tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34662865353361401042024-03-13T16:36:09.999-04:00Can't Stop A PapaThe Chronicles of the Solomon and Tirah Keal Family, as told through the Keal Family Newsletter, written by Solomon Keal.Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-5738981198613071362010-08-23T12:06:00.001-04:002010-08-23T12:07:46.058-04:00The Dread Parent Roberts<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/THKcxozi7nI/AAAAAAAAAHE/5FW33fsVu7w/s1600/princessbride1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 148px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/THKcxozi7nI/AAAAAAAAAHE/5FW33fsVu7w/s200/princessbride1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508637670808678002" /></a><br />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:<br /><br />Parent Buttercup: “I know who you are. Your cruelty reveals everything. You’re the Dread Parent Roberts, admit it!”<br /><br />The Dread Parent Roberts: “With pride! What can I do for you?”<br /><br />Parent Buttercup: “You can die slowly, cut into a thousand pieces.”<br /><br />The Dread Parent Roberts: “Hardly complimentary, Your Highness. Why loose your venom on me?”<br /><br />Parent Buttercup: “You killed my love.”<br /><br />The Dread Parent Roberts: “It’s possible, I kill a lot of things. What was this ‘love’ of yours?”<br /><br />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!”<br /><br />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!”<br /><br />Parent Buttercup: “You mock my pain!”<br /><br />The Dread Parent Roberts: “Parenting is pain, Highness! Anyone who says differently is selling something.”<br /><br />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.”<br /><br />- Solomon KealSolomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-39240611896386767702009-10-10T14:21:00.000-04:002009-10-10T14:19:26.577-04:00Keal Family update (at last)<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">Dear Friends and Family,</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>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!</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>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.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>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!). </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>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!!!</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>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.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>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!</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>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."</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">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.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>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.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>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!</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Comic Sans MS'; min-height: 16px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">Love,</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">Solomon "Grade A" Keal 32</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">Tirah "Super Mommy in training" Keal 29</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">Thea "Super Reader" Keal 6</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">Cirdan "Life of the Party" Keal 5</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">Jaden "Big Brother" Keal 2</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS">Zoe "Angel Girl" Keal 4 months</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Comic Sans MS"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></font><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br>Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-64973504756634554012009-08-28T15:15:00.001-04:002009-08-28T15:15:55.166-04:00Keal Family Newsletter, August 2009Hello Friends and Family!<p>We have been living in our new house in Bryn Athyn for almost a month <br>now.<br>It's been a busy month of unpacking, visiting with friends and <br>family, and lot's of shopping. Thea and Cirdan will be going to <br>Kindergarten and 1st Grade in the Bryn Athyn Elementary School, which <br>now has a dress code. So we've very quickly learned the location of <br>many thrift stores in the area, and have been putting together a <br>school wardrobe for Thea and Cirdan.<br>As we near the end of the month and the beginning of school for Thea, <br>Cirdan and I, we are feeling mostly ready.<p>Zoe is now 3 months old. She smiles a lot, and has even blessed us <br>with occasional laughter and cute "talking." Just the other day we <br>tried putting her in the exer-saucer, which allows her to be in a <br>standing position. She loves watching her older siblings. Thea and <br>Cirdan and Jaden have taken to running or riding their trikes around <br>the front porch of our house. Often times letting Zoe watch this <br>racing event will calm her down when she's crying. And just like <br>Jaden at this age, Zoe also loves to be outside. She has moved <br>out of the bed-buddy, and into her own crib, set up in our bedroom. <br>Unfortunately she hasn't been sleeping very regularly lately, so <br>Tirah has not been getting good nights of sleep, but hopefully that <br>will improve. Zoe has been getting a little bit more used to me. <br>I've been able to hold her for longer periods of time while she <br>remains happy. Tirah has even had the chance to go out and about at <br>times, while I've had the four kids at home. But she definitely <br>still prefers Tirah to anyone else, especially when she's upset.<p>Jaden is now two. He has entered the realm of "two-hood" with a bit <br>of a whine. He has started throwing more tantrums lately. But he <br>still remains one of the cutest kids on the planet. We had a nice <br>little birthday party for him, here in our new house. It ended up <br>being a small party, but I think that was a good thing in the end. <br>Since we've moved, we've gotten back into singing lullabies to the <br>kids at night, and Jaden very often will sing along with, much like <br>Thea did at this age. It's wonderfully cute.<p>We've taken the opportunity of the change in life associated with <br>moving to make some other changes in our habits. We've gotten back <br>into a very nice bedtime routine with the kids. After cleanup and <br>teeth-brushing are done, we read a story from the Word. And then we <br>read a story of the kids' choosing from our bookshelf of kids books. <br>Then we sing some lullabies and say the prayer, and then end with a <br>few more lullabies. This has really helped the kids settle down in <br>the evening, and I think helped them feel more comfortable in a new <br>house.<p>Cirdan is 5. He is looking forward to Kindergarten. He hasn't <br>really expressed any nervousness about it, which I'm assuming means <br>he doesn't feel nervous, which is great.<br>Here at our new house, his favorite thing is that we now have a Lego <br>room. Our house is a 5 bedroom house with 3 bedrooms on the 2nd <br>floor, and 2 on the 3rd floor. The 2nd floor has our bedroom, the <br>kid's shared bedroom, and my music studio. The third floor has <br>Tirah's craft room, and our guest room, which also doubles as the <br>Lego room. While I was growing up, my favorite toy was Lego, and <br>over the course of my childhood I collected quite a bit of it. Since <br>most of my Lego contained small parts, and because we lived in small <br>houses up until now, we hadn't brought my Lego out of storage until <br>now. But now that we have the space, and Thea and Cirdan are old <br>enough, all my Lego is out of storage and able to be played with. <br>Cirdan loves this, and often spends most of the day in the Lego <br>room. He especially likes the Lego knights and Star Wars Lego.<p>Here's a funny story. I can't remember now if this was Cirdan or <br>Thea who said this, but one of them did.<br>I was reading the story of Jonah to the kids. After the story we <br>started talking about it. One of the kids, Thea or Cirdan, said:<br>"It's a good thing that Jonah started listening to the Lord, and <br>doing what he was told, because if he didn't, then the Lord might <br>have given him an even worse Time-Out than the whale!" :-)<p>Thea is 6, and is entering 1st grade. I think she's a little bit <br>nervous about it, but much less so now that she's had a chance to <br>meet her teacher and see her classroom, and even meet some of her <br>classmates.<br>Thea has been able to set up a little "office" area at the top of the <br>stairs on the third floor. She also has a drawing area set up in the <br>very sunny dining room. And as always, she spends a lot of time <br>drawing and doing projects. She recently came up with a very <br>clever project: She took an old birthday party hat and cut the very <br>top off. She then drew a picture of stars and a moon, and taped the <br>page over the wide end of the cone-shaped hat. She then presented it <br>to us as a telescope. You hold it up to the light, look through the <br>small end of the cone, and you see the moon and stars. Very fun!<p>Tirah has been having fun getting to see so much of her family and <br>friends lately. Our life has definitely been more busy socially <br>since we moved, which right up Tirah's alley.<br>We're coming up on the 1 year anniversary of Tirah's mom's death, and <br>it's definitely been quite the emotional process for Tirah over the <br>last year. But combined with everything else going on in our life, I <br>think it's ultimately been a good emotional process, something that <br>has helped Tirah become aware of, and focus in on many aspects of her <br>spiritual state.<br>Tirah is about to face the challenge of being the stay-at-home mom <br>for 4 kids, after having worked for many years outside of the home. <br>We've had a wonderful summer of being at home as a family, and now <br>we're all about to be tested in this new life we've chosen.<p>Solomon is 32. He is looking forward to Theological School. He <br>hasn't really expressed any nervousness about it, which I'm assuming <br>means he doesn't feel nervous, which is great. ;-) This past month <br>has been such a whirlwind of logistics and general household tasks, <br>that I almost haven't had time to think about my new life as a <br>Theological School Student. Just a few days ago, Tirah's sister <br>Abby came by and babysat our four kids for us, while Tirah and I <br>escaped for some wonderful time away. We went to the Willow Grove <br>Mall, and sat in the Food Court eating french fries, and just talking <br>for an hour. I know I certainly felt like I was waking up out of the <br>stupor I was in, induced by the sheer busyness of our life. Tirah <br>had the wonderful idea of using one of the Lori and John Marriage <br>Exercises that we've learned to really dig deep into how we were <br>feeling. We were each able to express to each other how excited and <br>nervous we were about our new life. It was very enlightening and <br>conjoining for us.<p>This past month we were very happy to attend two marriage support <br>groups for the Theologs and their wives, led by Lori and John Odhner <br>of Caring for Marriage. Not only was it great for our marriage, but <br>a wonderful way for us to meet some of the other Theologs and their <br>wives.<p>This past weekend Carl Smith came down to visit, and we went to the <br>Bryn Athyn Swim Club pool. That was lots of fun. They have a kid's <br>pool that is only 1 and 1/2 feet deep. It was perfect for Thea and <br>Cirdan. And eventually they even got brave enough to try the adult <br>pool with us.<p>It's been interesting getting used to the idea that everything down <br>here is a lot closer together. In Kempton, anything that you had to <br>get to was between 15 minutes to 30 minutes away. Down here <br>everything is between 5 and 15 minutes away. In Kempton when you're <br>driving through a town, you know you've left the town because it <br>turns into farmland. Down here, you drive from town to town without <br>ever leaving the "town." It has been nice to have shopping trips <br>not take up so much of the day.<p>As I mentioned before, we have shopped at a lot of thrift stores in <br>the area. Our primary mission was to find school clothes for Thea <br>and Cirdan. But a by product of those shopping trips has been that <br>we've been able to buy really cheap movies! In Kempton, we used to <br>have Carl Smith's movie collection (hundreds of DVDs) in our home, <br>for people to come and borrow. And because that was the situation, <br>Tirah and I never bought movies, because we could always watch Carl's <br>movies, Since we moved, we're back down to our original small <br>collection of mostly VHS movies. But then all of these thrift <br>stores have huge collections of VHS movies (because everybody wants <br>DVDs these days) for around 50 cents a piece! So we've been able to <br>boost our movie collection very inexpensively.<p>One of the things that has made our life a little stressful this past <br>month is that our mail has been a little goofy. Because of a series <br>of circumstances, our mail could end up being delivered to one of <br>about 4 different places:<br>1. For some reason, my forwarding request, back at the Lenhartsville <br>post office, didn't go through right away, so some of our mail was <br>sitting up in Lenhartsville, with no where to go.<br>2. Here in Bryn Athyn, we have a street address, but like most <br>Theologs I planned to pick up my mail at the Theological School. But <br>if a piece of mail had only our street address on it, and not the <br>College Post Office Box number, then our mail could end up sitting at <br>the Bryn Athyn post office, with no where to go.<br>3. If, perchance, our mail managed to get to the College, but went <br>through the hands of someone who didn't know I was a Theolog, then it <br>could end up sitting in the College Students mail box, with no where <br>to go.<br>4. If it managed to get to the Theological School, well, for the <br>first half of the month, I didn't have a mail box there!<br>It's all getting sorted out now. I've talked to the Bryn Athyn post <br>office, I've talked to the College and Theolgical School offices, and <br>I've started seeing forwarded mail, so it's all good.<p>F.Y.I., if you want to send us mail, please be sure to include PO Box <br>717 on the address, or even add it to the Zip Code, like this:<br>Solomon and Tirah Keal<br>865 Fetters Mill Rd.<br>Bryn Athyn PA, 19009-0717<p>We love our house here. We are definitely going to be spoiled by <br>it. After 3 years of school, and very likely being sent somewhere <br>else, we very probably won't have a house this big again. So we're <br>trying to live in the moment, and enjoy our time here. We have a <br>fireplace in the living room, and I now have a real piano. Can you <br>believe I haven't owned a real piano until now? Just keyboards.<p>One of the things we love about Bryn Athyn is the variety of church <br>services here. We've been able to take our kids to the younger <br>children's service at the Cathedral every other Sunday. And I <br>believe it's every Sunday once school starts. There's a <br>contemporary service every Sunday. There's the Ivyland Church, and <br>the Lord's New Church nearby. And just this year, they've started a <br>new service called New Church Live. New Church Live makes the <br>contemporary service look like the traditional service. It's <br>definitely stretching a lot of people's perspectives on what is <br>worship. In many ways it's more like a Christian Rock Concert that <br>what a lot of us would call "church" based on what we grew up with. <br>I think it's good. It's still in the early phases, and I think it <br>needs some tweaking, but I was very grateful for what it did for my <br>spiritual life the week I went to it. And they're also started New <br>Church Live for kids, so eventually our whole family can go to it.<p>On Monday I go to Orientation, and on Tuesday our new life begins. <br>Wish us luck!<br>I'll try to send family and house pictures soon.<p>Thank you to all of you who helped with our move. We could not have <br>done it without you!<br>May the Lord bless you all!<p>Love,<p>Solomon (32)<br>Tirah (29)<br>Thea (6)<br>Cirdan (5)<br>Jaden (2)<br>Zoe (3 months)Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-76322048731167555892009-07-24T13:58:00.000-04:002009-07-24T13:54:40.846-04:00Keal Family Newsletter, July 2009Hello Friends and Family!<p>It's been a busy couple of months trying to get ready to move to Bryn <br>Athyn. We will be moving over the weekend of August 1st and 2nd. <br>We'll be packing the truck here in Lenhartsville on the 1st, and <br>unpacking the truck in Bryn Athyn on the 2nd. And by the way, if <br>you live in Kempton we would love your help on the 1st, and if you <br>live in Bryn Athyn, we would love your help on the 2nd.<p>Zoe just turned two months old on the 21st of July! Unfortunately, <br>like many of our kids, she has been suffering from colic and over-all <br>fussiness. But between fussy bouts, she is the cutest thing ever. <br>As she has gained weight and gotten a little older, she is starting <br>to look more and more like her siblings. And we've also been graced <br>with the occasional smile lately, which is just heavenly!<p>All of our kids have at some point in their infancy had nicknames. <br>And without trying to do so, all of our kids have had nicknames that <br>began with the letter "B". Thea was "Boo" (inspired by the Pixar <br>movie "Monsters Inc."), Cirdan was "Bear," and Jaden was <br>"Bubba," (because the first noises he made were "Buh Buh"). <br>Recently Tirah was watching a nature show on TV that was documenting <br>the work of some people who save orphaned baboon babies, and raise <br>them to be re-released into the wild. These little baby baboons <br>were not only very cute, but they also looked a little like Zoe! (or <br>she looked like them) So we've been trying out the nickname <br>"Baboon" with Zoe. I don't know if it will stick or not, but it does <br>start with a "B"!<p>Jaden will be two years old on August 11th, just after we move to <br>Bryn Athyn. He is our little ray of sunshine. At first we were <br>worried that he might feel replaced by Zoe as the baby of the <br>family. But he absolutely adores Zoe, and at the same time seems to <br>take some pride in feeling like a bigger boy because of her. He <br>kisses her, and rocks her in her swing, and sings lullabies to her.<br>He is, however, very much a Papa's boy. I think he's O.K. with the <br>fact that Zoe takes up a lot of Tirah's time. After all, he has been <br>used to Tirah being at work, and me being at home for most of his <br>little life. The real test will be once I start school full-time. I <br>don't know how he'll react to that. It will probably be a hard <br>adjustment for him.<p>Here are a couple of cute Jaden stories and quotes:<br>One time I was reprimanding Cirdan for doing something wrong and I <br>had to threaten to give him a time-out after I counted to three. So <br>I counted to three:<br>"One.... two... three!"<br>And then from the corner of the room, without looking up from his <br>toys, Jaden called out, "Four."<p>Lately Jaden has been learning the Lord's Prayer. He's been hearing <br>his older siblings say it every night for the past year or so, and it <br>has finally sunk in enough that he has decided to join in. Much <br>like his older siblings at this age, it sounds a bit like this:<br>"Fodder.... Heddens.....Name!.... Come.... Done.... Eert!.... Day.... <br>Bed.....Debts.... Debtors!.... Not..... Shayshun.... Evil.... Dum.... <br>Tower.... Jori....Edder.... Amen!" He actually says even more of it <br>than that these days, but that was one of his first renditions.