Rachael turns 17

December 2017

This amazing girl turned 17. Rachael ended a very difficult year in a much better place than where she started it. The past year took a lot of energy to get through but gradually through the year the lows got less low. By fall she was able to reengage in a familiar way: witty, funny, loud, analytical, and passionate.

 She is working her way through Junior year, and rebuilding. Rachael recently finished 2 classes at the Community College; checking English and Health off her list of high school requirements while earning college credits. I think she enjoyed walking with friends to campus each day. This got her outside and moving, activities that she has always loved and needed. She has been trying out different habit trackers, apps and paper varieties in order to encourage all of the healthy habits in her life. Rachael's eye for function and balance have led her to the idea that it might be best if she create her own app. Spring semester she will be taking a computer logic and design class at CCBC.

Her interests in the outdoors, space, social justice, and random facts are alive and well. She is enjoying plants and has added a few succulents to her room with an eye on increasing the collection. Rachael has been hanging and drying varieties of plants in her window and her room has a lovely feel. She jokes sometimes that she'll be the intriguing old lady in a little cottage with plants and piles of curiosities some day. For now she is the intriguing young lady with an amazing cat that I am so blessed to have so close to me.

On her birthday we went out to dinner and then she invited a few friends over to watch a movie. It was fun and low key. Rachael smiled a lot.

Happy Birthday Rachael!

Christmas 2017

 Christmas 2017

  We celebrate the birth of our Savior. We celebrate with our traditions, music and food and we we do it all with the joy of being loved by so many and loving so many in return.

We hosted Christmas Eve, with lots of food and drink and gathering together. We exchanged gifts in our living room. The under 13 cousins did a gift exchange and we started with the youngest (Ellie) receiving her gift, and then she gave her gift to the next and it continued through the group.  They love to receive but some years the joy of giving is what permeates the room. This year we shifted the gift exchange just a little for the teenagers. They had been in the basement attempting to arrange a game of D&D or Lizards & Cave Dwellings as they called it, and usually they do their exchange downstairs as well. We asked them to come up this year and it was fun to see them laugh through the yankee gift exchange together. Then the adults took our turn, with some odd and hysterical gifts including a bowling pin and the presidency of the Will Jauquet Fan Club as well as fandom and practical gifts.

We went to 6 PM Mass at St. Marks with Will and Heather's family and Steven, and got seats near the front. This year we had to try not to laugh at the altar server sound asleep and in risk of falling out of his chair during the homily. 

After Mass we got back home, took a few family photos, snacked on remaining party food, feed the reindeer and began to wind down. Then we gathered around the tree to open our gifts from Colorado and our ornaments. The girls immediately changed into the new pajamas and we all hung out on the floor in front of the tree. I know that this tradition is one that will change as they grow up and move out and start families of their own and I am savoring these events because at some point it will be the last one together and I won't know it while it is happening.

Christmas morning the girls all climbed onto our bed as always and I had the thought "can this bed continue to hold us all". It did and we played the Christmas alphabet game and sang Christmas Carols before heading into the living room. As the girls have gotten older their excitement for gifts has waned, but the joy of being together on the floor is still strong. Even as little as Hanna is, the focus is rarely on presents. I guess since most of the family doesn't emphasize it she hasn't put that as the center of the holiday. But of course there are gifts and there is fun in opening presents and surprises and joy, and sometimes disappointment in getting something underwhelming.

Later that day we headed over to my Dad's for a relaxed hangout and Christmas Dinner. Every year when we gather to say grace, my Dad leads a responsorial psalm or song in addition to blessing our meal and time together. This year my Dad  again pulled out a song to the tune of "Jingle Bells" with the words "Dashing through the snow with Jesus on my mind... Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise his holy name." It makes the teenagers laugh but they participated well.  It is these silly memories that stick with you and I am so glad they are making these memories together.

We are so blessed to get to be together and to have the peace to be able to practice our faith.

Merry Christmas!

Bridget turns 11

December 2017

Bridget continues to grow up and continues to be a blessing. She has grown in independence and confidence and retains her discerning eye. Bridget likes to make things out of found items and has been creating little shops from small cardboard boxes. She has an amazing spacial sense and can free-hand draw a floorplan or build proportioned miniature furniture. Bridget frequently disappears silently to her room, puts in her earbuds to listen to music or an audio book and gets to creating. There is joy in that space. 

Bridget is still our JabberJaws, she likes to tell stories of her day or her ideas. She is full of details and shares so many that sometimes we have to draw out the main point. She is newly learning the language of sarcasm, and can recognize it, occasionally she uses it and surprises us when she does. Her genuine trusting self is getting wiser to the world. This makes me a little sad but also more confident that she will be able to navigate the jaded world.

