over parents, but
it's seems better than constantly forcing our child to eat food amid
tears and screams. Hopefully it's just a phase he's going through.

Cirdan has a strange relationship with food. And I can't say it's
entirely foreign to me. I was a very picky eater as a kid. And in
some ways I can understand a little bit of what he's going through.
For some reason, he decides that he doesn't like a particular food,
and so his brain sends signals down to his taste buds, and he will
actually start retching after putting something in his mouth that
just a few years ago he couldn't get enough of. He decides it's
yucky, and so it actually BECOMES yucky to him.

It actually works in reverse too. Just like he has decided that he
hates certain foods, he has also decided that he loves certain foods,
and he will eat them no matter what. Tirah made a batch of cupcakes
one day, but she accidentally left them in the oven too long, and
they got a little bit burnt. But the kids were so determined to eat
them that they did anyway. As Cirdan sank his teeth into a darker-
than-chocolate chocolate cupcake, he walked out of the room saying,
"It tastes a little yucky, but it's so delicious!"

Cirdan's favorite thing these days is super heroes. His current
favorite is Buzz Lightyear from the Pixar movie "Toy Story."
We think that Cirdan is also suffering from growing pains in his
legs, which is something I suffered from as a kid.

Thea Clarity is 6 years old. She is loving Kindergarten. She is
bursting with creativity, and helpfulness lately. At night she often
includes in her personal prayer: "and please Lord help me to obey
Mama and Papa."
She can draw amazingly detailed pictures of mermaids, and
princesses. She even understands a little bit about perspective, and
what the human body looks like at different angles. She is taking
piano lessons from Meema (my mom), and loving them. Not only does
she practice what is in her piano books, but she also picks out other
songs she knows, and even composes her own songs sometimes. There
was one day that she played the melody of a hymn on the piano for
worship in her Kindergarten class.
She is also learning how to read analog clocks, and will often tell
me when it's lunch time or snack time or clean-up time.

Tirah has a little more than a month left in her pregnancy when our
4th child will be due, some time around May 17th. She's getting to
that part of the pregnancy when it's just tiring to do anything.
It's hard for her to get comfortable at night. She goes on
maternity leave on May 16th. She's still learning to deal with the
loss of her mom, but the busyness of life often takes up all of her
mental energy. But amid all of that, she pulled together the energy
to record an album with me, and perform in a concert!

Here's a bit of a recap of the last couple months:
January was a mad scramble to finish recording and replicating our
Love Songs album before the Marriage Conference in February.
On February 2nd, Thea turned 6. On the 11th we had a surprising heat
wave and were able to play outside! On the 14th and 15th we went to
the Marriage Conference in Bryn Athyn and officially released our
Love Songs album, as well as performed a few of the songs. On the
19th, Tirah turned 29. On March 2nd we had a snow day, and then on
March 7th, another heat wave. On March 10th I turned 32. We then
spent the next couple weeks preparing for a concert at Creekside on
March 21st featuring the songs from our new Love Songs album,
"Forever and Eternity." We put together a family band for the
concert, featuring me and Tirah on vocals, me on piano, my mom on
guitar, my sister Roxanne on flute, my sister Tamar on keyboards, my
uncle John on bass, and my friend Matt on drums. It was a lot of
fun! We got it on video tape, so I'm hoping to post some of it to
Youtube some time. Then it feels like our whole family has been
sick ever since. We're just starting to see the light at the end of
that tunnel, which is part of why I haven't been good about writing
these newsletters.

Tirah and I have spent a lot of time this year considering a possible
major change for our life. We've spent 4 years now in a
stereotypically role-reversed situation, with me as the stay-at-home
dad, and Tirah as the bread-winner. We are looking into a
possibility that might mean we switch back in the near future. But
nothing is set in stone yet, so all I will say is that the
consideration of this change has been occupying a lot of our time
this year. More on that in future newsletters.

After being sick for 2 weeks, I am REALLY looking forward to throwing
our windows open soon, digging the screens out, going for walks in
the flower-scented air, and stretching our hibernated bodies.

"Somehow you'll escape all that waiting and staying. You'll find the
bright places where Boom Bands are playing." - Dr. Seuss

Happy Spring everybody!

Love,

Solomon (32)
Tirah (29)
Thea (6)
Cirdan (4)
Jaden (1 and 1/2)
Baby (minus one month, and counting...)

Not Quite the Family Newsletter Yet

2009-02-12T16:21:00.001-05:00

Hello Friends and Family.

This isn't the REAL family newsletter yet.
But I wanted to quickly let you all know that Tirah and I have
finished our love songs album!
It's called "Forever and Eternity." And we got it done in time for
Valentine's Day, and the Marriage Conference in Bryn Athyn. Yay!
To hear clips from the album, and/or to read the lyrics, and/or to
learn more about the album, please go to:
http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/love

The REAL family newsletter will be coming soon, complete with piano-
playing 6-year-olds, and talking 1-and-a-half-year-olds.

Have a great day!

- Solomon

Keal Family Christmas Photo 2008

2008-12-25T15:15:00.001-05:00

Keal Family Newsletter, Christmas 2008

2008-12-25T15:13:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas Friends and Family!

Because of various Christmas songs, and stories, our children have heard that the Lord was born into this world to "save us from our sins." I then tried to translate this idea for our children, and as the words came out of my mouth, I found myself "seeing the light" a little bit too: "That means that the Lord can teach us how to be nice to each other, instead of being mean to each other."

One of the things I love about being a parent is how it forces me to explain things to my children in ways that they will understand. And in that process I find myself understanding them better too. This, I think, is a little bit of what the Lord was referring to when He said, "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me." (Matt 18:3-5)

This is also the state of mind that the Wise Men were able to get themselves into. As wise as they were, they knew that they had things to learn from a little Child, "and they fell down before him and worshipped him." (Matt 2:11)

What a wonderful time of year to remember the joy and wisdom that little children bring to our lives, as we celebrate the birthday of the baby Jesus, and the Lord's 1st Advent.

Now that's not to say that children are all sugar and spice and everything nice. There are plenty of difficult things about parenting our small children. Our Christmas Eve was actually pretty stressful, complete with tantrums and screaming. I think we all went to bed feeling lingering anger at each other for our imperfections. But it's hard not to wake up in a better mood when the first words that break the stillness of the early Christmas morning are spoken by a 4-year-old boy: "Wake Up! It's Christmas!" Our tired adult faces broke into smiles, and our tired adult bodies jumped out of bed.

You know the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath-water." I'm a firm believer in life being a constant mixture of "baby" and "bath-water." There's always plenty of "bath-water" to get our spirits down. But there's also always plenty of "baby" to get our spirits up if we're willing to get our hands wet. The wise men knew this. The shepherds knew this. Lord, save us from our sins, and please help us to be nice to each other.

So speaking of the birth of a little child, I'm happy to announce that Tirah is pregnant with our 4th child! She is due sometime around May 17th 2009.

We're enjoying our first Christmas in our new house. We have a white-ish Christmas here in Lenhartsville. It snowed several days ago. And then on Christmas Eve it rained. But the rain didn't wash away all the snow, so it's still a white-ish Christmas.

In music news. I've completed all the background music for our Love Songs album, and we've recorded vocals for about half the songs. There's still a lot of work to do before our Valentine's Day release date (finishing the vocals, mixing, mastering, creating the CD cover and liner notes, and getting it off to the replication house in time), but I'm still hopeful that it will be done in time for the Marriage Conference in Bryn Athyn.

Two separate people that found my music online have taken one of my Christmas arrangements from "Advent" and recorded vocals over-top of it. If you would like to listen to them, click on the following links:

Lisa Shaye singing "Angels We Have Heard on High"

http://www.macjams.com/song/47442

Aaron Kane singing "Away in a Manger"

http://feelslikechristmas.com/traditional-vocal-christmas-music-mp3s.html

And finally, we've continued what will hopefully become a tradition in our family, and created another Keal Family Singing Christmas Card, which I will send in a separate email.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Love from,

Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, Jaden, and Baby.

Keal Family Newsletter, Autumn 2008

2008-11-03T17:07:00.001-05:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Long time, no write! Happy November everyone!

I've missed two months of family newsletters due to a very busy life
lately. I try to remember to take some notes as I go, but I'm sure
I've forgotten some of the funny cute things that I always try to
capture in these newsletters. Anyway, this newsletter will be a
whirlwind recap of the past three months in the Solomon and Tirah
Keal family.

August 11th, Jaden turned one year old. (Although in a week he will
actually be 15 months old.) We had a really fun birthday party for
him. He had his very first taste of chocolate cake; sort of a
traditional right of passage for our children on their first birthday.
August 16th we moved his crib into the kid's room, and began the
process of trying to get him to sleep through the night, so that we
could sleep through the night. For parents, sleep is like
Christmas. We can't wait for it to come!
It took a while, but for the most part (if he's not sick) Jaden now
sleeps through the night.
When Jaden was around 13 months, he started walking, and at around 14
months he started talking. Aside from Mama and Papa, his first real
two-syllable word was "Apple." These days he gives most of the
words he hears his best shot. It's very cute. When I call out "Who
wants lunch?" I hear Thea say "I do!" and Cirdan say "Me
too!" and Jaden follows up with "Doo!"
Jaden has also recently adopted a stuffed animal/security object
which is a small stuffed duck that Tirah got at Hawk Mountain. He
loves it, and kisses it, and calls it "Duckie."
One of the things Jaden has loved to do for many months now is climb
up the stairs. But he still hasn't mastered climbing down the
stairs. I think it's a very interesting analogy for us: Babies are
built for climbing up, not down. Humans are destined for Heaven not
Hell.

Cirdan is in that very difficult 4-year-old phase. People talk about
the Terrible Twos, but in our house it's proven to be the Frightening
Fours. He's rebellious, stubborn, rude, violent, irrational... and
most of that is very understandable for his stage of development, it
just makes it hard for us parents. When I get too tunnel-visioned,
I can get very codependent with all of that. But when I can take a
step back, I can loosen up and laugh at stories like this one:
One day at noon after I just finished making his lunch and put it on
his plate, Cirdan said: "Papa I'm not hungry, I don't want my lunch!"
I was too tired to fight it, so I said nothing as he walked away...
... then one minute (literally 60 seconds) later, he said: "Papa when
is snack time?"
So I said, "Right now, it's on your plate!"
And he said, "Oh, O.K. great!" ... and he ate his lunch!

It's amazing how easy it is to get mad at our children because they
are irrational. They're not capable of rationality, and yet we get
mad at them when they can't think the way we think. One day when
Cirdan was screaming his head off at me, he included in his long list
of complaints that I was mad at him! It reminded me of how we may
sometimes think that God is mad at us, because things are not going
well in our life. God is never mad. How irrational we must look
in His eyes! Fortunately God doesn't get mad at us for being
irrational, which in turn is a great model for us as parents.

Thea had her first day of Kindergarten on September 3rd. Over-all
it's gone well. She's been a little nervous at times. Some mornings
she is looking forward to school, while other mornings she is a bit
scared. As time passes it's been more of the former and less of the
later. She's also struggled with her own individuality in
school. She is a very good artist, but some of her class-mates
aren't as good, so she feels like she needs to not draw as well as
she can, so that nobody feels uncomfortable. She's a very sensitive
little girl.

Well, as many of you probably know, Tirah's mom, Margie Echols passed
away on September 5th. She died of cancer at only 56 years old. A
few days before she died, the indications were given that it could be
very soon, so Tirah was able to fly out to Ohio, and she was there
when she died. The kids and I flew out on the 6th and we were all
there for a few days, as well as for the Memorial Service in Ohio.
Tirah's boss was very understanding, and she was able to get about a
week of bereavement leave. On the 11th, there was also a Memorial
Service in the Cathedral in Bryn Athyn.
Tirah has been in a state of shock for the last two months, and is
now getting some grief counseling and coming to terms with the loss
of her mother at such a young age. It's nice to know Margie is out
of physical pain, but it's very hard for Tirah to know that she won't
be able to talk to her anymore on this earth, and that the
relationship she had with her mother no longer has the ability to
change and grow into maturity... at least not until we all see Margie
again in Heaven.
The idea of Margie being out of physical pain reminds me of a scene
from the movie "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" when the old man
spends his first hours in the spiritual world running and
jumping... simply because he could. It was poignantly exciting to
note that Jaden was taking his first steps in this world, at about
the same time that his grandmother was taking her first steps in the
next world.

Tirah went to her 10 year High School reunion during the Charter Day
weekend in Bryn Athyn. She was a little apprehensive about it, but
it ended up being a lot of fun for both of us.

We've started a new thing for our marriage recently. Instead of
trying to have regular Date Nights, we've decided to have Date Days
instead. For one thing, date nights are typically limited in what we
can do. Dinner, movie, etc., most of the time costing money we don't
really have, and also not being conducive to actually connecting with
each other. We also tend to be much more tired in the evening. So
even if we decided to just stay home and play a game or read a book,
those best laid plans are often trumped by a lack of energy that gets
us flipping on the TV and becoming couch potatoes. So we decided to
do Date Days instead. We have a regular babysitter that comes every
Wednesday afternoon anyway. Most of the time she watches the kids
while we get work done, or she cleans our house while we watch the
kids. But we realized that we could leave the house! ... in the
afternoon! So while the weather was nice we started going up to
Hawk Mountain to hike the trails together, and then find a nice rock
to sit on and enjoy nature while we read a book to each other for a
few hours. It's been very nice. As we go into winter, we'll
continue reading to each other, inside. We can also take that time
to work on music together.

You may remember that in the past we've been shopping for a month at
a time to buy in discount bulk and to save money on gas by only
shopping once a month. Well, that worked for a while. But we've
shifted our views on what's important. We've done an about face, and
we're now shopping almost exclusively local. We're trying to stick
to our same food budget, and so far it's been O.K. We live in a
great place to shop locally. We can get local eggs, milk, meat,
maple syrup, honey, pickles, vegetables, fruit, jelly, etc. We make
our own bread. We drink raw milk. It feels good to be not only
eating better quality food most of the time, but also to be
supporting our local economy.

So Tirah and I are trying to complete our album of Love Songs in time
for the Marriage Conference in February. It had been going pretty
well for a while. I had a schedule that I was sticking too. But
then I had to get my computer repaired, and I ended up being without
it for 3 weeks! But we're going to stick to our goal, and I still
think we can do it, if we work hard. It's been a lot of fun so far.

On October 30th, my mom and dad hosted a Halloween Costume Party at
their house, designed for all their grand-children. We all came in
costume, and then the kids got to decorate pumpkins, and do a
treasure hunt. Then we had supper and pumpkin pie. It was just
right for both the kids and the parents of kids. I'm including a
picture of our family at the party. Jaden is Tigger, Cirdan is
Superman, Thea is a ballerina, Tirah is a princess, and I'm a Generic
Historical Figure.

Well, that's all for now.
Have a great day everyone!

Love,
Solomon (31)
Tirah (28)
Thea (5 and 1/2)
Cirdan (4)
Jaden (15 months)

Keal Family Newsletter, August 2008

2008-08-07T16:51:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy August to you.

We've arrived at that time of year when the twilight part of the day
is just heavenly. Just the right temperature, just the right
lighting. just the right time to be outside. Lately we've developed
a habit of going on daily family walks or bike rides right after
dinner. It is very nice.

Jaden has been going through some pretty major teething lately. He
had a pretty high fever the other day, and we thought he was getting
sick, but it turned out to be just teething.
Jaden will be turning one year old on Monday!

He continues to walk around while holding on to things. He has even
been practicing standing up on his own. Yesterday he stood up on his
own for at least 15 seconds in the sandbox. I feel like I'm
commentating on the baby olympics or something: "And that was Jaden
Keal in the sandbox with a full 15 second free stand." "That's a new
record for him, isn't it John?" "Yes, Joe, this young American has a
lot of potential!"

Jaden has also learned how to hold and drink from his bottle all on
his own. That's a fun little piece of development to watch, as he
figures out that he needs to hold the bottle up in the air to allow
the force of gravity to deposit the desired liquid in his mouth.

Cirdan continues to love to play with cars. He has also been getting
a little more into drawing lately. We realized that we may have been
holding him back a little in that area. A year or so ago, we
instated a rule that said that Cirdan was not allowed to play with
markers because he was too young, while Thea was allowed to draw with
markers. This was fine and appropriate. But we realized recently
that we never really rescinded that rule! Here we thought that
Cirdan just wasn't in to drawing, when really he was still abiding by
an out-dated law! So lately we've made a point about telling Cirdan
that he's allowed to use markers if he wants to. And sure enough,
he's been drawing more lately. He drew a very recognizable pig
yesterday. He also has been drawing rocket ships.

Cirdan has recently discovered the existence of Star Wars! I have a
book about the mythology of Star Wars, and it has pictures from the
movie in it. Cirdan somehow found this book, and got hooked on
it. Question after question... I find it very hard not to get
really excited about the idea of my oldest son sharing my passion for
Star Wars.
Just today we decided that it would be alright to show the pod-race
scene from Episode One. Sort of a combination of his most favorite
things: Star Wars and Race Cars.

Thea has also just recently been allowed to watch something new. For
a long time now, Disney's The Little Mermaid has been one of her
favorite things. Just the other day, Tirah allowed her to watch the
movie for the first time. It was some good Mama/Daughter time, as
well as being really exciting for Thea.

Thea continues to get better and better at drawing every day. It's
really amazing to watch. She is also getting better at riding her
bike. She can now stand up on her pedals while riding. It's amazing
how I still think of her as being a toddler. But watching her zoom
around on her bike with training wheels really makes it sink in for
me that she's a kid.

Thea will be going to Kindergarten in less than a month! This will
be a new phase in our life! I think she will really enjoy it.

Life is a little hard for Tirah right now. She's not getting enough
sleep lately because of Jaden's teething and sleep patterns. But
when he turns one, we hope to move him into the kid's room, and start
trying to get him to sleep better, so that we can both sleep better,
so that we can function better as people and parents. And with our
insanely busy schedule, it's hard for Tirah to even find the mental
time to grieve for her mom. But we continue to try to get ourselves
into good physical and mental and spiritual habits so that we can
deal well with whatever comes our way in life.

On July 12th, we took a family trip down to Washington D.C. for the
Ron Paul Freedom Revolution March. We did lots of planning ahead of
time to try to make sure that things would go smoothly, because we
had never done anything like this before.
And everything went as planned! Thank You Lord! The kids were
troopers! They lasted all day: with a 3 hour car drive both ways,
leaving home at 6:00 in the morning, getting on the Metro train,
marching in the July heat. They were amazing.
It helped that we had lots of cookies and a few new toys for them as
prizes for doing so well.

We got to the Washington Monument on time at around 10:00 AM, even
though there was confusion at the Metro station and we ended up
paying too much for our tickets. Apparently us country-bumkins
didn't understand how their new-fangled system worked. Oh well.
We made it all the way through the mile-long march, pushing all three
kids in two strollers.
There were over 15,000 people who pledged to march. I'm not sure
what the actual count was, but I heard several people estimated that
there were around 10,000 people who actually marched.

After the first part of the rally at the Capitol Building, we walked
back to the Mall area, and got some hot dogs, and then escaped into
the air-conditioning of the Air And Space Museum for a few
hours. Then we walked back to Capitol Hill in time to hear a few
more speeches before we heard the Constitutional Party Candidate:
Chuck Baldwin speak, and then finally Ron Paul himself! Jaden
took two naps in the stroller, and Cirdan even took a short nap on
our picnic blanket under the trees on Capitol Hill. After that we
left and were home by 9:30ish PM as very tired, but very proud
citizens and parents. It was quite an experience! You can watch a
little family slideshow that I put together on YouTube here: http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdNZIhL0JFE

Then on July 17th we took another family trip out to Ohio to visit
with Tirah's parents and most her her siblings for a few days. The
goal was to work on getting some of the downstairs rooms of the house
organized for Margie's caregivers to be able to function well, and
therefore focus on giving care to Margie. It was also a bit of an
Echols family reunion. It was also the first time our whole family
slept in a tent, which went pretty well, except for the fact that
Cirdan had a Night Terror one night and probably woke up the whole
neighborhood. It was good to spend time with Tirah's mom, knowing
that time is limited.
Find out more about how Margie is doing at http://
www.caringbridge.org/visit/margieechols.

We've really been enjoying doing the twice-a-month Coffee Houses at
Creekside, as well as attending the Friday night Vespers services.
If you're in the area, the next Coffee House is August 13th 6:30 PM,
and the next Vespers is August 8th 6:00 PM.
http://www.creeksidecenter.org

I've added some new things to my website lately. I now have a page
where you can purchase and download the music that I composed for the
Glencairn Documentary. http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/
glencairn. I also have 3 new Bonus Tracks which you can download and
purchase here http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/#bonus. One is my
own arrangement of the well-known tune: "The Gift of Love (O Waly
Waly)." Another is a short composition called "Home Away From
Home." And for something completely different, I have an
instrumental rock piece which I composed and performed called
"Father's Day."

Well, that's all for now.

Love from,

Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Jaden

Keal Family Newsletter, July 2008

2008-07-08T15:06:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy July to you.

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, Jaden had just started
crawling. Well, in the space of only a couple of weeks, Jaden went
from just "scooting" to crawling, then crawling all the way up the
stairs, then pulling himself up onto his feet, then attempting to
stand without holding on. It was quite the explosion of motor skill
activity from this little man.

It's amazing to watch him pull himself up to a standing position, let
go, wobble, and then plop to the floor... and then do it all over
again... over and over again. I can't help but think to myself,
"What's driving you dude? What's in it for you? Why do you so
desperately want to stand up?" Well, that's just where he is in
life... that's how the Lord made him. It's wonderful to think about
how the Lord inspires a love for something, at just the right
developmental time. He is capable of standing up, so he wants to
give it a try. It's exciting!

I can apply that to me as well. It's amazing to watch myself pull
myself up out of a selfish position, let go and let God, wobble, and
then plop to the selfish floor... and then do it all over again...
over and over again. I can't help but ask myself, "What's driving
me? What's in it for me? Why do I so desperately want to 'stand up'
spiritually?" Once again, the Lord inspires a love for something at
just the right developmental time. I am capable of learning to be un-
selfish, so I want to give it a try. It's almost like the Lord hard-
wired us to be curious enough about heaven to give it a shot. It's
exciting!

Jaden will be 11 months old on the 11th. We are coming up on 1
year! He's been trying and eating more and more solid food. The
latest is chicken. And just yesterday he starting "parroting."
Thea and Cirdan were showing me something that had fallen down, and
so I said, "Uh-Oh." And then from across the room I hear a tiny
echo: "uh-oh." He tends to say it more when he's not aware of an
audience, but sometimes you can intentionally say "Uh-Oh" to him, and
he will respond in kind. It's very very cute.

We lost Cirdan's Superman toy after Abby and Malcolm's wedding. We
thought that maybe we left it in Bryn Athyn. After a long and
fruitless search, we gave up and bought him another one (it wasn't
too expensive.) A few days later, Cirdan was playing with his
flashlight and shining it under his bed. He called out to me, "Papa,
I see a red boot!" Well, I could see that Superman was sitting on
the chair next to his bed, but my heart sank, because I knew exactly
what Cirdan must be looking at. Sure enough Superman Returned! The
Man of Steel decided to Steal away and hide behind Cirdan's bed, and
even with my Parenting X-Ray vision, I could not find him.
So now we have two Supermans, (Supermen?), saving the world together.

Thea has started painting recently. It can be frustrating for her at
times, because paint behaves very differently than markers or
pencils, but she's learning to catch the drips and shake the water
out, etc. We have an old art easel that used to belong to the
Echols family, and was something that Tirah grew up with. We fixed
it up, and put a white board on one side, and a chalk board and
painting pad on the other side. That is what inspired the urge to
paint in Thea.

We had a lot of fun on our vacation, or rather our "stay-cation" as
it is called these days. Tirah got a week off in June, and we had
fun doing various outings, but staying at home. Tirah and I fixed
up our bikes, and then we all went to a local bicycle track near our
house. It's a beautiful track in a park-like setting, complete with
a kiddy track and a huge sand-box. We spent the morning one day
there, and then in the afternoon we went to a place called Bear Rock
Junction. It has mini golf, and a miniature steam train, and really
good ice cream. On another day we spent the afternoon at the pool
at Blue Rocks Campground. Then on the Monday of Tirah's vacatiton,
we went on a day-trip to Knoebel's Amusement Park about an hour or so
north of here. Thea went on several rides that we didn't expect her
to be brave enough to want to try.

On Tuesday the 24th of June, still during Tirah's vacation, we
celebrated our 7th anniversary! We went out to dinner at a very
fancy, very expensive local restaurant. Then we went out to see the
latest Indiana Jones movie. And we finished it off with a chocolate
cake from Wegmans.

We wanted to see Wall-E, the latest Pixar movie, but it wasn't out
until that Friday. We were telling a friend of ours, Matt
Synnestvedt, about how we love Pixar movies, and he came up with a
great term for us: You know how people who love Star Trek are called
"Trekies"? Well, people who love Pixar movies should be called
"Pixies." Yes. Tirah and I are "Pixies," and proud of it!

At the Creekside Center in our backyard, we've started having a
Vespers service every Friday night. This has been wonderful, because
since Tirah works every Sunday, we usually don't get to go to church
very often. This will help to fill the void of regular Sabbath time
in our lives.

At the end of the month, we made the trek down to B.A. for another
wedding: My childhood friend Justin Hendricks got married to Anndwyn
Schrock. Both Tirah and I sang for several pieces of special music
in the wedding.

We had a rainy 4th of July here in Kempton. I was supposed to play
my keyboard for part of the program, and I ended up having to set up
on the porch of the King's house, which meant that people couldn't
here the music very well. Oh well. Later on, during the picnic,
the Kings strung a huge tarp between the trees over top of the picnic
area, which allowed us to continue our picnic during the rain. It
was kind of fun. Later we visited back at our house with Tirah's
sisters Jori, Abby, and Tykah, and Abby's husband Malcolm, and Thane
Glenn and Carl Smith. We had a nice barbecue and then watched Carl
and Malcolm set off some back-yard fireworks. It was a good day.

This weekend we will be traveling down to Washington D.C. to
participate in a March and Rally for Freedom. We're hoping that the
kids won't get too overwhelmed, and that it will be a fun outing.
We've never taken the kids to D.C. before, so there certainly will be
lots to see. We're hoping that we can stay long enough to get to see
Chuck Baldwin and Ron Paul speak. Check out the March at http://

www.revolutionmarch.com

And now for the sad news. The day before Abby and Malcolm's
wedding, we learned that Tirah's mom very likely has cancer. There
hasn't been an official diagnoses, but her symptoms point towards
cancer. Without an official diagnoses we don't know how long she
has, or what sort of cures are possible. Later this month we will
be traveling out to Ohio to visit and to help out around the house.
If you would like to hear the latest updates on her condition, and/or
send your love and support, go to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/

margieechols

That's all for now.

Love from,

Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Jaden Keal

Keal Family Letter, June 2008

2008-06-18T17:21:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy June to you all!

They say that April Showers Bring May Flowers, but this year it seems
to have been April Flowers that Brought May Showers. May was a very
cool and rainy month this year. The first real Hazy Hot and Humid
day of the summer was right near the end of May.

We are loving our new house down here by the creek. It has been such
a blessing in our lives.

Jaden is now 10 months old. He crawled for the first time last week,
right around his birthday. Even though he can crawl, he still
prefers the "bottom scooting" action that was his first real mode of
transportation. He sometimes reminds me of a little wind-up toy; we
set him down on the floor and he scoots around for a while,
occasionally bumping into things, until we need to pick him up again.

He is eating a lot more solid food lately including (as was a
favorite of Thea and Cirdan's) pizza crusts. He's got two top teeth
and two bottom teeth, which not only allow for great food-chomping
action, but also the bonus feature of the cutest grin on the planet.

Just the other day, at the dinner table, he accidentally shoved his
index finger up his nose, while trying to get food into his mouth.
Tirah saw this and burst out laughing... and OH NO!... instant
supportive audience! For the rest of the meal, Jaden sat there
shoving his finger up his nose while trying to catch Mama's eye,
because he knew he could get a laugh out of her. The problem was we
couldn't stop laughing... so he kept shoving. Silly kid.

Trying to parent a 5 and 4 year old, while taking care of a baby at
the same time can be very tiring most of the time, and very funny
sometimes. The other day I was holding Jaden on my lap while
reprimanding Cirdan for doing something wrong. I was shaking my head
at Cirdan while I told him that he couldn't do whatever it was he
wanted to do, and suddenly I noticed another little head shaking in
the general direction of Cirdan. Jaden was sitting on my lap
helping me reprimand Cirdan with a big smile on his face and a
vigorous shaking of his head. It was actually really nice, because
it broke the mood, and we all started laughing. Babies are great!

Cirdan turned 4 on June 13th! We actually celebrated his birthday on
the 11th because we were going to be in Bryn Athyn getting ready for
Abby and Malcolm's wedding on the 13th. We had a nice little party.
Cirdan got a Superman action figure from us. And Carl gave him a two-
wheeler bike to match Thea's. So now Tirah and I really want to get
our bikes fixed so that we can go biking as an entire family.

Cirdan started potty training last month, and is now very competent
at using the potty, with hardly any accidents. He has also
successfully given up his binky (pacifier) at night. I think he's
really happy to take on the responsibilities of being a "big boy".

Although, there are some downsides to the new-found freedom that
comes with responsibility. Now that both of our older children are
capable of using the potty on their own, they sometimes think that
it's fun to have a "potty party" in the middle of the night. Well,
not really the middle of the night, but after they should have been
in bed. I can just imagine them whispering to each other after
Tirah and I leave the room at night: "Hey Thea!" "Yeah." "Party in
the Bathroom in 5 minutes!" "O.K.!"

Cirdan's latest favorite thing is: anything that has to do with the
Pixar movie "Cars." We let the kids watch it while we were all sick
with sore throats, and it was an instant favorite. At first it was
nice, because hey: we like that movie too, and it was a nice break
from the monotony of some of their favorite kids TV shows. But it's
starting to get old already for Tirah and I. Of course Cirdan's
favorite character is "Lightning The Queen" as he calls him.