<p>Cirdan turned 5 years old on June 13th. We had a very fun birthday <br>party with family and friends, and he did a very impressive job of <br>sharing his new toys with other kids. He still has his difficult <br>times, but we're able to get through to him a lot more often.<br>Here's a cute Cirdan story:<br>We were reading the Christmas story one night, because that's what we <br>happened to be up to in our nightly readings, even though it's summer <br>time. I read the story and then asked a couple of questions at the <br>end. One of the questions I asked was, "Do you remember what the <br>choir of angels said when they visited the shepherds?"<br>They got the first part right: "Glory to God in the Highest!" but I <br>had to prompt them for the last bit:<br>Solomon: "... and on earth..., peace... and...."<br>Cirdan: "Quiet!"<p>It's been interesting getting used to having 4 kids, and learning how <br>to keep track of all of them. Thea and Cirdan are allowed outside by <br>themselves, but Jaden needs supervision if he goes outside. Not <br>long after Zoe was born I remember doing a quick mental calculation: <br>"O.K. I see two kids and a baby, alright good." But after a second <br>I remembered that we have 4 kids not 3! Sure enough Jaden was <br>happily playing outside, very proud of the fact that he got out there <br>without getting caught. I need to somehow update my mental <br>calculations when I try to keep track of our kids.<p>Thea and Cirdan have been getting ready for school in Bryn Athyn. <br>Thea will be in 1st Grade, and Cirdan in Kindergarten. They both <br>got a chance to see the school when we went down for their <br>evaluations. I think Cirdan's pretty excited. He's a very social, <br>friendly boy. He always says "Hi" to strangers, and likes to play <br>with other kids.<p>The Kempton Kindergarten is a little different from the Bryn Athyn <br>Kindergarten. Because the Kempton Kindergarten meets only 3 mornings <br>a week, and the Bryn Athyn Kindergarten meets 5 days a week, they <br>cover a lot more material in one year in Bryn Athyn. So Thea may <br>have a little catching up to do. But it's mostly things like knowing <br>lower case letters, and counting to 50, and over the summer she has <br>not only shown interest in learning those things, but she's gotten <br>pretty good at them. So I think after she gets used to the newness <br>of a different school, she'll fit right in.<p>This summer, Thea and Cirdan have really enjoyed playing on our quiet <br>little street here in Lenhartsville. They've become good friends <br>with two other kids who live up the street from us who are 5 and 3: <br>Theo and Clara LaMastra. And between playing with those kids, and <br>Tirah and I having our hands full with two babies at home, we've <br>loosened the apron strings a bit with Thea and Cirdan. When we <br>first moved into this house, we wouldn't have let them run up and <br>down the side-walk and cross the street without us with them. But <br>this summer that's what we've been doing. I think it's been good for <br>everyone. It's given Thea and Cirdan more freedom and independence, <br>especially when our time is taken up with taking care of Jaden and <br>Zoe. And it's also given us the chance to practice "Letting Go"; <br>always a hard thing to do as a parent. We feel sad that we'll be <br>moving away from this quiet little street, and the home that it has <br>become.<p>On June 24th, Tirah and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary! <br>Even though Zoe was still very new, we were able to go out! We got a <br>babysitter for the three oldest kids, and we took Zoe with us. We <br>went to Wegmans and got our traditional anniversary meal: chicken <br>strips, french bread, yummy cheese, Martinellis Sparkling Apple <br>Cider, and then of course, a very yummy dessert of healthy "no <br>refined sugar" ice-cream and cookies. And we took that meal with us <br>to the local drive-in theater and we watched the latest Pixar movie: <br>"Up". We also took one of the seats out of our van, and brought the <br>baby swing with us, and we were able to put Zoe in the baby swing in <br>the minivan while we watched the movie and ate our dinner. Zoe <br>fussed a bit, but we were able to watch most of the movie. It was fun.<p>Since we won't need two cars in Bryn Athyn, we sold our Subaru <br>Outback wagon to my mom and dad, and we used that money to buy <br>ourselves a really great anniversary present: a Sleep-Number bed! <br>It's been really great. I've never slept very well, and I've <br>noticed a big change in the quality of my sleep. It's also a King <br>size bed, which we've been thinking of getting for a while. So now <br>we all fit when the kids come tumbling in in the morning.<p>Towards the end of June we got to visit with my cousin Lesley from <br>New Zealand, and her husband Jonathan Longstaff and their two kids. <br>It's always fun to visit with other parents our age who are going <br>through the same things we go through every day. There's a great <br>sense of comradeship in that.<p>After the really fun Kempton 4th of July celebration, we headed out <br>to Ohio to visit Tirah's dad and two of her sisters for a week. <br>That's right, we drove 12 hours both ways with a 6-week-old baby! I <br>know... what were we thinking?! But actually it went as well as <br>could be expected. It's actually closer to a 10 hour trip, but we <br>stopped as often as the kids needed to. And we had a great time <br>visiting with Tirah's family in Ohio. Vacations are an odd thing to <br>attempt when you've got little kids, because no matter where you go, <br>the poopy diapers and tantrums and chaos follow you too. We were <br>really just moving our crazy schedule to a new location for a week. <br>But it is more than that. It's a nice change. And especially at <br>this time of our lives, it was nice to not think about all we had to <br>do to get ready to move for a whole week. Thank you Morfar for <br>making that possible!<p>So now we're down to packing, packing, and more Packing. It's a hard <br>thing when you've got a newborn in the house. Fortunately we've had <br>help. This Sunday (July 26th) after church, we'll be having a Going- <br>Away party here at our house, or a "House Cooling" party, as Tirah <br>likes to call it, since we never had a "House Warming" party when we <br>moved in, just over a year ago. If you're in the area, please drop by.<p>The next newsletter I write will be from our new house in Bryn <br>Athyn. Aside from my 4 years in college in Bryn Athyn, I've lived <br>in the Kempton area since I was 8 years old! Because Tirah and I <br>both went to college in Bryn Athyn, and we have many friends and some <br>Echols family there, there are many happy things about moving. But <br>it will be very sad to be moving away from all of my family, and my <br>childhood home. Plus, our kids have grown up with my parents as a <br>regular part of their lives. This will be a big change for them.<p>So there is happiness and sadness about this move. It's a change, <br>and change is always hard, even when it's a good change. And I think <br>this will be a good change for us.<p>That's all for now.<p>Love from,<p>Solomon (32)<br>Tirah (29)<br>Thea (6)<br>Cirdan (5)<br>Jaden (almost 2)<br>Zoe (2 months)Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-7551300122581106792009-06-06T17:13:00.000-04:002009-06-06T17:12:34.028-04:00Keal Family Newsletter, Summer 2009<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/Sirbw1qbFwI/AAAAAAAAADE/kovrO30TQHw/s1600-h/IMG_1400-754031.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/Sirbw1qbFwI/AAAAAAAAADE/kovrO30TQHw/s320/IMG_1400-754031.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344325539913733890" /></a></p>Hello Friends and Family!<p>Well, I have two big pieces of exciting news to deliver in this <br>newsletter!<p>First of all, I'm happy to announce that I have been accepted into <br>the Academy of the New Church Theological School!   For those who are <br>unfamiliar with that; it is the seminary for our church which is a <br>Christian church called the General Church of the New Jerusalem.<br><a href="http://www.newchurch.org">http://www.newchurch.org</a>.    So I will be in school for three years, <br>and then hopefully entering the role of a minister in our church!<p>What this means is that we will be moving to Bryn Athyn PA.   The <br>Academy is now offering a stipend for Theological School <br>students.  So I will be getting paid to go to school.  Which means <br>that Tirah will be able to quit her job and become the full-time stay- <br>at-home mom for our children.  The Academy also has housing for us, <br>which we have seen, and it is very cool.   It's a beautiful old 5 <br>bedroom house in Bryn Athyn on Fettersmill road.  The old Ken <br>Synnestvedt house, for those that know where that is.   <p>We will be moving in August, and I will be starting school in <br>September.  We will really miss living in the Lenhartsville/Kempton <br>area, but we are also really looking forward to living in Bryn Athyn <br>too.<p>Let me fill you in a little on the process that led me to making this <br>decision.   Here is an excerpt from the application essay that I wrote:<p>After I graduated from Bryn Athyn College of the New Church with an <br>interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Religion and History in 1999,  <br>I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life.  I had <br>interests in many things including Religion, History, Art, Music, and <br>Writing.  I also had an interest in courting a certain young woman <br>named Tirah, who is now my wife.  I considered the ministry as a <br>calling to pursue, but I decided that at that time in my life I was <br>lacking in certain traits that I thought to be important in the role <br>of a minster.  These traits included things such as: being able to <br>speak well in public, being a natural leader, and being comfortable <br>in large social gatherings.  It also mattered to me that Tirah had no <br>interest in being a minster's wife, and that being the daughter of a <br>General Church minister she was very familiar with the downsides of <br>that lifestyle.  And so because I had the ability to get a job <br>working for a contractor in Kempton, I took that job while I <br>continued to consider other long-term career ideas.<br> In 2001 Tirah and I were married, and after about a year we started <br>a family. Meanwhile I spent much of my free time working on music as <br>a hobby and a side-business.   Because of downsizing in the <br>construction company I worked for, I was laid-off after 5 years.  It <br>was a scary time of life, with now 2 small children to support.  <br>After much soul-searching and praying, we decided to take a leap of <br>faith and see if I could earn a living for our family from music.  <br>Several months later we determined that it would take years to earn a <br>living from music, and that we needed a more immediate solution to <br>support our family.  After more praying and soul-searching, and many <br>discussions about masculine and feminine roles with my Pastor, Lawson <br>Smith, we decided that it would work for us (for the time being) to <br>switch traditional roles.  So Tirah got a job while I stayed at home <br>with the kids and tried to pursue a music career in the hopes that it <br>would eventually make a living for our family.  And I must say that <br>we found surprising benefits for all of us in this less traditional <br>and somewhat less than ideal situation.  I will talk more about those <br>benefits later.<br> Just last year, after almost 5 years of being a stay-at-home dad, <br>Calvin Odhner was telling me about his experience as a theological <br>school student, and he told me that he thought I would make a good <br>minister.  Calvin and I had worked on music projects over the years <br>in my studio, and invariably we would find ourselves distracted from <br>the task at hand, and find ourselves talking about spirituality and <br>the Church.  Throughout the previous 10 years, whenever the idea of <br>the ministry had come up,  I continued to dismiss the idea based on <br>my original conclusions after graduating from college.  And that is <br>what I initially did with Calvin's suggestion this time.  But after <br>talking with him, something made me stop, go back, and really <br>consider it.  I spent some time looking back at those 10 years. I <br>began to notice the things that led me to becoming a different person <br>today.  I began to realize that my conclusions of 10 years ago didn't <br>necessarily apply to today.<p>Some people talk about experiencing a "call" to the ministry.  For <br>me, I think it was more like "call-waiting."   I think that the Lord <br>may have been dropping little hints to me, sort of like the beeps on <br>a phone, while I spent 10 years talking on the other line.<br>As I looked back, I noticed that some of these "call-waiting" beeps <br>included: <br>1.  Becoming interested in the work of marriage support, learning how <br>to lead a group, and - along with Tirah - starting our own marriage <br>support group.<br>2. Leading a workshop for one of the "Caring For Marriage" <br>conferences, along with Tirah.<br>3. Working to try to get a contemporary service started in Kempton.<br>4. Working on the committee for the creation of a new Kempton Worship <br>Song Book.<br>5. Leading a discussion group on how the pop-culture book and movie <br>entitled "The Secret" compares to the doctrines of the New Church.<br>6. Compiling a series of quotes from the Writings about the Lord's <br>Prayer for the purpose of helping myself and others to really think <br>about the Prayer while praying.<br>7. Becoming interested in comparing various translations of the Bible <br>and how that helps one to gain a better sense of the underlying truth.<br>8.  Feeling inspired to start work on the eventual (hopeful) <br>publication of religious books of various kinds including a <br>children's book, a novel, a Bible workbook, and a New Church <br>parenting book based on the insights I gained from being a stay-at- <br>home dad. <p>Until recently, I had seen most of the above listed "beeps" as simply <br>hobbies:  These were things that I felt called to spend time on, <br>despite the busyness of being a stay-at-home dad with a home-based <br>music business.   I began to think with excitement about the <br>possibility of marriage support being more than just a hobby; of <br>discussion groups becoming regular classes; of having more time and <br>ability to help start a new worship service; and of the book ideas <br>that I've had as being possible material for sermons.  I have a love <br>for the "beeps" I mentioned above.  And the idea of having the chance <br>to spend more time doing the things I love is a part of what I find <br>attractive about becoming a minister.<br>Recently, both Tirah and I have felt a desire to switch roles again.  <br>And when I mentioned the idea of the ministry to Tirah, this time she <br>didn't hate it.  In fact she liked the idea!  She too had gone <br>through a process of looking back to find that the conclusions she <br>made years ago, didn't necessarily apply today. <br>Individually, each of these things didn't seem like a call to the <br>ministry.  But looking at them collectively began to seem like a <br>call.  It started to feel like this could be right for me; for me and <br>Tirah; for me and my family.  It felt like it could be the Hand of <br>Providence.  I think the Lord was trying to call me, but I was on the <br>other line.  <p>After 10 years, I no longer have the same reservations about my <br>leadership, social, and public speaking abilities. Not only have I <br>now had some life experience with each, and also don't fear them as I <br>once did.<br>I'm inspired by the story of Moses when he said "O Lord, I'm just not <br>a good speaker. I never have been, and I'm not now, even after you <br>have spoken to me. I'm clumsy with words."  (Exodus 4:10)  And when <br>Gideon said, "But Lord, how can I rescue Israel?  My clan is the <br>weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my <br>entire family."  (Judges 6:15)  I too have struggled with a lack of <br>self-confidence.  And yet, the Lord was able to turn Moses and Gideon <br>into effective leaders.  These stories tell me that it's not so much <br>about what I can bring to the ministry, as it is about what the Lord <br>can bring out of me.<p>I will not be giving up my music.  I will be putting it on the back- <br>burner for a while, but I'm not turning off the flame.   My music <br>business may slow down for a bit, but I really hope that I can use my <br>music in my ministry.  I'm inspired by the work of Christian artist <br>Chris Rice, who used his music as a means to minister to young people. <p>I'm really excited about the possibilities that lie ahead.   I'm <br>excited by the thought that my unique personality traits, talents and <br>interests could be a useful addition to the role of the General <br>Church Ministry in service to the Lord, the Church, and the world.<p>The other exciting news we have is that we have a new baby girl in <br>our family!  Her name is Zoe Joralyn Keal.   She was born at home on <br>Thursday May 21st, at 4:00 PM.  She weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces at <br>birth.   We now have 2 boys and 2 girls.  "Isn't this cozy? Girl, <br>Boy, Boy, Girl."  (Name that paraphrased movie quote.)   Every one of <br>our children now has at least one brother and sister.<p>Zoe was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, torso, <br>and limbs.  Even after she was untangled, she remained very purple <br>until a few minutes of breathing turned her a nice healthy pink.<br>She has very dark hair, and a lot of it.  No sign of a red-head this <br>time.  She'll probably have Tirah's hair color.<br>Mama and baby are doing very well.  Tirah seems to have bounced back <br>very quickly after this birth.   We took Zoe on her first car trip at <br>only a week old, and we took her to Bryn Athyn at only a week and a <br>half old.<br>The kids adore her, especially Jaden.  He constantly wants to hug and <br>kiss her, and do Ugga Mugga with her (rubbing noses).<p>"Zoe" means "Life" in Greek.   We think a lot about life these days:<br>We are all about to enter new phases of life. Thea begins 1st grade, <br>Cirdan begins Kindergarten, Tirah begins the challenge of re-entering <br>the role of stay-at-home mom with 4 kids, and I begin Theological <br>School.  And of course this new life in our family in the form of Zoe <br>herself.  This is the first birth in our family when there has been <br>something scary about the birth itself. With the umbilical cord being <br>wrapped around her body, Zoe's heart-rate was low in the womb, and <br>for the first couple days of her life she struggled with choking on <br>her own saliva.  And so we think about the fragile precious nature of <br>the life that we are given from the Lord.  And then we think about <br>the Lord Himself, Who is the source of all life, and Who is LIfe Itself.<p>"Joralyn" is Tirah's sister's name.  A name which I believe was made <br>up by Tirah's mom (Correct me if I'm wrong Echols Family).  As the <br>story goes, Jori was going to be Jorum if she was a boy, but she <br>ended up being a girl, so they created a feminine version of Jorum.<br>Tirah and Jori made a "deal" with each other when they were <br>kids.  They both liked each other's names, so they each decided that <br>they would name one of their children after their sister.  So Zoe's <br>middle name is honoring that childhood deal, as well as honoring Jori <br>herself, and the whole Echols family; an Echols Family name.  And the <br>name also honors Tirah's mom as the creator of the name.<p>It wasn't until after we had named Zoe, that we realized that she has <br>a really cool nickname already built in:  "Z.J."<p>Zoe was baptized by her grandfather, Clark Echols, on Memorial Day, <br>May 25th.   