Fifth grade has been an improvement over prior years. She is having a less chaotic year, and has good friends. Bridget is getting Orton-Gillingham instruction to help her function better with her dyslexia, and her teachers are solid. They appreciate her intelligence while supporting her through the learning disability. She does complain that the kids tend to consider her as less capable academically and it frustrates her, but I think she is gaining more confidence in herself.  A youth group leader recently sent me a message saying that he was impressed with Bridget and that she was a self-assured young lady. 

She has a personal sense of style, that avoids the slogan/sequenced/character clothing marketed to her age group and instead opts for simple but beautiful fabrics, that are pretty but not overly adorned. Bridget's incredibly thick heavy hair has made styling a challenge, but she now pulls two small sections back away from her face to keep her hair under control and give her a more put together look.

Bridget plays the french horn at school and dances twice a week. She is also active in her scout troop and the once a month Little Flowers group. Little Flowers focuses on the study of Saints. Bridget has a quiet faith and prays the rosary daily as she goes to bed.  She has a heart for others. 

On her actual birthday, we went out to dinner and came back to the house for her to open gifts. then at the end Bridget surprised us with a gift of her own. She grabbed her Nook and played for us a recording of her singing along to a song from the Dear Evan Hansen musical. It is an incredibly hopeful song called "You will be found". The sound was really low and some of the recording was hard to hear but the intention spoke volumes. She makes we tear up.
She wanted us to know: "Even when the dark comes crashing through
When you need a friend to carry you And when you're broken on the ground You will be found"

Bridget Rose Kehrman Happy 11th Birthday!

Advent 2017

December 2017

Our crew all pitched in as we prepared our house and hearts for Christmas. We decorated and put up our tree, and we worked together to bake dozens of cookies to give to our family and friends. Emma couldn't join for the early prep but we set aside some ingredients so that she could bake a pan of our favorite 7 layer bars. and we had her ornaments ready. We had intended to leave a section on the tree for her but we didn't quite achieve that goal, unless you count the back of the tree.

This year Johanna's classmates were angels in her school's Christmas program. Johanna is pretty great at these programs. She knows the songs and she really sings. It is fun to watch her get excited for Christmas. She loves Christmas Carols and likes to belt out "Hark the Herald Angles Sing". Megan had been asking to play Christmas carols since Halloween so she was thrilled for Advent to finally arrive.  Megan's frequent albumn choice was Pentatonix Christmas and Meg, Bridge and Hanna had fun singing along to their version of "Hark the Herald Angles Sing".

Good-Byes in 2017

Fall of 2017

   This fall also brought many difficult good-byes.

Nicole Leister Beaver

Tom Famulari

Uncle Ken Ryan

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.

And let the perpetual light shine upon them.

And may the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Fall 2017

November 2017

The rest of our Fall filled itself with the happenings of our life. The girls plugged through school, I plugged through transitions at work, and Jim plugged through his job hunt.

We raked leaves with help from the neighbors.

Hanna is in there somewhere

Bridget's 5th grade class practiced ballroom dancing and then they put on a showcase for the parents to enjoy.

In October Guiness opened their much anticipated temporary taproom just a few miles away and Jim began his in person networking efforts. He is hopeful to change industries and has been active educating himself  and getting to know all of the local brewing businesses.  We had fun at the Maryland Irish Festival as well.

Megan was our only kid to play soccer this year and was on a team with one of her best friends, Olivia. They were the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The rest of us cheered from the sidelines, in a season that had the nicest weather of any season we have ever participated. Megan is a fierce competitor, even as we discovered during the season that she has exercise induced asthma.

My work made some major changes at the end of the summer and as the Operations/HR Manager I had to implement the changes. Our parent company decided to close the Maryland office and they asked me to assist with the reduction in force.  I prepped and helped deliver the lay-off information to all of my co-workers, and then I flew to LA to handle the lay-off of 3 more employees there. That all happened at the end of August, and I spent the next few months handling all of the equipment and winding down our office. We were able to find a company to lease our space and they have allowed me to stay in the suite but move my office to a conference room. I miss my office with the glass wall and view of the windows but my new space functions well.

My old office

Emma came home for Thanksgiving and was regularly physically overrun with attention. Will and Heather hosted again this year and we ate and talked well into the evening.

The Los Jauquet's hosted a superhero party for the 4 of their 5 kids born in late November/early December.

Megan got straight A's during first quarter and I got to go to the breakfast. She even let me take her picture.

Rachael ended the month with a series of dentist appointments. We found a dental solution for her missing adult teeth and she was glad to get a Maryland Bridge, which doesn't destroy the healthy teeth and offers permanent replacement teeth.