Thea continues to blossom. Her drawing abilities improve daily. The
faces that she draws are very detailed. She has also really gotten
into writing letters. Not just as in the alphabet, but as in a
letter that you would mail. She will draw a picture, and then ask
for an envelope. She knows how to spell her own name, which she then
writes in the return address spot. Then she asks how to spell
someone's name, which she writes in the address spot. And then she
asks for a sticker to put in the postage stamp spot.

She has also started playing the piano more. She knows how to play
ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, AND Baa Baa Black Sheep! (O.K....
They're all the same song, but it sounds more impressive that way)
She has also started composing her own songs, one of which was about
being a flower girl. (She was asked to be a flower girl in her aunt
Abby and Malcolm's wedding, which she was thrilled about.)

And the latest thing that Thea has been doing is magic tricks. She
will come up to us and show us something in her hand, then she will
ask us to close our eyes while she runs off and hides it, then she'll
ask us to open our eyes as she comes back and shows us her empty
hands! She calls herself a "Mugician" (Like "Musician," only with
a "g")

Tirah and I have had two of our Coffee Houses at Creekside Cultural
Center. So far they've been small, but we hope they will start to
catch on eventually. The next one is actually tonight at 6:30 PM.

We had fun going on a date last month to see "Prince Caspian" Good
movie.

Tirah got some time off for us to go down to Bryn Athyn for her
sister Abby and Malcolm's wedding this past weekend! (We just barely
got over our sore throats in time!) Tirah's mom was also in town,
which meant that almost all of the Echols Family was together except
for Eli and Nicola who are expecting their second baby any moment
now. The wedding was beautiful. Thea was a flower girl, along with
her cousin Kate. And I was honored to be asked by Abby and Malcolm
to play "Angel's Birth" for their processional! That was the piece
that I composed for our wedding almost 7 years ago! My sister Tamar
accompanied me on the recorder. It went really well.

And now, today is the beginning of our summer vacation! Tirah is off
from work from today June 18th to June 26th! We don't plan to go
anywhere, except on day trips, and 1/2 day trips to local places.
We also hope to get a good start on recording our Love Songs album,
which we want to release by Valentine's Day 2009. And of course,
Tirah and I will celebrate our 7th anniversary on the 24th!

In Music News: I have a new piece of Sheet Music available: "Wisdom
of Time" from the "Heritage" album, which you can purchase and
download from my website: http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen

A funny thing I realized the other day: Last December (2007) Tirah
and reached a turning point in our lives. As of this past December,
I have been a stay-at-home parent for longer than Tirah was! Tirah
was a stay-at-home mom for 29 months from February 2003 to July 2005
when she got a full-time job. And I have been a stay-at-home dad for
34 months since July of 2005! And we're still going strong. It may
be unconventional, but it works really well for us.

And that's all for now!

Have a great month!

Love from,

Solomon (31), Tirah (28), Thea (5), Cirdan (4), and Jaden Keal (10
months)

P.S. Here's a family picture in front of our new house:

Keal Family Letter, May 2008

2008-05-12T11:09:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy May to you all!

So as I said briefly in the last email, we've moved! We now live just down the street from our old house; which is now completely back to being my Mom and Dad's house (or Meemaw and Deedaw's house). They've been working on getting the living room ready to re-paint.

We live on a wonderful piece of property right next to the Maiden Creek. The property is owned by Tori (Victoria) Odhner who is turning the old barn on the Old 22 side of the property into the Creekside Cultural Center. I've already performed there once, and I'll be performing there again. Check out the website: http://www.creeksidecenter.org.

On the Penn Street side of the property is our house, and a little old two-story summer kitchen where Tori and her children sometimes stay on the weekend. Our house is a beautiful brick house with two porches. The living room is the same size as Mom and Dad's but without the wood stove, so it feels bigger. There are lots of windows in the house, letting in glorious sunshine. Upstairs there are three bedrooms, one of which is my studio. But, where my studio was in a 9 foot by 9 foot room in Mom and Dad's house, it's now in a 17 foot by 12 foot room here! It's big enough for many more recording projects than I was capable of before. We're able to comfortably fit the Men's A Cappella Group into it. The room is further from the noisy intersection thus making it easier to get clean recordings. And the room also serves as our guest room and upstairs reading room, with a couch that turns into a bed.

We love our new house. The Lord is very wise. It's always nice to look back and think about the other houses we looked at, and maybe even hoped for, and then realize that this is the best, and the Lord knew what He was doing.

So April 5th was our moving day. Unfortunately we all got sick a day or two before that. So the very first night we spent in our new house, we all felt miserable. It took about a week for us to feel good enough to actually enjoy our new house.

Jaden turned 9 months old on the 11th (Mother's Day). He's got two cute little teeth on the bottom, and two more teeth coming in on the top. Unfortunately, all this teething has meant many sleepless nights for Mama and Papa. Jaden isn't crawling yet, but he scoots around on his little (or not so little) bottom pretty effectively. He's definitely the biggest baby we've had yet. He's wearing summer-time clothes that Cirdan was wearing when he was walking! He's still just experimenting with solid food. Some pretzels, some Cheerios, some peas, and lots of teething biscuits. Jaden has taken on the nickname: Bubba. In part because he's so big, but also because that is the noise he likes to make lately: "Bubba bubba."

It's actually kind of funny to think back and realize that all of our children have had nicknames that started with the letter "B." Thea was "Boo." Cirdan was "Bear." and Jaden is "Bubba."

Cirdan has entered that very difficult phase that we though Thea would never grow out of. Fortunately Thea has grown out of it, so we know that we just have to hang in there with Cirdan and it too shall pass. He likes to push the envelope so much that he could easily get a job at the US Post Office. He's still in diapers and isn't yet interested in getting out of them, sometimes on a daily basis. He has stopped taking naps. He likes to hit when things don't go his way. He likes to kick. He doesn't like to eat supper at all. He likes to yell "NOOOOOO!" All the usual stuff. Unfortunately, because Thea behaves better, and Jaden is so cute and needy, Cirdan often gets lost in the shuffle. So we try to get some one-on-one time for him. Tirah took him out to Cracker Barrel the other day, just Mama and Cirdan time.

Here's a funny piece of dialogue that I overheard the other day:

Thea: "Cirdan! You're a Prince!"

Cirdan: "NO I'm NOT!

Thea: "Oh, yes you are!"

Cirdan: "Why?"

Thea: "Because, I'm a Princess!"

That little dialogue nicely sums up our oldest children's current states of life.

Thea lost her first tooth on April 12th. It had been loose for a while before, and then during lunch one day, she bit into an orange and the tooth stayed in the orange. It was actually a bit of an emotional event for her. Not knowing what was going on, I looked over to find that she had taken the piece of orange out of her mouth and gotten down from her chair. With a face that was brimming with tears she said as calmly as she could, "Papa, I'm done my lunch." As she said it, I saw a flash of black in her row of whites. So I asked her (in a very excited tone) if her tooth had come out. We looked for it in the piece of orange and found the tiny little nugget of calcium. Thea had been very scared that she had accidentally swallowed the tooth. She was overcome with excitement at this rite of passage, as well as feeling some fear and sadness. I gave her a hug as she laughed her tears out.

That night we put her tooth under her pillow, and in the morning the Tooth Fairy (who happens to work at Hawk Mountain) had left a butterfly coloring book for her. Our kids are very smart. Thea wanted to know if the Tooth Fairy was real or just pretend. We told her that she was just pretend... and yet the mystery remains: how did the book get there? It's an interesting thing to be a parent, and wanting to pass on family traditions, yet also wanting to always tell our kids the truth.

You know the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." So often I think we limit the application of that rule to how we should behave when we're dealing with other adults. But really, it's one of the best Parenting Tips in existence. I can't even count how many times I have NOT done this with my kids, and had it backfire in my face. For example: We ask our kids to please be patient when they're begging us to make lunch NOW, and calling our names (or their favorite foods) out over and over again. And yet, what do we model for them?: "Thea put your shoes on now. NOW! We're going to be late! I don't care what your doing right now, you need to get your shoes on!" Thea could very justifiably turn to me and say "Papa, please be patient." Because we tend to have different priorities than our kids do, we forget that our kids have priorities at all, and that they feel legitimately strongly about them. It's amazing what the Golden Rule can do for changing our perspective and bringing peace and patience to parenting.

Thea recently was given a bicycle as a late birthday present! It's got training wheels, and it's pink and purple with a bell! Thea has been very excited about learning to ride it. Cirdan has been a bit jealous, but there's the hope that comes with his 4th birthday coming up in June. And it has also inspired him to get better about riding his tricycle.

On our street is a wonderful old bridge that crosses Maiden Creek, and gets hardly any car traffic. It's the perfect spot to ride bikes. And it's practically in our backyard. I'm really looking forward to our whole family riding bikes together this summer.

We decided that we will send Thea to Kindergarten at the Kempton New Church School, so we are all looking forward to that this Fall.

On April 12th I had a concert at the new Creekside Cultural Center, which is in the barn at the other end of our property. That was fun, and I hope to perform there more in the future. In fact, Tirah and I will be doing Coffee Houses there. I'll be providing nice live piano background music, while Tirah will provide coffee and snacks, and people can come and hang out. If you're in the neighborhood, we'll be doing those on Wednesday nights, May 14th and 28th, 6-8 PM. We'll tell you how it goes next month.

On April 22nd, I had fun voting for my wife! She ran as an alternate delegate for the Republican Party. Unfortunately she was not elected. But she did get the most number of votes of any alternate delegate in Lenhartsville. And she learned a lot in the process, and was glad to be so actively involved in this election process. I think you can still see her profile here:

http://www.ronpaulpa.com/dist17_tirahk.php

My two sisters had their babies; both girls! So now all of my Mom and Dad's children have families with two boys and one girl!

Tamar and Danridge's daughter's name is Tova Allison. Roxanne and Peter's daughter's name is Shiloh Lee. (Don't sue me if I got the spelling wrong on those names.)

On the 29th, Tirah and Thea went down to Bryn Athyn for a shower for Tirah's sister Abby. It was some great Mama/Daughter time. The shower included a wedding dress fashion show, in which Thea got to wear a flower-girl dress. I wasn't there, but I can imagine that she was in heaven.

Tirah has recently discovered (or suspected) that she suffers from ADD. She hasn't had it officially diagnosed. But this has been a positive revelation for her, because it explains things about her behavior that she assumed were just her own faults. But like me with Depression, the Rumpelstiltskin effect has been empowering for her. Just being able to name the problem has given her power over it. She's been discovering many cool things online that are great tools for people suffering from ADD.

Oh, and by the way, I've loaded all of my past and current Keal Family Newsletters onto a blog, which you can read by going here:

http://www.kealfamily.blogspot.com/

And finally, in music news:

I have a music video which you can watch here:

http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen

I also have new sheet music available for "Thoughtfulness" from the "Peace of Heaven album."

http://www.lulu.com/solomonkeal

Well that's about all for now. Hopefully I'll send a family photo soon.

Have a great day!

Love from,

Solomon "Soggy" Keal

Tirah "T" Keal

Thea "Boo" Keal

Cirdan "Bear" Keal

Jaden "Bubba" Keal

Keal Family Newsletter, April 2008

2008-04-09T15:31:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy April!

This will be just a short update for now.

The big news is that we've moved! Just down the street.
We now live at 124 Penn Street Lenhartsville PA 19534.
We have a new phone number, which is 484-660-3390
And we have this new family email address.

Our new house is on the quiet end of Penn Street, away from the noisy
intersection, and closer to the creek. And it's got a nice big yard.
It's a beautiful old brick house. We're renting it from Tori Odhner
who just bought the property. She's turning the barn at the other
end of the property into the Creekside Cultural Center. It's pretty
cool, check out the website:
http://www.creeksidecenter.org.

Speaking of that, I'm going to be doing a concert at Creekside this
Saturday, April 12th, at 6:00 PM. It's a free concert. Anyone who
is in the area; please come!

Well that's all for now. I need to go practice!
I'll fill you in on more details in another newsletter.

Have a great day!

- Solomon and Family

Keal Family Letter, March 2008

2008-03-11T15:58:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family.

Happy March to you all!

Spring is in the air! That glorious warm wet smell of mud, and the
hope of flowers soon to be adorning it.

We are doing well. So far we have avoided major sickness this winter!

Jaden will be 7 months old on the 11th! He's got two little teeth
popping through on his bottom gums. He is confidently sitting up,
and becoming more and more aware of his surroundings. His latest
favorite noise is... get this... "GA-GA!" My youngest son is a
bouncing baby cliche. I suppose "GOO-GOO" will be next.

I love the 6 month age! Moving from helpless baby to exploratory
infant; it's an exciting time to witness. One of my favorite things
to think about as I do the work of my day-job, is the wonderful
parallel/analogy that the Lord gave us in the process of being
parents. We can learn so much about the Lord, by being aware of
ourselves as parents (and His children); and we can learn so much
about being parents (and about our own children) by being aware of
the Lord as our Parent.

The latest thought to come to my mind on this subject has to do with
holding a baby. I spend much of my day just holding Jaden.
Especially in times of pain (such as teething) he doesn't like to be
anywhere else other than in my arms or Tirah's arms. And when he is
in my arms and happy, it's almost like he's only somewhat aware of me
at all. He just knows that he's safe. Sometimes he will glance up
and look into my face as if to say, "Oh, right! You're holding me
Papa!" Other times when I'm holding him, he will reach out with his
whole body in an effort to go somewhere or get to something, and I
will happily oblige him (provided it's safe). I sometimes wonder how
much he thinks that he is in control of where I walk. He makes a
choice to reach out... but I'm the one who does the walking to get
him there. What an amazing analogy for our own relationship with
the Lord. How often do we think that we are the ones making progress
in our spiritual path? How often do we not even notice the happiness
we take for granted because of the Lord holding us in His arms?
There is so much to learn from parenting.

Just a few days ago, we moved Cirdan out of his crib and into a Big
Boy Bed. We then moved Cirdan's crib into our bedroom for Jaden to
sleep in. He was out-growing his bed-buddy. We're hoping that this
will help his sleeping pattern too, because he still wakes up several
times during the night.

Cirdan took a half-an-hour nap today. It used to be a two-hour nap.
He's starting to phase out of the nap era. Naps used to be my free-
time to work on music, so I always mourn their passing. But at the
same time, Thea and Cirdan are growing up and becoming more
independent, so sometimes I can work on music while they're awake and
playing happily.

We been finding that the hope of going to school has been a great
incentive for Thea to "work on her problems." Being a Strong-Willed-
Child, she lives by this motto: "You can't make me, but I can be
persuaded." The goal of "being a good girl" just hasn't been
attractive enough for her to learn to stop screaming, hitting, and in
general being mean to people when they aren't doing what she wants
them to. But... the thought that she might not be allowed to go to
school if she doesn't change those patterns, well that's something
she can work with. She's been much more motivated to "behave" lately
because there's something in it for her. This childish selfishness
isn't a bad thing. In fact that's how the Lord works with us adults
too. He gives us incentives to be good people; incentives such as
getting to go to heaven. He doesn't expect us to be selfless right
off the bat. Once again, looking to see how the Lord does things is
an invaluable tool for learning parenting techniques.

We very much enjoyed attending the Parenting Conference in Bryn Athyn
last month. We weren't sure what to expect, but our kids did really
well in the group child-care room. The whole thing was very
inspirational, and we had fun performing as a family on Saturday
night. Thea sang a Veggie Tales song called "My Day" all by herself
up on stage. Cirdan was going to sing with her, but a disagreement
over the microphone put him in a bad mood at the last minute. He may
also have been feeling a little shy.

I'm happy to announce that my wife Tirah (with the help of friends)
gathered enough signatures (around 300!) to be placed on the ballot
in our congressional district as an alternate delegate! An alternate
delegate is basically a back-up delegate. If she gets elected, and
if there's a vacancy in the delegates, she could have a chance at
getting to go to St. Paul Minnesota in September to vote in the
Republican National Convention! Pretty exciting!

With Jaden getting older, and the energy of Spring in the air, we're
hoping to get back into leading our Marriage Support Group soon.

Tirah celebrated her 28th birthday on the 19th. Thanks to generous
help from our families, I was able to buy her a digital camera for
her birthday! And it was great to have a digital camera as Tirah
took a small vacation and we drove out to Ohio for a few days to
visit with Tirah's parents and her youngest sister. It's a long
drive (8-10 hours), but our kids did pretty well. We drove partially
through the night on the way out, and entirely through the night on
the way back, which was very nice. We had a fun time in Ohio, and
Tirah's mom got to meet Jaden for the first time!

While in Ohio, I learned that my Granny Keal had passed away. It's
very nice to know that she is with Grandpa again, and that they are
in their young bodies again! In one of my favorite movies, "The
Five People You Meet In Heaven" there's a great scene where the main
character who died wakes up in Heaven and just spends some time
running around and jumping up and down, just because he can again!
It's really fun to think of my grandparents doing that right now. I
just wish they could have met our children before they left.

On the 1st of March, I went down to Bryn Athyn for the third and last
part of a discussion group about the Secret and the Writings of
Swedenborg. It was, once again, a lot of fun.

We're still hunting for a house to rent, but trusting that the Lord
will provide when the time is right. With the economy being what it
is right now, it is very mutually beneficial to be sharing a
household. Perhaps that is Providentially why we're having trouble
finding a place to move to.

Tirah and I finished constructing a vocal booth for my studio. This
will allow us to record good quality vocals for our album of love
songs. Now we just have to make the time to do it.

Last night we took the kids to a Circus! A Circus came to Hamburg,
which is the town just 5 minutes west of us. We were only able to
stay for the first hour, but it was fun anyway. Thea especially
loved it. She kept asking me when we were going to see the "magical,
sparkley, flying ladies again!" Cirdan was a bit overwhelmed by it
all, but speaks of it fondly in hind-sight. Jaden handled it
surprisingly well. Over-all, it was a fun adventure!

I'll be turning 31 on Monday! I'm looking forward to cake!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Love from,

Solomon (31), Tirah (28), Thea (5), Cirdan (3 and 3/4), and Jaden (7
months)

Keal Family Letter, February 2008

2008-03-11T15:57:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy February to you all!

Jaden will be 6 months old on Monday the 11th! Already half a year
old! Time flies when you're having fun (and kids, apparently)!

He just started teething recently, so his usually cheerful nature is
somewhat dampened lately. He has also started eating a little bit of
solid food. He's had banana, rice cereal, and we tried giving him
some sweet potato, but he screwed up his face and spat it out.
Due to the teething, we haven't made any progress in getting him to
sleep through the night, so Tirah and I are still zombies most of the
time.

Cirdan continues to be a citizen of the Imagine Nation. He has a
fascination with "bad guys." Yesterday he drew a picture of "bad
guys fighting." It consisted of a page full of brown squiggles. You
could see the action... it was pretty exciting.

Thea turned 5 on the 2nd! We have a 5 year-old!! We had a fun
time going out to Cracker Barrel for a birthday dinner. Then we came
home for cake and ice cream.

We find ourselves starting to think about Kindergarten! Currently
the options we are looking at are either the Kempton New Church
Kindergarten, or the PA Virtual Charter School, which is an online
home-schooling program run by the State. The upsides of the Kempton
Kindergarten are:
1. Thea would get a chance to learn how to interact with other kids
her age.
2. I would get several hours a week with one less kid to take care of.
3. It's a New Church school.
The upsides of the PA Virtual Charter School are:
1. It's free.
2. It's home-schooling (which Tirah and I both like).
3. We wouldn't have to worry about Thea "exploding" outside of the home.

At this point we're sort of leaning towards the Kempton Kindergarten,
despite the fact that we don't really know how we'll pay for it.

Thea continues to get better every day with her drawing skills. She
is starting to learn how to draw profiles of faces! It's very cool.

Tirah has been doing a little better lately with her Seasonal
Depression. She started taking as much Body Balance as I've been
taking, and it's really been helping. She has also been having a lot
of fun being politically active this winter. Nothing like a fun
project to get you through the winter doldrums!

Tirah is running as an alternate delegate for Pennsylvania. She has
to get at least 250 signatures from our Congressional District to be
placed on the ballot. She only has until February 12 (I think) to
get those signatures. If she gets enough she will be listed as an
alternate delegate on the PA Ballot in our district. If she gets
elected, she will then be a back-up delegate if one of the other
delegates drops out. And if that happens there's a chance she could
be going to St. Paul Minnesota in early September for the Republican
National Convention. If she does, then she will be very actively
voting for her favorite candidate. The Pennsylvania primary (along
with several other states) is really just a "beauty pageant" or a
popularity contest. When you vote in the Primary in Pennsylvania,
your vote does not actually go towards electing anybody. The
delegates are the people who do the real voting and electing.
It's pretty interesting! We'll let you know how it turns out.

I'm still struggling to find the time to work on music. Taking care
of an infant and two toddlers is definitely a full time job. But I
did manage to start constructing a sound booth for my studio this
past month. I bought some 1X2s from Lowes, and some hardware, and I
put together 8 basic panels which will form a small octagonal booth.
Tirah is helping me with velcro and fabric to line the booth. The
idea is to have an enclosed area in which a person can stand with a
microphone and sing. The fabric-lined booth will cut down on
bouncing sound waves and create a cleaner, more usable signal to use
in a recording. All of this is working towards the release of an
album of love songs by Tirah and I. My goal is to release it this
year. We'll see how it goes.

On the 2nd, I went down to Bryn Athyn for a second time to lead a
discussion group on The Secret and the Writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg. Once again, it was a fun group, and they've asked me to
come back a third time on the first of March. If you're interested,
you can read my notes here: http://thesecretofheaven.blogspot.com

Tirah has had several "snow days" in the past couple weeks. Although
they were odd snow days. The weather was such that Hawk Mountain
was iced over, but down here in the valley there was only rain. It
was very strange for Tirah to be home on a "snow day" with no snow in
site, and no reason to be stuck in our house. On one of the days we
were glad to be able to get to church, which we aren't able to do
very often since Tirah works on Sundays.

Tirah and I were given a bread machine for Christmas, and so this
past month we never bought one loaf of bread... it was all home-
made! The smell of home-made bread filling the house every couple
of days is yet another thing to put a smile on our faces in this
dreary time of year.

This weekend we head down to Bryn Athyn for the Parenting Conference
(http://www.caringformarriage.org). We'll be taking all the kids
with us (unlike the previous year's Marriage Conference), and we'll
also be performing as an entire family on Saturday night! (If all
goes well....)

That's all for now folks!

I hope you have a wonderful February!

Love from,

Solomon (30), Tirah (almost 28), Thea (5), Cirdan (3 and 1/2), and
Jaden (almost 6 months)

Keal Family Letter, January 2008

2008-03-11T15:56:00.002-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy 2008 to all of you!

We hope that you all had an enjoyable time during the Holidays.

Jaden turned 5 months old today! He's as cute and smiley and happy as ever. He's got the greatest little laugh. He's getting better at intentionally picking up toys. He's very good at rolling over from his back to his front, but he hasn't done it in reverse yet.

He loves to suck his thumb, and he sometimes makes a really cute sound while sucking his thumb that sounds something like this: "Leeko-leeko-leeko-leeko" Tirah thinks it sounds more like: "Galeek-galeek-galeek-galeek" Either way, it's hard to describe how cute it is. I'll have to try to capture it on film, and maybe post it to YouTube or something.

He is still not sleeping through the night, which means we are pretty sleep deprived these days. But we're hoping that that will change soon. Jaden has been "eyeing" food a lot lately, so yesterday we tried giving him some rice cereal. At first, of course, he got a look on his face that said: "Something is horribly wrong with this milk!" But after a while, he started to get the hang of it.
This is a glimmer of hope for Tirah, since she has to be on a diet of no dairy and no chocolate for as long as he is breast-feeding.

Cirdan has a very cute imagination. We got him a pirate costume, and a construction worker costume for Christmas. (Two for one at Toys 'R Us!) He has had a lot of fun living in his own three-year-old world. It's fortunate that Cirdan is so independent lately, because the other two kids are pretty needy lately. Hopefully Cirdan isn't simply getting squeezed out.

Thea is a very complex little girl. She is very much a Jekyll and Hyde little being right now. One minute she can be the most helpful, intelligent, creative, bubbly little girl, and the next minute (if something doesn't go quite the way she wanted it to) something snaps inside her cute little head, and she attacks the world around her. Her poor little voice is almost constantly hoarse because she spends half her life screaming. She has also gotten back into suffering from Night Terrors, which adds to our sleep deprivation, and is just one of the most miserable experiences a parent can face. Being a sensitive, quality-time little kid, Tirah and I are constantly trying to figure out how to give more attention to Thea, but with Jaden around, nothing ever seems to be good enough.

On the up-side (the Dr Jekyll side of Thea) she has been flourishing in the arts. She spends a good portion of her day drawing pictures, and each day her abilities grow. The other day she drew a train, complete with smoke and a driver, that was just wonderful. She also has an amazing talent for interpretive dance. The dance moves she comes up with are amazingly mature and beautiful.

Being the middle of winter, Tirah is also suffering from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), or "The Winter-time Blues" in plain English. She is also suffering from a little Postpartum Depression (or "After-the-birth-blues") which she suffered from after Cirdan's birth as well. This combined with Thea's explosive behavior lately, and regular sleep-deprivation from Jaden, has meant that Tirah is struggling right now. But we're doing what we can to stay happy.

For me, life is extremely busy, and overwhelming at times. There are many things that I hope to get accomplished every day, and most of them don't happen. But I try to stay positive, and remember that this state of life (very young, very dependent children) is temporary. My music career has definitely slowed down since the birth of Jaden, but I have high hopes that I will eventually settle into our new life, and once more find the time and energy to devote to my work. I made less money in 2007 than I did in 2006 (due mostly to the fact that I didn't release an album in 2007), but my profit margin was higher due to less expenses.

Speaking of music, on the 22nd of December I celebrated the 10th anniversary of the recording of my first album, "Thoughts and Affections"! I can't believe it's been that long already!

Despite the chaotic description of Christmas Day in my last email, we did have a very enjoyable Christmas season as a whole. Since I did not release a new album this year, the Christmas season seemed much less busy in that regard. We had a very nice Keal family Christmas party on the 14th, and then a very fun Echols family Christmas party on the 21st. We had fun visiting with our friends the Davis' on the 19th. We had a great 4-way video conference with the Echols family on Christmas day. And we very much enjoyed visiting with Abby and Malcolm on the 29th and on New Year's Eve.

Tirah and I had a very enjoyable, and quiet New Year's Eve. It was just the two of us, and we sat on the couch and watched movies and ate yummy food. By the way, we highly recommend the movie "The Nativity Story" !

My wonderful wife, along with several friends and family, pitched in enough money to buy me an iPod this year for Christmas! It's very cool! I've been having a lot of fun with it. Many thanks to all of you who pitched in for that!

My men's a cappella group sang for the Christmas Tableaux on the 23rd. And it was just me and Cirdan going to the Christmas Eve service, due to an untimely temper tantrum from Thea. But it was some nice father and son time.

On the 5th of January, I went down to Bryn Athyn to present my ideas about the comparison between "The Secret" and the truths of the New Christianity to a small discussion group. It was lots of fun, and they asked me to come back again. If you're interested, I've posted my notes from that study on a blog page, which you can read here:
http://thesecretofheaven.blogspot.com

Tirah and I have been having a lot of fun being very politically active this election. We had fun with the "Tea Party" on the 16th of December. And just last Thursday, we "papered the town." We walked around our little town of Lenhartsville and handed out over 130 pamphlets about our favorite candidate. And Tirah is intending to run as a delegate for the Republican Convention! Pretty cool!

We are looking forward to the Parenting Conference coming up in February. And Thea will be turning 5 on Feb 2nd!!! And we're hoping to take a few days at the end of this month to travel out to Ohio to visit with Tirah's parents.

Well, that's about all for now.

We hope you all have a wonderful New Year!

Love,

Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Jaden

Merry Christmas! 2007

2008-03-11T15:56:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, accept the stray mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
Which I had found in the attic with just moments to spare;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of "sleeping-through-the-night" danced in our heads;
And with us in our P.J.s, and the baby in our lap
We all settled down for a long (?) winter's nap.

When from out of the monitor there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the kid's room I flew with a crash.
(As I glanced at the clock to see "5:00 AM" flash)

With a heavy head, I did not feel alive
And it made me wish that it wasn't now 5:00
When, what to my wondering ears should I hear
But a miniature lady, with a voice loud and clear:

"NO PAPA, NO MAMA, DON'T YOU SAY ANYTHING!
"DON'T TELL ME A STORY, DON'T HUG ME, DON'T SING!"
At the top of her lungs, she made quite a row:
"NOW GO AWAY, GO AWAY, COME BACK RIGHT NOW!"

As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly
When they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky,
So out of my head, my ideas they flew;
As I sat in my chair, I knew not what to do.

And then, in a twinkling, the tantrum was gone
And my daughter was asking, what was going on?
As I returned to my bed, in hope of repose,
I looked out the window, and up the sun rose.

It's an odd thing, I thought, as I drooped like a willow.
To wish - on THIS morning - to stay on my pillow.
But we got up and went down, and opened a present
All the while hoping the day would be pleasant.

The 4-year-old exclaimed as her gift did appear:
"It's not quite right... did I not make myself clear?
It has to be perfect! And I want it this instant!"
Enough of this, I thought, let me hold the infant:

His eyes - how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
And the spit-up on his chin was as white as the snow!

A tiny little thumb he held tight in his lips
And the drool it escaped from his mouth in small drips
He had a cute little face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly small elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
But a grunt from his mouth, and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had something to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled up his diaper, then turned with a jerk.
And laying two fingers aside of my nose
I put down the baby, and I changed his clothes.

It's a Parenting Christmas; it's hard work, and taxing.
And I don't know why I expected it to be relaxing.
I had hoped for peacefulness, laughter, and snowflakes,
But what we got was screaming and headaches.

As we finally reached bed-time, to my kids I gave a whistle...
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But with them finally in bed, I told them to go to sleep:
"Merry Christmas my children! ... Now DON'T MAKE A PEEP!"

This is a fairly accurate description of our Christmas this year. It
was full of ups and downs, laughter and screaming, gratitude and un-
gratitude. It was odd to me that after 30 years of living, and
almost 5 years of parenting, I still expected Christmas day to always
be peaceful, relaxing, and just fun.