All of my family, and many of the Echols family were able <br>to be present for that.<p>Moving up:  Jaden will be two-years-old in August!   He's not a baby <br>anymore.  He's a little toddler.   The other day he came running into <br>the room screaming for joy at the top of his lungs.   We stopped him <br>and asked him to please stop screaming because Zoe was asleep <br>upstairs.   He looked at us, and said, "O.K.", and he then proceeded <br>to run out of the room screaming.   He says that a lot.  He's always <br>been a very agreeable little kid.  But I'm starting to catch on that <br>when I tell him to do something or to stop doing something and he <br>says "O.K. Papa!", it really just means, "I don't know what you mean, <br>but I acknowledge that you're talking to me Papa!"<p>But actually he really does understand a lot about what goes on <br>around him.  Recently he has started telling "knock-knock" <br>jokes.  Mostly they are his own version of the "knock-knock" jokes <br>that he hears Cirdan and Thea making up.   Jaden's usually go <br>something like this:<br>Jaden: "Knock Knock!"<br>Me: "Who's there?"<br>Jaden: "Nana"<br>Me: "Bananna who?"<br>Jaden: "Janen!"   Or somebody else's name.<p>Jaden has also really started developing his imagination when <br>creating little games for himself.  Very often I will hear him <br>creating little dialogue when he's talking on a toy phone or when <br>he's making two of his toys talk to each other.  Very often the <br>dialogue goes starts with something like this:<br>"Hi Thomas!"<br>"Doing?"<br>"Good."<p>His vocabulary increases every day, but there are a few words that he <br>still doesn't quite get.  For example he hears me refer to my musical <br>instrument of choice as either a "piano," or a "keyboard."  In his <br>little brain there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to what <br>the difference between those words is, so he's decided to mush them <br>together to create one word that describes that instrument, and that <br>word is: "Keener."<p>Another funny thing that he got confused on for a while was, when he <br>saw someone mowing the lawn, he would say that they were doing the <br>laundry, or rather in his brain: doing the "lawn-dry."<p>Cirdan will be turning 5 in about a week.  As I'm sure I've said <br>before, age 4 in our household seems to be the hardest, and it's been <br>really fun to see Cirdan maturing out of that phase into his soon-to- <br>be 5-year-old state.   Sure, he still gets mad, and screams, and <br>throws tantrums, and hits and takes toys, but Thea still does that <br>too occasionally.  But there's definitely been a shift.  He seems to <br>be more aware of himself and his surroundings.  He, like Thea, seems <br>more interested in learning things now.   Here's an example from just <br>the other day:   <br>Cirdan comes up to me and says, "Papa, is 'Twinkle Twinkle' a song <br>about Jesus?"<br>And I say, "No."<br>And he says, "Good." and then walks off singing, "Pinkle Pinkle <br>Piddle Par!"<br>Not only was he aware of the rule we have about not singing songs <br>about the Lord in a goofy way, but he was aware of it enough to catch <br>himself at it, and check with me about it.   I was blown away by that.<p>Thea just graduated from Kindergarten.  She is a bright, creative, <br>sensitive, young girl.   She's is constantly drawing, or playing the <br>piano, or making up songs, or creating elaborate games.  She also <br>thinks a lot about things.   Recently, after talking about Adam and <br>Eve,  she asked me:<br>"Papa, how did the Lord make the first people?  Because people start <br>as babies, but who was there to take care of the babies?  Were the <br>first people babies or grown-ups?"  Not an easy question to <br>answer.  It's the chicken and the egg question.  I had to begin my <br>response with, "That's a REALLY good question!"   I love the fact <br>that my kids are getting old enough that I can have real substantive <br>conversations with them.<p>Now, as I said before, even Thea still throws tantrums.   One night <br>as I was putting the kids to bed, and Thea was throwing a tantrum, I <br>was struck by this analogy:  Thea was demanding that I get her <br>blanket from downstairs, and I was asking her to ask nicely, but she <br>was refusing.  Thea was being rude to me, and therefore she was not <br>getting what she wanted.   Her own actions were preventing her from <br>getting what she wanted from me.  She was angry at me, because I <br>wasn't doing what she wanted.  Even when I reminded her that if she <br>spoke politely, I would love to help her, she remained stubbornly <br>rude and angry.<br>Isn't that just like how we sometimes treat the Lord?   We may not <br>get what we want in life, and we get frustrated or mad, and we think <br>it's because the Lord hasn't given us happiness, when really it's <br>because we're refusing the let the Lord give it to us, because of our <br>own actions and attitudes.   It's amazing to me how often the truths <br>of the Lord's reality are played out for us on this little stage <br>called life.<p>About a week before Tirah's scheduled maternity leave began in May, <br>Tirah realized that she wasn't going to make it mentally.  She was <br>thinking so much about the pregnancy, the baby, our life, parenting, <br>etc., there was no room left for work.  So she decided to use some of <br>her paid vacation, and she went on maternity leave a week early.   So <br>Tirah was home for most of the month of May.  I was able to take her <br>to the Kempton Ladies Banquet on the 9th.   At the time, we thought <br>that Zoe might come at any minute.   Our midwife was hoping Tirah <br>would have the baby then because she was about leave on a week long <br>vacation.  Well as it turned out, she went on vacation, and got back, <br>long before Zoe was born, so it all worked out well in the end.<br>As I said before, this birth was a little scary, because of the Zoe's <br>heart rate being low in the womb, and then seeing her all tangled up <br>in the umbilical cord, and all purple.  With the intensity of child <br>birth, it didn't really hit us until later how things could have been <br>so much worse.  This was the first time our midwife told us that we <br>might have to consider going to the hospital.  Fortunately, we didn't <br>have to go, and Zoe was born at home, and is alive and well, thank <br>the Lord!   Tirah is very much in love with her new little daughter.<br>After Tirah's mom died last year, Tirah has had a renewed <br>determination to tackle the challenge of parenthood.  So, while it <br>will be really hard for her to jump back into full-time parenthood as <br>I begin Theological School (especially now with 4 kids!) she is <br>looking forward to the challenge and the learning process that <br>parenting is.   We are all beginning new adventures this year.<br>It's really nice that Tirah and I have now walked several miles <br>(about 4 years) in each other's shoes, which I think will be <br>extremely valuable experience for maintaining a healthy marriage as <br>we make these huge life changes.   I will get home from work every <br>day and have a pretty good sense of how she's feeling, and vice versa.<p>So that's the news in our family.<br>We hope that you are all doing well!<p>God bless!<p>Love, <br>Solomon (32)<br>Tirah (29)<br>Thea (6)<br>Cirdan (almost 5)<br>Jaden (almost 2)<br>Zoe (2 weeks)Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-48392554597125979562009-04-15T17:24:00.001-04:002009-04-15T17:24:22.278-04:00Keal Family Newsletter, Spring 2009Hello Friends and Family.<p>Boy has life been busy lately. I keep waiting for life to get back <br>to Normal, because then I will have Time to do all the Important <br>Things I want to do. But as Dr. Seuss so aptly put it: life is no <br>fun if you're stuck in the Waiting Place.<p>Part of my intent with this series of "monthly" email newsletters was <br>to capture some of the wonderful developments that I get to witness <br>as a stay-at-home dad. It's hard not to feel bad that I haven't <br>captured all of them because of missing months. But once again, life <br>is best lived in the present, not the past. Maybe as I write this <br>newsletter some of the cute things I have watched my children do or <br>say over the past couple of months will come back to me.<p>My last real family newsletter was in November, and then a quick <br>Christmas newsletter in December. A lot has happened since then.<p>Starting with the cutest member of our family:<br>Jaden Micah is over 1 and 1/2 years old. He is capable of walking up <br>and down the stairs on his own (which is nice because "No more baby- <br>gate!"), and he can even do a few steps without holding on to the <br>railing. He has a constantly growing vocabulary. Just yesterday I <br>heard him say "Amazing!" His favorite toys are cars, and <br>specifically the toy cars from the Pixar movie "Cars." His favorite <br>character being Lightning McQueen who he calls simply "Queen," and <br>then close seconds being "Mater" and "Doc." I will often find <br>Jaden face down on the living room rug with cars lined up inches from <br>his eyes, and then I will hear a tiny voice say, "Eddy, Et, GOOOoo!"<p>Since Tirah and I have finished our album of Love Songs, Jaden will <br>often point at the iPod and say, "Mama singing?" to ask to hear her <br>singing on our album, especially when she's at work. Jaden says, <br>"Mama a work." when Tirah's at work, and then when I start telling <br>the kids that Mama will be home soon, Jaden will say, "Mama <br>homing?" sort of a squooshed version of "Mama coming home?"<p>His vocabulary includes words like, "Tractor," "Truck," "Puppy Dog," <br>"Diaper Change." He can count to 10 with a fair amount of <br>accuracy. And recently I heard him put together this sentence: <br>"Thea and Cirdan are outside." It sounded more like: "Thea a Canan <br>a ouside," but he got all the important parts of the sentence into <br>his observation. One evening when Tirah mentioned to Jaden that <br>supper was ready, he called in a loud voice into the living room: <br>"BODY.... COME.... ABLE!" ; essentially his own version of "Everybody <br>come to the table!"<p>Jaden also likes to pretend to talk on the phone. Sometimes he will <br>pick up a domino and put it to his ear, pretending it's a phone. I <br>often think: what a different world our children are growing up in, <br>where a domino is just about the right size for a pretend cell phone <br>for a kid. I can just imagine that our grandchildren will be <br>talking on little Star-Trek-like communicator pins, and that cell <br>phones will be seen as big, bulky, and old-fashioned.<p>Cirdan Ewan is 4, and he'll be 5 in June. I think I've mentioned <br>before that the age of 4 in our house seems to the hardest. He works <br>hard at flexing his Will, and practicing his "No!" He pretty much <br>refuses to eat supper, and Tirah and I have decided to stop fighting <br>him. We ask him to sit at the table with us, but we don't force him <br>to eat food. He just has to deal with the consequences of hunger, <br>and he usually does that by being delightfully starving in the <br>morning. (That "delightfully" was smothered in sarcasm by the <br>way.) We feel very much like Bill Cosby: "We don't care about <br>justice, we just want QUIET!" It's amazing what a difference there <br>is between eating supper while having polite pleasant conversation, <br>and eating supper while exchanging yells and threats. Lately, we've <br>been choosing the former. Maybe we're being push-over parents, but <br>it's seems better than constantly forcing our child to eat food amid <br>tears and screams. Hopefully it's just a phase he's going through.<p>Cirdan has a strange relationship with food. And I can't say it's <br>entirely foreign to me. I was a very picky eater as a kid. And in <br>some ways I can understand a little bit of what he's going through. <br>For some reason, he decides that he doesn't like a particular food, <br>and so his brain sends signals down to his taste buds, and he will <br>actually start retching after putting something in his mouth that <br>just a few years ago he couldn't get enough of. He decides it's <br>yucky, and so it actually BECOMES yucky to him.<p>It actually works in reverse too. Just like he has decided that he <br>hates certain foods, he has also decided that he loves certain foods, <br>and he will eat them no matter what. Tirah made a batch of cupcakes <br>one day, but she accidentally left them in the oven too long, and <br>they got a little bit burnt. But the kids were so determined to eat <br>them that they did anyway. As Cirdan sank his teeth into a darker- <br>than-chocolate chocolate cupcake, he walked out of the room saying, <br>"It tastes a little yucky, but it's so delicious!"<p>Cirdan's favorite thing these days is super heroes. His current <br>favorite is Buzz Lightyear from the Pixar movie "Toy Story."<br>We think that Cirdan is also suffering from growing pains in his <br>legs, which is something I suffered from as a kid.<p>Thea Clarity is 6 years old. She is loving Kindergarten. She is <br>bursting with creativity, and helpfulness lately. At night she often <br>includes in her personal prayer: "and please Lord help me to obey <br>Mama and Papa."<br>She can draw amazingly detailed pictures of mermaids, and <br>princesses. She even understands a little bit about perspective, and <br>what the human body looks like at different angles. She is taking <br>piano lessons from Meema (my mom), and loving them. Not only does <br>she practice what is in her piano books, but she also picks out other <br>songs she knows, and even composes her own songs sometimes. There <br>was one day that she played the melody of a hymn on the piano for <br>worship in her Kindergarten class.<br>She is also learning how to read analog clocks, and will often tell <br>me when it's lunch time or snack time or clean-up time.<p>Tirah has a little more than a month left in her pregnancy when our <br>4th child will be due, some time around May 17th. She's getting to <br>that part of the pregnancy when it's just tiring to do anything. <br>It's hard for her to get comfortable at night. She goes on <br>maternity leave on May 16th. She's still learning to deal with the <br>loss of her mom, but the busyness of life often takes up all of her <br>mental energy. But amid all of that, she pulled together the energy <br>to record an album with me, and perform in a concert!<p>Here's a bit of a recap of the last couple months:<br>January was a mad scramble to finish recording and replicating our <br>Love Songs album before the Marriage Conference in February.<br>On February 2nd, Thea turned 6. On the 11th we had a surprising heat <br>wave and were able to play outside! On the 14th and 15th we went to <br>the Marriage Conference in Bryn Athyn and officially released our <br>Love Songs album, as well as performed a few of the songs. On the <br>19th, Tirah turned 29. On March 2nd we had a snow day, and then on <br>March 7th, another heat wave. On March 10th I turned 32. We then <br>spent the next couple weeks preparing for a concert at Creekside on <br>March 21st featuring the songs from our new Love Songs album, <br>"Forever and Eternity." We put together a family band for the <br>concert, featuring me and Tirah on vocals, me on piano, my mom on <br>guitar, my sister Roxanne on flute, my sister Tamar on keyboards, my <br>uncle John on bass, and my friend Matt on drums. It was a lot of <br>fun! We got it on video tape, so I'm hoping to post some of it to <br>Youtube some time. Then it feels like our whole family has been <br>sick ever since. We're just starting to see the light at the end of <br>that tunnel, which is part of why I haven't been good about writing <br>these newsletters.<p>Tirah and I have spent a lot of time this year considering a possible <br>major change for our life. We've spent 4 years now in a <br>stereotypically role-reversed situation, with me as the stay-at-home <br>dad, and Tirah as the bread-winner. We are looking into a <br>possibility that might mean we switch back in the near future. But <br>nothing is set in stone yet, so all I will say is that the <br>consideration of this change has been occupying a lot of our time <br>this year. More on that in future newsletters.<p>After being sick for 2 weeks, I am REALLY looking forward to throwing <br>our windows open soon, digging the screens out, going for walks in <br>the flower-scented air, and stretching our hibernated bodies.<p>"Somehow you'll escape all that waiting and staying. You'll find the <br>bright places where Boom Bands are playing." - Dr. Seuss<p>Happy Spring everybody!<p>Love,<p>Solomon (32)<br>Tirah (29)<br>Thea (6)<br>Cirdan (4)<br>Jaden (1 and 1/2)<br>Baby (minus one month, and counting...)Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-53680166112333808612009-02-12T16:21:00.001-05:002009-02-12T16:21:50.020-05:00Not Quite the Family Newsletter YetHello Friends and Family.<p>This isn't the REAL family newsletter yet.<br>But I wanted to quickly let you all know that Tirah and I have <br>finished our love songs album!<br>It's called "Forever and Eternity." And we got it done in time for <br>Valentine's Day, and the Marriage Conference in Bryn Athyn. Yay!<br>To hear clips from the album, and/or to read the lyrics, and/or to <br>learn more about the album, please go to:<br><a href="http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/love">http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/love</a><p>The REAL family newsletter will be coming soon, complete with piano- <br>playing 6-year-olds, and talking 1-and-a-half-year-olds.<p>Have a great day!<p>- SolomonSolomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-52272534778179916052008-12-25T15:15:00.001-05:002008-12-25T15:15:31.707-05:00Keal Family Christmas Photo 2008<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SVPp497vlEI/AAAAAAAAAC0/4sPMONhRp_k/s1600-h/IMG_1077-731709.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SVPp497vlEI/AAAAAAAAAC0/4sPMONhRp_k/s320/IMG_1077-731709.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283823952742814786" /></a></p>Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-73286928406944720392008-12-25T15:13:00.001-05:002008-12-25T15:13:23.683-05:00Keal Family Newsletter, Christmas 2008<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><img src="cid:3F7CEF75-FFD4-4FED-AB12-6A7953B32229@local"></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Merry Christmas Friends and Family!</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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."</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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) </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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:</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Lisa Shaye singing "Angels We Have Heard on High"</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#0000f0" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #0000f0"><a href="http://www.macjams.com/song/47442"><u>http://www.macjams.com/song/47442</u><u></u></a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Aaron Kane singing "Away in a Manger"</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#0000f0" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #0000f0"><a href="http://feelslikechristmas.com/traditional-vocal-christmas-music-mp3s.html"><u>http://feelslikechristmas.com/traditional-vocal-christmas-music-mp3s.html</u><u></u></a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Merry Christmas everyone!</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Love from, </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, Jaden, and Baby.</font></div><div><br></div></div> Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-64624517436351061952008-11-03T17:07:00.001-05:002008-11-03T17:07:39.272-05:00Keal Family Newsletter, Autumn 2008<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SQ92K5uF2KI/AAAAAAAAACo/RGLPerLE-X8/s1600-h/IMG_1657_2-759274.