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I ask you, why is it that everything in my life has to take on some deep meaning?  Why can't I just breeze through the daily ins-and-outs and ups-and-downs without much thought?  There's something about my spirit (and I'm talking about the soul that existed before my body was even created and that chose to follow Jesus and come to this earth for "experience") that doesn't allow me to see anything without thinking deeply about it.  Sometimes, I will admit, it's rather exhausting. Last November, I was offered the same job I always work at Interlochen for this summer.  I didn't think twice about accepting it.  Let me make a list for you of reasons I love to go to Interlochen (I'm only doing this because I've made this list in my own mind about a million times over the past few days): I can lose weight at Interlochen.  After my sudden and horrific weight gain this past winter from multiple courses of steroids, I was looking forward to going ba

Since neither Allison or I have ever travelled to Iceland, most of the experiences we’re having are genuinely unique to us. I’ve never seen quite the landscapes we’ve driven through here, I’ve never had as good of fish as they serve here, and I’ve never even tried to learn Icelandic. So far I’ve got “Thank you” (in Icelandic) down pat, so go me, but yep, it's almost all new(: HOWEVER, horse back riding, and more specifically in this case, Icelandic pony riding, is more of a familiar experience for me at least! I’m still not sure if Mama and Papa just wanted to give us something to do, or it was just too good of a deal to miss, but when we got to Germany they signed us up for weekly 45 minute horseback riding lessons. I still even remember Frau Janetzsky, our teacher, and some of my horses. Unfortunately I only remember the bad ones, but it’s hard to forget Flicka and Nicki(: I don’t know what was going on with Flicka, but for some reason because I was so young I kept gett

Today was a big day for John and me: we signed the papers to sell our home in Pennsylvania. The closing date isn't for another week, but we won't be in town then, so we signed the papers today. Just three signatures needed.  Nothing more. And it was done. Three signatures for three years of hope, prayer, faith, doubt, worry, stress, anger, and relief. When we first put our house on the market (receiving promptings by the Spirit to do so), several people told us that it wouldn't take more than a month to sell it.  In fact, we had people coming to look at it before it was actually listed because the realtors wanted to get a jump on it. We were sure that Glo would be attending Hollidaysburg high school for her junior and senior years which we thought would be a blessing from a music perspective.  And we were sure that John would finish out his medical career in another ten or twenty years there. We even looked at buying land in Hollidaysburg, hoping that our

Sometimes I worry that my brain won't remember everything like it used to, so I'm recording some things here: Kennedy Missionaries: John (Argentina Buenos Aires South) 1985-1987 Mike (Arizona) 1988-1990 Jacob (New England) 1989-1991 Buddy (Jamaica Kingston) 1992-1994 Nate (Mexico Tampico) 1995-1997 Mary (Dominican Republic) 1998-1999 Beth (Thailand) 2001-2002 Ethan (Poland Warsaw) 2010-2012 Mark (Russia St. Petersburg) 2012-2014 Cody (Marshall Islands) 2015-2017 Kailee (Arizona) 2016-2017 Johannah (Ecuador Quito North) 2017-2018 Joe (Baltimore) 2017-2019 Ella (California Ventura) 2018-2019 Kennedy Order/Birthdates 1--John, September 18, 1966 2--Larisa, February 24, 1970 3--Ethan, January 25, 1991 4--Mark, June 10, 1993 5--Johannah, September 15, 1996 6-Gloria, October 2, 1999 7--Rebecca, October 3, 1989 8--Anneliese, October 27, 2015 9--Allison, August 24, 1993 10--Everett, March 13, 2018 Wedding Dates John and Larisa--November 11, 1989 Ethan

Dear Family, I am going to tell you a sad tale that has a tragic journey but a pretty good ending.  It is a tale of woe and worry, sleepless nights, several tears but I think after all is said and done, it had to happen this way for it to all come out okay in the end. The story begins three years ago when Larisa and I separately felt moved to put our house on the market. I was at a concert with Glo in Hollidaysburg near Altoona.  I had a feeling like we should sell the house and that Glo would enjoy going there to school.  I later told Larisa, and she said she had a feeling in the temple at her last visit we should put the house on the market.  So, having the feeling together, we talked to our realtor at the time, Ellen Kline, and we put it on the market.  We put it on in about the end of February and left it on all that summer until the fall.  We had it listed for $995,000 because that is what the realtor said.  We had a few showings and no offers.  We weren't worried because

Today, while out walking, I was listening to the book of Enos.  I was struck by verse 23: And there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness, preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God, and all these things--stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord.   I'm sure some of it is that I have a child living at home again, and some of it is the fact that I just finished reading Little Women , but my heart went out to Enos.  Doesn't he sound so tired of it all?  (Read it again if you didn't catch it the first time.).  "Stirring them up continually..." I do believe this must be the motto of every good mom out there, because without a doubt, this is what good moms do.  They continually stir up the members of their families to do good, to be better, to strive for more.  But it is so incredibly exhausting.

Twas a little house, and yet much beloved(: Well the time has come to leave Isafjordur... While I'm personally excited to see Reykjavik and see what all the fuss is about, it feels like we're abandoning our own personal honeymoon spot. Honestly it was so remote up there in the West Fjords, we generally felt like we had the whole town, and all the natural splendor, to ourselves. Granted, I do enjoy city living a little more than out in the country, but I'll still miss it here. First intrigue of the day: unlike when we drove here, when the weather could literally not have been clearer, it's been raining off and on just since we've woken up. And that wouldn't have worried me, but we have narrowed down our return-to-Reykjavik route options to two: either the way we came, or the road that we took to Dynjandi. Behold, the Wall of the North Now if you read about that road to Dynjandi (TGR/RA, Part 2), you know that even when the weather was warm and the sun

Sadly today marked the last full day we're here in Isafjordur. I have to say (and I've told Allison this) but originally I thought coming up the West Fjords, we would kind of run out of things to do and see pretty quick. And while hiking isn't exactly my ideal definition of fun, I have definitely come to love it when Allison's coming along. Particularly if said hiking trip involves an element of danger; somehow that actually has proven to be an element of all the adventures up to this point that we've enjoyed the most(: Kayak Skirts and all Before that though, finally this morning we got to go kayaking! Ironically enough with kayaking too, I'm not much for kayaking. I think since I grew up going to Scout camp and only having canoes, I became first more of a canoer than anything else. Then I went onto rowing, and loved that, so maybe it's just that kayaking is my third boating skill I have to learn that makes me more hesitant to kayak. All that being sa