As I read the Christmas story to my children, it got me thinking
about Expectations. There were probably a lot of things that didn't
turn out as people expected that they would at the time that the Lord
was born. Mary probably didn't expect to be pregnant before she was
married. Joseph probably didn't expect to be told by an angel to
marry his fiance even thought she was already pregnant. The
shepherds, the wise men, and the rest of the Jews probably didn't
expect that the Messiah would be born to a poor family, in a stable.
Hindsight is 20-20. The Christmas story is a beautiful story now,
but at the time is was probably very confusing to those involved.
But the Lord works in mysterious ways. He doesn't always come to us
in the way that we expect Him to. But He does come. He doesn't
always answer our prayers the way we expect Him to. But He does answer.

I felt very much like that this Christmas. I was expecting a "royal
palace," and what I got was a "stable"... complete with little
"animals" running around making a mess. But that is how the Lord
comes to us... in fact that is USUALLY how the Lord comes to us. He
is the Light in our Darkness, the Clean in our Messy, the Joy in our
Grumpiness. The trick of life is to notice Him, and to ACCEPT Him
despite how we EXPECT Him. To notice the Star in the dark sky. To
listen to, and believe the Shepherds. The Lord always comes to
us.... but often not how we expect Him.

We wish you Joy in the Celebration of the Lord's Birthday!

Love from,

Solomon (30), Tirah (27), Thea (almost 5), Cirdan (3 and 1/2), and
Jaden (4 and 1/2 months) Keal.

Keal Family Letter, December 2007

2008-03-11T15:55:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy Christmas Season to you all!

November was busy but good. Tirah and I are still learning to juggle
our priorities and time-management, now that we have three kids to
take care of. It's amazing how three kids will eat up your time. If
I wanted to be a truly good parent, I would drop all of my other
priorities and focus all of my attention and time on my kids.
Unfortunately that's not possible, but it is hard when my little
daughter is begging for attention and I'm way behind on paying bills,
doing laundry, cooking meals, making music, etc. But for the sake
of running a household, and my own sanity, and the sanity of my
marriage to Tirah, I need to take time away from active parenting.
It's all a matter of finding the right balance I guess.

I think the definition of Good Parenting is: The process by which
selfish little minds are turned into unselfish big minds. And
there's always the hope that the children might learn that too.

Jaden will be 4 months old on the 11th. He's a smiley, laughing,
little boy. Check that... he's not so little. We think he's shaping
up to be the largest of our children. He's growing out of clothes
that are for 6 month old babies!
The Lord was very smart when he designed babies. When we are sleep-
deprived, burnt-out, over-worked, sick-and-tired, dead-on-our-feet
parents, one little smile from Jaden fills us with warmth, laughter
and energy. Jaden loves all of us, but he has found a particular
attachment to Thea recently. Thea loves to try to make him laugh,
and naturally Jaden loves that attention. It's very cute.
I forget the date, but Jaden has officially rolled over, which I'm
told is a baby milestone, similar to getting your driver's license
and being able to legally drink. Congratulations Jaden!

I wanted to share this little dialogue that I had with Cirdan:

Cirdan: "Papa! I had a great idea! We don't have any pizza right
now, so why don't we go to Pizza Hut and get some pizza!"
Me: "That sounds like a great idea, but unfortunately we don't have
the money to buy pizza right now!"
Cirdan: "But Papa! Mama is making money right now at work!"

Here's another Cirdan quote from just today (he's talking about the
two tablets of stone that the 10 Commandments were written on):
"Papa, there are two, because Moses has to share with the Lord!"
I love the way little minds try to grasp things!

Thea still loves drawing and coloring and writing letters. She's
also very good about building houses out of Lego. Some of her houses
are quite elaborate; complete with stairs, and second floors.

Tirah and I are craving grown-up time, especially time for our
marriage. Lately we're both so tired after long days of work, that
we often just turn on a movie at the end of the day, and then fall
asleep. But we're trying to remember that quality time and pursuing
our interests actually does give us energy.

Tirah has had a really good year at Hawk Mountain. Even with her
being gone for maternity leave, her little bookstore has already made
it's budget for the fiscal year... which ends on March 31st 2008!
Needless to say, her boss is very happy, and so is she!

We are all just finishing up a round of sickness. Sore throats,
runny noses, coughs, etc. Thea had it first, right after
Thanksgiving, and then one by one, we all got it. I was the last to
get it, and I'm just now starting to feel better as I'm writing this
newsletter. But both Jaden and I are still congested, and I'm still
coughing.

What is it about kids being sick?
They're up all night, so I think: "Well they'll be tired tomorrow so
I can at least take a nap on the couch or something."
But no... they're running up and down the halls all day long. So
then I think: "Well, they must be feeling better, so I'll be able to
sleep tonight."
But no.... then they're feeling sick again.
It's enough to make me go off my rocker.
Well, actually I was sitting in the rocker all night.... so it's
enough to make me loose my marbles.
Actually I found one of them under the couch, and another one mixed
in with the Legos.
Oh well.

I had fun selling my CDs at the Bryn Athyn Craft Sale again this
year. I also sold sheet music. It was a better year for me this
year than last year, despite the fact that I didn't have an album
release this year. I also sold my CDs at the Kempton Craft Sale.

We've had a lot of Pre-Christmas Snow this year... a lot more than
usual. We had about 3 inches of snow on November 18th, and Tirah
actually got a snow-day the following day! The tree outside my
studio window, which is always late to turn colors, had green leaves
with snow on them! And then just a couple days ago we had more snow,
and there is still snow on the ground as I'm writing this
newsletter. Usually we don't get much snow until after Christmas,
but this is a lot of fun!

We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving this year at our house. We had
our whole family, as well as my mom and dad, Tamar and Dandridge and
family, Nils and Neva, and Carl Smith. Lots of good food, and good
family conversation!
The night before Thanksgiving, as I was putting the kids to bed, I
wanted to tell them a little about what Thanksgiving was all about,
to prepare them for church the following day.
So I began by asking them, "Do you guys know what Thanksgiving is?"
Thea quickly replied: "That's when we eat Pumpkin Pie!!!!"
Oh well, so much for a deep spiritual conversation with my toddlers.
What was I thinking?
No, actually, we DID end up talking about Thanking the Lord for
things, and I think something sunk in for them, so I felt good about it.

Before Thanksgiving, Carl moved the office for his business out of
our living room, so we had a lot of fun rearranging the living room.
It's a lot bigger now, and the space works really well. We're loving
it.

And in Ron Paul news....
Don't worry, I'm not assuming that everyone who reads this newsletter
is a Ron Paul supporter, but it's an exciting, important part of our
lives right now, so I'm including it in my newsletter. Plus, I
originally thought that a discussion of the candidates for the
American Presidency would be irrelevant to people not living in the
USA, but I've found that not to be true. There are actually Ron Paul
fans all over the world!! I think it's because of his foreign and
fiscal policies. They realize that if Ron Paul becomes President of
the United States it will be good for the world, not just the USA.

Tirah and I were very proud to be a part of a massive fund-raising
event for Ron Paul on November 5th, in which we (Ron Paul supporters
everywhere) raised a record-breaking $4.3 million dollars in one 24
hour period! The people are speaking!

Then on November 30th, there was an unofficial fund-raising push (not
organized in any way), in which Ron Paul raised over $300,000.00 in
one day! This pushed him over the top so that he actually beat Rudy
Giuliani in third quarter fund-raising! And Giuliani is considered
a front-runner candidate, while Ron Paul is not.

On December 16th, the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, there will
be another massive fund-raising day. Just as the colonists dumped
tea into the Boston Harbor to protest government oppression, we will
be dumping money into the Ron Paul campaign. The catch-phrase is
"Libery is brewing!" Check it out at http://www.teaparty07.com.
And if you like what Ron Paul stands for, you can donate at http://
www.ronpaul2008.com. Very exciting things are happening!

There's a wonderful little biography of Ron Paul's family on his
website, written by his wife of 50 years, Carol Paul (Yay for marriage!)
You can read it here: http://www.ronpaul2008.com/articles/331/the-
american-dream/

Alright, enough political rambling.

We intend to send out a family picture around Christmas time.

We hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas season!
May the Lord's love and wisdom be a light in the darkness for you,
and may the Lord bring you Peace and Prosperity in the new year!

Love,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Jaden Keal

Keal Family Letter, November 2007

2008-03-11T15:54:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy November to you all!

We successfully made it through October! Tirah went back to work on
the 5th of October. So I have been the stay-at-home dad for our 3
kids for over a month now! We are all still alive, although we
parents are pretty sleep-deprived! I usually try to send this
newsletter out on the 1st of the month, so it has taken me 13 days to
write this! Busy life!

Jaden turned 3 months old on the 11th. He has been charming us all
with his beautiful smile. And just the other day I heard him chuckle
for the first time! His colic seems to be kept under control by
Tirah being off dairy, so the days have been filled with more smiles
than screams. He is getting into a really regular routine of
Eating, Activity, and Sleeping, which is very nice.

It's pretty cool what technology can do for the stay-at-home dad.
The essential obviously being Tirah's breast-pump and the bottles
that he drinks from. But then there's the Baby Bjorn, the tread-
mill, monitor, and of course the internet for ordering supplies.
All of which allow for better management on my part. Being a stay-
at-home dad is actually probably good experience to have on one's
resume if one is looking for a management job. Not that an employer
would necessarily see it that way, but maybe they should! I feel
successful when I can manage to keep all three kids happy at once.
It's such a good feeling... to know you're alive, it's such a happy
feeling; you're growing inside... Oops sorry. Stream of
consciousness. The soundtrack running in my head these days is
composed of kid's music. Maybe it's paving the way for a future
career?

I've thought lately about the idea of making a website or blog for
Stay-At-Home Dads. Not that I really have the time for it, but I
definitely have the experience and content for it. At the very least
maybe I'll turn this newsletter into a blog.
Apparently Stay-at-Home Dads are one of the fastest growing family
styles in the country right now, so there could even be a market for
it. Although the acronyms haven't yet caught up with it's
popularity. Moms have all the cool acronyms. Work-At-Home-Moms
rule the world with the powerful acronym WAHM! Don't mess with
them! Stay-At-Home-Moms have a similarly functional acronym of
SAHM. But what to Stay-At-Home-Dads have? SAHD. We are not
sad, but that acronym is. Work-At-Home-Dads is not much better:
WAHD. And then of course Stay-at-Home-Papas (SAHP) sounds...
well... sappy. And Work-At-Home-Papas (WAHP) doesn't have nearly the
punch that Work-At-Home-Mamas (WAHM) does:

"Hello! What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a Work-At-Home-Mom!"
WAHM!
"Good for you!"

"Hello! What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a Work-At-Home-Papa!"
WAHP.
"Oh... that's so cute!"

I saw a great slogan on a Stay-At-Home-Dad website the other day:
"Men who change diapers.... change the world!"
That makes me think of another one: "Men who rock babies... ROCK!"

Alright, enough patting myself on the back... time to pat my baby on
the back:
Jaden is 3 months old, and very cute. My mom dug out some baby
pictures of me, and it's amazing how much Jaden looks just like me
when I was 3 months old. He's a smiley boy. He's growing fast.
He's already in size 3 diapers, and probably soon to be in size 4.

Cirdan came up with a nick-name for him; he calls him "Bacon
Micah." Cirdan thinks it's hilarious. I have to admit... it IS
pretty funny.

Cirdan is really developing quite the imagination. He spends a lot
of his time playing with dinosaurs and/or cars & trucks, making up
all sorts of games and scenarios in his little head. If you listen
closely, you can catch some very cute little dialogues. Lately he's
been making his little Duplo (Lego) boy ride on a little Duplo cow...
which of course is what makes a Cowboy! Very smart.

Cirdan's default answer to anything right now is "NO!" It doesn't
matter whether he wants it or not, it just comes out first... sort of
like a young adult's "Um."

Cirdan: "Papa, what's for supper?"
Papa: "Pizza!"
Cirdan: "NO!... oh... I mean... yeah!"

Thea has really developed a skill in drawing lately. She's
amazing! She can draw mermaids, and little girls in dresses,
complete with 5 fingers and eyelashes. It's become somewhat
standard that about once a week, Thea walks into my studio with a
drawing and asks to send it to Mama at work. So I scan and email it
to Tirah. Now all of Tirah's co-workers ask for "Thea drawings" to
post on their doors!

And also, to our great surprise a couple of weeks ago, she wrote her
name! T H E A . Fortunately it's an easy name, but still at 4
and 3/4, I think that's pretty cool. Now she does a lot more
writing. She loves to fill pages with all of the letters and numbers
that she knows. Mostly T, H, E, and A.

Just the other day, we were on our way up to Hawk Mountain to visit
Tirah, and we drove past a house where they kept chickens. As we
drove past, I had to slow down to a stop because there was a chicken
in the road. After it had gotten out of the way, and I resumed
driving, I hear Thea from the back seat innocently call out: "Papa,
why did the chicken cross the road?" I loved how oblivious she was
to the humorous significance of her question. To her it was a
perfectly reasonable, ordinary question. But of course, amid many
chuckles, I had to answer her: "To get to the other side!" Chuckle,
chuckle. It's moments like those that really make me love my job.

We just finished a six week parenting course. It was really good.
We learned some valuable tools for becoming better parents, such as
validating our kids' feelings, visualizing situations through their
eyes, becoming aware of default reactions (in both children and
parents), and investigating our attitudes about our roles as parents
(Dictator or Helpful Guide?).

Just today I was thinking about how inconsistent we can be as
parents. When little baby Jaden is hungry, he cries and sometimes
screams. My reaction as a parent is to want to feed him as soon as
possible and to comfort him. I don't say to him: "Well, my goodness
Jaden! If you're going to scream about it then maybe you won't get
your bottle! Go to your room until you calm down and ask nicely!"
That's ridiculous... horrific. And yet when my 3 and 4 year olds
are hungry, they essentially do the same thing. Except it looks a
little different. It can often look like a 4 year old screaming
"PAPA! I HATE YOU!!!" and slapping me in my face. That sort of
expression of emotion is not one that naturally evokes a desire to
comfort. It often arouses anger in us. But what we have to
remember is that, despite the illusion of rationality created by
their ability to talk, my toddlers are a lot closer to babies than to
adults. And when my daughter says "PAPA, I HATE YOU!", comfort,
validation and love are exactly what she needs.

Tirah is a tired, sleep-deprived, working mother. Jaden still wakes
up a lot at night for feedings. She loves her job, but she
definitely misses the kids during the day. Fortunately she works
very close to home, and works in a small non-profit work-place that
is very casual and family-like. During the first week of this month,
I took Jaden up to Hawk Mountain once a day for a feeding with Mama.
Over the next couple of weeks, we slowly cut back to only the
occasional trip up the mountain. But it was great that we were able
to do that, and that Tirah has a job that allows her to take a
nursing break like that. In that time Thea and Cirdan have made
friends of just about everybody who works at Hawk Mountain. The
other day when we went up for a feeding, it was sort of a slow day
for everybody, so everybody still in the building grabbed a basket of
magic markers, came into the Hawk Mountain kitchen and had a "Drawing
Party" with Thea and Cirdan. Thea wanted to draw a snowman, so
everybody else drew a snowman too. Isn't that a great work-place?

On Friday the 9th of November, we drove up in the afternoon for a
visit. It was raining in the valley, but as we got up to the top of
the mountain it was snowing! There weren't many people there, so
the whole family got to hang out with Mama "at work" for the
afternoon, watching the first snow of the year! It was great!

We're still on the look-out for a house to buy or rent. Although at
this point it's seeming more like renting is the way to go for us, in
our current financial situation. There are a couple possibilities
that we're considering. We'll keep you apprised.

In other news... my child-hood friend Justin Hendricks (who just
enlisted in the Army) is engaged to Anndwyn Schrock. Yay! I think
they plan to get married next summer, and then Anndwyn will be a
military wife.

Last month, in order to cut our expenses, we started a new plan of
shopping for a month at a time. So this is the second month we have
been doing that. It's been great! Not only does it save a couple
hundred dollars a month in grocery bills because of buying in bulk,
but it also saves on gas because we only go out shopping once a month.

And now for something a little political. I don't usually talk
politics in my newsletters, but I'm pretty excited about this.
Sorry to anyone who doesn't live in the USA, but I wanted to talk a
little bit about my favorite candidate for the Presidential election
in 2008. His name is Ron Paul. He is a true conservative in the
sense that he really stands for the Constitution of the United
States. He is the only candidate running who truly seeks to defend
all of the civil liberties of every American. If he got into office,
the Land of the Free might actually be truly Free again! To give
you a sense of where he stands on some of the main issues, here is a
break-down:
1. He would try to eliminate income tax (which is unconstitutional),
and get rid of the IRS. He is the true tax-payer's friend!
2. He advocates a foreign policy of non-intervention (but not
isolation). He would bring all of our troops home and encourage a
foreign policy of economic trade with all, military alliance with
none. (Did you know that World War I would possibly have never been a
World War if the nations of the world had not been entangled in so
many military alliances!) He believes that in all areas of life, our
responsibility to help our fellow human being, is the role (and
choice) of each and every citizen, rather than the role of
government. (Proper separation of church and state; charity should
not be dictated by the government.)
3. He would have our troops defending our borders, instead of messing
with other countries' business.
4. He believes that every American has the right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness, and as a doctor who has delivered over 4000
babies, he believes that life begins at conception. (Therefore he is
Pro Life)
5. He would try to end this communist, welfare state that we've
gotten ourselves into, and allow for a state where people are free to
pursue happiness, rather than expecting it to be delivered to them on
a silver platter. (He is against universal health-care; see number 9)
6. He would reform Social Security so that young people can choose to
opt out of a bankrupt system, while protecting the income that old
people depend on.
7. He would protect our right to keep and bear arms, so that if our
government became too corrupt and dictatorial, the citizens would be
capable of overthrowing it. (An American tradition since the very
beginning.)
8. He would protect our freedom to choose our children's education,
be it home-schooling or private schooling or public schooling.
9. He would protect our freedom to choose our health care, be it
allopathic, homeopathic, or any alternative form of health care.
10. He voted against the Patriot Act, and believes that we must never
sacrifice our freedom for security. If we do, we lose both.
11. He wants to try to halt this run-away inflation and get us back
on the gold standard, and eliminate the Federal Reserve. Imagine
that! Not only could we keep more of our hard-earned money, but our
money wouldn't be losing so much value over time! This land would
once more be a land of freedom and prosperity!
I've never been so excited about a presidential candidate. All of
the other presidential candidates are unfortunately misguided in
various ways by the idea that the role of government is to take care
of the American people, when in fact the role of government is (and
was always meant to be) to simply protect our freedom to take care of
ourselves and other people. Check out Ron Paul at http://
www.ronpaul2008.com. And I strongly encourage you to register as
Republican and vote for Ron Paul in the primaries for your state.
Thank you. I will get off my soap box now.

And lastly, news about my music business: I will be selling my CDs
at the Bryn Athyn Craft Sale this Saturday, November 17th, 10:00 AM
to 3:00 PM. I will also be selling my CDs at the Kempton Craft Sale,
Saturday December 1st, 9:30 to 11:30 PM. I will also be selling
sheet music for a few of my compositions. I just finished up the
year long project of creating a musical soundtrack for the Glencairn
Documentary. I'm also working on creating a music video for "Peace
of Heaven" ... stay tuned for that.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! May the Lord bring
you peace and prosperity.

Love from,

Solomon (30), Tirah (27), Thea (4 & 3/4), Cirdan (3 & 1/2), Jaden (3
months)

Keal Family Letter, October 2007

2008-03-11T15:53:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy October to you all!

This is the beginning of a new phase in our life. These next two
months are going to be rough going for a while.

Tirah goes back to work on Friday after over two months of glorious
maternity leave. It was a wonderful taste of heaven. A glimpse into
our ideal situation, which we hope to achieve someday, namely: having
everybody at home all the time. One of our goals in life is to reach
a point where I, or both Tirah and I are working solely from home,
and supporting the family. This is our dream. With God nothing is
impossible!

Jaden will be 8 weeks old this Saturday. I will very soon be the
stay-at-home dad of 2 toddlers and a 2 month old baby! Adventure,
here we come! It will be rough going for a while. Jaden still
very much prefers Tirah to me. But I've been able to successfully
bottle feed him. Tirah goes back to work right in time for the busy
season at Hawk Mountain. So she'll be working longer hours until
December.
Thea and Cirdan love to watch Backyardigans, and in one of their
favorite episodes, as their Viking ship is heading towards a
whirlpool, one of them asks "What do we do!?" and another one
replies, "The only thing we can do... HOLD ON TIGHT!"
So that's what we'll be doing for these next two months... holding on
tight. Holding on to our sanity, our sense of control, our sense of
purpose, and our sense of humor.

Jaden is over his diaper rash and baby eczema (thank the Lord!), but
unfortunately he's been suffering from colic all month. So he
continues to be a very fussy little baby. We took him to the
chiropractor the other day (or the "choir-practor" as our kids call
him), and he's got Tirah on a diet of no dairy, to see if that will
help Jaden to better digest her breast milk. Tirah was already off
chocolate, because that helped to clear up Jaden's eczema. So now,
sadly, she's off chocolate and milk (which of course includes
chocolate milk), and she's missing them horribly. But it's all worth
it, if it helps Jaden feel better! (Of course that's easy for me to
say!)

One of the only things that calms Jaden is walking with him on our
tread mill. I don't know if it's the motion or the vibrations or the
noise, but it often calms him down (not guaranteed). We may be worn-
out sleep-deprived parents, but at least we're in shape! Um... I
guess.

And on top of Jaden's colic, he now has a cold (which he got from
Thea and Cirdan)! So Jaden continues to spend most of his time
crying. I'd say he spends about 90% of the time that he's not
eating or sleeping, crying. Well maybe it's down to 80%. 80% or
90%, it still FEELS like he cries all the time!

I've been amazed at how codependent I can be with my children. If
they're mad, I get mad. If they're sad, I get sad. If they're
happy, I'm happy. It's like I'm a slave to their emotions.
Jaden's fussiness has been a useful exercise in learning to maintain
my own sense of well-being, despite the emotional roller coasters
that my children are. It's hard, but it's possible... and
ultimately better for everyone.

Cirdan and Thea are still getting over their colds, but they're
mostly back to normal. Although normal has drastically changed since
Jaden has been born. The kid's are still adjusting to the fact that
they don't get most of our attention anymore.

The other day Thea was asking about Jaden's name: "Papa, why does
Jaden have two names?"
"Well, Jaden has a middle name which is Micah! You have a middle
name too... do you know what it is?"
"Yes, my middle name is Clarity Keal!"
"Well, actually Keal is your last name, but yes, Clarity is your
middle name. Cirdan do you know what your middle name is?"
"Yes.... it's.... Cirdan..... Winner-Guy!"

Cirdan "Winner-Guy" Keal. I have no idea where he came up with that!

Tirah just got her hair cut yesterday. It is now REALLY SHORT!
Much to my disappointment. But if it helps maintain this busy
Mama's sanity, then I'm in favor of it. I'm just looking forward to
when she grows it out again!

Tirah goes back to work on Friday (the 5th). She is not really
looking forward to it. It has been so nice to have her home for all
this time, and she is very much in Mama-mode right now, and not in
Work-mode. I think once she's back at work, it will be O.K., but I
know she'll miss us, and we'll miss her. It's good incentive for
me to keep working on building my business, so that one day she can
decide whether she wants to keep working or not.

We're still looking for a new place to live, whether it be renting or
buying. We've enlisted the aid of a realtor to help us find a house
that we could fit in, and afford the payments on. There is also a
slight chance that we may be able to rent the house next door. That
would actually be really nice because we might be able to move in in
the next couple months, and the kids wouldn't be far from Meemaw and
Deedaw. We're still not sure if we can afford to rent the house
next door. But if we can, it would be a great place to live until we
find a place that we can buy. It would certainly fit us nicely. I
would have a bigger room for my studio too.

Needless to say, with the possibility of moving soon, and the fact
that we don't have much money left over until Tirah's next paycheck,
we've been looking into ways of cutting our expenses. One thing
that we started doing is: shopping for a month. On Monday I went to
Sam's Club, and I bought all of our food for a whole month! We have
a little money set aside to buy milk and produce, but other than
that, we can only eat what we have in our fridge and freezer, for the
rest of the month! In preparation for this we skipped our last
shopping trip and ate up all the dregs out of our fridge and
freezer. You know, the left-over bread, the things stuffed way back
in the freezer. It was actually a really good exercise in creative
meal planning. I find that I tend to assume that a meal should have
certain components. But there's nothing wrong with having just a
block of cheese for lunch... especially if that's all that's left to
eat! We managed to stretch out the last week of August without a
shopping trip, and we cleaned out our fridge and freezer. We got
pretty creative with meal planning. It was kind of a fun exercise.
And hopefully we can shave a $100 or so off of our monthly grocery bill!

On the 16th we went down to Lutherville Maryland to visit with Steve
and Galadriel and Kate and Genai and new baby Joel. It was a fun
visit, and it went really well as far as traveling with a newborn.
Jaden seems to do better when we're out and about. He likes the
car. He also tends to go to sleep when there's a lot of commotion...
I guess it's a defense mechanism. Or maybe he likes to behave for
family and friends, but not us. I don't know. We also took him
out to a party recently, and he was fine! We went to a Going-Away
party for Justin Hendricks who is joining the Army!

We had planned to go out to Ohio before Tirah's maternity leave was
up, but unfortunately the timing didn't work out, because the family
was sick in Ohio, and we didn't want to expose Jaden to it. Oh well.

Last night Tirah and I attending the first meeting of a 6 week
parenting course that we're taking. It looks like it will be very
helpful in our endeavors to become better parents for our growing
family.

Oh yes! Some fun news: Both Roxanne and Tamar are pregnant with
their third child! By the end of next year, my Mom and Dad will
have 9 grandchildren!

Well, that's about all for now. Next month, I'll let you know how
we're doing with Tirah back at work and me as the full-time dad... if
I can get to the computer!

Have a great day!

Love,

- Solomon (30), Tirah (27), Thea (4.5), Cirdan (3), Jaden (8 weeks).

Keal Family Letter, September 2007

2008-03-11T15:52:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy September to you all!

We are officially OUT-NUMBERED! Two Parents vs. Three Kids... the Kids win.

I remember when we only had Thea. All we had to worry about was Thea. There were no other kids fighting in the background... just Thea. When she slept... we could sleep. We even had some free time left over because she slept more than we did. We didn't know how good we had it!

Then Cirdan came along. Thea was only 1 and 1/2, and fortunately just walking, but life was manageable because there was a parent for every child. At some points, if we were lucky, both kids would be asleep at the same time... and then there was much rejoicing.

But it seems that parenting gets exponentially harder with the addition of each new child. So far it seems that having 3 kids is twice as hard as having 2 kids... now is that really fair?! Thea and Cirdan are pretty independent little toddlers, which is good, but they still need supervision (Hey, I wish I had "super-vision," then maybe I could tell who really hit who first!). Thea doesn't nap anymore, and Cirdan is getting close to not napping anymore. For the past month, our life has had one purpose: Try to keep all three kids happy... with a side-order of "could we get some sleep" and maybe a small helping of movies.

Having three kids is sort of like juggling... we've reached that point where we are really parenting now. When you're juggling one or two balls, you're not really juggling, it's when you get to three balls that people are impressed. Or rather it's when people decide to hang around to see how long you can do it before you totally lose control. Parenting really feels like juggling sometimes. We often have to leave one kid "hanging in mid-air" and hope that they will come land right in our open hand.

But just like juggling... it's a lot of fun. I wouldn't trade my life for anything. Tirah and I like to watch Sci-Fi adventure movies. Lately, that's what we'll do in the evening, once all three kids are finally asleep, we'll turn on some Star Trek, or StarGate. It's kind of funny how, at the end of a long day filled with little beings who are fighting and screaming and stealing and talking gibberish, we like to flick on a movie filled with little beings who are fighting, screaming, stealing, and talking gibberish. Escapism? Really? I wonder.

Really I think it's just a different kind of adventure. We all like adventure in our lives, it's just that sometimes we get bored with the adventure that we are currently in, and we want to watch somebody else's adventure. Almost as if to say, "boy am I glad I'm not trying to save the world from alien invasion!" Or maybe as if to say, "boy I wish I could worry about alien invasion for a while, instead of three screaming kids!" Maybe, far away, on some distant planet, some futuristic alien super-hero is sitting back with a bag of chips, watching us through his "super-vision" telescope and saying, "boy, am I glad I'm not taking care of three kids right now. It's nice to relax and not worry about global annihilation for a few minutes!" Whatever it is... we humans like adventure. And I like the adventure that Tirah and I are living.

I've heard that it gets easier after 3 kids. But I don't know about that. I baby-sat for my sister the other day, so I was in charge of 4 toddlers for a couple hours. That was when I realized how good I had it with just 2 or 3. When you only have 2 or 3 kids, you never have to break up two different fights at once!

So, starting with the youngest: Jaden is almost a month old now. He's exactly 4 weeks today. Unfortunately it's been a rough month for him (and by association, for us too). He has had a very bad diaper rash all month. And he's also had a bad case of baby acne all over his body! It looks very uncomfortable... and by his fussiness, I think he agrees. He basically has three modes right now: Eat, Sleep, and Cry. Peaceful, non-meal, awake times are precious rare gems that we try to treasure. I got a brief smile from him early one morning, right before I changed his diaper. We're trying lots of things (diet, homeopathy, aloe vera, prayer) and we're hoping that we'll start to see some improvement soon. But amid all of the fussiness, he is the cutest little thing on the planet.

As I was watching him one time when he was staring at this brand new world, I couldn't help but wonder if that's what we look like to angels, when we wake up in the spiritual world after death. Wide-eyed brand new spiritual beings.

Cirdan is still in a violent phase. His default, if something doesn't go his way, is to hit the person closest to him. Even when he's playing nicely, he can be too rough sometimes. But over all, he's our little angel boy. While his actions don't always express his heart very well, his words do. He says the sweetest, nicest things to people. He's our little sunshine boy.

I wanted to share a very cute thing he said the other night: We were getting ready for bed, and while I was helping Thea get undressed, Cirdan was throwing stuffed animals up into the air as high as he could get them to go. One time, he threw an animal up into the air, and he didn't notice that it fell back down behind his crib, so he turned to me and said, "Uh oh, it went up to Heaven!"