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SQ92K5uF2KI/AAAAAAAAACo/RGLPerLE-X8/s320/IMG_1657_2-759274.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264556419084310690" /></a></p>Hello Friends and Family!<p>Long time, no write!   Happy November everyone!<p>I've missed two months of family newsletters due to a very busy life <br>lately.   I try to remember to take some notes as I go, but I'm sure <br>I've forgotten some of the funny cute things that I always try to <br>capture in these newsletters.   Anyway, this newsletter will be a <br>whirlwind recap of the past three months in the Solomon and Tirah <br>Keal family.<p>August 11th, Jaden turned one year old.  (Although in a week he will <br>actually be 15 months old.)  We had a really fun birthday party for <br>him.  He had his very first taste of chocolate cake; sort of a <br>traditional right of passage for our children on their first birthday.  <br>August 16th we moved his crib into the kid's room, and began the <br>process of trying to get him to sleep through the night, so that we <br>could sleep through the night.   For parents, sleep is like <br>Christmas.  We can't wait for it to come!   <br>It took a while, but for the most part (if he's not sick) Jaden now <br>sleeps through the night.<br>When Jaden was around 13 months, he started walking, and at around 14 <br>months he started talking.  Aside from Mama and Papa, his first real <br>two-syllable word was "Apple."   These days he gives most of the <br>words he hears his best shot.  It's very cute.   When I call out "Who <br>wants lunch?"   I hear Thea say "I do!"  and Cirdan say "Me <br>too!"  and Jaden follows up with "Doo!"<br>Jaden has also recently adopted a stuffed animal/security object <br>which is a small stuffed duck that Tirah got at Hawk Mountain.  He <br>loves it, and kisses it,  and calls it "Duckie."<br>One of the things Jaden has loved to do for many months now is climb <br>up the stairs.  But he still hasn't mastered climbing down the <br>stairs.  I think it's a very interesting analogy for us:  Babies are <br>built for climbing up, not down.  Humans are destined for Heaven not <br>Hell.<p>Cirdan is in that very difficult 4-year-old phase.  People talk about <br>the Terrible Twos, but in our house it's proven to be the Frightening <br>Fours.   He's rebellious, stubborn, rude, violent, irrational... and <br>most of that is very understandable for his stage of development, it <br>just makes it hard for us parents.   When I get too tunnel-visioned, <br>I can get very codependent with all of that.  But when I can take a <br>step back, I can loosen up and laugh at stories like this one:<br>One day at noon after I just finished making his lunch and put it on <br>his plate, Cirdan said: "Papa I'm not hungry, I don't want my lunch!"<br>I was too tired to fight it, so I said nothing as he walked away...<br>... then one minute (literally 60 seconds) later, he said: "Papa when <br>is snack time?"<br>So I said, "Right now, it's on your plate!"<br>And he said, "Oh, O.K. great!"   ... and he ate his lunch!<p>It's amazing how easy it is to get mad at our children because they <br>are irrational.   They're not capable of rationality, and yet we get <br>mad at them when they can't think the way we think.   One day when <br>Cirdan was screaming his head off at me, he included in his long list <br>of complaints that I was mad at him!   It reminded me of how we may <br>sometimes think that God is mad at us, because things are not going <br>well in our life.   God is never mad.   How irrational we must look <br>in His eyes!   Fortunately God doesn't get mad at us for being <br>irrational, which in turn is a great model for us as parents.<p>Thea had her first day of Kindergarten on September 3rd.   Over-all <br>it's gone well.  She's been a little nervous at times.  Some mornings <br>she is looking forward to school, while other mornings she is a bit <br>scared.   As time passes it's been more of the former and less of the <br>later.  She's also struggled with her own individuality in <br>school.  She is a very good artist, but some of her class-mates <br>aren't as good, so she feels like she needs to not draw as well as <br>she can, so that nobody feels uncomfortable.  She's a very sensitive <br>little girl.<p>Well, as many of you probably know, Tirah's mom, Margie Echols passed <br>away on September 5th.   She died of cancer at only 56 years old.  A <br>few days before she died, the indications were given that it could be <br>very soon, so Tirah was able to fly out to Ohio, and she was there <br>when she died.   The kids and I flew out on the 6th and we were all <br>there for a few days, as well as for the Memorial Service in Ohio. <br>Tirah's boss was very understanding, and she was able to get about a <br>week of bereavement leave.   On the 11th, there was also a Memorial <br>Service in the Cathedral in Bryn Athyn.<br>Tirah has been in a state of shock for the last two months, and is <br>now getting some grief counseling and coming to terms with the loss <br>of her mother at such a young age.  It's nice to know Margie is out <br>of physical pain, but it's very hard for Tirah to know that she won't <br>be able to talk to her anymore on this earth, and that the <br>relationship she had with her mother no longer has the ability to <br>change and grow into maturity... at least not until we all see Margie <br>again in Heaven.<br>The idea of Margie being out of physical pain reminds me of a scene <br>from the movie "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" when the old man <br>spends his first hours in the spiritual world running and <br>jumping...  simply because he could.   It was poignantly exciting to <br>note that Jaden was taking his first steps in this world, at about <br>the same time that his grandmother was taking her first steps in the <br>next world.<p>Tirah went to her 10 year High School reunion during the Charter Day <br>weekend in Bryn Athyn.  She was a little apprehensive about it, but <br>it ended up being a lot of fun for both of us.<p>We've started a new thing for our marriage recently.  Instead of <br>trying to have regular Date Nights, we've decided to have Date Days <br>instead.  For one thing, date nights are typically limited in what we <br>can do.  Dinner, movie, etc., most of the time costing money we don't <br>really have, and also not being conducive to actually connecting with <br>each other.   We also tend to be much more tired in the evening.  So <br>even if we decided to just stay home and play a game or read a book, <br>those best laid plans are often trumped by a lack of energy that gets <br>us flipping on the TV and becoming couch potatoes.   So we decided to <br>do Date Days instead.  We have a regular babysitter that comes every <br>Wednesday afternoon anyway.  Most of the time she watches the kids <br>while we get work done, or she cleans our house while we watch the <br>kids.  But we realized that we could leave the house!  ... in the <br>afternoon!   So while the weather was nice we started going up to <br>Hawk Mountain to hike the trails together, and then find a nice rock <br>to sit on and enjoy nature while we read a book to each other for a <br>few hours.   It's been very nice.   As we go into winter, we'll <br>continue reading to each other, inside.   We can also take that time <br>to work on music together.<p>You may remember that in the past we've been shopping for a month at <br>a time to buy in discount bulk and to save money on gas by only <br>shopping once a month.  Well, that worked for a while.  But we've <br>shifted our views on what's important.  We've done an about face, and <br>we're now shopping almost exclusively local.   We're trying to stick <br>to our same food budget, and so far it's been O.K.   We live in a <br>great place to shop locally.  We can get local eggs, milk, meat, <br>maple syrup, honey, pickles, vegetables, fruit, jelly, etc.   We make <br>our own bread.  We drink raw milk.   It feels good to be not only <br>eating better quality food most of the time, but also to be <br>supporting our local economy. <p>So Tirah and I are trying to complete our album of Love Songs in time <br>for the Marriage Conference in February.   It had been going pretty <br>well for a while.  I had a schedule that I was sticking too.  But <br>then I had to get my computer repaired, and I ended up being without <br>it for 3 weeks!  But we're going to stick to our goal, and I still <br>think we can do it, if we work hard.  It's been a lot of fun so far.  <p>On October 30th, my mom and dad hosted a Halloween Costume Party at <br>their house, designed for all their grand-children.  We all came in <br>costume, and then the kids got to decorate pumpkins, and do a <br>treasure hunt.  Then we had supper and pumpkin pie.  It was just <br>right for both the kids and the parents of kids.  I'm including a <br>picture of our family at the party.  Jaden is Tigger, Cirdan is <br>Superman, Thea is a ballerina, Tirah is a princess, and I'm a Generic <br>Historical Figure.<p>Well, that's all for now.<br>Have a great day everyone!<p>Love, <br>Solomon (31)<br>Tirah (28)<br>Thea (5 and 1/2)<br>Cirdan (4)<br>Jaden (15 months)Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-1216114626486906362008-08-07T16:51:00.000-04:002008-08-07T16:52:03.461-04:00Keal Family Newsletter, August 2008<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SJtgc79peUI/AAAAAAAAACg/7ygQt-LXG3o/s1600-h/IMG_0852-723464.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SJtgc79peUI/AAAAAAAAACg/7ygQt-LXG3o/s320/IMG_0852-723464.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231881442369829186" /></a></p>Hello Friends and Family!<p>Happy August to you.<p>We've arrived at that time of year when the twilight part of the day <br>is just heavenly.  Just the right temperature, just the right <br>lighting. just the right time to be outside.  Lately we've developed <br>a habit of going on daily family walks or bike rides right after <br>dinner.  It is very nice.<p>Jaden has been going through some pretty major teething lately.  He <br>had a pretty high fever the other day, and we thought he was getting <br>sick, but it turned out to be just teething.  <br>Jaden will be turning one year old on Monday!   <p>He continues to walk around while holding on to things. He has even <br>been practicing standing up on his own.  Yesterday he stood up on his <br>own for at least 15 seconds in the sandbox.  I feel like I'm <br>commentating on the baby olympics or something: "And that was Jaden <br>Keal in the sandbox with a full 15 second free stand."  "That's a new <br>record for him, isn't it John?"  "Yes, Joe, this young American has a <br>lot of potential!"<p>Jaden has also learned how to hold and drink from his bottle all on <br>his own. That's a fun little piece of development to watch, as he <br>figures out that he needs to hold the bottle up in the air to allow <br>the force of gravity to deposit the desired liquid in his mouth.<p>Cirdan continues to love to play with cars.  He has also been getting <br>a little more into drawing lately.  We realized that we may have been <br>holding him back a little in that area.  A year or so ago, we <br>instated a rule that said that Cirdan was not allowed to play with <br>markers because he was too young, while Thea was allowed to draw with <br>markers.  This was fine and appropriate.  But we realized recently <br>that we never really rescinded that rule!  Here we thought that <br>Cirdan just wasn't in to drawing, when really he was still abiding by <br>an out-dated law!   So lately we've made a point about telling Cirdan <br>that he's allowed to use markers if he wants to. And sure enough, <br>he's been drawing more lately.  He drew a very recognizable pig <br>yesterday.  He also has been drawing rocket ships.<p>Cirdan has recently discovered the existence of Star Wars!  I have a <br>book about the mythology of Star Wars, and it has pictures from the <br>movie in it.  Cirdan somehow found this book, and got hooked on <br>it.  Question after question...   I find it very hard not to get <br>really excited about the idea of my oldest son sharing my passion for <br>Star Wars.<br>Just today we decided that it would be alright to show the pod-race <br>scene from Episode One.  Sort of a combination of his most favorite <br>things: Star Wars and Race Cars.<p>Thea has also just recently been allowed to watch something new.  For <br>a long time now, Disney's The Little Mermaid has been one of her <br>favorite things.  Just the other day, Tirah allowed her to watch the <br>movie for the first time.  It was some good Mama/Daughter time, as <br>well as being really exciting for Thea.<p>Thea continues to get better and better at drawing every day.  It's <br>really amazing to watch.  She is also getting better at riding her <br>bike.  She can now stand up on her pedals while riding.  It's amazing <br>how I still think of her as being a toddler.  But watching her zoom <br>around on her bike with training wheels really makes it sink in for <br>me that she's a kid.<p>Thea will be going to Kindergarten in less than a month!  This will <br>be a new phase in our life!  I think she will really enjoy it.<p>Life is a little hard for Tirah right now.  She's not getting enough <br>sleep lately because of Jaden's teething and sleep patterns.  But <br>when he turns one, we hope to move him into the kid's room, and start <br>trying to get him to sleep better, so that we can both sleep better, <br>so that we can function better as people and parents.  And with our <br>insanely busy schedule, it's hard for Tirah to even find the mental <br>time to grieve for her mom.  But we continue to try to get ourselves <br>into good physical and mental and spiritual habits so that we can <br>deal well with whatever comes our way in life.<p>On July 12th, we took a family trip down to Washington D.C. for the <br>Ron Paul Freedom Revolution March.  We did lots of planning ahead of <br>time to try to make sure that things would go smoothly, because we <br>had never done anything like this before.<br>And everything went as planned!  Thank You Lord!   The kids were <br>troopers! They lasted all day: with a 3 hour car drive both ways, <br>leaving home at 6:00 in the morning, getting on the Metro train, <br>marching in the July heat.  They were amazing.<br>It helped that we had lots of cookies and a few new toys for them as <br>prizes for doing so well.<p>We got to the Washington Monument on time at around 10:00 AM, even <br>though there was confusion at the Metro station and we ended up <br>paying too much for our tickets.  Apparently us country-bumkins <br>didn't understand how their new-fangled system worked.  Oh well.<br>We made it all the way through the mile-long march, pushing all three <br>kids in two strollers.<br>There were over 15,000 people who pledged to march.  I'm not sure <br>what the actual count was, but I heard several people estimated that <br>there were around 10,000 people who actually marched.<p>After the first part of the rally at the Capitol Building, we walked <br>back to the Mall area, and got some hot dogs, and then escaped into <br>the air-conditioning of the Air And Space Museum for a few <br>hours.  Then we walked back to Capitol Hill in time to hear a few <br>more speeches before we heard the Constitutional Party Candidate: <br>Chuck Baldwin speak, and then finally Ron Paul himself!      Jaden <br>took two naps in the stroller, and Cirdan even took a short nap on <br>our picnic blanket under the trees on Capitol Hill.  After that we <br>left and were home by 9:30ish PM as very tired, but very proud <br>citizens and parents.  It was quite an experience!  You can watch a <br>little family slideshow that I put together on YouTube here: http:// <br><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdNZIhL0JFE">www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdNZIhL0JFE</a><p>Then on July 17th we took another family trip out to Ohio to visit <br>with Tirah's parents and most her her siblings for a few days.  The <br>goal was to work on getting some of the downstairs rooms of the house <br>organized for Margie's caregivers to be able to function well, and <br>therefore focus on giving care to Margie.  It was also a bit of an <br>Echols family reunion.  It was also the first time our whole family <br>slept in a tent, which went pretty well, except for the fact that <br>Cirdan had a Night Terror one night and probably woke up the whole <br>neighborhood.  It was good to spend time with Tirah's mom, knowing <br>that time is limited.<br>Find out more about how Margie is doing at http:// <br><a href="http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/margieechols">www.caringbridge.org/visit/margieechols</a>.<p>We've really been enjoying doing the twice-a-month Coffee Houses at <br>Creekside, as well as attending the Friday night Vespers services.   <br>If you're in the area, the next Coffee House is August 13th 6:30 PM, <br>and the next Vespers is August 8th 6:00 PM.<br><a href="http://www.creeksidecenter.org">http://www.creeksidecenter.org</a><p>I've added some new things to my website lately.  I now have a page <br>where you can purchase and download the music that I composed for the <br>Glencairn Documentary.  <a href="http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/">http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/</a> <br>glencairn.  I also have 3 new Bonus Tracks which you can download and <br>purchase here <a href="http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/#bonus">http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen/#bonus</a>.  One is my <br>own arrangement of the well-known tune: "The Gift of Love (O Waly <br>Waly)."  Another is a short composition called "Home Away From <br>Home."  And for something completely different, I have an <br>instrumental rock piece which I composed and performed called <br>"Father's Day."<p>Well, that's all for now.<p>Love from,<p>Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and JadenSolomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-1921508624936702842008-07-08T15:06:00.001-04:002008-07-08T15:06:52.552-04:00Keal Family Newsletter, July 2008<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SHO6zY2RBNI/AAAAAAAAACQ/XfSbgJ8jD3U/s1600-h/IMG_0528-712554.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SHO6zY2RBNI/AAAAAAAAACQ/XfSbgJ8jD3U/s320/IMG_0528-712554.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220721785058690258" /></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SHO6zosrhII/AAAAAAAAACY/gaj_Lvv3xTY/s1600-h/IMG_0303_3-713925.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SHO6zosrhII/AAAAAAAAACY/gaj_Lvv3xTY/s320/IMG_0303_3-713925.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220721789313451138" /></a></p>Hello Friends and Family!<p>Happy July to you.<p>As I mentioned in the last newsletter, Jaden had just started <br>crawling. Well, in the space of only a couple of weeks, Jaden went <br>from just "scooting" to crawling, then crawling all the way up the <br>stairs, then pulling himself up onto his feet, then attempting to <br>stand without holding on. It was quite the explosion of motor skill <br>activity from this little man.<p>It's amazing to watch him pull himself up to a standing position, let <br>go, wobble, and then plop to the floor... and then do it all over <br>again... over and over again. I can't help but think to myself, <br>"What's driving you dude? What's in it for you? Why do you so <br>desperately want to stand up?" Well, that's just where he is in <br>life... that's how the Lord made him. It's wonderful to think about <br>how the Lord inspires a love for something, at just the right <br>developmental time. He is capable of standing up, so he wants to <br>give it a try. It's exciting!