BeKKnits' Blog: Life Lately

(I had this whole post written up and all these pictures and hit undo one too many times and lost. the. whole. thing. Hopefully, I can rewrite it and get the same basic points across-without it being filled with rage. Now, I did accidentally delete it right after I was telling a story about my road rage the other day so maybe I got what I deserved. Maybe this was my consequence for driving aggressively.)

It's been so long since I wrote about normal old life. It's very different than it was a few years ago, at least for me. I've hit my 9 month anniversary at Culver's, and moved up to 30 hours a week, though the schedule hasn't quite caught up yet. Wait, I think maybe this week is my first regular week at 30 hours. There was one week where I worked that many because some people were gone, but it wasn't normal. I just checked the schedule; I'm still at 25 for this week. I still have to work Thursday, which is when my family's having Passover, and Good Friday, which is one of my favorite services. :'( I'm trying to have a good attitude about it. Today is my last day off until Easter, but they're all pretty short shifts so it's not too bad. In other work news, I passed my drive-thru certification a couple weeks ago. Now I just need to get my custard certification before I have my trainer's assessment. They've been talking about me becoming a trainer for months now and I'm finally feeling ready for it. I think I'm mostly looking forward to getting a specially-printed Team Trainer name tag. Maybe more than the raise, haha.

Besides work, I'm still helping out at our homeschool co-op. Or rather, I was, since the semester ended last week. Though I'm sort of more of a student than an assistant. I was a student in two out of the three class times this past year; High School Bible and Economics. And Economics ended early so I got to join in on the last few weeks of Classic Lit that Mom taught. We read Pride and Prejudice! It was nice to read it over the course of a semester and take it in slowly. I've read it around five times, but usually over a few days or a week. And to talk about it for a class time? Or several class times? It was amazing!! I'm not sure what the other kids thought, but I LOVED it. Last semester, I helped the preschool nature class, which was super fun. At that age, you never know what's going to happen or what they will say, and while it can be stressful, it's also exciting. :) This semester, I sat in on the elementary/middle school art class, which was also really cool. There's talk of a high school art class next year, and I'm hoping for it...

One of the main reasons I wanted to write this post, which I originally started a few weeks ago, was because I was thinking about how family dynamics change over the years. At one point, we were an all-or-nothing family, mostly out of necessity, I'm sure. Either we all did something or none of us did. It's been many years since that was true, and I've gotten used to Stephen and Josiah being gone and Katherine, Johnathan, and I having busier schedules and not being around all the time. It's normal now for several people to be missing at any given time. Now it's strange and special when we are all together. But the other night I came home from work and found everyone watching Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. And by everyone, I mean, Dad, Mom, Katherine, Kristian, Julia, and Joseph. Stephen's off at school in Chicago, of course, and Josiah's livin' it up in the city. (Haha, actually, livin' as a starving artist. OK, not starving. Just a super-cool artist.) I don't know where Johnathan was that night, maybe he was just in his room or the garage or something. But Anna was off with friends watching and/or playing volleyball, and Mary Ann and Grandt were babysitting. I was used to Katherine and Johnathan being out and about, but not the next three. When did they become old enough to go hang out with friends by themselves or babysit children?!? And it's a good thing! We were all created to grow up and become our own people. It just kinda hits me sometimes, and it feels strange. It feels strange that things that used to be strange...just aren't strange anymore!

I love that we're all growing and changing and becoming the people God made us to be! It's exciting and beautiful, but definitely bittersweet too.

The Father Daughter Banquet two weeks ago. I think this was actually the night before I was having all these thoughts. :)

Johnathan had a Jimmy John's gift card and offered to buy a sandwich for someone if they would buy bubble tea (or froyo) for him. We have a new bubble tea/froyo place in town and I have been there an embarrassing amount of times in the last few weeks.

We flew Kaitlyn out during spring break to belatedly surprise Anna for her 16th birthday. This picture was taken in the overly girly bathroom at the American Girl Place. In terms of the rest of the store, though? I was a little kid again...