The other day, just after Jaden emptied a little spit-up onto my shirt, Cirdan asked me with concern in his voice: "Papa, what is that coming out of Jaden's face?"

Cirdan also has a very short attention span right now. He's curious, but not curious enough to hear a full answer. He'll very often ask us a question, but before we can truly answer him, he looks away, and is on to something else. The look on his face reminds me of the windows that sometimes pop up on my computer: "Application has unexpectedly quit. Data may have been lost. Would you like to save and restart?" No... never mind.

Cirdan has an interesting concept of time. It used to be that when he was referring to something that happened in the past, he would refer to it as happening "yesterday." "Yesterday" simply meant "in the past." I wasn't born yesterday, but Cirdan was, according to him. Well, lately he has graduated. Now things that happened in the past are referred to as happening "Last Week." "Mama and Papa, when you got married last week, was it at the big church?" It's almost like his concept of time is broadening as he gets older. It used to be that he took life day by day. Now he understands the concept of a week's worth of time. Last month? Forget it... Does Not Compute. It reminds me a little of adult's concepts of time. The longer I live, the more I understand what long periods of time are like. It used to be that I didn't remember much from a decade ago, but now I do. I can even remember some things that happened over 20 years ago. And yet, I'm only 30 years old. Unlike a 60 year old, I cannot remember 30 years ago. Angels in heaven can remember hundreds of years into their past. They undoubtedly have a better perspective on eternity.

Moving on to Thea: Thea has the opposite situation to Cirdan. While Thea's actions reveal her angelic heart, her words do not. Thea, being a strong-willed child, likes to feel like she is in control and has freedom. Ultimately she wants to be recognized for the valuable member of the family that she is. So if we aren't doing that , by not giving her choices and quality time, she assumes that we aren't being good parents and so she takes over. Her latest favorite phrases are: "No, you're wrong!" and "Papa, it's too late!" or "No, wait, here's the deal.." or even "I don't love you!" or "I don't want to be your daughter anymore!" It's hard knowing that Jaden's presence is probably the hardest for Thea to deal with, because she craves quality time, and we don't have a lot of time to give. But it's all part of the adventure.

Thea loves to sing. In fact she doesn't like silence, and she tries to fill silence with whatever words or songs she can think of. She tends to commentate her life in song. This can be very cute at times, and very annoying at other times. Lately Thea and I have been going shopping together while Cirdan naps at home with Mama and Jaden. This has been some very good quality time for her. But it's a funny mix. She's a chatterbox, and I'm a quiet guy. So she spends most of the shopping trip singing our adventures to the nearest listener. Well, one time she had to go potty. So I took her into the men's room. There was somebody else in one of the other stalls. So here I was standing in a stall, with my 4 year old girl sitting on the potty, and she was singing a song about "Going Potty" at the top of her lungs, with another man in the stall next to us. It was one of those times when I was simultaneously tickled pink, and thoroughly embarrassed at the same time.

But as I said, Thea's actions reveal her heart. She loves to help people. What a great trait to nurture!

Tirah is probably the most sleep-deprived of the two of us. And it's a little hard right now because Jaden only likes Mama. Especially when he's upset, I have a hard time calming him down... only mama can do that. It's amazing how quickly he knows he's in mama's arms... it must be the smell. That glorious smell of mama, versus that weird smell of papa. Tirah is definitely enjoying her maternity leave, but also anxious about having to go back to work next month.

I haven't had much chance to work on music lately, although I did manage to create a new page on my website that features some clips of some of the music that I've been working on in my studio this year. Things like the flute and piano album, and the Glencairn Documentary. You can check it out at: http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/studio.

We are thinking more and more about trying to buy a house, rather than rent one. The people in Virginville still haven't called about that rental place. So maybe with the help of Providence we will be able to buy our own house soon. We know so little about the whole process, so we're trying to learn. We'll see what happens.

I wanted to share a quote that Tirah and I heard in a Joel Osteen sermon: "Don't tell your God how big your problems are... tell your problems how big your God is!"

So that's all for this time. This month is the last month of Tirah's maternity leave, so the adventure continues! Tune in next time for the continuation of the adventures of Solomon and Tirah and Family.

Love,

Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan and Jaden.

A Baby Boy! August 2007

2008-03-11T15:50:00.003-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

I'm happy to announce the birth of our third child: a baby boy! He
was born at a quarter past midnight on August 11th, in our home in
Lenhartsville. He was 8 pounds 12 ounces, 21 and 1/2 inches long,
with a 15 inch head. Tirah had had a day of "false" labor earlier
in the week, and then during the day on the 10th, she had pretty many
contractions. All of which led up to the fact that by the time
midwife came by for a check-up in the afternoon, Tirah was 5
centimeters. We called the midwife at around 11:00 at night, and
when she arrived, Tirah was already 9 centimeters! The baby was born
an hour and quarter later. A very quick birth! Mama and the baby
are both very healthy. He is nursing well.

We don't have a name yet. We'll keep you posted.

Thea and Cirdan love him. We've taken several pictures, as well as
some video camera footage, which we hope to share with you soon.

Love,
- Solomon

Hello Friends and Family.

Our son's name is: Jaden Micah Keal.

"Jaden" comes from the Hebrew meaning "God had heard."

"Micah" is a version of Michael meaning "Who is like the Lord?"

Love,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Jaden.

Keal Family Letter, August 2007

2008-03-11T15:50:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Tirah is now full term, so the baby could come any day now! However,
both Thea and Cirdan were 10 days late, so we're trying not to get
our hopes up too much. Tirah is VERY ready to be DONE being
PREGNANT! Fortunately she is now on maternity leave, and we've been
enjoying spending all of our time together as a whole family. She's
been on maternity leave for one week now. The baby is head down,
and every thing is looking good, thank the Lord!

Cirdan and Thea are as cute and wonderful and difficult and
intelligent and strong-willed and angelic as ever. Parenting them
is a continual learning process, and great for spiritual growth. Our
kids have already claimed the roles of "children" in our family, so
the only jobs left for me and Tirah fall into the category of "grown-
up." It's kind of interesting how spending all my time trying to
communicate with toddlers is helping me to become a better adult.
The Lord is very wise.

On July 13-15 we were able to get away for the weekend; up to the
Catskills of New York state for a Marriage Retreat led by Lori and
John Odhner. It was wonderful! There were 9 couples there (so 18
people, although John Odhner kept referred to it as 19 because of our
baby). The whole weekend was filled with friendship and wisdom and
music and laughing. It was very rejuvenating!

The trip up was a bit of an adventure though! We drove up with
Calvin and Maggie Odhner, who are very good friends of ours. The
trip was like a comedy of errors. We were supposed to get to the
Retreat by about 7:00... well we didn't get there until almost 1:00
at night! First we got off late, and then we forgot some of my
music equipment. Then we got stuck in stand-still traffic. Then we
took a wrong turn and ended up heading into New York City. THEN...
the car broke down! So we ended up stuck in a place called
Tarrytown New York, and we got some pizza (having missed our dinner
reservations) and searched for a car rental place, but the closest
place to rent a car was the airport, but it took forever to get there
because there was a man-hunt on the highway, and the only available
rental car was almost too small, etc, etc, etc. But all in all, it
was a lot of fun to spend that time with Calvin and Maggie!

Jori and Abbey and Malcolm, meanwhile, were back at our house
watching our little kids, which we are very grateful for. It sounded
like a good weekend was had by all.

On the 17th we had the last meeting of our second Marriage Support
Group. Many of the people involved in this group were interested in
continuing! So after the baby is old enough and we start it up
again, we might turn it into an on-going thing (instead of just an 8
week session) which would be great!

On the 19th we went out food shopping, and came back having bought
our minivan! We hadn't intended to buy the van on that trip, but we
though we would drive through the car dealership near the grocery
store and see what they had. Well, they had exactly the right van
for us. It's a 2002 Toyota Sienna. It had 87,000 miles on it. It's
only had one owner. And most importantly... it's a nice color blue
and it has a CD player! ;-)
It was a price we could afford, and the salesman was not at all
pushy. So we were able to buy our minivan before the new baby
came! Now we will all fit into one car. We've been having a lot of
fun on Tirah's maternity leave, just driving around in it.

On the 21st, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" arrived in the
mail! We spent the next week reading it together, which was another
nice thing to be doing on Tirah's maternity leave. Great book by the
way! I don't know how many of you have read Harry Potter, but Tirah
and I are pretty big fans. The last book in the series definitely
lived up to our expectations for sheer entertainment as well as
philosophical and spiritual value.

I've sort of been taking a vacation since Tirah's been on maternity
leave, so I don't have much to report on the music front. Although I
almost have my next piece of sheet music available ("Surrender" from
the "Peace of Heaven" album). I'll keep you posted.

Coming up soon... I will be reporting the birth of our third child!
Stay tuned for that!

Have a great day!

Love,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Baby.

Keal Family Letter, July 2007

2008-03-11T15:49:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Tirah is now in week 36 of 40. By next month, the baby will be just
about done and ready to take out of the oven. Currently we are
working hard to keep the baby turned the right way around. The baby
has been breech (head up) for much of the last month. Tirah has been
lying up-side-down, using hot and cold on her tummy, using
moxibustion (or "socks combustion" as I like to call it) which is an
Eastern method for turning a breech baby in which you hold a
smoldering "cigar" near the pregnant woman's baby toes, which is
supposed to trigger pressure points that turn the baby around. How
did they figure that sort of thing out? Then there's also
homeopathy, and chiropractic, and not to mention a daily dose of
prayer. For some reason, the baby doesn't seem to want to just
stay head down yet. Hopefully everything that we're doing will
convince it otherwise. As of this writing, I believe the baby is
head down. Keep us in your prayers!

Cirdan turned three on the 13th last month. Unfortunately he was
sick on his birthday. We went ahead and celebrated that day (because
it was Tirah's day off), but it was not quite the fun day that we
were hoping it would be. We gave Cirdan a little drum set, which he
now likes, but wasn't impressed by on his birthday. Fortunately
Cirdan got a whole bunch of kid's TV shows on tape from Mormor, which
was just perfect for a sick-day/birthday. Thanks Mom!

Cirdan entered the realm of "three-year-old-boy" with a bang. You'd
think he got his first major dose of testosterone, because he
suddenly has become very violent. He just loves to hit and whack
and kick. Which is fine when it's a soccer ball, but not when it's
his sister's head. Our methods of punishment (the naughty room)
don't seem to be having an effect on him anymore. He's still the
sweet little Cirdan that he's always been, but he definitely has a
Jekyll and Hyde aspect to his nature now.

Thea keeps growing up. Her current struggle is with being too
bossy. But over-all I think it's just a manifestation of the fact
that she loves people, and loves to be very involved in whatever the
people around her are doing.

Just this morning, I took the kids to the Younger Children's Service
at our church, and for the first time they got very involved with the
service. In the past, they would just sit on my lap and ask me over
and over when it was going to be over. But this time (for some
reason) they both decided that they were going to sit up front on the
little chairs (without me), and they sat nicely and listened to the
minister, and even answered and asked questions. It was really
cool! I was very proud of them.

Tirah has 11 more days of work (including today) until her maternity
leave. Her last day is the 24th of July. It's definitely been
getting harder for her as the days get hotter. There's no air
conditioning in the Hawk Mountain Bookstore. Over-all though, it's
been a good experience for Tirah to be working while being pregnant.
It certainly helps that it's a job that she really likes. But beyond
that, it's actually a preferable situation to the one I'm in as the
stay-at-home parent. We were realizing the other day that our jobs
are actually sort of similar. We're both managers. Tirah's job
involves telling other people what to do. My job also involves
telling other people what to do. The only difference is... my people
DON'T LISTEN TO ME! And so I spend a good portion of my day
running around after toddlers, picking them up when they're naughty
or hurt, breaking up fights, getting yelled at when they're mad.
It's certainly not an environment conducive to rest. We're actually
really glad that Tirah is not in my position while being enormously
pregnant. When people find out that Tirah is working while being
pregnant, they often say things like: "Oooh, that's gotta be
rough." And our response lately is something like, "Actually it's
better than the alternative!"

On Father's Day this year, Tirah gave me a wonderful present. She
took the day off of work, to give me the day off! It's been a while
since I've had a day off (that wasn't still a parenting day). I got
to play around with some new music software that I got. It was
glorious!

We got to be in the June 19th pageant this year in our church, which
was fun. Our family along with another family was representing the
Children of Israel in the wilderness in the story of the Lord giving
the manna. The nice thing was, just as the kids were getting bored
with the whole pageant thing, the angels came with the manna, which
was real bread, and the kids got to actually eat it! It actually
worked out really well, because before the manna arrived, our kids
were complaining, just like the children of Israel were in the
story. Good job kids! Great acting!

On the 23rd of June, we went to Gordon McQueen's 40th birthday party,
which was a lot of fun. I was asked to write and read a funny poem
in his honor, so I did a spoof of the Night Before Christmas. It
was a lot of fun. It was one of the first social situations where I
was able to relax a little bit, as a parent. The kids are getting
old enough now, that they don't need constant supervision. It was nice.

On the 24th was our 6th anniversary, which we celebrated on the 27th
because that was Tirah's day off. We went out for a family
breakfast in the morning, and then took the kids to the Lehigh Valley
Zoo, and then to lunch at Wegmans, and then we went swimming in the
afternoon. After the kids were in bed, Tirah and I ate our
traditional anniversary dinner: Chicken, Fresh Mozzarella, and French
Bread, with Sparkling Apple Cider. It was a good day.

The July 4th celebration here in Kempton was also a lot of fun. It
was a nice cool day... overcast and windy. Perfect for pregnant
ladies. My A Cappella group sang four songs including the Star
Spangled Banner, and Taps. That evening we got to hang out with Abby
and Malcolm, and Thane. We had a nice barbecue and did sparklers in
between the raindrops.

The sad news is that my Grandpa Keal just passed into the spiritual
world this month on July 5th. He was 92. However, it's very nice to
know that he is out of pain now. I can just picture him running and
jumping and doing a little jig up in Heaven. And I'm sure he's
already making the angels laugh with his jokes. As one Keal leaves
this world, a new one will be entering it soon.

This weekend, Tirah and I are heading up to the mountains of New York
state for a Marriage Retreat led by Lori and John Odhner. It's a
Marriage Support Support Weekend (for people who are actively
involved in Marriage Support) We are very much looking forward to
it. It will be a nice little vacation just before the baby comes.
And made possible by Jori and Abby who are watching our kids while we
are away! Thanks you two!

The jury is still out on this house that we hope to rent in
Virginville. The landlords apparently are in no hurry to get someone
to move in. It's been a month since we turned in our application.
But they still have a toilet to install, and a garage to clean out.
We're just hoping that we'll be the only ones left when they get
around to calling people!

So that's about all for now. Next month... the baby will be coming!

Have a great day everyone!

Love,

- Solomon (30), Tirah (27), Thea (4), Cirdan (3), and Baby Keal
(almost 0).

Keal Family Letter, June 2007

2008-03-11T15:47:00.002-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Tirah is now in week 31 of 40. The baby is roughly a foot long, and
weighs about 3 and 1/2 pounds. The baby is capable of opening it's
eyes. It has hair on it's head, and toenails on it's toes. It's
brain is capable of memory, learning, and processing sights and sounds.

Thea and Cirdan have really enjoyed the monthly visits by our
midwife, Robin, and they can't wait to hear the "Baby's Heart Beep!"
as they call it.

Cirdan will be turning 3 on the 13th of this month! He tends to be
covered in "owies" lately, because he's a rough-and-tumble little boy.

Thea has lately become fascinated with "what's in our bodies."
Periodically she will ask me, "Papa, what is in our bodies?" and I
will then tell her as much as I can remember from Anatomy classes in
school. She already knows about the heart, the lungs, the brain,
the stomach, bones, muscles, nerves, drums (eardrums), and even
things like tendons. It's really fun to watch her little brain soak
up this information and try to process it.

We had our American Flag out for Memorial Day, and the kid's
mispronunciation of the name of the flag was very profound: They
were trying to say "It's an American Flag!" but it came out: "It's A
Miracle Flag!"

There's a robin's nest up in the rafters of our back porch, and last
month we watched four baby robins hatch, and grow, and be fed, and
finally fledge (fly from their nest.) Me and the kids actually got
to observe 3 of the 4 baby robins leave the nest and take their very
first flight. The whole process is so common and yet still so
miraculous to watch. Tirah and I found ourselves sitting on the back
porch just watching the robin's nest, like it was the most
fascinating TV show! I actually have some video footage of Thea and
Cirdan following a little baby robin around the yard, who had just
flown from the nest. Because they had grown up on our porch, they
weren't really afraid of us. One of these days, I'll get around to
posting that video for y'all to see.

We've been house hunting this past month, and we found a wonderful
little rental house in Virginville (about 4 miles away from
Lenhartsville), that would be just perfect for us. It's a three bed-
room house, with a fully enclosed-insulated-finished back porch,
which would be perfect for my studio. It's got a large yard, and
it's in a nice quite little town. And it's a price that we can just
afford.
We sent in our application, so now we just have to wait, and hope
that they like us! We're very much hoping that we'll get it,
because we really like it! And if we do get it, we could be moving
this month!

We celebrate our 6th anniversary at the end of this month! We're in
the middle of our second round of Marriage Support Group, which is
very much fun, and very enlightening and useful.

And that's about all for now!

We hope you are all doing well.

Have a great day!

- Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Baby Keal.

Keal Family Letter, May 2007

2008-03-11T15:47:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

The Spring-Time weather has arrived here in Lenhartsville! We are spending most of our days outside now; playing in the swings, digging in the sand-box, helping Meemaw, and Deedaw in the garden, going on walks, eating meals outside.

Tirah is now in week 27 of 40. The baby is the size of an ear of corn. Tirah now weighs more than I do. She's a very tired Mama! We are all looking forward to maternity leave in July. But she has more energy that she probably would if she wasn't taking Body Balance right now. (An aloe-vera, sea vegetable liquid supplement). In fact we're all taking it, and it's helping all of us. I'm no longer taking Sam-E for depression, and I seem to have a higher tolerance for sugar. Pretty cool stuff.

Thea and Cirdan are doing well, although they both have a "night-time" cough right now. Around Easter we took the kids up to Hawk Mountain for a "Raptor Egg Hunt," in which a whole bunch of little kids got a short and humorous lecture about birds of prey, and then we all marched off into the woods to hunt for little wooden "raptor eggs" that the "Spring-Time Raptor" had hidden for them. It was a lot of fun... except that it was snowing!

A couple of weeks ago I took the kids (with Tamar and Dandridge and family) to the Lehigh Valley Zoo, which we had never been to before. It's a nice size Zoo for little kids.

On May 1st, Tirah and the kids got to participate in a May Pole Dance at Gray Glenn's.

We started up our second round of Marriage Support Group here in Kempton last Tuesday night (May 1st). We may even have a slightly larger group than we had the first time, which is very exciting for us, because at first it was looking like we might not have enough people at all. But we had several last minute couples joining. It's a lot of fun to be doing it again!

Oh, some exciting news: We paid off our Subaru Outback! (Thanks to our tax refund!) Which is perfect timing, because we are about to out-grow it! Once the baby is born, we won't all fit into the wagon. So we will be looking for a mini-van pretty soon.

We also may be moving within the next 12 months. Not only are we out-growing our car, but our shared household as well. After considering all the possible options, it seems like the best plan for everyone will be for us to find an apartment that we can afford and also fit into. So the house hunting has begun! I'm actually hoping that the house next-door will become available for rent soon, and we can simply move one house over. It would be less of a culture-shock for the kids, since Meemaw and Deedaw will be right next-door. The ideal will be to find a place that has three bed-rooms, plus a space for my studio (essentially a four-bedroom place) for something that we can afford. We'll see what happens. The Lord is in charge.

If any of you want sheet music for my piano compositions, please let me know which ones you would like. "Star Gazing" is done and available here: http://www.lulu.com/solomonkeal. And I'm working on "Surrender," from my latest album.

Roxanne and I will be starting to record the flute and piano album this month! Yay!

Well, that's all for now. Gotta go back outside!

Love,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Baby Keal.

Keal Family Letter, April 2007

2008-03-11T15:46:00.002-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy Easter everyone! "I'm... dreaming... of a white... Easter?" Yes indeed, here in Kempton we had a white Easter. It was flurrying on and off all day. We didn't have any accumulation, except up at Hawk Mountain where they got a visible dusting on the ground, until the sun burnt it off. Strange Spring-time. Maybe it's due to Global Warming... or... something....

Tirah is in week 24 of her pregnancy with our third child. The baby is 8.5 inches long, weighs 1.25 pounds, and is the size of a carrot... at least so says AmericanBaby.com. The baby has been kicking up a storm lately. It's always fun to get those first sensory signs of life.

Also according to AmericanBaby.com, "In his watery kingdom, my child can hear sounds -- Tirah's beating heart, stomach growls, and even a muffled distortion of our voices. He is sensitive to loud noises, which can startle him or cause him to blink or jump. He is alert and stretching his limbs, kicking, gripping, and following the umbilical cord with his hands."

He is only a "he" this week. Next week I'm sure he'll be a "she." At least that's what AmericanBaby.com says. :-)

Cirdan is a rambunctious little "almost-3-year-old." He'll be turning 3 in June. His favorite words right now are "No!" and "Why?" "No" of course is just the default reaction of any "almost-3-year-old." If you say anything to Cirdan, he'll say "No" first to cover his bases. He can always say "Yes" a split second later if he decides that he actually agrees with us, but it's better to be safe than sorry, I guess.

And "Why?" is really just another way of saying, "Tell me more about that... I'll let you know when I've lost interest in that topic."

Cirdan: "Hey Papa, there's a leaf on that tree!"

Me: "Yes there is."

Cirdan: "Why?"

Of course the easy answer is, "Because that's the way the Lord made it." or even simply, "Because." ...as if that's really an answer.

Then of course the reply is, "Why?"

What Cirdan really wants me to do is to say: "Because trees use a process called photosynthesis in which they use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. The reason that the leaf is green is because of a pigment called..."

Cirdan: "Papa, I'm hungry."

Me: "O.K. Let's go get lunch."

Thea actually operates on the same definition of "Why?" as well. But she can go for much longer before she loses interest in what I'm saying. It can actually be a fun way to try to remember everything I learned in my years of school. I also believe that it's just a good way to parent... to let our children know that we actually want to communicate with them.

Speaking of remembering what I learned in school, Tirah and I are reading Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything," and last night we were reading the chapter on Cells, and he said that it's been estimated that we lose 500 brain cells an hour! No wonder I'm so... I'm so... (what's the word?)... so.... Dumb!

Along with "No!" and "Why?" some of Cirdan's other favorite words are... unrepeatable. What is it with kids and potty talk!? They think that the word "Poopy" is the funniest thing they have ever heard in their short lives. Tirah and I struggle with knowing how to parent them in this situation, because it seems like our reaction to their potty talk just makes it even more funny for them. They know that they're not supposed to say certain words, and if they mumble them under their breath, and we catch them at it, they are amazingly clever at weaseling out of it.

Me: "Cirdan! Don't say that! That's rude!"

Cirdan: "Papa, I was just talking about Whinnie the Pooh... in his pants!"

Cirdan loves to walk around the house saying words like "Poofy!" or "Goopy!" or "Chicken Coup!" or "Basketball Hoop!" Partly because he knows it gets our attention, but also partly because he genuinely thinks those words are funny because of what they sound like.

Cirdan even knows how to spell a few words!... but only words that start with the letter "p." He'll walk around shouting, "Pig starts with PEEEEEE!" Crazy kid!

Thea has become a wonderful little helper lately! She is in her element when she is helping us with something.
I'm in the middle of reading a great book called "You Cant' Make Me... But I Can Be Persuaded." by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias. It's about Parenting Strong-Willed Children. It's a great book for me to read, because it describes very accurately and with warm affection and respect, the personality type that both Thea and Tirah fit into. Strong Willed Children (or SWCs) are the people that change the world!... in both bad AND good ways. Reading this book has been a great window into the minds of not only my 4 year old daughter, but also my wife of almost 6 years. It's been a lot of fun, and amazingly useful.

Basically I need to learn how to let Thea have SOME control, and then she's a happy camper. I need to ask her opinion, I need to give her reasonable choices. (For example: "Eat your food, or go to the Naughty Room!" is not a reasonable choice) I need to learn to be O.K. with her facing the consequences of some things in order for her to learn. I need to be flexible enough to let her be in charge of some aspect of her life, that I would prefer to be in charge of. Basically I need to learn to cooperate with her as much as I want her to cooperate with me. It's been wonderful to see the change in our relationship based on these principles.

Thea saw me reading the book the other day and asked me what I was reading, so I said,
"It's a book that helps me learn how to be a better Papa."
And with a very excited look on her face she said,
"Oooh! I want a book that helps me learn how to be a better Thea!"

Cirdan is not as much of a SWC. For example the other day I heard (word-for-word) my kids say:

Thea: "Papa, I'm going up stairs with you."
Cirdan: "Papa, can I go up stairs with you?"

That's the difference between Thea and Cirdan in a nutshell.

Tirah's been feeling very tired lately. She's carrying around a lot of extra weight. But she was telling me that there is a good aspect of her working right now, which is that she has something to focus on all day, other than her enormous tummy. With her previous pregnancies, her life seemed to revolve around her pregnancy, while this time, she can focus on her work, and not get caught up in the negative aspects of pregnancy. We are, however, very much looking forward to the time when she goes on maternity leave.

Last month I turned 30! I had a very nice birthday party. Tirah took me out to Outback restaurant with most of my family. And then we went to Roxanne's house for brownie sundaes. It was a good birthday.

On March 31st, my 7 part men's a cappella group had a gig singing for the General Church Treasurer's Banquet here in Kempton. It went really well. We sang four very entertaining songs, which were: "Spam" (by Moose Butter), our own "revised" version of a classic Barbershop song called "Aura Lee," a very appropriate Treasurer's Meetings song called "Everybody Said," and a nice sort of campfire song called "Sweet Potato." We even got the event captured on video, and I spent some time creating a nice little DVD of the gig using Apple's iMovie and iDVD.

Some exciting news for my music business: First: I have a new website! Go check it out at the same address: http://www.solomonkeal.com. The photo at the top is from a place called Loon Lake in New York state, where we vacationed once. The photo was taken by somebody in my family (I can't remember who) and it was enhanced by Elise Genzlinger. She also nicely combined that photo with a portrait photo which is on the About page. I then sent all that on to Steve Simons who designed a very cool website which I think will be much more user-friendly and able to do what I want it to do.

Second: I now have a piece of sheet music available for one of my compositions! The sheet music is for the piece, "Star Gazing," from the album "Thoughts and Affections." You can purchase and download this sheet music by clicking on this link: http://www.lulu.com/solomonkeal, or by clicking on any of the link for sheet music on my website.

If you have a piece of mine that you would like to see in sheet music form, please let me know. I've started assembling a Request List, and I will be notating my music on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Well, that's about all for this month. Whoa, the month is almost half over anyway!

I hope you all are doing well.

Love,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Baby Keal

Keal Family Letter, March 2007

2008-03-11T15:46:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy March to you all. We had pretty much snow here in
Lenhartsville this past month. Unfortunately enough to shut down
the highway near our house. But fortunately enough to build a
snowman in the back yard with Thea and Cirdan. Well, actually a
snowlady... she was wearing a flowery sun hat, and a purple scarf.
The kids had a lot of fun with it... O.K. so did I... O.K. maybe I
had more fun with it than the kids did.
It got a little warmer towards the end of the month; warm enough to
rain and melt a lot of snow, and get our hopes up about Spring... but
now it's getting colder again, and it's currently flurrying outside
my window.

So starting with the youngest and going to the oldest:

Baby Keal is 18 weeks old (in the womb). He or she is 5.5 inches
long, and weighs 5.5 oz, just big enough to cradle in the palm of
one's hand. Fingerprints and footprints are starting to form on his
or her tiny little feet and fingers. Tirah has felt a few tiny
kicks already, and has started to notice that the baby seems to "wake
up" right as we are settling down for bed. The baby has been the
most behaved little kid I have ever been around. He or she doesn't
scream when he or she doesn't get his or her way. He or she
finishes all of his or her supper. Over-all, he or she doesn't get
into too much trouble. An absolute gem of a kid!

Moving up: Cirdan is 2 and 2/3. His favorite things right now are:
Dinosaurs, soccer, and cars. His favorite dinosaur is the
Triceratops, or "Top-ceratops" as he calls it. I certainly get my
exercise when I play soccer with Cirdan, which consists of running up
and down the hall way while kicking, throwing, or carrying his soccer
ball. And if I put two matchbox cars in his hands, he will be off
in his own little world for hours. Cirdan is learning to
communicate better everyday, while still retaining that adorable 2-
year-old comprehension of language. The other day Tirah was reading
a book about animals to the kids. They got to a page which had a
picture of a fox on it. Thea said, "That's a fox." and Cirdan
responded with, "No Thea, it's just one Fok!" One fok, two fox...
that makes sense!

I've discovered a perpetual motion machine! Here's how to build
it: You take one 2-year-old boy who loves to ask, "Why?" over and
over again. And you put him in the same room with a 4-year-old girl
who loves to talk non-stop... and boom! you've got a perpetual
motion machine. It's great!

Thea is 4 years old. She is quite the amazing little girl. Her
latest thing is that she keeps getting better at singing harmony to
songs. Tirah and I always sing lullabies to the kids before bed, and
we usually sing two-part harmony; Tirah on the melody, and me on the
harmony. Thea has been soaking this in for a while now. She
eventually started learning to sing my harmony (an octave or two up),
and would be able to sing along with me. Now, she has progressed to
the point where she makes up her own harmony, and we end up singing 3-
part harmony with our 4-year old daughter every night during
lullabies! She doesn't always get it right, but more often than not
she does, and she makes it up! This third part is not something
that we taught her... she just hears where the right notes should
be! Last night, totally out of the blue, she surprised us at the
end of one lullaby by intentionally singing harmony that created
suspension (where her note moved over three notes to create a
suspended chord which then resolved into the final major chord)!
That's the sort of thing you hear in classical pieces! It's very cool!