<p>I can apply that to me as well. It's amazing to watch myself pull <br>myself up out of a selfish position, let go and let God, wobble, and <br>then plop to the selfish floor... and then do it all over again... <br>over and over again. I can't help but ask myself, "What's driving <br>me? What's in it for me? Why do I so desperately want to 'stand up' <br>spiritually?" Once again, the Lord inspires a love for something at <br>just the right developmental time. I am capable of learning to be un- <br>selfish, so I want to give it a try. It's almost like the Lord hard- <br>wired us to be curious enough about heaven to give it a shot. It's <br>exciting!<p>Jaden will be 11 months old on the 11th. We are coming up on 1 <br>year! He's been trying and eating more and more solid food. The <br>latest is chicken. And just yesterday he starting "parroting." <br>Thea and Cirdan were showing me something that had fallen down, and <br>so I said, "Uh-Oh." And then from across the room I hear a tiny <br>echo: "uh-oh." He tends to say it more when he's not aware of an <br>audience, but sometimes you can intentionally say "Uh-Oh" to him, and <br>he will respond in kind. It's very very cute.<p>We lost Cirdan's Superman toy after Abby and Malcolm's wedding. We <br>thought that maybe we left it in Bryn Athyn. After a long and <br>fruitless search, we gave up and bought him another one (it wasn't <br>too expensive.) A few days later, Cirdan was playing with his <br>flashlight and shining it under his bed. He called out to me, "Papa, <br>I see a red boot!" Well, I could see that Superman was sitting on <br>the chair next to his bed, but my heart sank, because I knew exactly <br>what Cirdan must be looking at. Sure enough Superman Returned! The <br>Man of Steel decided to Steal away and hide behind Cirdan's bed, and <br>even with my Parenting X-Ray vision, I could not find him.<br>So now we have two Supermans, (Supermen?), saving the world together.<p>Thea has started painting recently. It can be frustrating for her at <br>times, because paint behaves very differently than markers or <br>pencils, but she's learning to catch the drips and shake the water <br>out, etc. We have an old art easel that used to belong to the <br>Echols family, and was something that Tirah grew up with. We fixed <br>it up, and put a white board on one side, and a chalk board and <br>painting pad on the other side. That is what inspired the urge to <br>paint in Thea.<p>We had a lot of fun on our vacation, or rather our "stay-cation" as <br>it is called these days. Tirah got a week off in June, and we had <br>fun doing various outings, but staying at home. Tirah and I fixed <br>up our bikes, and then we all went to a local bicycle track near our <br>house. It's a beautiful track in a park-like setting, complete with <br>a kiddy track and a huge sand-box. We spent the morning one day <br>there, and then in the afternoon we went to a place called Bear Rock <br>Junction. It has mini golf, and a miniature steam train, and really <br>good ice cream. On another day we spent the afternoon at the pool <br>at Blue Rocks Campground. Then on the Monday of Tirah's vacatiton, <br>we went on a day-trip to Knoebel's Amusement Park about an hour or so <br>north of here. Thea went on several rides that we didn't expect her <br>to be brave enough to want to try.<p>On Tuesday the 24th of June, still during Tirah's vacation, we <br>celebrated our 7th anniversary! We went out to dinner at a very <br>fancy, very expensive local restaurant. Then we went out to see the <br>latest Indiana Jones movie. And we finished it off with a chocolate <br>cake from Wegmans.<p>We wanted to see Wall-E, the latest Pixar movie, but it wasn't out <br>until that Friday. We were telling a friend of ours, Matt <br>Synnestvedt, about how we love Pixar movies, and he came up with a <br>great term for us: You know how people who love Star Trek are called <br>"Trekies"? Well, people who love Pixar movies should be called <br>"Pixies." Yes. Tirah and I are "Pixies," and proud of it!<p>At the Creekside Center in our backyard, we've started having a <br>Vespers service every Friday night. This has been wonderful, because <br>since Tirah works every Sunday, we usually don't get to go to church <br>very often. This will help to fill the void of regular Sabbath time <br>in our lives.<p>At the end of the month, we made the trek down to B.A. for another <br>wedding: My childhood friend Justin Hendricks got married to Anndwyn <br>Schrock. Both Tirah and I sang for several pieces of special music <br>in the wedding.<p>We had a rainy 4th of July here in Kempton. I was supposed to play <br>my keyboard for part of the program, and I ended up having to set up <br>on the porch of the King's house, which meant that people couldn't <br>here the music very well. Oh well. Later on, during the picnic, <br>the Kings strung a huge tarp between the trees over top of the picnic <br>area, which allowed us to continue our picnic during the rain. It <br>was kind of fun. Later we visited back at our house with Tirah's <br>sisters Jori, Abby, and Tykah, and Abby's husband Malcolm, and Thane <br>Glenn and Carl Smith. We had a nice barbecue and then watched Carl <br>and Malcolm set off some back-yard fireworks. It was a good day.<p>This weekend we will be traveling down to Washington D.C. to <br>participate in a March and Rally for Freedom. We're hoping that the <br>kids won't get too overwhelmed, and that it will be a fun outing. <br>We've never taken the kids to D.C. before, so there certainly will be <br>lots to see. We're hoping that we can stay long enough to get to see <br>Chuck Baldwin and Ron Paul speak. Check out the March at http://<p><a href="http://www.revolutionmarch.com">www.revolutionmarch.com</a><p>And now for the sad news. The day before Abby and Malcolm's <br>wedding, we learned that Tirah's mom very likely has cancer. There <br>hasn't been an official diagnoses, but her symptoms point towards <br>cancer. Without an official diagnoses we don't know how long she <br>has, or what sort of cures are possible. Later this month we will <br>be traveling out to Ohio to visit and to help out around the house.<br>If you would like to hear the latest updates on her condition, and/or <br>send your love and support, go to <a href="http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/">http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/</a><p>margieechols<p>That's all for now.<p>Love from,<p>Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Jaden KealSolomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-76858562862038016422008-06-18T17:21:00.001-04:002008-06-18T17:21:36.147-04:00Keal Family Letter, June 2008<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SFl8ZLhsVLI/AAAAAAAAACI/r1KA6hZU9wQ/s1600-h/IMG_0278-796149.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pZEvsVMzCjE/SFl8ZLhsVLI/AAAAAAAAACI/r1KA6hZU9wQ/s320/IMG_0278-796149.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213334815690740914" /></a></p>Hello Friends and Family!<p>Happy June to you all!<p>They say that April Showers Bring May Flowers, but this year it seems <br>to have been April Flowers that Brought May Showers. May was a very <br>cool and rainy month this year. The first real Hazy Hot and Humid <br>day of the summer was right near the end of May.<p>We are loving our new house down here by the creek. It has been such <br>a blessing in our lives.<p>Jaden is now 10 months old. He crawled for the first time last week, <br>right around his birthday. Even though he can crawl, he still <br>prefers the "bottom scooting" action that was his first real mode of <br>transportation. He sometimes reminds me of a little wind-up toy; we <br>set him down on the floor and he scoots around for a while, <br>occasionally bumping into things, until we need to pick him up again.<p>He is eating a lot more solid food lately including (as was a <br>favorite of Thea and Cirdan's) pizza crusts. He's got two top teeth <br>and two bottom teeth, which not only allow for great food-chomping <br>action, but also the bonus feature of the cutest grin on the planet.<p>Just the other day, at the dinner table, he accidentally shoved his <br>index finger up his nose, while trying to get food into his mouth. <br>Tirah saw this and burst out laughing... and OH NO!... instant <br>supportive audience! For the rest of the meal, Jaden sat there <br>shoving his finger up his nose while trying to catch Mama's eye, <br>because he knew he could get a laugh out of her. The problem was we <br>couldn't stop laughing... so he kept shoving. Silly kid.<p>Trying to parent a 5 and 4 year old, while taking care of a baby at <br>the same time can be very tiring most of the time, and very funny <br>sometimes. The other day I was holding Jaden on my lap while <br>reprimanding Cirdan for doing something wrong. I was shaking my head <br>at Cirdan while I told him that he couldn't do whatever it was he <br>wanted to do, and suddenly I noticed another little head shaking in <br>the general direction of Cirdan. Jaden was sitting on my lap <br>helping me reprimand Cirdan with a big smile on his face and a <br>vigorous shaking of his head. It was actually really nice, because <br>it broke the mood, and we all started laughing. Babies are great!<p>Cirdan turned 4 on June 13th! We actually celebrated his birthday on <br>the 11th because we were going to be in Bryn Athyn getting ready for <br>Abby and Malcolm's wedding on the 13th. We had a nice little party. <br>Cirdan got a Superman action figure from us. And Carl gave him a two- <br>wheeler bike to match Thea's. So now Tirah and I really want to get <br>our bikes fixed so that we can go biking as an entire family.<p>Cirdan started potty training last month, and is now very competent <br>at using the potty, with hardly any accidents. He has also <br>successfully given up his binky (pacifier) at night. I think he's <br>really happy to take on the responsibilities of being a "big boy".<p>Although, there are some downsides to the new-found freedom that <br>comes with responsibility. Now that both of our older children are <br>capable of using the potty on their own, they sometimes think that <br>it's fun to have a "potty party" in the middle of the night. Well, <br>not really the middle of the night, but after they should have been <br>in bed. I can just imagine them whispering to each other after <br>Tirah and I leave the room at night: "Hey Thea!" "Yeah." "Party in <br>the Bathroom in 5 minutes!" "O.K.!"<p>Cirdan's latest favorite thing is: anything that has to do with the <br>Pixar movie "Cars." We let the kids watch it while we were all sick <br>with sore throats, and it was an instant favorite. At first it was <br>nice, because hey: we like that movie too, and it was a nice break <br>from the monotony of some of their favorite kids TV shows. But it's <br>starting to get old already for Tirah and I. Of course Cirdan's <br>favorite character is "Lightning The Queen" as he calls him.<p>Thea continues to blossom. Her drawing abilities improve daily. The <br>faces that she draws are very detailed. She has also really gotten <br>into writing letters. Not just as in the alphabet, but as in a <br>letter that you would mail. She will draw a picture, and then ask <br>for an envelope. She knows how to spell her own name, which she then <br>writes in the return address spot. Then she asks how to spell <br>someone's name, which she writes in the address spot. And then she <br>asks for a sticker to put in the postage stamp spot.<p>She has also started playing the piano more. She knows how to play <br>ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, AND Baa Baa Black Sheep! (O.K.... <br>They're all the same song, but it sounds more impressive that way) <br>She has also started composing her own songs, one of which was about <br>being a flower girl. (She was asked to be a flower girl in her aunt <br>Abby and Malcolm's wedding, which she was thrilled about.)<p>And the latest thing that Thea has been doing is magic tricks. She <br>will come up to us and show us something in her hand, then she will <br>ask us to close our eyes while she runs off and hides it, then she'll <br>ask us to open our eyes as she comes back and shows us her empty <br>hands! She calls herself a "Mugician" (Like "Musician," only with <br>a "g")<p>Tirah and I have had two of our Coffee Houses at Creekside Cultural <br>Center. So far they've been small, but we hope they will start to <br>catch on eventually. The next one is actually tonight at 6:30 PM.<p>We had fun going on a date last month to see "Prince Caspian" Good <br>movie.<p>Tirah got some time off for us to go down to Bryn Athyn for her <br>sister Abby and Malcolm's wedding this past weekend! (We just barely <br>got over our sore throats in time!) Tirah's mom was also in town, <br>which meant that almost all of the Echols Family was together except <br>for Eli and Nicola who are expecting their second baby any moment <br>now. The wedding was beautiful. Thea was a flower girl, along with <br>her cousin Kate. And I was honored to be asked by Abby and Malcolm <br>to play "Angel's Birth" for their processional! That was the piece <br>that I composed for our wedding almost 7 years ago! My sister Tamar <br>accompanied me on the recorder. It went really well.<p>And now, today is the beginning of our summer vacation! Tirah is off <br>from work from today June 18th to June 26th! We don't plan to go <br>anywhere, except on day trips, and 1/2 day trips to local places. <br>We also hope to get a good start on recording our Love Songs album, <br>which we want to release by Valentine's Day 2009. And of course, <br>Tirah and I will celebrate our 7th anniversary on the 24th!<p>In Music News: I have a new piece of Sheet Music available: "Wisdom <br>of Time" from the "Heritage" album, which you can purchase and <br>download from my website: <a href="http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen">http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen</a><p>A funny thing I realized the other day: Last December (2007) Tirah <br>and reached a turning point in our lives. As of this past December, <br>I have been a stay-at-home parent for longer than Tirah was! Tirah <br>was a stay-at-home mom for 29 months from February 2003 to July 2005 <br>when she got a full-time job. And I have been a stay-at-home dad for <br>34 months since July of 2005! And we're still going strong. It may <br>be unconventional, but it works really well for us.<p>And that's all for now!<p>Have a great month!<p>Love from,<p>Solomon (31), Tirah (28), Thea (5), Cirdan (4), and Jaden Keal (10 <br>months)<p>P.S. Here's a family picture in front of our new house:Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-75129691177354337162008-05-12T11:09:00.000-04:002008-05-12T11:10:02.981-04:00Keal Family Letter, May 2008Hello Friends and Family!<div><br></div><div>Happy May to you all!</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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: <a href="http://www.creeksidecenter.org">http://www.creeksidecenter.org</a>.</div><div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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."</div><div><br></div><div>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."</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>Here's a funny piece of dialogue that I overheard the other day:</div><div>Thea: "Cirdan! You're a Prince!"</div><div>Cirdan: "NO I'm NOT!</div><div>Thea: "Oh, yes you are!"</div><div>Cirdan: "Why?"</div><div>Thea: "Because, I'm a Princess!"</div><div>That little dialogue nicely sums up our oldest children's current states of life.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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:</div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="http://www.ronpaulpa.com/dist17_tirahk.php">http://www.ronpaulpa.com/dist17_tirahk.php</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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.)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 14px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#0000f0" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #0000f0"><a href="http://www.kealfamily.blogspot.com/"><u>http://www.kealfamily.blogspot.com</u></a></font>/</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 14px; ">And finally, in music news:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 14px; ">I have a music video which you can watch here:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 14px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 15px; "><font face="Georgia" size="4" color="#0000f0" style="font: 13.0px Georgia; color: #0000f0"><u><a href="http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen">http://www.solomonkeal.com/listen</a></u></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 15px; "><br></div></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I also have new sheet music available for "Thoughtfulness" from the "Peace of Heaven album."</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.lulu.com/solomonkeal">http://www.lulu.com/solomonkeal</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Well that's about all for now. Hopefully I'll send a family photo soon.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Have a great day!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Love from, </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Solomon "Soggy" Keal</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tirah "T" Keal</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thea "Boo" Keal</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Cirdan "Bear" Keal</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Jaden "Bubba" Keal</div></div>Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-36735800334276548992008-04-09T15:31:00.000-04:002008-04-09T15:32:00.462-04:00Keal Family Newsletter, April 2008Hello Friends and Family!<p>Happy April!<p>This will be just a short update for now.<p>The big news is that we've moved! Just down the street.<br>We now live at 124 Penn Street Lenhartsville PA 19534.<br>We have a new phone number, which is 484-660-3390<br>And we have this new family email address.<p>Our new house is on the quiet end of Penn Street, away from the noisy <br>intersection, and closer to the creek. And it's got a nice big yard.<br>It's a beautiful old brick house. We're renting it from Tori Odhner <br>who just bought the property. She's turning the barn at the other <br>end of the property into the Creekside Cultural Center. It's pretty <br>cool, check out the website:<br><a href="http://www.creeksidecenter.org">http://www.creeksidecenter.org</a>.<p>Speaking of that, I'm going to be doing a concert at Creekside this <br>Saturday, April 12th, at 6:00 PM. It's a free concert. Anyone who <br>is in the area; please come!<p>Well that's all for now. I need to go practice!<br>I'll fill you in on more details in another newsletter.<p>Have a great day!<p>- Solomon and FamilySolomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-65313220903933514942008-03-11T15:58:00.000-04:002008-03-11T16:01:23.613-04:00Keal Family Letter, March 2008Hello Friends and Family.<br /><br />Happy March to you all!<br /><br />Spring is in the air! That glorious warm wet smell of mud, and the <br />hope of flowers soon to be adorning it.<br /><br />We are doing well. So far we have avoided major sickness this winter!<br /><br />Jaden will be 7 months old on the 11th! He's got two little teeth <br />popping through on his bottom gums. He is confidently sitting up, <br />and becoming more and more aware of his surroundings. His latest <br />favorite noise is... get this... "GA-GA!" My youngest son is a <br />bouncing baby cliche. I suppose "GOO-GOO" will be next.