Keal Family Letter, March 2008

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)