Thea has (I think finally) stopped taking naps. This means that I
have to switch my music time to the evenings because I don't get it
as much during naps anymore. Sometimes she will play happily by
herself, but she's a very social "Quality Time" little girl, so
during Cirdan's nap I try to spend more time playing with her. We
also might start putting her to bed at night a little later than
Cirdan. She often keeps him awake with fun games, chatter, and
uproarious laughter. We think we might try having Cirdan's bedtime
at 8:00 and Thea's at 8:30. Plus that gives Thea a little more
Quality Time with us, and especially with Mama.

Tirah is more and more feeling the weight of the baby. Morning
sickness is not a problem anymore, in fact she has lately been
craving meat, which is something that used to make her sick a few
months ago. Tirah is essentially working two jobs: helping a book
store grow, and helping a little baby grow... at the same time.
Understandably, she gets very tired. We are also starting to
wonder if Tirah suffers from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder),
because we've started to notice that she often gets the blues in the
winter, so we are very much looking forward to Spring.

Tirah has been doing some great things at Hawk Mountain. She began a
program in which Hawk Mountain features monthly events throughout the
non-migration season. She's had two events so far: The Snowflake
Flurry in January, and Feed the Birds in February. These events were
designed to get families to come to Hawk Mountain, even when the
birds aren't flying as much. For the Snowflake Flurry, Tirah read a
book aloud to children, about snowflakes, and then taught people how
to make some really cool snowflake patterns. This past month she
read a children's book about Bird Beaks, and then helped people make
Pine Cone Birdfeeders. While the first event was a little slower,
the second event noticeably boosted the bookstore sales, and both
events were written up in local newspapers, complete with a picture
of my beautiful wife! Very cool stuff!

Tirah and I attended the Caring For Marriage Conference in Bryn Athyn
this past month. http://www.caringformarriage.org. We ran a
workshop on Marriage and Depression, which went very well. We also
sang some of our songs for the Sunday night celebration at the end of
the conference. The conference was a ton of fun! And with a new
baby on the way, we decided it was time to take a second honeymoon,
so we left the kids at home with Meemaw and Deedaw for that weekend,
and we rented a hotel room for three nights! It was luxurious! Not
something we can really afford, but if we have to go into debt for
the sake of a healthy marriage, I'm all for that! It's all part of
the philosophy that we try to live; of spending as much time, energy
and money on our marriage, as we did on our courtship and wedding.
The last day in Bryn Athyn was also Tirah's birthday, so it worked
nicely for celebrating that too.

So once again, we're doing a "No TV Diet" for a month. We often get
into bad habits of watching too much TV, so we put the TV away for a
month to focus on more important things, and hopefully get into a
better habit with our movie watching. When we do it successfully,
we often end up not watching TV for about two months just because of
the good habit we got ourselves into!

My music business is doing pretty well. With the baby on the way
this year, I don't know if I will manage to produce another album by
the end of this year. But I do hope to start producing sheet music
very soon. I have the notation software now, I just need to learn
how to use it. I've had some really cool for-hire studio projects
lately. Somebody hired me to create a soundtrack from an older
movie, for which the soundtrack was unavailable. With my audio
sequencing software I was able to cut out dialogue and put together a
really fun soundtrack, edited straight from the movie! And I got
paid for it!

In less than a week, I will be turning 30! Although I don't know
why I'm telling all of you that... the "old man" teasing has already
begun!

At one point in my twenties, I made myself a goal to be doing music
full-time by the time I was 30. So while it's not supporting the
family yet, I'm at least on that road heading in the right direction,
and that makes me feel good.

Have a great day everyone!

Love from,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Baby Keal.

Keal Family Letter, February 2007

2008-03-11T15:45:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy February to you all. Here in Lenhartsville it is cold enough
to make a polar bear think twice about getting out of bed. It was
apparently 0 degrees Fahrenheit at some point this morning. We had
about an inch of snow a few days ago, and it's still on the ground;
the sun can't touch it.

Our kids have fallen in love with "snowmen" this winter, largely due
to the fact that they have watched both "Frosty the Snowman," and the
movie version of Raymond Briggs' "The Snowman." They keep asking
when they will be able to go outside and make a snowman.
Unfortunately we haven't had enough snow to make a snowman. We've
had a few dustings of snow, but nothing big enough to make a snowman
with. The kids are always a little disappointed. Whenever the
flurries start they get their hopes up, but when I tell them, "it's
just a dusting," they resign themselves to just watching out the window.

The other day I overheard this conversation: Cirdan said, "Thea,
look! It's snowing!" And Thea said, "No Cirdan, it's not snow,
it's just dust!"

I'm always fascinated by the way kids will sometimes say things.
It's a little glimpse into their tiny understandings. The things
that come out of my kids' mouths will range from very funny to
profoundly poetic. The other day, Thea was reading a book in which
there was a picture of someone who was obviously very sad and crying
about something. But she couldn't see the tears in the picture. So
she turned to me and said, "But Papa, I can't see the drops of his
sadness."

Thea just celebrated her fourth birthday on the 2nd. We had a very
nice party. She requested "black cake with white icing," which is
what we had. We decided that when Thea turned 4, she would be done
with her binky (pacifier). We have been hyping this up for a couple
months now, telling her that she will be such a big girl that she
won't "need" her binky anymore. Fortunately, it seems to be
working. There was only one time, during a nap time after she turned
4, that she told me that she wanted to be 3 again. But over all,
she seems to have been able to kick the habit; cold turkey.

Cirdan is still a hopeless binky addict. If he manages to get
upstairs without us knowing, he heads straight for his bed, grabs his
binky, and hides behind the rocking chair, sucking to his heart's
content. It could be a struggle to get him off the binky. I don't
know if they make binky patches, but we'll have to look for
something. Maybe we can enroll him in Pacifier Addicts Anonymous.

Here are some more classic quotes from Thea: She loves to wash her
hands, and she spends a long time doing it. Which was why it made
perfect sense that she told me, "The soap was very dirty, so I had to
clean it."

Thea is an "Acts of Service" kind of person. (One of Gary Chapman's
Five Love Languages) Which means that one of the most common
phrases you will hear come out of her mouth is: "Can I help you?"
I think she's got a future in customer service.

Here's another one: Thea was in the naughty room because she was
screaming. From the other room, I hear these words reverberate
around the house: "I"M NOT GOING TO SCREAM ANYMORE!!!!"

Tirah and I just recently watched the first two seasons of the Cosby
Show on DVD. That has got to be some of the best quality
entertainment on the face of the planet! It's hysterical, it's
clean, and it set's a good example for parents, spouses, and
children. I've developed a new slogan for myself, as the stay-at-
home parent: Whenever I'm faced with a situation where I don't know
what to do as a parent, I ask myself, "What would Bill Cosby do?"
Well, first of all, just thinking about Bill Cosby get's me in a
better mood, which helps to clear my emotions. And second: what Bill
Cosby would do is he would make somebody laugh, which helps to clear
everyone else's emotions. There have been several times now, where
I've turned my children's screaming into laughing, just by making an
idiot of myself! And that's not even that hard to do! The man is
brilliant!

The Cosby Show is also great for supporting the idea of a strong,
healthy marriage as the foundation for a healthy family. It has
often been said that Cliff and Clair Huxtable are the most romantic
married couple in the history of television, and I would have to
agree. Bill Cosby (as Cliff Huxtable) sets the example for all
husbands as a man who passionately loves his wife, and constantly
gives her attention and affection. They make marriage look like so
much fun! One of my favorite quotes from the show is Cliff talking
to Clair: "You are a genius! And I'm a genius because I married
you!" If more husbands said that to their wives on a regular basis,
there would be less divorce.

As our children get older, Tirah and I think more and more about how
we want to raise them, what we want to teach them, and what we hope
to equip them with. Tirah and I just finished reading Jeremiah and
Lamentations, and we were saddened by the descriptions of
children being killed and the fact that the great Jerusalem couldn't
protect them from the enemy. We started wondering what that meant
for us. Our church teaches that "children" in the Bible represent
innocence, and that "Jerusalem" represents the Church, and that it's
"walls" represent the truth.

So in this story, the church became corrupt and it's understanding of
the truth fell apart, and therefore innocence was no longer
protected. And yet when the church was good, the truth was able to
protect innocence. At least that's our rudimentary understanding of
the story. But what really struck us was this idea of "truth
protecting innocence." We seem to have this assumption in our
culture that in order to protect innocence you need to hide the
truth! "We shouldn't tell our kids about that because we want to
preserve their innocence." And yet the Bible seems to be teaching us
that it is truth, not ignorance, that protects innocence!

This fits with the imagery of the story. We might be inclined to
think of the walls of Jerusalem as something that simply hides the
enemy from the children within, (and hides the children from the
enemy without). Or we could think of the walls of Jerusalem as a way
of gaining an elevated view of the surrounding armies, and thereby
knowing how better to defeat them!

We also have to look at the word "innocence." Swedenborg defines
innocence as "the willingness to be led by the Lord." (HH 341) It's
the explanation of truth, not the hiding of truth, that preserves
this. I see confirmation of this with my kids every day. If my kids
ask me a question that is a little beyond their comprehension, I'm
presented with a choice: I could either hide the truth, ("The stork
brings babies!") or I could try to explain the truth to them. In
my experience, even a little 3-year-old knows when I'm not telling
her the whole truth. And when I do that, I can see the "willingness
to be led" start to fade from her eyes. It's the truth that
preserves innocence! What a wake-up call for us parents!

Speaking of the church: my sister Roxanne introduced me to this
great website called GoodSearch.com. It's a search engine that
donates a portion of it's revenue to the charity of your choice.
Our local church school (The Kempton New Church School) is now added
to it's database. It's pretty cool! Go check it out: http://
www.goodsearch.com.

Tirah and I are looking forward to the "Caring For Marriage"
Conference later this month. I'll tell you how it went next time.

Well that's all for now.

Have a great day everyone!

Love,

Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Baby Keal.

Keal Family Letter, January 2007

2008-03-11T15:44:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family. Happy New Year!

I hope you all had very nice Christmas and New Year celebrations.
We enjoyed the holidays very much.

On the 10th of December we had our Keal Family Christmas party, but
this year it was with no kids! Only grown-ups! Grown-up food, grown-
up conversation, grown-up noise levels... it was glorious! Part of
the reason we did that was because this year was the first year in
which we celebrated Christmas as just a nuclear family. Up until
now, Christmas's have been either a Keal family Christmas (My mom and
dad, and their descendants) or an Echols family Christmas (Tirah's
mom and dad, and their descendants). This year, most of Christmas
day consisted of only me and Tirah and our kids. It was simply
nice. But more on that later.

On December 11th, we went to a Christmas party at Lori and John
Odhner's, which was lots of fun. Then that Friday, we had the
Kempton Christmas Sing, in which our Men's A Cappella group sang some
of the songs featured on the album we made. The album (called "Earth
Today Rejoices!" with all proceeds going to the Kempton Church) sold
very well this season! Then the week before Christmas we went
caroling with our kids, and Matt Synnestvedt and his girls. It was
short and sweet, as our kids are still a bit young for caroling.
Then there was the Tableaux and the Christmas Eve service, which were
both very nice.

During the one of those services, while I was holding a wiggling
Cirdan in my lap, and wondering if it was really worth it to drag my
kids to church, something occurred that hinted to me that my kids
actually hear a small amount of the sermon. The minister was
talking about the Lord being our Savior, and Cirdan immediately
turned to me, and in not-quite-a-whisper said, "Papa! He said 'See
the Savior in His Temple!'" And then later on, during the same
sermon, while the mister was talking about the Lord being born in a
manger, Cirdan turned to me again and declared, "Papa! He said 'Away
in a Manger!'" Our kids, you see, think in music. A trait that I
can't say I'm not proud of. They compare things by means of songs
that they know. And often that's the only thing they really know
about a subject. When ever Cirdan sees a picture of Santa Claus, he
turns to me and says, "Papa! Look! It's 'Santa Claus is Coming to
Town!'"... that being his full name, you see.

Our kids are growing up to be classic children. The other day, I
heard Thea complain to me about Cirdan: "Papa! He's touching the
air! I don't like that!" Despite the classic nature of that
quote, I should explain the situation in Thea's defense. Cirdan had
been hitting Thea. So while telling Cirdan to stop hitting Thea, I
also told Thea to move away from Cirdan (not on obvious solution for
a 3 year old, I guess.) So she did move away from Cirdan. Cirdan
meanwhile kept hitting the air in Thea's general direction. Thus the
quote above.

Cirdan's latest favorite saying is: "But Papa, I can't, because I'm a
little boy!" For example: "Cirdan, please finish your lunch."
"Papa, I can't, because I'm a little boy." "Cirdan, stop hitting
your sister!" "Papa, I can't, because I'm a little boy." I
imagine his two-year-old reasoning goes something like this: "Thea
gets to do things that I can't because she's a big girl, so then I
shouldn't have to do things I don't want to do, because I'm a little
boy." ... or something.

We had an interesting situation this year. For a long time, we could
not find our Christmas ornaments! Things were getting re-organized
in the attic, and they somehow got moved to a strange location. So
we ended up having a Christmas tree with only lights on it, for most
of December. Which actually turned out nicely, because by the time
we found our ornaments, we decided that we would just wait, and
decorate the tree on Christmas Eve, which is apparently a Swedish
tradition anyway.

We've been wanting to incorporate more Swedish traditions into our
Christmas celebration, because of Tirah's Swedish heritage. To that
end, Tirah made Cardamom (or Cardamon) bread on Christmas Eve, for us
to eat as Christmas breakfast. It's a sort of a coffee-cake bread
which you dip in your coffee (or other morning beverage). The meal
is apparently called Coffee Duppa (spelling?). It was the first
time we had made this bread, and for whatever reason, we ended up
staying up until 2:00 in the morning on Christmas Day in order to
finish this bread! But it was fun anyway. Tirah and I sat on the
couch, half-asleep, watching some movie (I don't remember what it
was!), waiting for the timer to ding!

Tirah and I gave each other our presents on Christmas Eve, that way
leaving the entirety of Christmas Day for the kids. Christmas Day
was fun, crazy, and busy. We opened our stockings, then had Coffee
Duppa, then Family worship, and then got to work on presents. We
ended up getting our kids, way too many presents! We found a great
discount store called Ollie's, and we ended up buying most of our
presents there. But too many. It took us all day, and part of
Boxing Day to open all of the kid's presents. Now, in all fairness,
that is partly due to the fact that Carl Smith also got way too many
toys for our kids. And then there were presents from my parents,
Tirah's parents, etc. Lot's of presents!

That night, my parents invited us, and Peter and Roxanne's family,
and Carl Smith to Christmas dinner. Then after the kids were in
bed, we played card games. It was a good day. Carl bought us a
little camcorder (digital video camera), which is very cool! So we
video taped Christmas Eve, and parts of Christmas Day. I have video
editing software that came with my computer, which I'm excited to
learn how to use.

One present that Tirah and I got, was a gift card to the movies. I
also had a coupon for Pizza Hut. So a few days after Christmas,
Tirah and I went out for dinner and a movie, and ended up spending
more on gas, then on the actual date! We went to see "Night at the
Museum," which is very entertaining, and highly recommended by us.

On New Year's Eve, Tirah and I were invited over to Peter and
Roxanne's house, and we celebrated the New Year with them and Robert
and Elise Genzlinger. It was a fun night of food and games.

Our biggest news for this year is that we are having another baby!
Tirah is coming up on the end of her 1st trimester, and hopefully
coming to the end of her morning sickness. (Christmas break couldn't
have come at a better time, as it was probably the peak of Tirah's
morning sickness) Hawk Mountain grants up to 3 months of un-paid
maternity leave. The baby is due in the end of July, or early
August. So Tirah will probably be taking July, August, and
September off of work. She has to be back for October, because the
Fall is the Migration season at Hawk Mountain. Life is certainly
quite a ride! We suddenly need to be thinking about the
possibility of a new car, and maybe even moving to a new place, if it
doesn't work to add one more little 'being' to our already full
shared-household. We just recently told our kids about the new
baby, and they are very excited! Thea keeps asking, "Can I hold the
baby, even while I'm a kid?!" Both kids keep asking if the baby
has enough blankets and pillows in Tirah's tummy.

Well, that's about all for now.

Have a great New Year everyone, and may the Lord bless your endeavors.

Love,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Baby Keal

Merry Christmas! 2006

2008-03-11T15:41:00.001-04:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

We didn't send out traditional "snail mail" Christmas cards, so here
is our email Christmas card... complete with a family picture, and a
link to our Singing Christmas Card, where you can hear Thea and
Cirdan singing some songs.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. The spirit of giving that
seems to pervade our often ego-centric culture is refreshing. It
has been fun watching our kids as they slowly catch on to what
Christmas is. Mostly, it seems, they "feel" it more than they
"know" what it is. And whether that excited feeling comes from the
immature wish to get presents, or a spiritual closeness with the
angels, doesn't really matter to me right now, it's just plain fun.

The best way, I've found, to explain Christmas to our kids, is that
it's the Lord's birthday. Thea especially knows what birthdays are,
and so she can imagine the fun ahead as we celebrate that day. (She
keeps asking if there will be cake!) But what is really cute is
watching the kids' reactions to the concept that the Lord was once a
baby! Both Thea and Cirdan really love to see (and hold) the
representations of the Baby Jesus. It never occurred to me before
now, that part of what is special about Christmas for children, is
that it brings the Lord to their level. As adults we know the
importance of picturing God as a Human Being that we can relate
to. Isn't it wonderful then that even children, especially at
Christmas, can find a way to relate to God, and know (feel) that He
understands them. It's amazing to think that Jesus was once a two
year old, and a three year old. Since He was God, and was victorious
over temptation, He must not have thrown temper tantrums. What a
great role model for all toddlers! It's a strange part of Jesus'
life, that we will never really know about. But somehow it's
wonderful to know that it happened.

Of course, most of the time (for the rest of the year), it's
appropriate for children to think of the Lord as a Parent figure.
Someone who will take care of them, and protect them. But then
that's appropriate for us adults too. And that leads me to my next
thought:

One of the ways that I most commonly picture the Lord, is as a sort
of Santa Claus figure. A big, jolly, generous, old
Grandfather! (Not so much the red and white winter gear, just the
face and form.) Someone who takes care of everyone in the whole
world. Sort of like the image of the Lord in Revelation: "He was
wearing a long robe with a gold sash across His chest. His head and
His hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And His eyes were
bright like flames of fire.... and his voice thundered like mighty
ocean waves.... And his face was as bright as the sun in all its
brilliance." (Rev. 1:13-16) But also a little more approachable,
like this: "His eyes, how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little
mouth was drawn up like a bow, and the beard on his chin was as white
as the snow.... He had a broad face and a little round belly, that
shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly. He was chubby and
plump, a right jolly old elf, and I laughed when I saw him, in spite
of myself." (Clement Clarke Moore)

In Revelation, John was afraid of God at first, but I tend to be
drawn more to the idea that God would inspire joy and laughter in
us. "A wink of his eye and a twist of his head soon gave me to know
I had nothing to dread." (Clement C. Moore) "Don't be afraid! I
am the First and the Last.... Look, I am alive forever and ever!"
(Rev. 1:17-18) I like to picture the Lord as a 65 year old Jesus
Christ, Who is in that wonderful Grandparent phase of life, and
spends His time doting upon His children and grandchildren with hugs,
kisses, and gifts. Jesus Christ in His Golden Age of Love and
Wisdom. That's the image of God that I love to pray to. That's the
image of Jesus Christ that I want to be created in the image of.

Tirah and I have been trying to decide what to tell our kids about
Santa. In the Christian world, Santa Claus has traditionally been at
odds with the story of the Lord's birth. But I believe that the Santa
Claus mythology (like many other fairy tales) is sort of like a
parable. And any goodness in stories like that, is ultimately from
God. I like the idea of a generous, omniscient, omnipresent man who
comes into our world from far away, and brings warmth and joy to a
world enveloped in cold (at least in the Northern Hemisphere). To be
clear about our primary focus, we are going to tell our kids that the
gifts in the stockings are from the Lord. But though Santa Claus is
not "THE" Christmas story, I'm not opposed to him being "A" Christmas
story. It's a nice parable.

The Lord is for everyone, for all seasons, and it's wonderful to
imagine Him in all His various forms, from "no hair" to "white
hair!" As He said, "I am the First and the Last."

Happy Birthday Jesus! Thank You for being born a little Child, as
well as being our Divine Parent. Thank You for bringing joy to our
lives!

Love from,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea and Cirdan Keal.

P.S. To listen to Thea and Cirdan singing in our Singing Christmas
Card go to http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/studio and scroll to the
very bottom of the page.

Keal Family Letter, December 2006

2008-03-11T15:40:00.002-04:00

Hello Family and Friends. Happy December to you all.

Christmas time is here! We just got our Christmas tree the other day, and we've put lights on it, and we've set up our nativity scene. We even had snow flurries on Tuesday (the 5th)! We haven't yet put ornaments on the tree, because we... um... because we can't find them! :-) We've been doing some re-organizing in the attic, and things got moved and we currently can't find our Christmas tree ornaments. Don't worry we'll find them, it's just a little funny.

Part of the reorganizing that we're doing in the attic is because we are planning to finish the attic in the next year or so. At some point, Thea and Cirdan are going to need separate rooms. So the plan is that we will finish the attic (leaving cubby-holes in the eaves for storage) and then the attic will be the kids bedroom and playroom. I will then move my studio into what is currently the kid's room, which will be very nice. The room my studio is currently in, is a 9 foot by 9 foot room, just barely big enough for what I have in it. I recently recorded a our 7 part men's A Cappella group in that room, and it was a bit cozy.

The current kid's room (my future studio) is a 15 foot by 12 foot room, which will greatly increase what I will be able to do as a recording studio.
The attic is a 21 foot by 13 foot room, which will be great as a kid's bedroom/playroom. It will also be further from the living room which means that we won't keep the kids awake when we're having meetings, or watching movies.
The room my current studio is in will then become another kid's room, once Thea and Cirdan need separate rooms. Hopefully at that point, one of them will WANT a small 9X9 room!
So those are our renovation plans for the coming year.

Thea and Cirdan have been enjoying the Christmas preparations. Just last night we took them to see the Christmas Village in Bernville PA, which is about 30 minutes from our house. It's sort of like a Christmas Amusement Park for kids. It's the size of a small park, and everything is covered with christmas lights. There are fun little houses with Christmas scenes inside, and Christmas music playing everywhere you go. As an adult, it's a little cheesy, but the kids just ate it up. At the entrance/exit there were two adults dressed in a Christmas Mouse, and Christmas Bear costumes. Thea, and especially Cirdan loved these "people." It was hard to drag Cirdan away, because he kept wanting to wave to them. Both Thea and Cirdan have really gotten into puppets lately. Sometimes I think that if I really want the kids to listen to me, I just have to put a puppet on my hand, and they're all ears.

In a way, entering December feels less stressful than November was. I hope that feeling continues through Christmas. November was full of things like: Getting my new album "Peace of Heaven" done, doing the Bryn Athyn Craft Sale, finishing the Kempton New Church Men's A Cappella album, and then preparing for the Whisperings Concert on December 1st. Now it's just time for Christmas.

The Whisperings concert went fairly well. Because of how the concert flows, the order of artists on the playlist generally goes from least experienced to most experienced. I was the least experienced of all the artists, so I went first. Which in some ways is nice, and in other ways is not. I was very nervous, so I ended up screwing up the first piece that I played. The rest of the concert went better, but it was hard to let go of that rough beginning. All the other artists were very comforting, and told me all their horror stories of messing up in concerts. The more time I have away from the concert, the less I feel bad about it, but it was definitely not how I wanted my first Whisperings Concert to go. But I got to hang out with David Nevue, Greg Maroney, Michael Dulin, and Gary Girouard, who are all great guys, and wonderful pianists. After the concert, Tirah and I went out for coffee with David Nevue, Gary Girouard and his wife. It was lots of fun.

We have two more Marriage Support Group meetings for this group. Sometime next year we'll start it up again, with new people, on a different day of the week. Tirah and I will also be leading a workshop at the Caring For Marriage Conference in Bryn Athyn in February 2007. Our topic will be Marriage and Depression. We are looking forward to finally (hopefully) getting to go to this conference.

We've finally gotten back to a good date night routine. Every other Wednesday night is now date night. It's great to have it set up like that, because it's amazing how - even thought marriage is such a high priority for us - regular maintenance like dates nights often takes a back seat to lower-priority/more-pressing things like getting new tires!

Tirah has vacation time coming up! We're thinking that we might take it sometime in early 2007. We are still trying to figure out what we want to do. We haven't been on vacation since 2002!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving at Peter and Roxanne's new house above Leaser Lake. And we look forward to a very nice quiet family Christmas. Merry Christmas to all of you. May the Lord's peace on earth fill your hearts, and last the whole next year!

Love from,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea, and Cirdan.

Keal Family Letter, November 2006

2008-03-11T15:40:00.001-04:00

Hello Family and Friends. Happy November to you all.

October was a very full month for us. But it was full of good
things, so it seemed to really fly by. (It also helps that I didn't
write the last newsletter until October 12th)

Cirdan is still the cutest little boy that ever walked and talked.
He is such a pleasant little spirit. His only real problem area
right now is that he tends to refuse food at supper time, and often
throws food when he gets angry.

We've learned in our family counseling sessions that Thea is very
likely suffering from Night Terrors. For those that don't know what
Night Terrors are, they are more than just nightmares. Night Terrors
are in the same family of sleep disorders as Sleep Walking. Someone
who is suffering from Night Terrors will look like they are awake
(like with sleep walking), but they are really still asleep. So even
though Thea talks with us, yells at us, screams at us, hits and kicks
us and herself, she is not really awake, and very likely doesn't even
recognize us. Her experience of reality is entirely different from
ours. It has been great to learn more about it, because it's so
much easier to be sympathetic to these midnight temper tantrums when
we know what she's going through.

Potty training is often a factor in the causes of Night Terrors. And
another factor that can contribute to Night Terrors is not getting
enough sleep. As I've said in previous letters, Thea was no longer
taking afternoon naps. Well, after she got her second dose of her
Homeopathic constitutional, she suddenly started asking to take
afternoon naps again, and when that happened, she started having less
Night Terrors. That combined with her Love Tank being filled with
more Quality Time, and us being more sympathetic, seems to be helping
the entire situation.

She definitely still a little 3 and 1/2 year old, red-headed, temper
tantrumy little girl, but we've learned some things to help us deal
with it.

And the kids just got sick yesterday, so we've slipped back a
little. But we've got our Homeopath on call now, and that has been
wonderful in helping us not get worried about relapses of ear-
infections (or "ear connections," as the kids call them.)

My sister Roxanne and her family have moved up to Kempton now. They
bought a beautiful little ranch home over-looking Leaser Lake, which
is about 10 minutes from our house. We are very excited about them
living up here.

Our Marriage Support Group has been going well. We've had four
meetings now, and it's been a lot of fun, and very useful. It's a
lot more work to lead a group, than to merely participate in one, but
it feels great to have actually started it! It will certainly be a
wonderful learning experience!

Tirah's busy season up at Hawk Mountain is beginning to wind down
now, which is nice. With both of us being so busy lately, it's been
hard to find time for us as a married couple. Date nights have
become almost non-existent, and quality time together has been
minimal. All of this has been starting to take it's toll on us.
Even though we're leading a Marriage Support Group, we haven't been
doing the "homework" of maintaining our marriage as much as we
should. (Merely helping other people to maintain their marriages
doesn't count towards maintaining ours) So this month we plan to put
more focus back on our marriage, and be better about regular quality
time, and regular "date nights."

Exciting things are happening with my music business. In a few short
weeks, my next solo piano album "Peace of Heaven" will become
available. One of the first places I will be selling it will be the
Bryn Athyn Craft Sale on November 18th. You will also be able to
buy it online at http://www.solomonkeal.com.

The A Cappella Men's group that I belong to, called: Kempton New
Church Men's A Cappella, will be releasing an album of sacred
Christmas songs to benefit the Kempton New Church. That album will
be called: "Earth Today Rejoices." Stay tuned for more info on that.

I've also been asked by Glencairn Museum to score a half hour video
that is being produced about Glencairn. This is very exciting for
me, because I've always thought it would be fun to get into
soundtracks and film scoring, and this will be my first
opportunity. I will be composing original themes for the
documentary, as well as weaving in tracks from the Glencairn Horns
album.

Also, in just under a month, on Friday December 1st, I will be
performing in my very first Whisperings Concert! For those that
don't know: "Whisperings" is a nation-wide (actually world-wide)
community of solo piano artists. We have our own online radio
station (http://www.solopianoradio.com) and we do group concerts.
This concert will be in Mechanicsburg PA, which is just outside of
Harrisburg (the state capital). If any of you are interested in
coming to the concert check out http://www.solopianoradio.com/
concerts/mechanicsburg.htm. Actually, even if you can't come, go
check out that link anyway, 'cause it has a really cool looking
poster in it.

Well that's about all for now. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Love from,

Solomon, Tirah, Thea, and Cirdan Keal.

Keal Family Letter, October 2006

2008-03-11T15:39:00.000-04:00

Hello Family and Friends. Happy October to you all. I've finally
found some time to write.

The leaves are starting to turn colors here in Kempton. The air is
getting chilly. It's that time of year for wrapping yourself around
a warm cup o' something in the morning and evening. Autumn is one
of my favorite times of year... especially since I no longer have to
go back to school! I think mostly it's the food: Pumpkin pie,
ginger bread with whipped cream, hot chocolate, apple cider... aaahh,
it's a good time of year!

We are all doing well. Cirdan lately has really gotten into playing
drums. He loves to beat on the old tom toms. I like to think that
it's his musical Keal/Echols nature coming out already, but it's
probably just that he's a two-year old boy who is finally ALLOWED to
hit something repeatedly. No, I know it's partly musical too. He
also loves to sing. Very often we will wake up in the morning to
hear him singing songs to himself in the next room. It's very sweet!

Thea is pretty much completely potty trained now, although she still
like company while she's in the bathroom. Cirdan has actually
started potty training as well - just so he's not left out - and he's
actually getting it too!