<br /><br />I love the 6 month age! Moving from helpless baby to exploratory <br />infant; it's an exciting time to witness. One of my favorite things <br />to think about as I do the work of my day-job, is the wonderful <br />parallel/analogy that the Lord gave us in the process of being <br />parents. We can learn so much about the Lord, by being aware of <br />ourselves as parents (and His children); and we can learn so much <br />about being parents (and about our own children) by being aware of <br />the Lord as our Parent.<br /><br />The latest thought to come to my mind on this subject has to do with <br />holding a baby. I spend much of my day just holding Jaden. <br />Especially in times of pain (such as teething) he doesn't like to be <br />anywhere else other than in my arms or Tirah's arms. And when he is <br />in my arms and happy, it's almost like he's only somewhat aware of me <br />at all. He just knows that he's safe. Sometimes he will glance up <br />and look into my face as if to say, "Oh, right! You're holding me <br />Papa!" Other times when I'm holding him, he will reach out with his <br />whole body in an effort to go somewhere or get to something, and I <br />will happily oblige him (provided it's safe). I sometimes wonder how <br />much he thinks that he is in control of where I walk. He makes a <br />choice to reach out... but I'm the one who does the walking to get <br />him there. What an amazing analogy for our own relationship with <br />the Lord. How often do we think that we are the ones making progress <br />in our spiritual path? How often do we not even notice the happiness <br />we take for granted because of the Lord holding us in His arms? <br />There is so much to learn from parenting.<br /><br />Just a few days ago, we moved Cirdan out of his crib and into a Big <br />Boy Bed. We then moved Cirdan's crib into our bedroom for Jaden to <br />sleep in. He was out-growing his bed-buddy. We're hoping that this <br />will help his sleeping pattern too, because he still wakes up several <br />times during the night.<br /><br />Cirdan took a half-an-hour nap today. It used to be a two-hour nap. <br />He's starting to phase out of the nap era. Naps used to be my free- <br />time to work on music, so I always mourn their passing. But at the <br />same time, Thea and Cirdan are growing up and becoming more <br />independent, so sometimes I can work on music while they're awake and <br />playing happily.<br /><br />We been finding that the hope of going to school has been a great <br />incentive for Thea to "work on her problems." Being a Strong-Willed- <br />Child, she lives by this motto: "You can't make me, but I can be <br />persuaded." The goal of "being a good girl" just hasn't been <br />attractive enough for her to learn to stop screaming, hitting, and in <br />general being mean to people when they aren't doing what she wants <br />them to. But... the thought that she might not be allowed to go to <br />school if she doesn't change those patterns, well that's something <br />she can work with. She's been much more motivated to "behave" lately <br />because there's something in it for her. This childish selfishness <br />isn't a bad thing. In fact that's how the Lord works with us adults <br />too. He gives us incentives to be good people; incentives such as <br />getting to go to heaven. He doesn't expect us to be selfless right <br />off the bat. Once again, looking to see how the Lord does things is <br />an invaluable tool for learning parenting techniques.<br /><br />We very much enjoyed attending the Parenting Conference in Bryn Athyn <br />last month. We weren't sure what to expect, but our kids did really <br />well in the group child-care room. The whole thing was very <br />inspirational, and we had fun performing as a family on Saturday <br />night. Thea sang a Veggie Tales song called "My Day" all by herself <br />up on stage. Cirdan was going to sing with her, but a disagreement <br />over the microphone put him in a bad mood at the last minute. He may <br />also have been feeling a little shy.<br /><br />I'm happy to announce that my wife Tirah (with the help of friends) <br />gathered enough signatures (around 300!) to be placed on the ballot <br />in our congressional district as an alternate delegate! An alternate <br />delegate is basically a back-up delegate. If she gets elected, and <br />if there's a vacancy in the delegates, she could have a chance at <br />getting to go to St. Paul Minnesota in September to vote in the <br />Republican National Convention! Pretty exciting!<br /><br />With Jaden getting older, and the energy of Spring in the air, we're <br />hoping to get back into leading our Marriage Support Group soon.<br /><br />Tirah celebrated her 28th birthday on the 19th. Thanks to generous <br />help from our families, I was able to buy her a digital camera for <br />her birthday! And it was great to have a digital camera as Tirah <br />took a small vacation and we drove out to Ohio for a few days to <br />visit with Tirah's parents and her youngest sister. It's a long <br />drive (8-10 hours), but our kids did pretty well. We drove partially <br />through the night on the way out, and entirely through the night on <br />the way back, which was very nice. We had a fun time in Ohio, and <br />Tirah's mom got to meet Jaden for the first time!<br /><br />While in Ohio, I learned that my Granny Keal had passed away. It's <br />very nice to know that she is with Grandpa again, and that they are <br />in their young bodies again! In one of my favorite movies, "The <br />Five People You Meet In Heaven" there's a great scene where the main <br />character who died wakes up in Heaven and just spends some time <br />running around and jumping up and down, just because he can again! <br />It's really fun to think of my grandparents doing that right now. I <br />just wish they could have met our children before they left.<br /><br />On the 1st of March, I went down to Bryn Athyn for the third and last <br />part of a discussion group about the Secret and the Writings of <br />Swedenborg. It was, once again, a lot of fun.<br /><br />We're still hunting for a house to rent, but trusting that the Lord <br />will provide when the time is right. With the economy being what it <br />is right now, it is very mutually beneficial to be sharing a <br />household. Perhaps that is Providentially why we're having trouble <br />finding a place to move to.<br /><br />Tirah and I finished constructing a vocal booth for my studio. This <br />will allow us to record good quality vocals for our album of love <br />songs. Now we just have to make the time to do it.<br /><br />Last night we took the kids to a Circus! A Circus came to Hamburg, <br />which is the town just 5 minutes west of us. We were only able to <br />stay for the first hour, but it was fun anyway. Thea especially <br />loved it. She kept asking me when we were going to see the "magical, <br />sparkley, flying ladies again!" Cirdan was a bit overwhelmed by it <br />all, but speaks of it fondly in hind-sight. Jaden handled it <br />surprisingly well. Over-all, it was a fun adventure!<br /><br />I'll be turning 31 on Monday! I'm looking forward to cake!<br /><br />I hope you all have a wonderful day!<br /><br />Love from,<br /><br />Solomon (31), Tirah (28), Thea (5), Cirdan (3 and 3/4), and Jaden (7 <br />months)Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-20406885091198072192008-03-11T15:57:00.000-04:002008-03-11T15:58:47.278-04:00Keal Family Letter, February 2008Hello Friends and Family!<br /><br />Happy February to you all!<br /><br />Jaden will be 6 months old on Monday the 11th! Already half a year <br />old! Time flies when you're having fun (and kids, apparently)!<br /><br />He just started teething recently, so his usually cheerful nature is <br />somewhat dampened lately. He has also started eating a little bit of <br />solid food. He's had banana, rice cereal, and we tried giving him <br />some sweet potato, but he screwed up his face and spat it out.<br />Due to the teething, we haven't made any progress in getting him to <br />sleep through the night, so Tirah and I are still zombies most of the <br />time.<br /><br />Cirdan continues to be a citizen of the Imagine Nation. He has a <br />fascination with "bad guys." Yesterday he drew a picture of "bad <br />guys fighting." It consisted of a page full of brown squiggles. You <br />could see the action... it was pretty exciting.<br /><br />Thea turned 5 on the 2nd! We have a 5 year-old!! We had a fun <br />time going out to Cracker Barrel for a birthday dinner. Then we came <br />home for cake and ice cream.<br /><br />We find ourselves starting to think about Kindergarten! Currently <br />the options we are looking at are either the Kempton New Church <br />Kindergarten, or the PA Virtual Charter School, which is an online <br />home-schooling program run by the State. The upsides of the Kempton <br />Kindergarten are:<br />1. Thea would get a chance to learn how to interact with other kids <br />her age.<br />2. I would get several hours a week with one less kid to take care of.<br />3. It's a New Church school.<br />The upsides of the PA Virtual Charter School are:<br />1. It's free.<br />2. It's home-schooling (which Tirah and I both like).<br />3. We wouldn't have to worry about Thea "exploding" outside of the home.<br /><br />At this point we're sort of leaning towards the Kempton Kindergarten, <br />despite the fact that we don't really know how we'll pay for it.<br /><br />Thea continues to get better every day with her drawing skills. She <br />is starting to learn how to draw profiles of faces! It's very cool.<br /><br />Tirah has been doing a little better lately with her Seasonal <br />Depression. She started taking as much Body Balance as I've been <br />taking, and it's really been helping. She has also been having a lot <br />of fun being politically active this winter. Nothing like a fun <br />project to get you through the winter doldrums!<br /><br />Tirah is running as an alternate delegate for Pennsylvania. She has <br />to get at least 250 signatures from our Congressional District to be <br />placed on the ballot. She only has until February 12 (I think) to <br />get those signatures. If she gets enough she will be listed as an <br />alternate delegate on the PA Ballot in our district. If she gets <br />elected, she will then be a back-up delegate if one of the other <br />delegates drops out. And if that happens there's a chance she could <br />be going to St. Paul Minnesota in early September for the Republican <br />National Convention. If she does, then she will be very actively <br />voting for her favorite candidate. The Pennsylvania primary (along <br />with several other states) is really just a "beauty pageant" or a <br />popularity contest. When you vote in the Primary in Pennsylvania, <br />your vote does not actually go towards electing anybody. The <br />delegates are the people who do the real voting and electing.<br />It's pretty interesting! We'll let you know how it turns out.<br /><br />I'm still struggling to find the time to work on music. Taking care <br />of an infant and two toddlers is definitely a full time job. But I <br />did manage to start constructing a sound booth for my studio this <br />past month. I bought some 1X2s from Lowes, and some hardware, and I <br />put together 8 basic panels which will form a small octagonal booth. <br />Tirah is helping me with velcro and fabric to line the booth. The <br />idea is to have an enclosed area in which a person can stand with a <br />microphone and sing. The fabric-lined booth will cut down on <br />bouncing sound waves and create a cleaner, more usable signal to use <br />in a recording. All of this is working towards the release of an <br />album of love songs by Tirah and I. My goal is to release it this <br />year. We'll see how it goes.<br /><br />On the 2nd, I went down to Bryn Athyn for a second time to lead a <br />discussion group on The Secret and the Writings of Emanuel <br />Swedenborg. Once again, it was a fun group, and they've asked me to <br />come back a third time on the first of March. If you're interested, <br />you can read my notes here: http://thesecretofheaven.blogspot.com<br /><br />Tirah has had several "snow days" in the past couple weeks. Although <br />they were odd snow days. The weather was such that Hawk Mountain <br />was iced over, but down here in the valley there was only rain. It <br />was very strange for Tirah to be home on a "snow day" with no snow in <br />site, and no reason to be stuck in our house. On one of the days we <br />were glad to be able to get to church, which we aren't able to do <br />very often since Tirah works on Sundays.<br /><br />Tirah and I were given a bread machine for Christmas, and so this <br />past month we never bought one loaf of bread... it was all home- <br />made! The smell of home-made bread filling the house every couple <br />of days is yet another thing to put a smile on our faces in this <br />dreary time of year.<br /><br />This weekend we head down to Bryn Athyn for the Parenting Conference <br />(http://www.caringformarriage.org). We'll be taking all the kids <br />with us (unlike the previous year's Marriage Conference), and we'll <br />also be performing as an entire family on Saturday night! (If all <br />goes well....)<br /><br />That's all for now folks!<br /><br />I hope you have a wonderful February!<br /><br />Love from,<br /><br />Solomon (30), Tirah (almost 28), Thea (5), Cirdan (3 and 1/2), and <br />Jaden (almost 6 months)Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-56346344521783757962008-03-11T15:56:00.002-04:002008-03-11T15:57:29.075-04:00Keal Family Letter, January 2008Hello Friends and Family!<br /><br />Happy 2008 to all of you!<br /><br />We hope that you all had an enjoyable time during the Holidays.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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" !<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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:<br />http://thesecretofheaven.blogspot.com<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Well, that's about all for now.<br /><br />We hope you all have a wonderful New Year!<br /><br />Love,<br /><br />Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and JadenSolomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-87618704077946587072008-03-11T15:56:00.001-04:002008-03-11T15:56:46.588-04:00Merry Christmas! 2007Hello Friends and Family!<br /><br />Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,<br />Not a creature was stirring, accept the stray mouse;<br />The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,<br />Which I had found in the attic with just moments to spare;<br />The children were nestled all snug in their beds,<br />While visions of "sleeping-through-the-night" danced in our heads;<br />And with us in our P.J.s, and the baby in our lap<br />We all settled down for a long (?) winter's nap.<br /><br />When from out of the monitor there arose such a clatter,<br />I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.<br />Away to the kid's room I flew with a crash.<br />(As I glanced at the clock to see "5:00 AM" flash)<br /><br />With a heavy head, I did not feel alive<br />And it made me wish that it wasn't now 5:00<br />When, what to my wondering ears should I hear<br />But a miniature lady, with a voice loud and clear:<br /><br />"NO PAPA, NO MAMA, DON'T YOU SAY ANYTHING!<br />"DON'T TELL ME A STORY, DON'T HUG ME, DON'T SING!"<br />At the top of her lungs, she made quite a row:<br />"NOW GO AWAY, GO AWAY, COME BACK RIGHT NOW!"<br /><br />As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly<br />When they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky,<br />So out of my head, my ideas they flew;<br />As I sat in my chair, I knew not what to do.<br /><br />And then, in a twinkling, the tantrum was gone<br />And my daughter was asking, what was going on?<br />As I returned to my bed, in hope of repose,<br />I looked out the window, and up the sun rose.<br /><br />It's an odd thing, I thought, as I drooped like a willow.<br />To wish - on THIS morning - to stay on my pillow.<br />But we got up and went down, and opened a present<br />All the while hoping the day would be pleasant.<br /><br />The 4-year-old exclaimed as her gift did appear:<br />"It's not quite right... did I not make myself clear?<br />It has to be perfect! And I want it this instant!"<br />Enough of this, I thought, let me hold the infant:<br /><br />His eyes - how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!<br />His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!<br />His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow<br />And the spit-up on his chin was as white as the snow!<br /><br />A tiny little thumb he held tight in his lips<br />And the drool it escaped from his mouth in small drips<br />He had a cute little face and a little round belly,<br />That shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.<br /><br />He was chubby and plump, a right jolly small elf,<br />And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;<br />But a grunt from his mouth, and a twist of his head<br />Soon gave me to know I had something to dread;<br /><br />He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,<br />And filled up his diaper, then turned with a jerk.<br />And laying two fingers aside of my nose<br />I put down the baby, and I changed his clothes.<br /><br />It's a Parenting Christmas; it's hard work, and taxing.<br />And I don't know why I expected it to be relaxing.<br />I had hoped for peacefulness, laughter, and snowflakes,<br />But what we got was screaming and headaches.<br /><br />As we finally reached bed-time, to my kids I gave a whistle...<br />And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.<br />But with them finally in bed, I told them to go to sleep:<br />"Merry Christmas my children! ... Now DON'T MAKE A PEEP!"<br /><br />This is a fairly accurate description of our Christmas this year. It <br />was full of ups and downs, laughter and screaming, gratitude and un- <br />gratitude. It was odd to me that after 30 years of living, and <br />almost 5 years of parenting, I still expected Christmas day to always <br />be peaceful, relaxing, and just fun.<br /><br />As I read the Christmas story to my children, it got me thinking <br />about Expectations. There were probably a lot of things that didn't <br />turn out as people expected that they would at the time that the Lord <br />was born. Mary probably didn't expect to be pregnant before she was <br />married. Joseph probably didn't expect to be told by an angel to <br />marry his fiance even thought she was already pregnant. The <br />shepherds, the wise men, and the rest of the Jews probably didn't <br />expect that the Messiah would be born to a poor family, in a stable. <br />Hindsight is 20-20. The Christmas story is a beautiful story now, <br />but at the time is was probably very confusing to those involved. <br />But the Lord works in mysterious ways. He doesn't always come to us <br />in the way that we expect Him to. But He does come. He doesn't <br />always answer our prayers the way we expect Him to. But He does answer.<br /><br />I felt very much like that this Christmas. I was expecting a "royal <br />palace," and what I got was a "stable"... complete with little <br />"animals" running around making a mess. But that is how the Lord <br />comes to us... in fact that is USUALLY how the Lord comes to us. He <br />is the Light in our Darkness, the Clean in our Messy, the Joy in our <br />Grumpiness. The trick of life is to notice Him, and to ACCEPT Him <br />despite how we EXPECT Him. To notice the Star in the dark sky. To <br />listen to, and believe the Shepherds. The Lord always comes to <br />us.... but often not how we expect Him.<br /><br />We wish you Joy in the Celebration of the Lord's Birthday!<br /><br />Love from,<br /><br />Solomon (30), Tirah (27), Thea (almost 5), Cirdan (3 and 1/2), and <br />Jaden (4 and 1/2 months) Keal.Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-3330125813624774632008-03-11T15:55:00.001-04:002008-03-11T15:55:58.731-04:00Keal Family Letter, December 2007Hello Friends and Family!<br /><br />Happy Christmas Season to you all!<br /><br />November was busy but good. Tirah and I are still learning to juggle <br />our priorities and time-management, now that we have three kids to <br />take care of. It's amazing how three kids will eat up your time. If <br />I wanted to be a truly good parent, I would drop all of my other <br />priorities and focus all of my attention and time on my kids. <br />Unfortunately that's not possible, but it is hard when my little <br />daughter is begging for attention and I'm way behind on paying bills, <br />doing laundry, cooking meals, making music, etc. But for the sake <br />of running a household, and my own sanity, and the sanity of my <br />marriage to Tirah, I need to take time away from active parenting. <br />It's all a matter of finding the right balance I guess.<br /><br />I think the definition of Good Parenting is: The process by which <br />selfish little minds are turned into unselfish big minds. And <br />there's always the hope that the children might learn that too.<br /><br />Jaden will be 4 months old on the 11th. He's a smiley, laughing, <br />little boy. Check that... he's not so little. We think he's shaping <br />up to be the largest of our children. He's growing out of clothes <br />that are for 6 month old babies!<br />The Lord was very smart when he designed babies. When we are sleep- <br />deprived, burnt-out, over-worked, sick-and-tired, dead-on-our-feet <br />parents, one little smile from Jaden fills us with warmth, laughter <br />and energy. Jaden loves all of us, but he has found a particular <br />attachment to Thea recently. Thea loves to try to make him laugh, <br />and naturally Jaden loves that attention. It's very cute.<br />I forget the date, but Jaden has officially rolled over, which I'm <br />told is a baby milestone, similar to getting your driver's license <br />and being able to legally drink. Congratulations Jaden!<br /><br />I wanted to share this little dialogue that I had with Cirdan:<br /><br />Cirdan: "Papa! I had a great idea! We don't have any pizza right <br />now, so why don't we go to Pizza Hut and get some pizza!"<br />Me: "That sounds like a great idea, but unfortunately we don't have <br />the money to buy pizza right now!"<br />Cirdan: "But Papa! Mama is making money right now at work!"<br /><br />Here's another Cirdan quote from just today (he's talking about the <br />two tablets of stone that the 10 Commandments were written on):<br />"Papa, there are two, because Moses has to share with the Lord!"<br />I love the way little minds try to grasp things!<br /><br />Thea still loves drawing and coloring and writing letters. She's <br />also very good about building houses out of Lego. Some of her houses <br />are quite elaborate; complete with stairs, and second floors.<br /><br />Tirah and I are craving grown-up time, especially time for our <br />marriage. Lately we're both so tired after long days of work, that <br />we often just turn on a movie at the end of the day, and then fall <br />asleep. But we're trying to remember that quality time and pursuing <br />our interests actually does give us energy.<br /><br />Tirah has had a really good year at Hawk Mountain. Even with her <br />being gone for maternity leave, her little bookstore has already made <br />it's budget for the fiscal year... which ends on March 31st 2008! <br />Needless to say, her boss is very happy, and so is she!<br /><br />We are all just finishing up a round of sickness. Sore throats, <br />runny noses, coughs, etc. Thea had it first, right after <br />Thanksgiving, and then one by one, we all got it. I was the last to <br />get it, and I'm just now starting to feel better as I'm writing this <br />newsletter. But both Jaden and I are still congested, and I'm still <br />coughing.<br /><br />What is it about kids being sick?<br />They're up all night, so I think: "Well they'll be tired tomorrow so <br />I can at least take a nap on the couch or something."<br />But no... they're running up and down the halls all day long. So <br />then I think: "Well, they must be feeling better, so I'll be able to <br />sleep tonight."<br />But no.... then they're feeling sick again.<br />It's enough to make me go off my rocker.<br />Well, actually I was sitting in the rocker all night.... so it's <br />enough to make me loose my marbles.<br />Actually I found one of them under the couch, and another one mixed <br />in with the Legos.<br />Oh well.<br /><br />I had fun selling my CDs at the Bryn Athyn Craft Sale again this <br />year. I also sold sheet music. It was a better year for me this <br />year than last year, despite the fact that I didn't have an album <br />release this year. I also sold my CDs at the Kempton Craft Sale.<br /><br />We've had a lot of Pre-Christmas Snow this year... a lot more than <br />usual. We had about 3 inches of snow on November 18th, and Tirah <br />actually got a snow-day the following day! The tree outside my <br />studio window, which is always late to turn colors, had green leaves <br />with snow on them! And then just a couple days ago we had more snow, <br />and there is still snow on the ground as I'm writing this <br />newsletter. Usually we don't get much snow until after Christmas, <br />but this is a lot of fun!<br /><br />We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving this year at our house. We had <br />our whole family, as well as my mom and dad, Tamar and Dandridge and <br />family, Nils and Neva, and Carl Smith. Lots of good food, and good <br />family conversation!<br />The night before Thanksgiving, as I was putting the kids to bed, I <br />wanted to tell them a little about what Thanksgiving was all about, <br />to prepare them for church the following day.<br />So I began by asking them, "Do you guys know what Thanksgiving is?"<br />Thea quickly replied: "That's when we eat Pumpkin Pie!!!!"<br />Oh well, so much for a deep spiritual conversation with my toddlers. <br />What was I thinking?<br />No, actually, we DID end up talking about Thanking the Lord for <br />things, and I think something sunk in for them, so I felt good about it.<br /><br />Before Thanksgiving, Carl moved the office for his business out of <br />our living room, so we had a lot of fun rearranging the living room. <br />It's a lot bigger now, and the space works really well. We're loving <br />it.<br /><br />And in Ron Paul news....<br />Don't worry, I'm not assuming that everyone who reads this newsletter <br />is a Ron Paul supporter, but it's an exciting, important part of our <br />lives right now, so I'm including it in my newsletter. Plus, I <br />originally thought that a discussion of the candidates for the <br />American Presidency would be irrelevant to people not living in the <br />USA, but I've found that not to be true. There are actually Ron Paul <br />fans all over the world!! I think it's because of his foreign and <br />fiscal policies. They realize that if Ron Paul becomes President of <br />the United States it will be good for the world, not just the USA.<br /><br />Tirah and I were very proud to be a part of a massive fund-raising <br />event for Ron Paul on November 5th, in which we (Ron Paul supporters <br />everywhere) raised a record-breaking $4.3 million dollars in one 24 <br />hour period! The people are speaking!<br /><br />Then on November 30th, there was an unofficial fund-raising push (not <br />organized in any way), in which Ron Paul raised over $300,000.00 in <br />one day! This pushed him over the top so that he actually beat Rudy <br />Giuliani in third quarter fund-raising! And Giuliani is considered <br />a front-runner candidate, while Ron Paul is not.<br /><br />On December 16th, the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, there will <br />be another massive fund-raising day. Just as the colonists dumped <br />tea into the Boston Harbor to protest government oppression, we will <br />be dumping money into the Ron Paul campaign. The catch-phrase is <br />"Libery is brewing!" Check it out at http://www.teaparty07.com. <br />And if you like what Ron Paul stands for, you can donate at http:// <br />www.ronpaul2008.com. Very exciting things are happening!<br /><br />There's a wonderful little biography of Ron Paul's family on his <br />website, written by his wife of 50 years, Carol Paul (Yay for marriage!)<br />You can read it here: http://www.ronpaul2008.com/articles/331/the- <br />american-dream/<br /><br />Alright, enough political rambling.<br /><br />We intend to send out a family picture around Christmas time.<br /><br />We hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas season!<br />May the Lord's love and wisdom be a light in the darkness for you, <br />and may the Lord bring you Peace and Prosperity in the new year!<br /><br />Love,<br />Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Jaden KealSolomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-23052125484269423102008-03-11T15:54:00.000-04:002008-03-11T15:55:11.734-04:00Keal Family Letter, November 2007Hello Friends and Family!<br /><br />Happy November to you all!<br /><br />We successfully made it through October! Tirah went back to work on <br />the 5th of October. So I have been the stay-at-home dad for our 3 <br />kids for over a month now! We are all still alive, although we <br />parents are pretty sleep-deprived! I usually try to send this <br />newsletter out on the 1st of the month, so it has taken me 13 days to <br />write this! Busy life!<br /><br />Jaden turned 3 months old on the 11th. He has been charming us all <br />with his beautiful smile. And just the other day I heard him chuckle <br />for the first time! His colic seems to be kept under control by <br />Tirah being off dairy, so the days have been filled with more smiles <br />than screams. He is getting into a really regular routine of <br />Eating, Activity, and Sleeping, which is very nice.<br /><br />It's pretty cool what technology can do for the stay-at-home dad. <br />The essential obviously being Tirah's breast-pump and the bottles <br />that he drinks from. But then there's the Baby Bjorn, the tread- <br />mill, monitor, and of course the internet for ordering supplies. <br />All of which allow for better management on my part. Being a stay- <br />at-home dad is actually probably good experience to have on one's <br />resume if one is looking for a management job. Not that an employer <br />would necessarily see it that way, but maybe they should! I feel <br />successful when I can manage to keep all three kids happy at once. <br />It's such a good feeling... to know you're alive, it's such a happy <br />feeling; you're growing inside... Oops sorry. Stream of <br />consciousness. The soundtrack running in my head these days is <br />composed of kid's music. Maybe it's paving the way for a future <br />career?<br /><br />I've thought lately about the idea of making a website or blog for <br />Stay-At-Home Dads. Not that I really have the time for it, but I <br />definitely have the experience and content for it. At the very least <br />maybe I'll turn this newsletter into a blog.<br />Apparently Stay-at-Home Dads are one of the fastest growing family <br />styles in the country right now, so there could even be a market for <br />it. Although the acronyms haven't yet caught up with it's <br />popularity. Moms have all the cool acronyms. Work-At-Home-Moms <br />rule the world with the powerful acronym WAHM! Don't mess with <br />them! Stay-At-Home-Moms have a similarly functional acronym of <br />SAHM. But what to Stay-At-Home-Dads have? SAHD. We are not <br />sad, but that acronym is. Work-At-Home-Dads is not much better: <br />WAHD. And then of course Stay-at-Home-Papas (SAHP) sounds... <br />well... sappy. And Work-At-Home-Papas (WAHP) doesn't have nearly the <br />punch that Work-At-Home-Mamas (WAHM) does:<br /><br />"Hello! What do you do for a living?"<br />"I'm a Work-At-Home-Mom!"<br />WAHM!<br />"Good for you!"<br /><br />"Hello! What do you do for a living?"<br />"I'm a Work-At-Home-Papa!"<br />WAHP.<br />"Oh... that's so cute!"<br /><br />I saw a great slogan on a Stay-At-Home-Dad website the other day: <br />"Men who change diapers.... change the world!"<br />That makes me think of another one: "Men who rock babies... ROCK!"<br /><br />Alright, enough patting myself on the back... time to pat my baby on <br />the back:<br />Jaden is 3 months old, and very cute. My mom dug out some baby <br />pictures of me, and it's amazing how much Jaden looks just like me <br />when I was 3 months old. He's a smiley boy. He's growing fast. <br />He's already in size 3 diapers, and probably soon to be in size 4.<br /><br />Cirdan came up with a nick-name for him; he calls him "Bacon <br />Micah." Cirdan thinks it's hilarious. I have to admit... it IS <br />pretty funny.<br /><br />Cirdan is really developing quite the imagination. He spends a lot <br />of his time playing with dinosaurs and/or cars & trucks, making up <br />all sorts of games and scenarios in his little head. If you listen <br />closely, you can catch some very cute little dialogues. Lately he's <br />been making his little Duplo (Lego) boy ride on a little Duplo cow... <br />which of course is what makes a Cowboy! Very smart.<br /><br />Cirdan's default answer to anything right now is "NO!" It doesn't <br />matter whether he wants it or not, it just comes out first... sort of <br />like a young adult's "Um."<br /><br />Cirdan: "Papa, what's for supper?"<br />Papa: "Pizza!"<br />Cirdan: "NO!... oh... I mean... yeah!"<br /><br />Thea has really developed a skill in drawing lately. She's <br />amazing! She can draw mermaids, and little girls in dresses, <br />complete with 5 fingers and eyelashes. It's become somewhat <br />standard that about once a week, Thea walks into my studio with a <br />drawing and asks to send it to Mama at work. So I scan and email it <br />to Tirah. Now all of Tirah's co-workers ask for "Thea drawings" to <br />post on their doors!<br /><br />And also, to our great surprise a couple of weeks ago, she wrote her <br />name! T H E A . Fortunately it's an easy name, but still at 4 <br />and 3/4, I think that's pretty cool. Now she does a lot more <br />writing. She loves to fill pages with all of the letters and numbers <br />that she knows. Mostly T, H, E, and A.<br /><br />Just the other day, we were on our way up to Hawk Mountain to visit <br />Tirah, and we drove past a house where they kept chickens. As we <br />drove past, I had to slow down to a stop because there was a chicken <br />in the road. After it had gotten out of the way, and I resumed <br />driving, I hear Thea from the back seat innocently call out: "Papa, <br />why did the chicken cross the road?" I loved how oblivious she was <br />to the humorous significance of her question. To her it was a <br />perfectly reasonable, ordinary question. But of course, amid many <br />chuckles, I had to answer her: "To get to the other side!" Chuckle, <br />chuckle. It's moments like those that really make me love my job.<br /><br />We just finished a six week parenting course. It was really good. <br />We learned some valuable tools for becoming better parents, such as <br />validating our kids' feelings, visualizing situations through their <br />eyes, becoming aware of default reactions (in both children and <br />parents), and investigating our attitudes about our roles as parents <br />(Dictator or Helpful Guide?).<br /><br />Just today I was thinking about how inconsistent we can be as <br />parents. When little baby Jaden is hungry, he cries and sometimes <br />screams. My reaction as a parent is to want to feed him as soon as <br />possible and to comfort him. I don't say to him: "Well, my goodness <br />Jaden! If you're going to scream about it then maybe you won't get <br />your bottle! Go to your room until you calm down and ask nicely!" <br />That's ridiculous... horrific. And yet when my 3 and 4 year olds <br />are hungry, they essentially do the same thing. Except it looks a <br />little different. It can often look like a 4 year old screaming <br />"PAPA! I HATE YOU!!!" and slapping me in my face. That sort of <br />expression of emotion is not one that naturally evokes a desire to <br />comfort. It often arouses anger in us. But what we have to <br />remember is that, despite the illusion of rationality created by <br />their ability to talk, my toddlers are a lot closer to babies than to <br />adults. And when my daughter says "PAPA, I HATE YOU!", comfort, <br />validation and love are exactly what she needs.<br /><br />Tirah is a tired, sleep-deprived, working mother. Jaden still wakes <br />up a lot at night for feedings. She loves her job, but she <br />definitely misses the kids during the day. Fortunately she works <br />very close to home, and works in a small non-profit work-place that <br />is very casual and family-like. During the first week of this month, <br />I took Jaden up to Hawk Mountain once a day for a feeding with Mama. <br />Over the next couple of weeks, we slowly cut back to only the <br />occasional trip up the mountain. But it was great that we were able <br />to do that, and that Tirah has a job that allows her to take a <br />nursing break like that. In that time Thea and Cirdan have made <br />friends of just about everybody who works at Hawk Mountain. The <br />other day when we went up for a feeding, it was sort of a slow day <br />for everybody, so everybody still in the building grabbed a basket of <br />magic markers, came into the Hawk Mountain kitchen and had a "Drawing <br />Party" with Thea and Cirdan. Thea wanted to draw a snowman, so <br />everybody else drew a snowman too. Isn't that a great work-place?<br /><br />On Friday the 9th of November, we drove up in the afternoon for a <br />visit. It was raining in the valley, but as we got up to the top of <br />the mountain it was snowing! There weren't many people there, so <br />the whole family got to hang out with Mama "at work" for the <br />afternoon, watching the first snow of the year! It was great!<br /><br />We're still on the look-out for a house to buy or rent. Although at <br />this point it's seeming more like renting is the way to go for us, in <br />our current financial situation. There are a couple possibilities <br />that we're considering. We'll keep you apprised.<br /><br />In other news... my child-hood friend Justin Hendricks (who just <br />enlisted in the Army) is engaged to Anndwyn Schrock. Yay! I think <br />they plan to get married next summer, and then Anndwyn will be a <br />military wife.<br /><br />Last month, in order to cut our expenses, we started a new plan of <br />shopping for a month at a time. So this is the second month we have <br />been doing that. It's been great! Not only does it save a couple <br />hundred dollars a month in grocery bills because of buying in bulk, <br />but it also saves on gas because we only go out shopping once a month.<br /><br />And now for something a little political. I don't usually talk <br />politics in my newsletters, but I'm pretty excited about this. <br />Sorry to anyone who doesn't live in the USA, but I wanted to talk a <br />little bit about my favorite candidate for the Presidential election <br />in 2008. His name is Ron Paul. He is a true conservative in the <br />sense that he really stands for the Constitution of the United <br />States. He is the only candidate running who truly seeks to defend <br />all of the civil liberties of every American. If he got into office, <br />the Land of the Free might actually be truly Free again! To give <br />you a sense of where he stands on some of the main issues, here is a <br />break-down:<br />1. He would try to eliminate income tax (which is unconstitutional), <br />and get rid of the IRS. He is the true tax-payer's friend!