Thea has been quite the problem-child 3 1/2 year old lately. She
spends most of her time angry, screaming, and miserable. She has a
real problem with authority. She wants to be the boss of everyone,
and she doesn't like to be told that she is wrong, or doing something
naughty. She's also been developing a really rude streak lately.
She will very often talk back to Tirah and I when we're reprimanding
her. She'll just throw the reprimand back in our faces. It makes
some sense after all: children learn by example. And the example
she's been getting from Tirah and I lately is: "No, don't do that!
Be nice to your brother! Don't hit! Give that back!" It's
really no surprise that we hear the same things coming from her.
Thea's latest favorite phrase is "Papa, BE NICE!" What do you say
to that?

Thea not only has problems with the authority of Tirah and I as her
parents, she also has problems with the laws of physics. If she
can't manage to squeeze one more card into her bag, or she can't hang
a blanket on the back of her little chair without it falling over...
then it must be the end of the world.

She throws these anger tantrums, where she doesn't seem to be angry
at anything in specific, just everything in general. At the end of
one of these tantrums (which are usually at least a half an hour,
and often an hour long) even she doesn't remember what started it.
It's like Tirah's temper got mixed with my sensitivity, and BANG!
It's really sad (not to mention very frustrating), and Tirah and I
are struggling to know what to do for her. We've actually been
trying to treat it homeopathically, and we've also recently started
seeing a Family Counselor to learn about how to become better parents
in this sort of situation. We're very hopeful that the counseling
will be a big help.

We've also been trying to treat it emotionally. Lately, Tirah and I
finished reading Gary Chapman's "The Five Love Languages." A
wonderfully enlightening and useful book, and one that I highly
recommend. For anyone who hasn't read it, the five love languages
are: 1. Words of Affirmation, 2. Quality Time, 3. Receiving (or
Giving) Gifts, 4. Acts of Service, and 5. Physical Touch. All
humans need to feel loved in all five of those areas, but part of
what makes us different from one another is that we tend to have a
primary love language that we emotionally "speak" above all the
rest. (We also tend to have a secondary love language, a third,
etc.) Reading this book has not only been wonderful for our
marriage (since the majority of couples don't have the same native
love language), but it's also been very valuable for our roles as
parents.

My primary love language is Words of Affirmation. My "love tank" is
full when I get lots of those. My love tank drains really fast when
I hear critical words, or when somebody makes fun of me in a cruel
way. My secondary love language is Acts of Service. I tend to show
Tirah that I love her by doing things for her: the dishes, the
laundry, etc.

Tirah's primary love language is Quality Time. Her love tank is full
when she gets lots of that. Her love tank drains really fast when
the lower priorities of life take up most of our time. Her
secondary love language is Physical Touch.

Our kids are an interesting mix of our love languages. We've made
guesses as to what our kid's love languages are, based on
observation: Thea's primary love languages seems to be Quality Time
(Tirah's primary), and her secondary love languages seems to be Acts
of Service (my secondary). Cirdan's primary love languages seems to
be Physical Touch (Tirah's secondary) and his secondary love language
seems to be Words of Affirmation (my primary).

Cirdan is always asking for a hug when he's sad. And he often gives
spontaneous hugs to us. He has always been much more cuddly and
snuggly than Thea ever was. This says to us that his primary love
language is Physical Touch. He also has always been very good at
saying "Please" and "Thank you," which is what led us to believe that
his secondary love language is Words of Affirmation.

When Tirah gets home from work, the first thing Thea says to her is,
"Mama, come look at this!" or "Come see what I did!" This is very
much a Quality Time trait. Thea also is always asking us if she can
help us. This is an Act of Service trait.

Cirdan has always seemed like an "easier" child than Thea, and we're
starting to see a little bit more why that might be. "Quality Time"
people are by definition more "High Maintenance." This isn't a bad
thing, it's just the way it is. In some ways, giving somebody the
undivided attention that characterizes Quality Time is the most
"giving" of any of the love languages because time is so valuable.
You're laying down your life for your friend. But it is also,
therefore, the hardest love language to put into practice. It can
be a lot easier to simply give someone a hug, or a rose, or a kind
word. Cirdan's little "love tank" can be filled with a five minute
hug. Thea's little "love tank" seems to require hours of Quality Time.

Tirah and I are very excited to announce that we have now started a
Marriage Support Group up here in Kempton! We're following the
model of Lori and John Odhner's Marriage Support Group. We've had
two meetings already, with a total of six couples. It was a bit of
a rough start, because there wasn't very much interest for it here in
Kempton, and that was a little depressing, but almost at the last
minute we got 2 more couples, and it's been a very nice little
group. The last meeting we had with Lori and John was about "Having
a Vision for your Marriage," and starting our own Marriage Support
Group was a part of that vision for me and Tirah.

Tirah is still working hard up a Hawk Mountain. The Fall season is
the Busy season at Hawk Mountain, and this is her first Fall season
as the Book Store Manager, so it can be stressful at times, but she's
hanging in there, and still enjoying it very much.

I've been feeling a little overwhelmed lately, by everything that I
have on my plate. It's nice to be so busy that I never get bored,
and it's wonderful to be pursuing so many things that I see as
important, but I sure wish there were a few more hours in the day!
To give you a sense of what I've been up to here's the list of the
things I'm involved in currently:
1. Full-time father of two toddlers.
2. Husband, invested in the happiness of my wife.
3. Musician trying to start my own business. (Recording Artist,
Performer, Recording Engineer, Composer)
4. Member of Kempton Men's A Cappella group that's trying to record a
church fund-raiser Christmas album by Christmas.
5. Recently elected Presiding Partner of a family investment club.
6. Co-facilitator of a weekly Marriage Support Group.
7. Member of the Kempton Worship Song Book Committee
8. Playing recorded music for church about once a month.
9. Recently added to the members of Pastor's Council.
10. Tirah and I represent the majority of a Contemporary Service
Committee here in Kempton.
11. Not to mention the numerous household tasks that seems to take up
the majority of my time: paying bills, handling our budget, making co-
op orders, scheduling our busy life, getting firewood, mowing the
lawn, cooking meals, and cleaning the house.

With all of that, Tirah and I are starting to realize that we don't
have time to watch movies anymore, which is sad, but OK. Especially
if we want to keep up with more important things like reading from
the Word, doing regular exercise, and marriage maintenance like date
nights. As Rick Warren says, "You have just enough time to do God's
will."

Oh, by the way, you can still pre-order my next solo piano album
called "Peace of Heaven." Send me an email if you would like to do
that. Only $13.00 for a limited time! Visit my website for more
info: http://www.solomonkeal.com.

And finally, I have a suggestion for a new way to celebrate
Halloween. Let's spend some time this Halloween thinking about
people who have passed into the spiritual world. Let's start a new
trend: Insead of the blood and gore, let's focus on remembering
family and friends who have died. Instead of focussing on death,
let's focus on life after death! Let's reclaim Halloween as a true
"holiday."

Have a wonderful day, and God bless you!

- Solomon (Domestic Management)
- Tirah (Book Store Management)
- Thea (Unmanagement)
- Cirdan (Little Man agement)

Keal Family Letter, September 2006

2008-03-11T15:38:00.002-04:00

Hello Friends and Family. Happy September to you all.

August has been very busy, but very good for us. Thea has continued
to potty train well. Some of the latest achievements are that she
is now in a big girl bed, and she is also in underpants all the time
now... even at night. There have been a few accidents here and
there, but it seems to be working pretty well, over all.

The introduction of a Big Girl Bed to the kids room was very exciting
for the kids. For several weeks they've enjoyed being allowed to
jump on Thea's new bed, while singing at the top of their lungs: "No
More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed!" Unfortunately because of a few
bumps, falls, and fights, we've decided on a new policy of, you
guessed it: no more monkeys jumping on the bed.

Another new development with Thea is that she no longer takes
afternoon naps. This has been a major struggle for me, because
afternoon nap time was my time for working in my studio. Now that
only Cirdan takes afternoon naps, I have Thea doing what I call
"Quiet Time" where she stays in the living room and plays by
herself. This works out pretty well, because most of my job as
parent these days is the equivalent to a referee in a boxing ring,
and Thea playing by herself means that there's no fighting going on.
But she does still want my attention, and she spends a lot of her
time knocking on my studio door telling me that she "wants
something," namely: my attention. It's a hard struggle, because I
want to be a good father, but I also know that maintaining some form
of intellectual or occupational work is important for a stay-at-home
dad.

Our kids are growing up fast! Here are some of their latest
interests and talents: Cirdan is really in to trucks. He is almost
always carrying two of his favorite toy trucks around with him. It's
very cute to watch. It's amazing to watch an infant boy growing up
into a young child. He reacts to things so differently from the way
that Thea reacts to things. It's funny how stereotypical it can be
sometimes. The other day he got ahold of Thea's hairbrush, and he
started wacking the kitchen oven with it, as hard as he could. So I
called over to him to stop, and then I asked him, "Cirdan, why were
you doing that?" Stupid question really... as if I thought I would
actually get a justifiable reason from him. But he caught me
totally off guard when he responded with, "Because I'm a Guy!"
But don't worry... his response was only coincidentally humorous
profundity, because I think he was actually referring to a Muppet
episode that the kids had watched in which some "Guy" was hitting
something. So Cirdan was merely copying that "Guy", and therefore
his response was perfectly explanatory.

Cirdan has also started showing more interest in learning his
letters, which we are excited about. He seems to recognize familiar
shapes in the letters of the alphabet. Just yesterday, he was
looking at Tirah's name spelled out in all capital letters, and he
gave a very good guess at the letters. T-I-R-A-H according to him
was T-T-K-W-6. Maybe I'm really reaching here, as the proud father
of a two-year-old, but I could see where he was coming from: An "I"
does look a bit like a "T". An "R" does look a bit like a "K". And
an "A" has the same slanting lines as a "W". I don't know where the
"6" came from for an "H".

Thea has been developing some fun new skills. She has learned to
draw faces. It's basically a circle with two dots for eyes, one dot
for a nose, and a squiggly line for a mouth, but it's no accident...
it's very intentionally a face for her. And it makes sense to me
that she, as a feminine being, would first learn to draw faces: the
contact point for relationships. Cirdan will probably be drawing
trucks first.

Thea has also been getting very good at learning harmony to songs,
and holding that harmony, while we sing the melody! Sometimes at
night, when Tirah and I sing lullabies to the kids, we'll start to
get hints of three-part harmony. It's exciting to think that in
several years, our little foursome of a family will be able to sing
four part harmony!

Here are some funny phrases that our kids use: "A bit while." For
example: "Papa, could we go outside for a bit while?"
Another funny phrase that has recently come into use is "Here's the
problem..." Thea is turning into quite the little negotiator:
Thea: "Papa, I want to go outside."
Solomon: "Thea, we can't go outside right now, because it's raining."
Thea: "Well... here's the problem... I WANT to go outside!"
Oh... that's a good point... well if you put it that way... I'll see
what I can do...

Well, Tirah and I are now done our 8 week Marriage Support Group with
Lori and John Odhner, down in Bryn Athyn. And we are very sad to be
done, because it was a) very valuable, and 2) a lot of fun! But we
are very excited to start our own Marriage Support Group up here in
Kempton. Hopefully we can start one up within the next month or so.

We had some fun times visiting family this past month. Earlier in
August we took a weekend to go down to the Baltimore Maryland area to
visit with Steve and Galadriel (Tirah's sister), and their kids: Kate
and Genai. We had some great conversations and just plain good
fun. Later in the month, Tirah's youngest sister Geneva came to
stay with us for about a week and a half before she went down to Bryn
Athyn for her senior year of high school. That was a lot of fun
too, and wonderful for me to be able to get some much needed work
done, while Thea and Cirdan got to play with their aunt.
We then went down to Bryn Athyn early in September to get a brief
visit in with Pop Echols, Jori, Abby, Nils and 'Neva. And though it
was brief, it was really nice.

Well, this has been the season for houses! I know of three of my
relatives who are buying and moving into new houses in the next month
or two. My cousin Mandy and her husband Jack just bought a house.
Tirah's sister Eli and his wife Nicola just bought a house down in
Atlanta. And my sister Roxanne and her husband Peter just bought a
house up here in Kempton! We are especially excited about Peter
and Roxanne moving up here to Kempton. It means that my whole
immediate family will live in the same area... something that not
many families desire, but that we love. Roxanne and I will be able
to work on our flute and piano album more easily. Peter and I will
be able to work on the music business more easily. And instead of
driving over an hour to visit with them, they'll be 15 or so minutes
away!

Tirah has been getting into the busy season up at Hawk Mountain,
which at times can be stressful, but she still very much enjoys her
job there. And we're still loving the schedule of her being home
more. We recently were bold enough to try taking both Thea and
Cirdan on a hike up to North Look-out at Hawk Mountain. It was fun,
but exhausting, and a little nerve-wracking. Thea did pretty well
on the trails, and was able to navigate the rocks with some help.
Cirdan on the other hand is old enough to try tackling the trail, but
young enough that he doesn't know what's best for him. Several
times he tripped over rocks because he glanced away for a second.
We ended up carrying the kids for a lot of the trail (which is where
the "exhausting" comes in), and we determined that Hawk Mountain is
really for ages 3 and up.

This past weekend I was fortunate enough (thanks to the wonderful
generosity of my sister Roxanne, who baby-sat my kids) to go on the
Kempton Men's Weekend, which is entitled "Briar Patch." The
concept and name of "Briar Patch" - which is by Kempton definition: a
Men's Gathering - originally was coined in response to a Kempton
Women's Gathering (which unfortunately hasn't happened in years)
which was entitled "Rose Garden." Some very witty Kemptonite came
up with "Briar Patch" as the masculine version of the "Rose
Garden." This year's Briar Patch, organized by Penn Cooper, was
the second Men's Gathering to occur, in which around 40 men
participated, and we rented a Laurel-like campground. It was a lot
of fun, and I felt very humbled by some of the wisdom of the elder
men in Kempton. The things they were saying rang very true for me.
(It was reassuring to find that most of the men I disagree with in
Kempton are younger men, like me... men who are not in the age of
wisdom.) I also gained a new epiphany about my place in Kempton.
One thing I share with every other man in Kempton (even if it's the
only thing I share with them) is a very strong feeling of the
importance of marriage and family. Even if I disagree with other
Kempton men on the most effective way to have a healthy marriage and
family, at least I can find comfort in knowing that we're striving
for the same goal, and therefore we are on the same team.

The good news in my music business is that I've finished recording my
next solo piano album entitled "Peace of Heaven." You can listen to
2 minute samples of the first 7 pieces on the album by going to
http://www.solomonkeal.com/music.html. Now I have to finish
mastering, and creating the album cover and liner notes. I'm still
selling pre-orders for this album, for only $13.00. Send me an email
if you're interested. Also, for anyone in the B.A. area, I'll be
playing background music for the Glencairn Open Sunday on October
1st. There's also a slight chance that I might get to play in a
musical Christmas event at the Mitchel Performing Arts Center in Bryn
Athyn in December some time. Stay tuned for more info to come later.

Well, that all folks!

Have a wonderful day, and may the Lord bless your lives!

- Solomon, Tirah, Thea and Cirdan Keal.

Keal Family Letter, August 2006

2008-03-11T15:38:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family. Happy August to you all!

We had a wonderful July here at the Keal household. Tirah's new job as the Bookstore Manager at Hawk Mountain is going really well. She's really enjoying the work, and I think she will be a wonderful asset to the Mountain. Though it's been stressful at times over the month (hiring new helpers, learning new tasks), over-all it's been wonderful for her, and for us having her around more. After about a month working there, she's starting to feel more prepared for the Fall season, which is the busy season up at Hawk Mountain.

At the beginning of July we started potty training Thea, and fortunately this time it's working. We had tried once a while ago, but it was met with resistance after the first few times. This time, at age 3 and 1/2, she finally seems ready. I think she's been loving the independence it gives her. We decided to just jump right into it, so one day (a Sunday I believe), we took her out of diapers, and put her in underpants, and hoped for the best. She had about a week of accidents here and there, and then she got it. We've had several weeks now of an accident-free, proud to be three, independent little girl. She still wears diapers when she sleeps, but in a week or two, we'll be moving her out of her crib and into a "Big Girl Bed," which she is very excited about. Then we'll try to teach her that she can climb out of bed to use the potty if she has too. Hopefully she won't spend all night in the bathroom!

Cirdan has been a bit jealous of all this attention paid out to Thea. He always insists on coming upstairs with me and Thea, whenever she has to use the bathroom. I knew he was feeling a bit left-out when I went into the kid's room to check on Cirdan, and found him curled up in Thea's crib, sucking on her binky! A few days later, after a particularly long bathroom episode, Thea and I went looking for Cirdan, and found him asleep on me and Tirah's bed! But though I know he feels jealous at times, I think most of the time, he just likes to get in on the action, and often he comes running into the bathroom singing, "I'm proud of you, so proud of you, I hope that you're as proud as I am..." although it comes out sounding more like, "I poud a you, so poud a you, Ah ho dat you a poud a ah am..."

This potty training thing is certainly a good test of my patience. There have been days when - during the waking hours - Thea has gone to the bathroom every half an hour... and she usually takes 15 minutes to do the whole process! (She loves washing her hands. It seems like for her, washing hands is the equivalent of a massage.) Anyway, I end up spending half of the kid's waking hours sitting on the edge of the bathtub, resting my head in my hands, trying to remind myself why parenting is so fulfilling!

Cirdan is developing quite the imagination, and thirst for knowledge. His favorite phrase right now is, "What's that?" I'm going to guess that I hear that phrase around 200 times a day. It is simultaneously tiring and thrilling to hear it that much. It's wonderful to see his curiosity, and his drive to learn! What an amazing creation little children's brains are. He soaks up information like a little pink sponge. When I'm in a good mood, I love to do my best to answer each and every question the best that I can, because I know that I can make a big difference, not only in what he learns, but in how he views the learning process later in life. I love to think that one of the best things I can do as a parent is to nurture the thirst for knowledge.

It's fun to watch Cirdan's imagination. Both he and Thea love to play in their little toy kitchen. Often times they will bring me little toy cups of some imaginary beverage which I absolutely love. The other day I heard lots of activity going on in their little kitchen, and then the little voice of Cirdan yelling across the room to me, "Papa! Pancakes are ready!"

Since Tirah started working at Hawk Mountain, I've taken the kids up there a few times, and we've walked the trails a little bit. The Hawk Mountain Sanctuary building is on one side of the road, and the trails are on the other side of the road, so we had the opportunity to teach the kids a little more about roads, and how you have to watch for cars coming. A short time after one of those trips up to the Mountain, the kids were playing in the living room, pushing their little strollers around. At one point amid the hustle and bustle of little feet and little wheels, Cirdan stopped his stroller, and yelled out, "Car Coming!" He then slowly turned his head from side to side, and after the car (which I couldn't see) passed, he rushed off again.

Tirah and I have had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of a Lori and John Odhner Marriage Support Group for the last four weeks. It's an eight week support group, so we're half way done. It takes place in Bryn Athyn, every Wednesday night, so it's a bit of a trek for us every week. But as we discussed in the first meeting, it's unfortunate that our culture doesn't support the idea of spending as much energy on our marriages, as we do on dating, courting, and the proposal. And I used to drive down to Bryn Athyn every weekend when Tirah and I were dating, so it's perfectly reasonable to spend the same amount of energy (and gas money) on our marriage today!
It's been a wonderful way to connect with each other every week, as well as a great opportunity to meet other couples and support, and be supported by, them. We've learned some valuable exercises that we have already begun to apply to our marriage, and share with others. Healthy marriage is a very important thing for both Tirah and I, and we've been discovering more and more that we think it will play a bigger and bigger part in our lives, and even possibly our occupations, further down the road. We would love to become marriage counselors at some point. So we've now consciously made that a goal in our lives, and decided to set aside money for marriage education.
So when this marriage support group is over, we hope to start one of our own up here in Kempton, which is severely lacking on that sort of thing. There is a marriage doctrinal class here in Kempton, but that's a very different thing from a marriage support group. The doctrinal class is like reading and talking about climbing a mountain, while a marriage support group is like actually starting to climb that mountain. It's the good that compliments the truth of a doctrinal class.
And the nice thing is that, while it's usually a minister that runs a doctrinal class, any married couple could start up a marriage support group. So that is another one of our goals, probably for early next year. Lori and John are excited to have us start one up here too.

One of the things that we talked about in our marriage support group was an idea that Lori and John came up with called the Marriage Badge. Lori had a few of her boys go through the Boyscout program, and she was impressed by how much of a support group it was for young men. So she thought we could borrow a few ideas from them, and she came up with the idea of a married couple setting up goals for themselves, and if they accomplished those goals, they would earn a Marriage Badge, and get the support of other married couples along the way. (And they could even work their way up to Eagle Spouse!)
So the Marriage Badge that Tirah and I are working on right now is our Music Badge. We haven't really done music together since before Thea was born, and yet that is a huge love for both of us; part of us falling in love with each other; and something that brings us closer together. It's sad how often the tasks of daily life take us away from the person we're living right next to. So we set some goals for ourselves: having a weekly music night for the two of us, performing for our marriage support group, producing a CD of our love songs, and organizing another concert. It's been very fulfilling so far!

Speaking of music, Tirah and I have also been independently getting back into regular music times. Now that Tirah doesn't work evenings, she's been able to get to go to choir more often. And I've been a part of a men's a cappella group. Actually our a cappella group is planning on releasing a Christmas CD as a fund raiser for our church. So that's a lot of fun.

I'm still recording my next album, "Peace of Heaven." You can now pre-order it, for only $13.00 (as opposed to the regular price of $15.00). Send me an email if you want to pre-order. As always you can learn more at my website (http://www.solomonkeal.com), or by subscribing to my music newsletter.

Have a great day everybody, and if you're in the Northern Hemisphere... stay cool!

Love,
Solomon (Husband, Father, Musician)
Tirah (Wife, Mother, Bookstore Manager)
Thea (Potty-trained independent big girl)
Cirdan (Inquisitive little tyke)

Keal Family Letter, July 2006

2008-03-11T15:37:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family. Happy July to you all!

Surprise, surprise... Tirah has a new job! (Didn't I just tell you that?) The continuing adventures of Tirah's career: Not long after Tirah started settling into her new promotion at Jo-Ann Fabrics, she got a call from Hawk Mountain asking if she was interested in interviewing for the Book Store Manager position. She said yes... interviewed... and got the job! Here's the back-story:

Tirah worked up at Hawk Mountain, off and on, as the Assistant Book Store Manager, for the past few years. She stopped after the Fall of 2004. Just after that, the Book Store Manager (a good friend of ours named Scott Davis) quit... coincidentally to go back home and be a Mr. Mom like me. As he left, Scott recommended to the director of Hawk Mountain that Tirah would be the best person to fill his shoes. The director didn't hire a new Book Store Manager right away because he wanted to re-evaluate the book store entirely. But finally after many months, he was ready to hire. We got the call just after Tirah got her promotion at Jo-Ann Fabrics. It caught us by surprise because we had sort of forgotten about the possibility. Tirah was one of several people interviewing for the job. After a few days we got a call saying that they had narrowed it down to two people: Tirah and somebody else. The director was going to call references. Finally, about the middle of June, we got the call saying that Tirah got the job!

It's a much better situation for us. Here's the comparison:
1. Hawk Mountain is 15 minutes away... Jo-Ann is 45 minutes away.
2. The commute to Hawk Mountain is through rural Kempton... the commute to Jo-Ann is through rush-hour highway traffic.
3. Hawk Mountain is an 8 hour work day... Jo-Ann is a 9 hour work day.
4. Hawk Mountain has regular hours: 9-5-ish... Jo-Ann was a flexible schedule (we could never plan our social life very easily)
5. At Hawk Mountain, Tirah will be home every night for dinner... at Jo-Ann, Tirah often got home at 10:30 at night, and sometimes had to be at work at 6:00 in the morning. It messed up all our schedules: social, home, sleeping, etc.
6. Hawk Mountain is better suited to Tirah's talents: friendly customer service... her promotion at Jo-Ann meant more paper-work and less customer service.
7. Hawk Mountain is much better pay, even than her promotion at Jo-Ann Fabrics.
8. Hawk Mountain has a nicer work environment, such as windows (for looking outside)... no windows at Jo-Ann Fabrics.
9. Hawk Mountain is a nicer business model: non-profit... Jo-Ann is a corporate retail franchise.
10. Tirah's boss at Jo-Ann (one of the people she got along with best) is also leaving.
11. Except for the Fall, Tirah will likely have two days off in a row every week... at Jo-Ann she rarely got two days off in a row.
12. It sounds like some of the benefits are better, such as vacation time. (We haven't been on vacation since before Thea was born... it will be nice to maybe get the chance soon.)
13. It's close enough that I can drive her to work when I need the car. She might even be able to car-pool with my dad.

I can think of one down-side right now, which is that the health insurance is so expensive that we can only afford Tirah. So me and the kids will have to find our own health insurance. But even after paying for health insurance for me and the kids out of pocket, Tirah is still making more money. Plus, I can get discounted health insurance through some of my music contacts.

Right now, Tirah is stuck in a crazy, messed up scheduling pattern... she's in the middle of working 10 days straight! As you can imagine, she's very tired. The schedule at Jo-Ann got mixed up and she had to work the last 4 days there, right before she works 6 days at Hawk Mountain. So she's working June 29th to July 8th without a break! She's amazing. It will be 10 days in a row, broken up between two different jobs... but the excitement of the new job will probably be off-set by the stress of learning the new job. She's a trooper!

Tirah and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on June 24th. Well, actually we celebrated all weekend! Tirah managed to get that whole weekend off. Here's what we did: On Friday night (June 23rd), after Tirah got home from work, we went out to dinner, and then did some shopping for the weekend. We bought the ingredients for the picnic lunch that was "our thing" while we were dating. It consisted of chicken, a baguette (long french bread), and some nice cheese like Armenian string cheese, or fresh mozzarella. We also bought some Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider, and some yummy sugar-free desserts. All of that was to be saved for a candle-light dinner at home on our anniversary. We then went and bought a book about marriage that we'd been wanting to read.

On Saturday, the 24th, we grabbed the kids and drove off to the North Museum in Lancaster. It's a hands-on, designed-for-kids, science and natural history museum, complete with a planetarium. Thanks for the membership Abby! We all had a great time there. We then had a family picnic lunch in a nearby park, and then drove home as the kids napped in the car. The rest of the day was normal, until after the kids went to bed, when we had our candle-light dinner.

On Sunday, after reading and praying together, we got up and put on our wedding clothes, and took some pictures of us and the kids. After the kids went down for their naps, we took off for Bryn Athyn to go to Brian Smith and Janine Gladish's wedding. Going to a wedding, especially without kids, is a wonderful way to celebrate one's anniversary. We had lots of fun, and we even got to dance at the reception.

On June 13th, Cirdan turned two. We had a nice, little party with just family. He got some books, and a soccer (football) shirt that Tirah made. And then we let the kids have some chocolate cake. They don't eat cake very often, and we certainly paid the price that night (it was a long night), but hey, it was a birthday party!

Thea and Cirdan continue to amaze us as we watch them grow up. A few days ago, Thea was frustrated and sad over something I told her she couldn't do. Refusing sympathy from me, she stood in the middle of the kitchen floor, crying. Now, to back up a bit, the kids have been having a lot of fun lately playing with balloons. They're great toys for kids: they're slow enough that they can learn motor skills more easily, and they're light enough that they don't cause a lot of collateral damage. Thea and Cirdan each had their own balloon; Thea's was red, and Cirdan's was blue; and they had been feeling very possessive over their balloons and fighting about it all morning. Well, as Thea stood there crying in the kitchen, I saw Cirdan slowly walk towards her with his blue balloon. He then handed her his balloon! She was too sad to take it, so he dropped it and slowly (almost as if he knew this might back-fire) reached out his short little arms to give her a sympathetic hug. Thankfully, Thea didn't respond by hitting him (which she often does), but accepted the comfort from her two year old sibling. He then, slowly, reached his little head towards Thea's and gave her a little toddler kiss... which she also did not object to. And Cirdan didn't give up until - wonder of wonders - he actually helped to mend Thea's bad mood!

Tirah and I have been reading a parenting book recently called, "Children are from Heaven," (by the same author as "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.") and this little story was certainly a nice example of that. Children are driven so much by emotion (much more so that adults), and a lot of the time, that emotion is selfishness. This is normal and natural, but it is so nice to see those moments when the fact that "children are from heaven" really shines through, and they astound us with signs of heavenly selflessness.

Thea is amazingly perceptive. She notices things, especially relationships and other people-related concepts. The other day, during a meal at the kitchen table, Thea amazed us by calling my dad, "Ian." We didn't think she knew that his name was anything other than "Dee-Daw." Not to mention that fact that she seemed to understand the complicated distinction between someone's name and someone's title. Just to be sure, my mom started asking her questions:
"Thea, do you know what Dee-Daw's name is?"
She replied, "Ian!"
"Do you know what Mee-Maw's name is?"
"Wellesley!" (perfectly pronounced, no less!)
"Do you know what Papa's name is?"
"Solomon!"
"Do you know what Mama's name is?"
"Sweety!"
And there's where her understanding broke down slightly, though understandably so; as I call Tirah "Sweety," much more often than I call her by her actually name. It is certainly very cute to think that Thea thinks that Tirah's name is "Sweety." I know she's heard me call Tirah, "Tirah," occasionally. Perhaps she thinks "Tirah" is another title: "Sweety, my Tirah." or "Sweety, Papa's Tirah." The minds of children are so fascinating!

Well, I have been a Stay-at-home Dad, a Mr. Mom, a Full-Time Parent, for a whole year now... and I'm loving it. Tirah and I are both loving the roles that we're in right now. It's funny how switching from the stereotypical or traditional roles of husband/father and wife/mother, has actually helped us to become a better husband/father and a better wife/mother. Since Tirah has been working outside of the home, she's been forced to make the best of her time with the kids, and though the time is less, the quality is better. She's been able to get an objective view of the things that really matter to her, and a chance to support her true feminine qualities. The same is true for me. Since I've been the stay-at-home parent, I've been able to focus more on my career goals, and thus pursue and encourage true masculine qualities in me, that were dormant while I was working outside of the home, and focused merely on bringing home a paycheck. The kids are getting a more balanced parenting environment, with a father who is very present. And walking a mile in each other's shoes has certainly improved our marriage. We understand each other more, and resent each other less. It's been wonderful to see the Lord's hand in the strange and wonderful path that is our life.

My music business is still moving forward. I'm recording my next album, and you can now pre-order it. For more news, check out the News page of my website (http://www.solomonkeal.com/news.html), or subscribe to my music newsletter.

Have a wonderful day!

Love,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea, and Cirdan Keal.

Keal Family Letter, June 2006

2008-03-11T15:36:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family. Happy June to you all!

Our yard is now green again! It's not completely back to normal, but it looks a lot better. We may have to re-seed a couple of areas that didn't quite take, but most of it is green.

Tirah has now settled into her new job as the Operational Team Leader at Jo-Ann Fabrics. It looks like her increase in pay will just about account for the decrease in pay from quitting working for Carl. So our over-all financial life-style will stay about the same. But the biggest benefit will be that Tirah only has one job, and can come home from work, and be done work.

On June 13th, Cirdan will be turning TWO! He is quite the little boy. He loves soccer (or football if you live outside the USA), and spends a good portion of his day running around the house kicking a little ball, and getting pretty good at it. He developed this funny little habit of winding up with the wrong foot. He'll run up to a ball, and swing his left foot back, and then kick the ball with his right foot! It seems to work alright for him, although I think I'd fall flat on my nose if I kicked a ball like that.

His vocabulary increases every day. His latest favorite phrase is "Oh... Yes... Right!" For example: "Hey Cirdan, it's time for you to go into the living room and clean up the Lego!" "Oh... Yes... Right!" Almost as if to say, "Thanks for reminding me Papa, I knew I'd forgotten what I was supposed to be doing." That's pretty much how he responds to anything you tell him. Well... that's not true. He often responds with an emphatic "NO!" He is almost two after all. Cirdan is just entering the Terrible Twos, and Thea has just recently left them. This means that our two children tend to take turns driving us crazy. We have family worship every night before bed, and often times one of our children will be a little angel and participate wonderfully in the worship, while the other one is a complete basket case. And then the very next night it could be the exact reverse. It's almost as if they've worked out their own little schedule: "Hey Cirdan, I was the basket case last night, so tonight it's your turn to be the basket case, and I'll be a good little girl, O.K.?" "Oh... Yes... Right!"

Cirdan is often just a very agreeable little boy. This is usually a very good thing. But sometimes it catches me by surprise. I find it hard to think of ways to punish him, because he loves anything I do. Recently at the dinner table, Cirdan was banging his spoon on the table; something that we try to discourage them from doing. So I said, "Cirdan, if you hit your spoon on the table one more time, I'm going to take your spoon away from you!" Cirdan looked up at me, said "O.K.!" and then slammed his spoon on the table once more. It was almost as if he had said, "You've got yourself a deal Papa! I get to bang my spoon on the table one more time! Thanks so much!" It was hard not to laugh as I took the spoon away from such a content little boy.

A couple of days ago I was sitting in the living room, and the kids were running in and out of the room. After a few minutes, the house was filled with the noise of silence. Any parent will tell you, this is often not a good thing. So I ran into the kitchen to find Cirdan sitting in the middle of the kitchen table, dipping his fingers in the butter dish, and licking to his heart's content. He looked up at me, not with a face full of guilt, but almost as if to say, "Papa! You should try this!" So I pulled him off the table, cleaned his fingers off, put him down, and went back into the living room. But oh, what foolish parents we are! A few minutes later, I heard the same silence fill the air, and sure enough, he was back on the kitchen table licking butter. I often forget that children don't get implied messages. By taking him off the table, I meant to imply that he was not allowed up there. He probably thought I just wanted a go at the butter myself, and since I was bigger... well... survival of the fittest! So as soon as I was gone, all bets were off.

Cirdan has learned the secret of life. We recently watched a funny movie called "Last Holiday," in which there is a great quote that says, "The secret of life is... butter." Cirdan has already figured out the secret of life... at such an early age!

Thea is becoming quite the graceful little girl. She's always loved dancing to music, but recently we've begun to notice how much natural talent she seems to have in the area of dance. She does interpretive dancing to music... at age 3. And it's very good! You can tell, she actually feels the music, and expresses her impression of it in her dancing.

It's always fun hearing the way a little child's mind works by listening to the way they describe things and put together words and phrases. We were driving down a long hill in the car, the other day, and Thea said that she wanted to go down another "Road Slide." Recently we went to Bryn Athyn, and saw where the kid's Aunt Jori works (at Glencairn), and since then, Thea and Cirdan have gotten this impression that the place where people go to work is called a "Castle." We dropped my Dad off at work the other day (at Cabela's) and the kids called it a castle. It was very cute.

Our house has a bit of an ant infestation right now. There are often ants running around on the kitchen floor. Cirdan and Thea find ants to be fascinating, but they don't quite get what they are. I think they think they are little toys. But then even toys are anthropomorphic to little kids. Anyway... the kids were "playing" with an ant on the floor, and they gave it a friendly little swipe, in which they (unintentionally) decapitated the ant. So Thea comes running up to me and says, "Papa, the ant broke! Can you put his head back on?" At their age, they have no concept of death. I don't think they would get it, even if I tried to explain it.

I was thinking the other day about how our children are such strange mixtures of us as parents. At first glance you might get the impression that Thea is a little "Tirah," and Cirdan is a little "Solomon." But you dig a little deeper, and you'll find that Thea is more of a little "Solomon," and Cirdan is more of a little "Tirah." But really, they're a mixture of both of us... for better and worse. Tirah and I are a great example of the phrase "opposites attract." There are so many ways in which we are completely opposites in the way we think, feel, and act. So when you combine opposites in one person... what happens? Well... Thea and Cirdan happen. At times, both Thea and Cirdan can be a wonderful combination of all of our best qualities: thoughtful, socially adept, confident, loving order, yet also joyfully spontaneous. And at other times, they can be a combination of all of our worst qualities: overly sensitive with a temper, obsessive compulsive, selfish, fearful, etc. I guess it all evens out in the wash, and the Lord guides us, as well as our children, towards the combined good in us, and away from the compounded bad.

I was recently noticing how many cousins Thea and Cirdan already have. They have 7 first cousins! Caleb and Garrett, Nathaniel and Malachi, Kate and Genai, and Asher. They also have 4 second cousins: Annicka, Zachery and Daniel Hennigan, and Ingrid Longstaff. As well as 3 sort of "adopted" cousins (close friends of the family): Bethany Genzlinger, and Shanna and Rafe McQueen.

Tirah and I have recently changed our routine a little bit. We used to do our inspirational and meditational readings at night before bed. But we found that we often ended up not really hearing what we were reading, or out-right falling asleep while reading. This is not a good way of dealing with such an important part of life. So we moved our meditation time to the morning, right after we wake up. So now, we wake up, and spend the very first part of our day reading from the Bible, the Writings, or some other spiritual book (or all three), and then we pray. This way we are armed and ready for our day. We can go into each day with some spiritual task, or thought, or goal, as well as having prayed for guidance for the day. We are finding this new routine very valuable and enjoyable. It's also a great time to focus on our marriage.

Lately we are reading a book called "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren. You've probably heard of it. We are finding it very useful and inspirational.

Tirah and I celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary this month. The little angel that is our marriage is leaving toddler-hood, and entering early childhood. We have certainly learned a lot in five years, and we find new ways to love each other, and learn from each other every day.

Speaking of toddler-hood, my music business is still growing. Today I began recording my next solo piano album, "Peace of Heaven." I'm also learning more and more every day about the nature of business, as well as specifically the music business. Once again, I'm so grateful to the Lord, my wife, and all of you, for your help in this dream of mine.

May the Lord bless your lives!

Have a wonderful June!

Love,
The Keals:
Solomon John
Tirah Marie Echols
Thea Clarity
Cirdan Ewan.

Keal Family Letter, May 2006

2008-03-11T15:35:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family. Happy May to you all!

We are slowly reclaiming our yard after the sewage system went in. We've lived with a yard of dirt and mud for many moons now, and finally we are starting to re-brick our paths, and re-seed our lawn. Hopefully by mid-summer, we will have a normally green yard again.

Our big news for this month is that Tirah got a huge promotion at work, at Jo-Ann Fabrics! There is a three-tiered manager hierarchy: there's the main store manager at the top (called the Store Team Leader, or STL), then under her are two other managers, and under them are 3 or 4 other managers or supervisors. Tirah started out on the third level down as the Soft-lines Supervisor. Just recently, one of the managers on the second level quit to go back to school, so a position was left open, and the STL offered it to Tirah!

So now Tirah will be the Operational Team Leader (or OTL), which is a salaried job, and so she will be getting paid a lot more than she was as the Soft-lines Supervisor. She'll have to work a 9 hour day instead of an 8 hour day, but the increase in pay means that we will be able to afford to have her stop working for Carl Smith as his bookkeeper. So now when she comes home from work, she won't have to work for somebody else in her free time. The increase in pay also means that we'll hopefully be able to start hacking away at our debt, and working towards a more healthy financial life. So we're pretty excited about all of that! Tirah will be training for that job this month, and then starting in June!

Some other good news is that our tax return this year will take a huge chunk out of our medical bills debt!

Thea and I just recently got our homeopathic constitutionals done, and we are both going through the ups and downs that accompany that. Hopefully by next month, I'll be able to report that she and I are feeling much better over-all, but right now we are both cranky, tired, and sore.

Cirdan will be turning two next month! Can you believe that? His most recent accomplishment is: actually getting an inch or two of air when he jumps. He's very proud of that. He is an extremely active little boy. He's constantly running, jumping climbing, exploring, digging in the dirt. He's also really started singing a lot more. He can't quite get the right pitches to really sing a melody, but he has a good sense of rhythm.

Thea has mastered the art of holding a melody. Her latest attempt is to learn harmony. She's aware of the fact that the harmony to a song is not the melody, she just hasn't quite found out what it is. She does her best though, and sometimes she will actually find some harmonic notes to what we are singing to her. It's very cute.

Cirdan is old enough now that he and Thea are much more capable of playing games together. They do their fair share of sibling warfare, but they spend a lot of time running around, playing hide and seek, tickling, cooking pretend supper, or just playing some unexplainable kid game that seems to center around lots of giggling.

Here's a funny story: We were sitting around the kitchen table, and Thea was holding a conversation with me and Dee-Daw (my dad), and it went something like this:
Thea: "Papa, tomorrow I'm going to go to work at 8 o'clock."
Dee-daw: "Some of us might still be asleep at 8 o'clock!"
Thea: "We'll see about that Dee-daw!"
Dee-daw: [laughing]
Thea: "I'm funny because I'm a big girl."

As well as being a musician, one of my goals in life is also to write books. I have several ideas in mind. One of which is a book about Christian parenting. It's fun to think that as a stay-at-home dad, I'm doing active research for that book. It's very comforting at times to think about that: [Screaming children] "I'm doing research for my book." [Louder Screaming Children] "I'm Doing Research For My BOOK!"

I'm still working on advancing my music career. Last month I upgraded a lot of things in my studio. I got a new computer (iMac G5), and I upgraded my recording software, and I purchased a new condenser microphone that will be perfect for recording things like vocals and flute. I'm working on finishing the compositions for my next solo piano album (possibly called "Peace of Heaven"), and I have several other recording jobs as well.

This December 1st, I will be performing in my very first Whisperings concert! Check out my website for more details on that. (http://www.solomonkeal.com)

Tirah and I will be celebrating our 5th anniversary next month!

Well that's about all for now.

May the Lord bless all your lives!

Love,
Solomon, Tirah, Thea, and Cirdan

Keal Family Letter, April 2006

2008-03-11T15:34:00.002-04:00

Hello Friends and Family. Spring has arrived in Lenhartsville! We
have been greatly enjoying the beautiful warm weather here. It has
done wonders for our health, both physical and mental. The flowers are
blooming in our yard, and we've been able to go on walks again. We all
have a tiny bit of sunburn, but it's a good kind of pain, like after a
good exercise, or helping somebody move into a new house.

Speaking of a new house, we did some Spring cleaning in our living room
lately, and while doing so, we decided to try rearranging the living
room. There's now much more space, and it's much more functional. If
a Feng Shui expert were to walk through our living room, he might even
nod quietly to himself. I even built a new worship center in the
corner.

Well, after 55 straight days of sickness in our family, we feel that we
can safely say that we are well again! (This month it was the flu.)
The only big stress in our lives at this point is the stress of medical
bills. But even in that, I'm trusting that the Lord will take care of
us. We will deal with it as best we can. Several of our friends and
family have recently blessed us with a monetary gift to help us
through. Many of those friends were anonymous, so if any of them were
you, please know that we are extraordinarily grateful to you!

One of the good things to come from all of this sickness, is that we've
finally gotten on the ball about finding a Homeopathic doctor, and
getting professional Homeopathic care. Mitchel Shapiro actually lives
in Delaware, so it's a bit of a hike, but Tirah and Cirdan have already
seen him, and Thea and I will be seeing him this month. The initial
consultations are somewhat pricey, but phone consultations are very
reasonable. We are very excited about having that become a big part of
our health care.

Cirdan has become quite the little talker lately. He knows so many
words at this point that I can't keep track of them all. He said
"Cucumber" the other day... a perfect pronunciation too!

Cirdan seems to be moving towards the Terrible Twos just as fast as
Thea is moving out of them. It used to be that for evening worship,
Thea would be a basket case, while Cirdan would be happily listening to
the story and singing the songs. Now it's just the opposite. Cirdan
refuses to sit still, while Thea participates wonderfully. I think
part of it is that we've gotten her more involved in worship too. Both
kids now take turns opening and closing the Word, and saying the little
sayings that go with it. Thea loves it! She very gently unwraps the
cloth and opens the Word while saying "Make a joyful noise to the Lord,
all you lands!" It's very cute and wonderful to see. Thea is also
capable of saying the entire Lord's Prayer. Cirdan, in a good mood,
can say some of it. It usually comes out sounding like this:
"Odder....a...a
Vens...a...a...Name....a...a...Come.....a...a....Done....a....a....Urt..
...a....Day...a...Bed...a....a....Detts....a....a.....Dettess.....a....a
....Shun....a....a....Vul.....a....Dum....a....Tower....a...a...Ver....A
MEN!" It is wonderfully cute!

Tirah is still working as a manger at Jo-Ann Fabrics, as well as being
Carl Smith's bookkeeper. She works long and hard. She is amazingly
devoted to our cause. She's the wonderful bread-winner in our house.
I'm sure many of you have seen the wonderful movie: "March of the
Penguins," narrated by Morgan Freeman. For those that haven't seen it,
it describes and portrays the amazing seasonal lifestyles of the
Emperor Penguins in Antarctica. They all come out of the sea and begin
an incredibly long march towards a spot that they all know, where they
mate and raise their baby penguins. They are seasonly monogamous, and
make for very cute little families. The amazing thing being that after
the egg is produced, the mother penguin gives it to the father penguin,
and then she goes back to the sea to eat, while the father penguin
takes care of the egg until it hatches. Throughout the early life of
the chick, the father and mother take turns being the "bread-winner"
and the "stay-at-home parent."

We can very much relate to this sort of lifestyle... we are in it right
now. I used to be the bread-winner. Now it's Tirah's turn, while I
watch the baby penguins. At some point, hopefully when my music
business takes off, I will go back to being the bread-winner, and Tirah
will take a turn being the stay-at-home parent. The wonderful thing
being that it's all part of the incredible journey we're on as a
family; a journey to raise children, improve a marriage, and pursue the
dreams and goals of a useful, purposeful, and passionate life. As
Morgan Freeman said: "In the harshest place on earth, love finds a way.
This is the incredible true story of a family's journey to bring life
into the world."

I've lately been reading a wonderful book called "No More Christian
Nice Guy: when being nice, instead of good, hurts men, women, and
children." by Paul Coughlin. This book was written for me. The idea
behind it is that through various causes, many men in our culture today
have become Christian Nice Guys, or CNG's. A CNG is someone who aims
to please others at the expense of himself. A CNG fears conflict, and
seeks appeasement. A CNG is not a leader, but a follower. A CNG will
never disagree with his wife. A CNG is passive (or even aggressive)
but never assertive. A CNG is humble and self sacrificing because he
is told to be. A CNG will rarely show anger, or love, but he will
make subtle confusing attempts at both. A CNG rarely stands up for
what he believes in. You get the idea. The goal is for men who are
like this to become Christian Good Guys. A CGG is just the opposite
of all these things; he is passionate, fearless, assertive, a leader,
loving, someone who goes on the offensive, while also defending the
things and people he cares about. The book uses the imagery of Jesus
as an example. Jesus was not a Christian Nice Guy. He threw the money
changers out of the temple, He called his disciples "Fools!" Jesus was
a radical Who didn't conform to society or peer pressure or what He
knew to be wrong. Jesus was bold, while at the same time merciful.
When Jesus was slapped by one of the Temple guards, He didn't turn the
other cheek, but rather confronted this guard verbally, and basically
exposed him for being merely a bully. We have a wonderful role model
in Jesus Christ, and yet His rugged side is often not proclaimed on the
rooftop. This book has been very useful for me. It is wonderfully
applicable to marriage, parenting, life in the workplace, and life in a
church society and the world at large. I highly recommend it,
especially if any of you men think you can identify in any way with the
Christian Nice Guy mind-set. I know I can. I am currently on the
path to becoming a Christian Good Guy instead.

Some exciting news on the music business front: This month I am a
featured artist on Whisperings Solo Piano Radio
(http://www.solopianoradio.com)! Throughout the month of April, every
Tuesday night at 10:00 PM EST (7:00 PM PST), tune into Whisperings and
you can hear a half hour show of all my music! Pretty cool! Also,
check out my website (http://www.solomonkeal.com); I've given it a bit
of a face-lift.

Well that's about all for now. We hope you are all doing well, and
enjoying the Season of life that you are in.
You are all in our thoughts and prayers. God bless!

Much love from,

The Emperor Penguins:

Solomon - The current adult penguin watching the baby penguins
Tirah - The current adult penguin commuting to the sea to fish and get
food
Solomon and Tirah's marriage - Baby penguin number 1
Thea - Baby penguin number 2
Cirdan - Baby penguin number 3
Solomon's Music Business - Baby penguin number 4

Keal Family Letter, March 2006

2008-03-11T15:34:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family. Welcome to our (late) newsletter. I've
been thinking a lot recently about attitudes. I'm actually planning on
writing a book eventually about spiritual attitudes; the spiritual
orientation of the mind. I like to think of myself as having a "glass
if half full" kind of attitude about life. I can't claim to always
have that attitude, but I strive towards it. It's one of my ideals.
Well, this past month has certainly been a test of that attitude in me.
If I didn't have a strong faith in God, this past month would have
been a test of my faith as well, but fortunately I know that the Lord
only allows evil when some good can come out of it. So our real test
is to try to see the good that came out of this past month for us.

So, what happened in the Keal family this past month? I'll start with
all the bad news, and get it off my chest. I'm just going to out-right
complain. Then I'll end with the good news, count my blessings, and
add my take on the "glass if half full" aspects of what was a truly
miserable month for us. (Speaking of writing a book... this email IS
one.)

It all started with Thea getting an ear infection the last week of
January and into the first week of February. She had a fever and an
earache for about a week. Fortunately it cleared up in time for her
birthday party on Saturday the 4th. Needless to say, we all lost a lot
of sleep that week. Sunday was the Super Bowl, and Cirdan came down
with a fever Sunday night. He then had a fever all week, which didn't
get better like Thea's did, it just got worse. Needless to say we all
lost a lot of sleep that week too. We found out later that he must
have had an ear infection too, but he never gave us any signs that his
ear hurt. On Friday morning, we woke up and his left ear was sticking
out perpendicular to the side of his head. So we headed off for the
Emergency Room. This was to be the first ER trip of three for the
month!

In the ER they informed us that Cirdan had what was called Mastoiditis.
Mastoiditis is when an ear infection spreads to the Mastoid bone just
behind the ear. The Mastoid bone is somewhat hollow, so it can easily
fill with puss and develop an infection. The problem with this is that
it's getting really close to the brain. It's a semi-serious condition,
and if it's not halted by antibiotics, it can lead to the need for
surgery, and/or nasty things like Meningitis. So the doctors told as
that we were looking at a minimum of four days in the hospital with
Cirdan.

Cirdan already felt miserable. But now those nasty old doctors decided
to stick a needle into his arm. How do you tell a 1 and 1/2 year old
boy that these people stabbing you are really trying to help you? It
was a very sad day for all of us. The doctors also needed to take a
Cat-Scan to determine how serious his condition was. You may know that
you have to hold absolutely still for a Cat-Scan. Once again try
telling that to a 1 and 1/2 year old boy with a needle stuck in his arm
and a sore ear. "It's O.K. Cirdan, the doctors are strapping you into
this huge torture machine because they want to help you." "Yeah
right!" he's thinking, "I"m not dumb, these people poked in my sore
ear, and stuck a needle in my arm. Nothing good can come out of this
Papa!" Interestingly, what Cirdan went through is an amazing
analogy for what we adults go through when bad things happen in our
lives. Just as Tirah and I were trying to reassure Cirdan that this
scary hospital was ultimately going to help him, the Lord has just as
much trouble trying to comfort us when bad things happen to us. We're
like children in the Lord's eyes. We can't see the big picture like He
can. He knows that a certain bad thing is just temporary compared to
the long term benefit, but we don't know that, and so we struggle with
things like faith and attitudes. This month has been like a needle
stuck in our arm. Right now, all we feel is the pain. We hope and
pray that we'll be able to see the "medicine" being delivered through
that "needle."

Cirdan developed quite the fear of the "People in the White Coats" over
the course of our stay. We had some very nice nurses taking care of
us, but it didn't matter how nice they were to Cirdan because they were
wearing white coats, and that meant bad things. So, we spent 4 days
and 3 nights in the pediatrics ward of the hospital, Friday the 10th
through Monday the 13th. On Monday we were discharged. Tirah
meanwhile was using up her valuable paid-time-off.

Late Monday afternoon we all arrived home. Cirdan was so happy to be
unplugged from the IV, and able to run around. His swollen ear was
mostly back to normal, and he felt much better. Tirah on the other
hand, had picked up some sort of bug in the hospital. Earlier on
Monday morning, before we left, she threw up in the hospital. Cirdan
actually had thrown up too, and we guess that he got the same thing we
had, but his antibiotic probably knocked it out sooner. When we got
home from the hospital, Tirah crashed in bed, while I put the kids to
bed. Half-way through putting the kids to bed, I started getting a
stomach ache too. By 8:30 that night I was throwing up, and had lost
control of my bodily functions. I had never felt such abdominal pain
in my life. Later that night Tirah called the ambulance for me, and
the same day we left the hospital, we were heading back into it. Only
this time it was a different hospital, because the one we had been in
before was closed. (We found out later that that hospital had an
epidemic outbreak of this G.I. bug)

Once in the hospital we waited forever. At least it felt like that.
Being abdominal pain, the doctors had to have my symptoms active in
order to diagnose it, before they could give me pain killers. Finally
they did, and I was able to sleep. While we were there, Tirah admitted
herself too. So Tirah and I spent the early morning of Valentine's Day
side by side on hospital beds. We were discharged by about 7:00 in
the morning on Tuesday. The doctors never really said what it was,
other than that there was a really nasty G.I. (Gastro-Intestinal) bug
going around. I don't think at that point that they knew just how
nasty it was.

I think it was by the end of Tuesday that Thea, my Mom, and my Dad all
came down with it as well. For some reason I got the worst of it
though. I guess I just have a weaker constitution for that sort of
thing. So we were all pretty sick for the week of the 13th through
the 17th. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep that week. Tirah
felt the least sick of all of us, so she got the hard job of taking
care of all of us. Meanwhile using up even more of her paid time off.
Time-off that we were hoping to spend on vacation time.

Fortunately I felt better by Sunday the 19th, and was able to play for
the Bryn Athyn Marriage Conference Dinner. Unfortunately we were
unable to attend the Conference because we were all sick, and we had to
be giving Cirdan his antibiotic all week (which was not that much fun
either). We were pretty upset about missing the Conference. We had
really been looking forward to it.

So I came home Sunday night after playing for the Dinner, to find Tirah
in a lot of pain from a bad earache. It was her birthday. That week
her ear got better and worse and better and worse. On Wednesday the
22nd, we all went into the doctor's office. Cirdan had to have a
follow-up check-up, and Tirah got her ear looked at. The doctor said
that Cirdan looked fine, but Tirah had an antibiotic prescribed for
her. She didn't get it filled right away because she wanted to see if
Homeopathy would heal it.

Cirdan was now done taking his antibiotic. But he then developed a
rash over his whole body. Meanwhile Thea developed a bloated or
distended stomach. So we went back into the doctor's office. The
doctor said that Cirdan's rash was very likely a reaction to the
antibiotic, and he said that Thea's tummy was very possibly her
reaction to the G.I. bug that we all had. Cirdan's rash eventually
cleared up, but he still has a pretty nasty diaper rash, probably a
combination of the antibiotic and the diarrhea. Thea's distended
tummy comes and goes, along with gas and occasional diarrhea.
Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep that week.

But then, Tirah's ear infection got much worse. It started to become
unbearable pain. On Sunday the 26th we filled her perscription. But
the pain kept getting worse. On Monday night (early Tuesday morning)
we drove into the Emergency Room for the third, and hopefully final,
time. This time we waited for almost an hour before getting a pain
killer for her. By the beginning of March she was feeling mostly back
to normal.

The first few days of March we began to think that maybe it was all
over. But then, on Friday night, Cirdan came down with a fever.
Saturday morning we took him into the doctor. His ear infection was
back. So he was going to be back on antibiotics for 5 days. But then
Cirdan's rash came back, and this time it was worse. Then he had a
lethargic episode in the morning on Monday, so we took him into the
doctor AGAIN. This time, they said, "Well he seems to be reacting to
this antibiotic too. We're sort of running out of options here, but
here's another drug to try. I can't promise that he won't react to
this one too." Well, at this point we were fed up. We didn't get
that perscription filled. We decided to get a second opinion.
Tirah's ear infection is still not better yet either. So this Friday,
Tirah and Cirdan have an appointment with Mitch Shapiro, a Homeopath
down near Philadelphia. Hopefully that will help to get us all
healthy again. So far, I'm the only one in my family who hasn't had
an ear infection. I guess that's the thing I have a stronger
constitution for. So the story is still unfinished. We're hoping
that we're nearing the finish line of renewed health.

And if all that wasn't enough, February was the month that we had to
renew both of our driver's licenses (go in and get our photos taken),
and we had to get the oil changed in our car. Not normally distressing
chores, but for this month they were just one more thing. Oh, and the
CD burner in my computer died.

Alright alright... enough complaining! If you've gotten this far in
the email, here's where it gets happier. It's times like these when I
really see the value of being able to live in the present. If I think
too much about the past, I start to feel really sorry for myself. If I
think too much about the future (more sickness? eternal financial
debt?) I worry too much. The present is the only time I can truly
function in, so my prayer is: "Lord, give us this day our daily bread."

So now, let me count my blessings over this past month: Thea was well
for her 3rd birthday! And it was a really fun party, with lots of
family and friends there. I'm thankful that we got to be healthy for
that.

I had to miss most of the Super Bowl, but I managed to see the final
quarter... and the Steelers won! Woohoo! (I'm a huge Steelers fan,
in case you didn't know.)

While, in the hospital, whenever Cirdan managed to fall asleep, Tirah
and I got to watch some of the Winter Olympics in Italy. Something we
wouldn't have been able to do, since we don't have TV at home. That
was fun.

My sister, Tamar, had her second child in, while we were in the
hospital with Cirdan. And though we still haven't been able to see him
(for fear of getting him sick), it's a wonderful event, and we can be
thankful that so far he has not gotten sick. With the birth of
Tamar's second son, we now have an interesting situation in my family:
Thea is the only granddaughter on the Keal side of the family, and
Cirdan is the only grandson on the Echols side of the family. Both my
sisters have two boys. And Steve and Galadriel have two girls. We'll
have to see if Eli and Nicola's baby breaks the pattern, but for now,
Thea remains the favorite granddaughter on the Keal side, and Cirdan
remains the favorite grandson on the Echols side.

Funny story: I was telling Thea that her Aunt Tamar had a new baby; a
concept that she got without too much effort. I then went off on a
long-winded explanation about where babies come from, in which I tried
to appeal to Thea's amazing understanding and comprehension, while
still being appropriate for a 3 year old. Obviously I failed because
when I was done, Thea paused for a second and then said, "Papa, I don't
know what you are talking about."

By the way, Thea is telling everyone that we've all had "Ear
Connections" and that's why we've been sick.

We are very thankful that Tirah has now qualified for paid-time-off in
her job at Jo-Ann Fabrics. If she didn't have that, either Tirah would
have just had to work straight through all of this craziness, or we
would have gone even further into debt. But she was able to take
several days off, and yet still be paid. A huge blessing.

We are very grateful to be able to share a household with my parents.
Having them in the same house through all of this has meant that we
could leave Thea at home while we were in the hospital with Cirdan.
It has meant that we had family babysitters at critical times. When I
took Tirah to the ER in the wee hours of the morning, we were able to
just leave our kids asleep, and just move the baby monitor down the
hall. And we've had family close by, just for the sake of comfort. A
shared household is not always an easy thing, but it's very easy to
take for granted it's benefits.

Living in Kempton is also not always an easy thing, but it does have a
wonderful support network when people need it. We actually had meals
brought to us for a few days. We had people offer to babysit when Mom
and Dad couldn't. We've had someone offer to help us financially when
the bills start rolling in. And we've had many phone messages
expressing love and commiseration.

In between sicknesses, I actually got a chance to have a few business
meetings this month. So my music business hasn't been left completely
behind. Advent sales are still rolling in, which is nice. I also got
the chance, here and there, over the course of the month to give my
website a face-lift. Go and check it out, it looks much cooler now,
and is much more user-friendly. (http://www.solomonkeal.com)

We are incredibly grateful that things haven't been worse. When we
were in the hospital with Cirdan, everybody else in the pediatrics ward
was in much worse shape than Cirdan, and they were looking at weeks,
not days, in the hospital. We are very thankful that things weren't
worse. We're grateful that he didn't require surgery. A month like
this really made us realize how fragile human health is, and how
blessed we were for so long with wonderful health. Maybe now we won't
take it for granted so much.