<br />2. He advocates a foreign policy of non-intervention (but not <br />isolation). He would bring all of our troops home and encourage a <br />foreign policy of economic trade with all, military alliance with <br />none. (Did you know that World War I would possibly have never been a <br />World War if the nations of the world had not been entangled in so <br />many military alliances!) He believes that in all areas of life, our <br />responsibility to help our fellow human being, is the role (and <br />choice) of each and every citizen, rather than the role of <br />government. (Proper separation of church and state; charity should <br />not be dictated by the government.)<br />3. He would have our troops defending our borders, instead of messing <br />with other countries' business.<br />4. He believes that every American has the right to life, liberty and <br />the pursuit of happiness, and as a doctor who has delivered over 4000 <br />babies, he believes that life begins at conception. (Therefore he is <br />Pro Life)<br />5. He would try to end this communist, welfare state that we've <br />gotten ourselves into, and allow for a state where people are free to <br />pursue happiness, rather than expecting it to be delivered to them on <br />a silver platter. (He is against universal health-care; see number 9)<br />6. He would reform Social Security so that young people can choose to <br />opt out of a bankrupt system, while protecting the income that old <br />people depend on.<br />7. He would protect our right to keep and bear arms, so that if our <br />government became too corrupt and dictatorial, the citizens would be <br />capable of overthrowing it. (An American tradition since the very <br />beginning.)<br />8. He would protect our freedom to choose our children's education, <br />be it home-schooling or private schooling or public schooling.<br />9. He would protect our freedom to choose our health care, be it <br />allopathic, homeopathic, or any alternative form of health care.<br />10. He voted against the Patriot Act, and believes that we must never <br />sacrifice our freedom for security. If we do, we lose both.<br />11. He wants to try to halt this run-away inflation and get us back <br />on the gold standard, and eliminate the Federal Reserve. Imagine <br />that! Not only could we keep more of our hard-earned money, but our <br />money wouldn't be losing so much value over time! This land would <br />once more be a land of freedom and prosperity!<br />I've never been so excited about a presidential candidate. All of <br />the other presidential candidates are unfortunately misguided in <br />various ways by the idea that the role of government is to take care <br />of the American people, when in fact the role of government is (and <br />was always meant to be) to simply protect our freedom to take care of <br />ourselves and other people. Check out Ron Paul at http:// <br />www.ronpaul2008.com. And I strongly encourage you to register as <br />Republican and vote for Ron Paul in the primaries for your state. <br />Thank you. I will get off my soap box now.<br /><br />And lastly, news about my music business: I will be selling my CDs <br />at the Bryn Athyn Craft Sale this Saturday, November 17th, 10:00 AM <br />to 3:00 PM. I will also be selling my CDs at the Kempton Craft Sale, <br />Saturday December 1st, 9:30 to 11:30 PM. I will also be selling <br />sheet music for a few of my compositions. I just finished up the <br />year long project of creating a musical soundtrack for the Glencairn <br />Documentary. I'm also working on creating a music video for "Peace <br />of Heaven" ... stay tuned for that.<br /><br />I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! May the Lord bring <br />you peace and prosperity.<br /><br />Love from,<br /><br />Solomon (30), Tirah (27), Thea (4 & 3/4), Cirdan (3 & 1/2), Jaden (3 <br />months)Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-72561576825113605722008-03-11T15:53:00.000-04:002008-03-11T15:54:14.987-04:00Keal Family Letter, October 2007Hello Friends and Family!<br /><br />Happy October to you all!<br /><br />This is the beginning of a new phase in our life. These next two <br />months are going to be rough going for a while.<br /><br />Tirah goes back to work on Friday after over two months of glorious <br />maternity leave. It was a wonderful taste of heaven. A glimpse into <br />our ideal situation, which we hope to achieve someday, namely: having <br />everybody at home all the time. One of our goals in life is to reach <br />a point where I, or both Tirah and I are working solely from home, <br />and supporting the family. This is our dream. With God nothing is <br />impossible!<br /><br />Jaden will be 8 weeks old this Saturday. I will very soon be the <br />stay-at-home dad of 2 toddlers and a 2 month old baby! Adventure, <br />here we come! It will be rough going for a while. Jaden still <br />very much prefers Tirah to me. But I've been able to successfully <br />bottle feed him. Tirah goes back to work right in time for the busy <br />season at Hawk Mountain. So she'll be working longer hours until <br />December.<br />Thea and Cirdan love to watch Backyardigans, and in one of their <br />favorite episodes, as their Viking ship is heading towards a <br />whirlpool, one of them asks "What do we do!?" and another one <br />replies, "The only thing we can do... HOLD ON TIGHT!"<br />So that's what we'll be doing for these next two months... holding on <br />tight. Holding on to our sanity, our sense of control, our sense of <br />purpose, and our sense of humor.<br /><br />Jaden is over his diaper rash and baby eczema (thank the Lord!), but <br />unfortunately he's been suffering from colic all month. So he <br />continues to be a very fussy little baby. We took him to the <br />chiropractor the other day (or the "choir-practor" as our kids call <br />him), and he's got Tirah on a diet of no dairy, to see if that will <br />help Jaden to better digest her breast milk. Tirah was already off <br />chocolate, because that helped to clear up Jaden's eczema. So now, <br />sadly, she's off chocolate and milk (which of course includes <br />chocolate milk), and she's missing them horribly. But it's all worth <br />it, if it helps Jaden feel better! (Of course that's easy for me to <br />say!)<br /><br />One of the only things that calms Jaden is walking with him on our <br />tread mill. I don't know if it's the motion or the vibrations or the <br />noise, but it often calms him down (not guaranteed). We may be worn- <br />out sleep-deprived parents, but at least we're in shape! Um... I <br />guess.<br /><br />And on top of Jaden's colic, he now has a cold (which he got from <br />Thea and Cirdan)! So Jaden continues to spend most of his time <br />crying. I'd say he spends about 90% of the time that he's not <br />eating or sleeping, crying. Well maybe it's down to 80%. 80% or <br />90%, it still FEELS like he cries all the time!<br /><br />I've been amazed at how codependent I can be with my children. If <br />they're mad, I get mad. If they're sad, I get sad. If they're <br />happy, I'm happy. It's like I'm a slave to their emotions. <br />Jaden's fussiness has been a useful exercise in learning to maintain <br />my own sense of well-being, despite the emotional roller coasters <br />that my children are. It's hard, but it's possible... and <br />ultimately better for everyone.<br /><br />Cirdan and Thea are still getting over their colds, but they're <br />mostly back to normal. Although normal has drastically changed since <br />Jaden has been born. The kid's are still adjusting to the fact that <br />they don't get most of our attention anymore.<br /><br />The other day Thea was asking about Jaden's name: "Papa, why does <br />Jaden have two names?"<br />"Well, Jaden has a middle name which is Micah! You have a middle <br />name too... do you know what it is?"<br />"Yes, my middle name is Clarity Keal!"<br />"Well, actually Keal is your last name, but yes, Clarity is your <br />middle name. Cirdan do you know what your middle name is?"<br />"Yes.... it's.... Cirdan..... Winner-Guy!"<br /><br />Cirdan "Winner-Guy" Keal. I have no idea where he came up with that!<br /><br />Tirah just got her hair cut yesterday. It is now REALLY SHORT! <br />Much to my disappointment. But if it helps maintain this busy <br />Mama's sanity, then I'm in favor of it. I'm just looking forward to <br />when she grows it out again!<br /><br />Tirah goes back to work on Friday (the 5th). She is not really <br />looking forward to it. It has been so nice to have her home for all <br />this time, and she is very much in Mama-mode right now, and not in <br />Work-mode. I think once she's back at work, it will be O.K., but I <br />know she'll miss us, and we'll miss her. It's good incentive for <br />me to keep working on building my business, so that one day she can <br />decide whether she wants to keep working or not.<br /><br />We're still looking for a new place to live, whether it be renting or <br />buying. We've enlisted the aid of a realtor to help us find a house <br />that we could fit in, and afford the payments on. There is also a <br />slight chance that we may be able to rent the house next door. That <br />would actually be really nice because we might be able to move in in <br />the next couple months, and the kids wouldn't be far from Meemaw and <br />Deedaw. We're still not sure if we can afford to rent the house <br />next door. But if we can, it would be a great place to live until we <br />find a place that we can buy. It would certainly fit us nicely. I <br />would have a bigger room for my studio too.<br /><br />Needless to say, with the possibility of moving soon, and the fact <br />that we don't have much money left over until Tirah's next paycheck, <br />we've been looking into ways of cutting our expenses. One thing <br />that we started doing is: shopping for a month. On Monday I went to <br />Sam's Club, and I bought all of our food for a whole month! We have <br />a little money set aside to buy milk and produce, but other than <br />that, we can only eat what we have in our fridge and freezer, for the <br />rest of the month! In preparation for this we skipped our last <br />shopping trip and ate up all the dregs out of our fridge and <br />freezer. You know, the left-over bread, the things stuffed way back <br />in the freezer. It was actually a really good exercise in creative <br />meal planning. I find that I tend to assume that a meal should have <br />certain components. But there's nothing wrong with having just a <br />block of cheese for lunch... especially if that's all that's left to <br />eat! We managed to stretch out the last week of August without a <br />shopping trip, and we cleaned out our fridge and freezer. We got <br />pretty creative with meal planning. It was kind of a fun exercise. <br />And hopefully we can shave a $100 or so off of our monthly grocery bill!<br /><br />On the 16th we went down to Lutherville Maryland to visit with Steve <br />and Galadriel and Kate and Genai and new baby Joel. It was a fun <br />visit, and it went really well as far as traveling with a newborn. <br />Jaden seems to do better when we're out and about. He likes the <br />car. He also tends to go to sleep when there's a lot of commotion... <br />I guess it's a defense mechanism. Or maybe he likes to behave for <br />family and friends, but not us. I don't know. We also took him <br />out to a party recently, and he was fine! We went to a Going-Away <br />party for Justin Hendricks who is joining the Army!<br /><br />We had planned to go out to Ohio before Tirah's maternity leave was <br />up, but unfortunately the timing didn't work out, because the family <br />was sick in Ohio, and we didn't want to expose Jaden to it. Oh well.<br /><br />Last night Tirah and I attending the first meeting of a 6 week <br />parenting course that we're taking. It looks like it will be very <br />helpful in our endeavors to become better parents for our growing <br />family.<br /><br />Oh yes! Some fun news: Both Roxanne and Tamar are pregnant with <br />their third child! By the end of next year, my Mom and Dad will <br />have 9 grandchildren!<br /><br />Well, that's about all for now. Next month, I'll let you know how <br />we're doing with Tirah back at work and me as the full-time dad... if <br />I can get to the computer!<br /><br />Have a great day!<br /><br />Love,<br /><br />- Solomon (30), Tirah (27), Thea (4.5), Cirdan (3), Jaden (8 weeks).Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-24117550819648415432008-03-11T15:52:00.000-04:002008-03-11T15:53:37.722-04:00Keal Family Letter, September 2007Hello Friends and Family!<br /><br />Happy September to you all! <br /><br />We are officially OUT-NUMBERED! Two Parents vs. Three Kids... the Kids win.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!"<br /><br />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?"<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />But as I said, Thea's actions reveal her heart. She loves to help people. What a great trait to nurture! <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!"<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Love,<br /><br />Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan and Jaden.Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-87258272525412220622008-03-11T15:50:00.003-04:002008-03-11T15:52:32.829-04:00A Baby Boy! August 2007Hello Friends and Family!<br /><br />I'm happy to announce the birth of our third child: a baby boy! He <br />was born at a quarter past midnight on August 11th, in our home in <br />Lenhartsville. He was 8 pounds 12 ounces, 21 and 1/2 inches long, <br />with a 15 inch head. Tirah had had a day of "false" labor earlier <br />in the week, and then during the day on the 10th, she had pretty many <br />contractions. All of which led up to the fact that by the time <br />midwife came by for a check-up in the afternoon, Tirah was 5 <br />centimeters. We called the midwife at around 11:00 at night, and <br />when she arrived, Tirah was already 9 centimeters! The baby was born <br />an hour and quarter later. A very quick birth! Mama and the baby <br />are both very healthy. He is nursing well.<br /><br />We don't have a name yet. We'll keep you posted.<br /><br />Thea and Cirdan love him. We've taken several pictures, as well as <br />some video camera footage, which we hope to share with you soon.<br /><br />Love, <br />- Solomon<br /><br />Hello Friends and Family.<br /><br />Our son's name is: Jaden Micah Keal.<br /><br />"Jaden" comes from the Hebrew meaning "God had heard."<br /><br />"Micah" is a version of Michael meaning "Who is like the Lord?"<br /><br />Love,<br />Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Jaden.Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3466286535336140104.post-169653164666313132008-03-11T15:50:00.001-04:002008-03-11T15:50:50.678-04:00Keal Family Letter, August 2007Hello Friends and Family!<br /><br />Tirah is now full term, so the baby could come any day now! However, <br />both Thea and Cirdan were 10 days late, so we're trying not to get <br />our hopes up too much. Tirah is VERY ready to be DONE being <br />PREGNANT! Fortunately she is now on maternity leave, and we've been <br />enjoying spending all of our time together as a whole family. She's <br />been on maternity leave for one week now. The baby is head down, <br />and every thing is looking good, thank the Lord!<br /><br />Cirdan and Thea are as cute and wonderful and difficult and <br />intelligent and strong-willed and angelic as ever. Parenting them <br />is a continual learning process, and great for spiritual growth. Our <br />kids have already claimed the roles of "children" in our family, so <br />the only jobs left for me and Tirah fall into the category of "grown- <br />up." It's kind of interesting how spending all my time trying to <br />communicate with toddlers is helping me to become a better adult. <br />The Lord is very wise.<br /><br />On July 13-15 we were able to get away for the weekend; up to the <br />Catskills of New York state for a Marriage Retreat led by Lori and <br />John Odhner. It was wonderful! There were 9 couples there (so 18 <br />people, although John Odhner kept referred to it as 19 because of our <br />baby). The whole weekend was filled with friendship and wisdom and <br />music and laughing. It was very rejuvenating!<br /><br />The trip up was a bit of an adventure though! We drove up with <br />Calvin and Maggie Odhner, who are very good friends of ours. The <br />trip was like a comedy of errors. We were supposed to get to the <br />Retreat by about 7:00... well we didn't get there until almost 1:00 <br />at night! First we got off late, and then we forgot some of my <br />music equipment. Then we got stuck in stand-still traffic. Then we <br />took a wrong turn and ended up heading into New York City. THEN... <br />the car broke down! So we ended up stuck in a place called <br />Tarrytown New York, and we got some pizza (having missed our dinner <br />reservations) and searched for a car rental place, but the closest <br />place to rent a car was the airport, but it took forever to get there <br />because there was a man-hunt on the highway, and the only available <br />rental car was almost too small, etc, etc, etc. But all in all, it <br />was a lot of fun to spend that time with Calvin and Maggie!<br /><br />Jori and Abbey and Malcolm, meanwhile, were back at our house <br />watching our little kids, which we are very grateful for. It sounded <br />like a good weekend was had by all.<br /><br />On the 17th we had the last meeting of our second Marriage Support <br />Group. Many of the people involved in this group were interested in <br />continuing! So after the baby is old enough and we start it up <br />again, we might turn it into an on-going thing (instead of just an 8 <br />week session) which would be great!<br /><br />On the 19th we went out food shopping, and came back having bought <br />our minivan! We hadn't intended to buy the van on that trip, but we <br />though we would drive through the car dealership near the grocery <br />store and see what they had. Well, they had exactly the right van <br />for us. It's a 2002 Toyota Sienna. It had 87,000 miles on it. It's <br />only had one owner. And most importantly... it's a nice color blue <br />and it has a CD player! ;-)<br />It was a price we could afford, and the salesman was not at all <br />pushy. So we were able to buy our minivan before the new baby <br />came! Now we will all fit into one car. We've been having a lot of <br />fun on Tirah's maternity leave, just driving around in it.<br /><br />On the 21st, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" arrived in the <br />mail! We spent the next week reading it together, which was another <br />nice thing to be doing on Tirah's maternity leave. Great book by the <br />way! I don't know how many of you have read Harry Potter, but Tirah <br />and I are pretty big fans. The last book in the series definitely <br />lived up to our expectations for sheer entertainment as well as <br />philosophical and spiritual value.<br /><br />I've sort of been taking a vacation since Tirah's been on maternity <br />leave, so I don't have much to report on the music front. Although I <br />almost have my next piece of sheet music available ("Surrender" from <br />the "Peace of Heaven" album). I'll keep you posted.<br /><br />Coming up soon... I will be reporting the birth of our third child! <br />Stay tuned for that!<br /><br />Have a great day!<br /><br />Love,<br />Solomon, Tirah, Thea, Cirdan, and Baby.Solomon Kealhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14912595870334330927noreply@blogger.com0