We are very grateful to have Mom Echols for all her tireless efforts in
finding the right Homeopathic remedies to keep us even more healthy,
and for sending them to us when we didn't have them, and for being by
our side in the wee hours of the night, even if it was just on the
phone.

We've learned how to be better about "rolling with the punches," and
"taking things in stride." We've had many blessings in our lives, and
we were in the habit of thanking the Lord daily for those blessings.
It's a wonderful spiritual challenge to continue to thank the Lord for
blessings, even when they're harder to see. It's a good exercise for
building up the strength of one's character and attitude. And it's
amazing how it really does come down to a choice. We humans are
nothing but choice. That is what determines who we are. I can choose
to feel victimized or sorry for myself, or I can choose to learn from a
situation and count my blessings. It can be very hard to FEEL
grateful and blessed when your family is in so much pain. But
fortunately we can CHOOSE to stay positive and eventually LEARN how to
feel blessed even in difficult times.

So that's the story from the front lines of the Keal household. We
hope that all of you are doing well, and may you feel the Lord's
blessings showering down upon you.

Spring is coming!

Love,
Solomon - Papa, Husband
Tirah - Mama, Wife
Thea - Daughter, Sister
Cirdan - Son, Brother

Keal Family Letter, February 2006

2008-03-11T15:33:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family! We hope you are all doing well! We seemed
to be over our month long colds, and on the mend, but now Thea has come
down with a fever and an earache, possibly and ear infection. One of
these months, we'll all be well again! Hopefully Thea will be feeling
better for her birthday party on Saturday!

Thea turns 3 tomorrow! We got a new 10 gallon aquarium for Christmas,
and we'll be giving Thea a fish for her birthday! She's really looking
forward to it. It's fun that she's gotten to the age of life where
she's capable of looking forward to her birthday!

Because we've all been sick for so long, I don't have a lot of fun
stories to tell you. But here are some:

Cirdan has become quite the little talker! He can say: dog, duck,
shock (static electricity), poopy, oopsy, happy, sad, horse, Thea,
kitty, sleeping, nap, blanket, piano, hands, knee, feet, Meema
(Grandmother), Deeda (Grandfather), sit (although unfortunately it
comes out sounding more like a swear word), food, drink, sippy cup,
pizza, hot, yeehaw, and so many others. He can also put together
small two-word sentences. He will point at my mom's chair and say
"Meema, sit?" Or he will point at Thea in her crib and say, "Thea,
sleeping?"

Cirdan is getting old enough that he and Thea can play together a
little bit. In good moods they will happily chase each other around
the house for minutes at a time! They also still really enjoy reading
books. Tirah made these wonderful cloth books for their Christmas
presents. They love them!

Thea's latest favorite toy is a little furry kitten that she got for
Christmas. This Kitty goes everywhere with her. One of her favorite
things to do with Kitty is to feed him. The other day I saw Kitty
sitting in his little toy highchair. On the high chair tray Thea had
put... I kid you not... a little toy bird and a little toy mouse! I
think from Thea's point of view these were either "friends" or "toys"
for the Kitty to play with. As appropriate as it may have seemed, I
don't think she intended for them to be "food" for the Kitty!

While Thea and Cirdan can sometimes play nicely together, they more
often cannot. I feel like I spend most of my time breaking up fights.
Sometimes I think to myself that this must be how God feels
sometimes: "I turn around for one second, and My kids are fighting over
some stupid thing!"

I've always been fascinated by the nature of parenthood being
representative of the Lord. There are so many ways that we, as
parents for our children, represent God as Parent of humanity. But
the other day I had the opposite epiphany. It was Sunday, just after
listening to a sermon about how God is in control of our lives, not us.
I remember thinking how obvious that can sometimes be as a parent!
Though we may represent God for our children, we cannot replace Him!
For example, I didn't teach Cirdan how to have a sense of humor, or how
to listen carefully enough to learn language! In actual fact, parents
are mere observers. Our job is to make sure our kids don't die, while
the Lord turns them into adults and then angels. We as parents, don't
have ALL the responsibility, nor do we have NO responsibility. We have
just enough to be guides for our kids. It's a strange role to fill.
Both empowering and humbling.

Tirah is still settling into her job at Jo-Ann Fabrics. Though she
probably won't admit it, I know that she's doing a wonderful job at
what is a very challenging role. Jo-Ann Fabrics has a system called
Cut-Above. It's a system of awards that can be given to any employee
that goes above and beyond, or just really does their job well. After
just 7 months on the job, Tirah has been given 5 Cut-Above awards for
an excellent job done! The awards are these little Scissor pins that
she can pin to her Jo-Ann T-shirt. After 10 Cut-Above awards, an
employee will be given a gold pin.

In January, Tirah's Jo-Ann store had their Christmas party (there
wasn't time during the Christmas season!). I was able to go with her
to the Christmas party. It was fun to meet her co-workers. She's
developing some nice friendships there. One of the challenges for
her, at work, is finding common ground with her co-workers. Aside from
the obvious love of sewing and crafts, many of her co-workers are
either career oriented, or just don't hold a love of family and
marriage to be of very high value, which makes it hard for Tirah.
But, I believe that she has become a good influence in her Jo-Ann
store. Someone who stands for doing her job justly, honestly and
faithfully. Someone who holds customer service to be more important
than monetary gain. And someone that seeks to have good relationships
with everyone around her.

We've finally gotten back to a good routine again, after sickness and
holidays. We're working on a schedule that's flexible enough to
accommodate Tirah's work schedule, while rigid enough to include
everything that is important in our lives, and also gives Tirah
something stable to come home to. We're getting back into weekly date
nights, and back into limiting ourselves to only a weekly movie/TV
night. We're working on making sure that I get at least 20 hours of
music work in per week, while also having time for household chores,
making dinners, and of course my normal parental duties. I think it
will work well.

One of Tirah's new crafty projects is that she's working on re-covering
our living room couch and chairs. I think it will look really nice!
This summer, we will be re-painting and re-flooring the kitchen, thanks
to a very generous Christmas gift.

Some of the things we are looking forward to this year: Tirah and I
will be going to the Marriage Conference in Bryn Athyn, which will be
some wonderful attention for our marriage, as well as some nice
time-off. We are hoping to be able to make it out to Ohio for Easter.
And we are planning a long weekend at Lake Wallenpaupack for our 5th
anniversary in June! Tirah has now worked long enough to earn some
payed time off, which will allow us to do many of these things!

This Sunday is the Superbowl! I'm not normally a huge football fan.
I like watching football. I even watched Monday Night Football on a
fairly regular basis for a while. But I have to admit that I'm a
pretty big Steelers fan. The Steelers (for those that don't know) are
the football team from Pittsburgh PA, where I spent my early childhood.
Once it gets in your blood, it never leaves. I live closer to
Philadelphia Eagles territory, but I'm a Steelers fan through and
through. Well, the Steelers made it to the Superbowl this year! They
were only the sixth seed team, and they beat the number one team! It's
all very exciting! Because of scheduling issues, transportation
issues, and parental duties, I may only get to see the last half of the
Superbowl live, but it will be fun anyway.

My music business continues to move steadily along. I recently
finished doing a financial report for the business for the year of
2005. I'm happy to say that my little business was in the black after
it's first year! There are many projects and plans for this year,
which you can hear about in my music newsletter.

I hope you all have a wonderful February! I wish you all the Lord's
peace.

Love, Solomon, Tirah, Thea and Cirdan Keal.

Keal Family Letter, January 2006

2008-03-11T15:32:00.000-04:00

Hello Friend and Family. Happy New Year! I hope you all had Merry
Christmas celebrations, and Happy New Year's eve parties! We had a
wonderful Keal Family Christmas at Peter and Roxanne's house in Drexel
Hill. My parents and all my siblings and our growing families were
all there. We also had a very nice and relaxing New Year's Eve.
Tirah and I just spent it at home, eating homemade sweets and drinking
hot chocolate, by the fire, watching movies. At midnight we went
outside and waved some sparklers around for a few minutes. One or two
cars were fortunate enough to drive by and witness our tiny fireworks
display. Hopefully it helped to make their evenings as well. It was
very nice and simple. We've been battling colds and coughs throughout
Christmas and New Year's, but we've had a Happy Holidays anyway! We
hope you all have too!

Cirdan is now a year and a half. He's the cutest little boy in the
world. I know, I probably say that every newsletter. Here are some
new aspects of his cuteness. He thinks every sound he hears is music.
The wood stove will creak with the heat, or the water cooler will
bubble, and we'll look down and he'll be dancing away to this hip beat.
It's very cute... and inspiring. Wouldn't it be cool if every sound
we heard was music to our ears? Cirdan talks more and more every day.
He can say apple "bapple," banana "nana," I can't even think of all
the words he now knows, because it's starting to be less of a surprise
to hear him talk.

One of his favorite things now is babies. Thea has her bears and other
stuffed animals which she nurses and takes care of, but she never
really got into babies. But Cirdan just loves babies. He always asks
for the books about babies. He loves his little baby cousin Garrett.
Thea has always loved the book about the Woman Clothed with the Sun, I
think because of the Woman and the Dragon, but Cirdan loves that book
because of the little baby. Cirdan is inheriting all the baby dolls
that Thea doesn't play with. It's very cute.

Of course Cirdan is also approaching the Terrible Twos, and he does
have his naughty side. His worst one is that he loves to throw food.
And the worst of it is that I can't figure out how to punish him.
Everything I do, he loves, or thinks is funny. And we don't punish
with hitting or spanking, so its things like the "naughty room" or just
getting locked in his high chair without food. But sometimes it seems
like he's just saying, "Oh thank you Papa, I was done with that food
anyway." Even just saying "No!" in a stern voice. He's taken to
throwing his food off his tray while say "NO!" almost as if to say,
"Don't worry Papa, I know what to say, I've got it covered."

Thea will be 3 in one month. She just keeps growing up! As always
she comprehends more and more of the way the world works. She knows
that credit cards are for buying things. She knows what money is, and
she asks me for some of her own. You know your child is from the 21st
century when she hands you a toy credit card and says "Here Papa, do
you want some money?"

Both kids love playing with toy phones, and they spend a good chunk of
the day talking to Mama on the phone. The other day both Thea and
Cirdan were playing with toy phones. Thea handed me her phone asking
if I wanted to talk to Mama, so I took it and had a pretend
conversation with Tirah. Cirdan saw this fun game and walked up to me
offering me his phone too. I felt like telling pretend Tirah to
"please hold, I have another call coming through." If only my
audience had been old enough to get a joke like that.

Something very cute that I've noticed about Thea's understanding of
things: She thinks that Tirah makes everything. Everything! I
think it's because she always sees Tirah working on some crafty
project, especially this Christmas season. Whatever the reason, Thea
has this concept that Mama makes everything. She'll come up to me
holding a DVD, and say "Mama made it." Mama also made our Christmas
tree, and our Nativity set. Maybe she thinks that that is what Tirah
does all day at Jo-Ann Fabrics... she makes everything for our home.

Tirah is very glad to be done the hectic Christmas season in retail.
She's back to regular store hours, so on days when she closes the store
she gets back at 11:00 instead of midnight. It's amazing how that
extra hour can feel so much longer. She was sick over Christmas, but
enjoyed the time off anyway. My Christmas present to her this year was
a copy of the New Living Translation of the Bible, which we are both
enjoying very much, and makes our evening ritual that much more
pleasant. Our current evening ritual which we try to maintain every
night is 1. getting ready for bed, 2. reading email (family, and GCFL),
3. reading from either the Word or the Writings (we alternate every
night), 4. praying, 5. doing 20 minutes of yoga, then going to bed.
When we do that, we stay much more sane and healthy, physically,
mentally and spiritually.

Well, it's been one year of attempting to start up my own music
business. So far it's been going well. I have a new album. I have
many new contacts. I have a manager. I'm looking forward to what
this next year brings. It's been so wonderful to get to be home all
the time, and get to work on my music whenever the kids are asleep.
It's a great situation for now. As always, the plan is that I can
eventually earn our living from music, and Tirah can stop being the
bread-winner. But for now, we are happy and content where we are.

I hope you all have a wonderful 2006! May the Lord be with you all on
your paths of life.

Love, Solomon, Tirah, Thea, and Cirdan Keal.

Keal Family Letter, December 2005

2008-03-11T15:31:00.001-04:00

Hello Friends and Family! Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you
are all enjoying the start of the Season.

We are all just getting over a nasty bout of colds and fevers. I
started it all by getting sick on Thanksgiving, and then the rest of
the family followed suit. We're also feeling the stress of the
Holiday rush, perhaps Tirah more than anyone else, since she works in
retail and it's the most stressful time of year in retail. But other
than that, we are all well.

Cirdan will be a year and a half this month. He's become quite the
little boy. The other day he learned how to put two pieces of Lego
together (I'm so proud!). He loves singing and dancing and playing the
"Nanyo" (Piano). He loves destroying things and getting into trouble.
He loves to throw these little crocheted balls that Tirah made.
He'll grab one, and then bend way over forward, with his hand behind
him... winding up for the pitch; and then he throws... often times the
ball going straight up as he releases too early, and it will come down
and bounce off his head. He seriously looks like a little baby
baseball pitcher. He's also started this really cute habit of
walking around with both of his hands clasped behind his back... he
looks like a baby Charlie Chaplin.

Cirdan keeps talking more and more. He's now in the phase where you
can prompt him to try to say a word, and he'll give it his best shot.
The other day he actually put together a small sentence. He had lost
his binky (pacifier); this was while he was still sick, and he was very
sad. As I was crawling around on the floor looking for it, I heard him
say between sobs: "Ah Wah Da Diddy!" (I want my Binky!)

Thea is definitely a two year old. She will be three in February. The
most common word heard to escape her lips is "NO!" She flexes her Will
every day. It is very hard, for both Tirah and I, to be patient
enough to deal with this stage of a developing child. It's difficult
to remember that just because she can talk, doesn't mean she's
rational. She spends a lot of time in the "Naughty Room." She will
scream until her face turns bright red, just because she didn't get
what she wanted. Thea is also still potty training, and has learned
that she can say "I need to go potty!" right before bed-time or
nap-time and then use it as a stalling tactic and just sit on the potty
for a while, not doing anything.

But aside from all the hardship of this stage, she is ever and always
the cutest little girl on the planet. She learns so much every day!
We have family worship every night, and part of the worship is to read
picture book stories from the Word. Thea's favorite is a picture book
of "the Woman Clothed with the Sun" story from Revelation. She can
recite whole pages from the book! It's very cool!

Tirah is very stressed out and very tired, most of the time these days.
Her work is really stressful, being the Christmas season. Plus she
has a long commute. Plus, she has a flex schedule which means she
rarely has two days off in a row. Plus, she works part-time as Carl's
book-keeper. Plus she's making all our Christmas presents. Plus, we
constantly have only barely enough money to survive, which is very
stressful. Plus, the kids are more than a handful right now, and
usually time their biggest tantrums for when Tirah is home. Plus, she
doesn't have much time in her life for the important rejuvenating
things, like keeping in touch with her girl friends, and family.
It's pretty much all overwhelming her right now. We've started doing
yoga together at night before bed, which helps us stay physically
healthy, as well as being a calming, de-stressing type of ritual. We
also try to keep reading from the Word every night so that we stay sane
and remember what's important in life. We try to find the time to do
things to maintain a healthy marriage. We've been reading books
together, which is fun. Last night we made hot chocolate and read to
each other in bed before starting the night-time routine. We're
trying to hang onto the hope that things will keep getting better. As
always, the plan is that my music business will eventually be able to
support us, and Tirah can stop being the bread-winner. We just have
to hang on 'til then.

Speaking of my music business, "Advent" sales are going really well.
I've done one Christmas performance this season, and I'm looking
forward to three more before Christmas. I have several projects
planned for next year. Peter and I are constantly working on the
business, and I have very high hopes that this will be something I can
live on in the future. I'm forever grateful to Tirah for this chance
to pursue this dream. We both think that it's worth all the stress.
It's been great to be at home, and have so much more time to work on
things. Although, I'm afraid the normal household duties like cleaning
have fallen a little by the way-side since "Advent" has come out.
The most recent news with "Advent" is that it has been reviewed by
noted piano music reviewer, Kathy Parsons! Check out her review at
www.solopianopublication.com, or on my website on the Press/Reviews
page (www.solomonkeal.com).

Perhaps it's fitting that the Christmas season, leading up to Christmas
Day, is such a stressful time of year for so many people. Sort of like
the cold and the darkness (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), that
represents the state of the world before the birth of Christ. Without
the Lord in our lives, we cannot help but be stressed out. But when
the Lord is born into our lives, He brings peace.

May all your lives be filled with the peace of Christmas Day... on
every day of the year!

See you next year!

Love,

Solomon (Full-time parent, part-time musician, part-time housekeeper,
full-time husband)
Tirah (Full-time fabric store manager, part-time parent, part-time
book-keeper, full-time wife)
Thea (Full-time Two-Year-Old, part-time angel, full-time daughter)
Cirdan (Full-time Toddler, part-time trouble-maker, full-time son)
The Keal Family (Works in progress, angels in training.)

Keal Family Letter, November 2005

2008-03-11T15:30:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family! November is here! For me and my one-track
mind, that means that my Christmas CD, "Advent," will be coming out
this month. Very likely in the next two weeks! I will keep you
posted on that.

October was a busy month for us... very much like every other month.
But busy is good! I've been reflecting a lot lately on the concept of
having the right attitude in life. I believe very strongly in the
idea of focussing on the good things in life. Not to completely ignore
that bad things, but just to orient myself towards the good things. I
hope to be a "glass is half-full" kind of guy. I think that it is
actually a big part of being on the road to heaven. Heaven is all
about good things. If we're constantly focussing our minds on what's
going wrong in our lives, we are actually turning our spiritual bodies
towards the road to hell. Whereas, if we're constantly focussing our
minds on what's going right in our lives (no matter what is also going
wrong), we are actually turning our spiritual bodies towards heaven.
I'm not saying we don't need to focus on our problems and try to remove
them. I'm just saying that it really seems like a major difference
between the right path, and the wrong path (which might be better
defined as the happy path, and the sad, or angry path) is simply
attitude.

And now for a taste of some good things in our life right now:

Cirdan is a little boy! He's not really a baby any more; he's a
toddler. We were trying to figure out, the other day, why Cirdan
seems so much cuter than we remember Thea being at this age. (We were
hoping that the answer wasn't that we're horrible parents who play
favorites.) We figured out that it's because Cirdan was walking a lot
sooner than Thea was. And there's something so insanely cute about a
little being that doesn't look big enough to walk... walking.

Cirdan is growing up so fast! He's getting to that phase where it
seems like he learns a new word every day. He can say every word in
the English language that rhymes with -ack, -eck, -ick, -ock, or -uck,
and those seem to be his favorites. It's amazing how many words a
little baby boy can learn that rhyme. You'd think we'd have thought of
that when we invented the English language. Maybe then we wouldn't
have situations like these: "Did he say truck?" "No, he said duck."
"I thought he said book." "No, I'm positive he said rock." "No
no, he wants to go on a walk!" "No he just wants to take off his
sock." "Are you sure he doesn't just want to play with that block?"
"Maybe he's just telling us that he can talk!" If I'd invented the
English language I would have been sure to evaluate the words
associated with early childhood: "What shall we name this powdery
mineral writing medium?" "How about 'chalk'?" "No good! That
rhymes with 'walk.' Parents will go insane. Try something else."

Fortunately, Cirdan has been learning words that don't rhyme with -ock,
too. He can now say: "Uh-oh", "Bowl", "Ball", "Touch", "Out", "Yes",
"Mama", "Papa", "Cheese", "Pop!", "This", "Hat", "Banana" (comes out as
"Nana"), and my personal favorite: "Turtle" (comes out as "Dodo").

A lot of what Cirdan says, however, remains untranslatable by us
Parents. I'm starting to wonder if he's not really speaking English at
all, but rather Ewok, or Jawa. That's what it sounds like most of the
time. Maybe it's my love of Star Wars coming out in him. Either
that or, whoever invented those languages for those movies, had a
one-year-old. Next time you watch those movies, find a picture of
Cirdan, and just listen to the Ewoks or Jawas talking, and it will be a
pretty good impression of the language stage that he's in right now.

Cirdan loves to sing and dance. He can do a lot of hand-motions for
our worship songs. He will talk on pretend phones, and if you give
him a comb, he will comb his hair... or try to anyway. He's in the
parrot phase. He tries to imitate us. It's very cute.

Since Tirah has been working, and having to get up insanely early, or
stay up insanely late, she's been drinking coffee. Which means that
Thea and Cirdan have been drinking coffee too... just pretend coffee.
Cirdan will walk around the house carrying a toy cup and spoon and will
offer you a taste of his coffee.

Thea had a pretend cup of coffee the other morning. When Cirdan came
over and rudely grabbed it from her, she came running up to me,
screaming in a hyper voice: "I NEED MY COFFEE!!!!!!!" I had a really
hard time not laughing.

Thea is also leaping ahead in her ability to talk, and comprehend
language. She also has quite the imagination. The other night, while
we were cleaning up the living room, she was talking on her toy phone
to her cousin Caleb. The pretend conversation went something like
this: "Hi Caleb... We had tacos for supper... I like tacos, but I
don't like lettuce... what are you having for supper?... Hamburgers?...
I like hamburgers.... No you can't go outside... it's time to clean
up... (at which point she brought her toy phone to me and said, "Caleb
wants to go outside." So I took the phone and explained to "Caleb"
that it was time to clean up. She took the phone back, and the
conversation continued.) No you can't go outside because it's time to
clean up... O.K. Bye." She told me the other day that, "I know how
to talk, because I'm a big girl."

Thea has started to figure out that if she talks, I tend to listen. So
at bed-time, she will often talk my ear off, right as I'm trying to
leave the room, because she know it will keep me from closing the door,
and it will delay bed-time. I've never been the type of person who
can hang up on a tele-marketer in the middle of their sentence, and
this is a million times worse, but occasionally I have to close the
door in the middle of her pitch.

Thea is still very much two, and so has frequent tantrums when her Will
is challenged. But she is also learning how to play nicely with her
brother, and how to be polite to us parents.

A funny thing happened a couple of days ago. It was nap time, and both
kids were in their cribs. I was down-stairs doing some chores when I
heard a "Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump." It sounded like
little feet running! I walked over to the monitor to listen better,
but all I heard was the little kid laughter that should have been
silent sleep. They often laugh at each other in their cribs, so I
went back to doing chores. I couple of minutes later, I was walking up
stairs, when I noticed the handle of the kid's room door jiggling! I
walked in, and there was Thea running around the room! She'd gotten
out of her crib... with the bar up! She'd turned the light on, and
she was trying to open the door to get out! I figure she must have
piled all her blankets and pillows in one corner, and climbed out onto
the table next to her crib, and then down. We often let her climb in
and out of her crib with the bar down, but we didn't think she could do
it with the bar up!

Tirah is feeling more confident in her manager's job at Jo-Ann Fabrics.
It's still a tough job, for not much pay, and it's a long commute,
but she feels good knowing that it's letting me work on my music
business. We're trusting the Lord that things will start looking up
for us financially. If we're going to be a rags to riches story, we
need to start with rags I guess. And ultimately we are already rich:
We have a good marriage, two wonderful kids, friends and family, and
hope for the future.

This month will be a big month for my music business, because my
Christmas CD, "Advent" will be coming out. It will be a significant
step in what will be a long period of building a business from scratch.
As always, check out my website for more news: www.solomonkeal.com.

We wish you all well, and we hope you have a wonderful Autumn and
Thanksgiving!

May the Lord bless your lives!

Love from,

Solomon, Tirah, Thea, and Cirdan Keal.

Keal Family Letter, October 2005

2008-03-11T15:29:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family! October. Autumn. Red-gold leaves. A
late afternoon stroll as the sun sets. Putting on a sweater and
grabbing a cup of hot chocolate. The smell of pumpkin pie. The taste
of ginger bread and apple cider. It's a good time of year.

Well, September has been sort of a stressful month for us. I've been
having a few difficulties in getting the final details of my Christmas
CD, Advent, finished on time. And Tirah and I have been having a hard
time not getting depressed by the reality of our financial situation.
It's a real exercise to try to maintain a trust in the Lord, when our
account goes down to zero every couple of weeks. And the fact that our
back yard is just dirt, is fittingly analogous of our finances. It's
like reverse feng shui, where our moods change our environment. I
know money doesn't grow on trees, but maybe if we find the right grass
seed...

But enough about the boring and depressing details of adult life, lets
move on to the heavenly joys that our children bring to us:

Cirdan is turning into quite the little boy. He walks everywhere, he
climbs everything, he loves cars and trucks, and he loves to play in
the dirt. Fortunately, he also still loves flowers, rainbows, babies,
and hugs. He has started singing, just like his older sister. All he
knows is the four notes from the end of the theme song to Elmo's World;
"That's Elmo's World!" He can't say the words yet, but he goes: Ba,
Baa baa, BAAAAAA!, and he frequently gets the notes right on.

He can say a few more words. He can say "Car," although it comes out
in more of British; "Caah." (I know there's a joke in there
somewhere, about a car and a British crow, but it's just not coming.)
He can also say "Up" and "Down," although once again, "Down" is more
like "Daah." He plays a game where he sits on the bottom step of the
stairs, and he quickly stands up while saying, "UP!" and then sits down
while saying "Daah." He is also learning to say "Please" and "Thank
you" in sign language.

Cirdan is a thriving and successful manufacturer of Joy and Cuteness,
but he's lately branched out and started a small side-business in
Naughtiness and Trouble-making. He will climb into a chair, reach
over and grab a lamp, and shake it hard, while grinning at me, as if to
say: "Come get me Papa!" He also pitches his food off his high-chair
tray, and then laughs and laughs when we tell him "No!" He seems to
find our serious, reprimanding faces amusing. "That's a funny face
Papa, do another one!" Oh well. I certainly get my exercise, both
physically and emotionally.

Thea is such a big little girl. And by "big" I mean personality-wise.
She loves to help me do the household chores. The other day, she
helped me put away all the clean laundry, and I mean she really helped
me! I sorted into piles, and then I told her what drawers to put the
piles in... and she did it! Cool!

She loves making comparisons and finding analogies. (Not surprising
really, since I love that too.) The other day I showed her a picture
of a Star Wars Star Destroyer. She asked me what it was. I told her
that it was a spaceship. She responded with, "Oh. Sort of like a
helicopter!" She made that comparison all on her own! She's
starting to make connections with who and what people are. She knows
that I have a name which is Solomon, but that she calls me Papa. She
knows that other kids have Papas too, and they are different from her
Papa. She knows that there's some sort of connection between men and
women, and Mamas and Papas. The other day we were talking about a man
that had walked by on the sidewalk. She asked me who it was, and I
told her that it was a man, (not knowing who he was). She responded
with, "Papa is sort of like a man!" A couple days ago, I was
changing her diaper (a number 2 diaper) when she looked down and
remarked, "Oh, it's sort of like Play-dough!" "Um... yes..." said I,
"but very different!"

Thea is very aware of everything we say. The other day Tirah was
making zuchini bread. She pulled the last loaf out of the oven too
late, and it had burned on the bottom. She set it down on the table
and said, "That Stinks!" The following day, Thea came up to me and
said, "I want some Stinks." meaning zuchini bread.

Now that Autumn has arrived, and some of the leaves are falling, Thea
has developed this strange fear of dead leaves. She's constantly
asking Tirah and I to move dead leaves so that she can walk by. I'm
hoping it's just a phase, or this Fall is going to be really
interesting.

Thea is getting old enough that I'm starting to become aware of how she
is a little tiny feminine being. My real challenge, as the
stay-at-home parent, is going to be making sure that Thea's emotional
needs are met. I'm starting to see first hand, why women are made for
this job. Very simply; children are pretty much all emotion for a
while, especially little girls. And women are better tuned-in to
emotion than men. And especially since Thea is a girl, I need to make
sure that I don't just treat her the way I instinctively treat
Cirdan... as a little version of me. Fortunately, being married to
Tirah has taught me a lot about how to work very closely with a
feminine being, and I've learned how to respect emotional boundaries
that we men don't have a natural clue about on our own. It's not an
impossible job; I just have to work harder at it than Tirah does. And
it's very odd to have learned relationship skills with my wife, that
I'm now needing to apply to my daughter.

To aid in all of that, we've started having special times where Tirah
and Thea hang out, and Cirdan and I hang out. Good Mama and daughter
time, and good Papa and son time. We've been noticing that Thea tends
to flip-out and have tantrums when Tirah is home, and we've finally
caught on that it's not because she doesn't want Tirah around, it's
because she feels safer to let out all her emotions with Tirah, than
with me.

Thea is still potty training. We have a little chart by her potty, and
she gets a little silver star every time she uses the potty. According
to that chart, she uses the potty 2.0625 times a day... on average.
We're trying to boost the numbers on that 0.0625 time, because it would
be much easier if it was an even three.

One of the things I love about being a full-time parent is that it's
not an hourly rate. I don't have a foreman standing over my shoulder
saying, "Come on... you can change that poopy diaper faster! I'm not
paying you to make faces at your son! Hurry up, you're taking way too
long with that!" I can take as long as I want. In fact, the more
time I spend with my children, the better! (Maybe not as far as diaper
changing goes.) It's about quality time, not efficient time. It's
a nice change.

Tirah is still working hard at Jo-Ann Fabrics. It's a hard job, that
doesn't pay very well. Fortunately it involves two things she really
likes: 1) sewing-type stuff, and 2) helping people. We don't have a
stereotypical normal life like we did when I worked in carpentry.
Tirah hardly ever has two days off in a row, and is often working
weekends and evenings. Neither of us have much free time to speak of,
but we try to find the time to relax together and remember our
marriage. We don't have the time or money to do traditional date
nights very much anymore, but we can read together, or play games
together. We just got into reading Clive Cussler novels. He's the
guy that writes those Dirk Pitt Adventure novels. They're sort of
"Indiana Jones"-like books. So far it's fun!

I'm going to try to start watching Monday Night Football... something I
haven't done in years. Any free time I have (after taking care of the
house and kids) goes towards my music business, and I need some regular
down-time / guy-time in my life, so we're going to try to make that
work.

That's about it for now. We hope you are all doing well.

May the Lord bless your lives.

Love,
Solomon (28), Tirah (25), Thea (2 and 2/3), and Cirdan (15 months)