A Week of My Life as a Teenager

 By Rae

Sunday:

Sunday was an interesting day. I woke up early to be able to help out someone by cleaning their small business shop for them. I do it by myself, so it doesn't matter what time of day I do it, as long as I do it on Sunday. I wanted to clean in the morning before my family and I left for church, that way I'd have the afternoon available for anything else I would want to do. But when I woke up, it was 9 degrees Fahrenheit! That was super unmotivating! But, I reasoned with myself and thought, "If I do it now, I'll be glad later. If I wait, somebody will probably invite me to do something special with them, but I'll have to refuse." So, despite the Michigan weather, I went. And guess what? Later that day, two of my brothers invited me to workout with them (that's a compliment)! I had so much fun! The lesson for that day was to never put off for later what can be done now. Of course, there are exceptions, but most of the time, we're just being lazy!

Monday:

Monday was my family's first day back at school. Man, was it great to be back in a schedule! Anyone who has children or siblings understands that they thrive on a schedule and knowing (somewhat) what's next, whether they realize it or not. My 6-year old brother had a really bad attitude and was irritable for most of the 2-week Christmas break. He spent most of his free time playing a car-racing game on our simulator (my 15-year old brother bought it with his birthday money), and while that's so cool that he could do that, his attitude towards people was really disrespectful. As a child, video games seem amazing, but as you get older, you realize there's more to life than that. Children don't realize that. so that's when the parent needs to come in and do their part by helping them understand.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was nice. I got the chance that day to help out a friend, named Mary, and cleaned her house for her. Mary is really kind and appreciative, so I love going over to her place and blessing her. She works really hard all the time, taking care of her mom, her son, and her grandbabies. I also got to babysit my siblings that day from 5-10pm. It was all of the younger ones, so 8 of them. We had fun playing board games, watching The Flash on the TV, and chatting around the dinner table. One of my brothers, who's 10, made spaghetti for everyone that night, and we all enjoyed it. It's so amazing and beautiful to me watching my siblings grow up and be able to do these things for themselves and others. I'm truly grateful for the wonderful family God has given me!

Wednesday:

Wednesday was busy. We go to a homeschool co-op at our church every two weeks. This week we went. It's fun when we go, but we have to get up pretty early for us in order to get there on time. Okay, we get up at 7:30am so we can leave at 8:20am (we have sort of a shifted schedule). We also have youth group on Wednesdays, but we decided to not go this week because we were all really tired that day. But it was fun staying home, because I got to play Monopoly with two of my sisters that evening instead of going to youth group. We had a blast! I'm so grateful to God for all the cool opportunities He's given me!

Thursday:

Thursday felt really strange. Usually, when I babysit my siblings, it's during the evenings on Thursdays, but it got moved to Tuesday this week. I kind of had most the day free because I block off Thursday evenings, so I mostly just did a lot of studying for school. I did, however, help out at the salon I work at. It wasn't much, about an hour, but I'm glad to help out where I can.

Friday:

Friday was fun. I have a weekly Bible study with my grandparents that day from 9-11am. That includes breakfast, chatting, and studying the Word together. It was fun, and I'm really grateful to God that I can do that. After that, I went home and tried canned salmon for the first time. Not bad, but I didn't really like that I couldn't find a label on it that says 'wild caught'. I also went to help out at the salon for an hour that day too. I really liked that day, but the day before, I had done a new exercise. While it was fun trying something new, my back was painfully sore most of the day. I just thank God that I'm able to do fun things like that and I recovered!

Saturday:

Saturday was so much fun! I got up that morning and read for fun for about 30 minutes. Usually, what I read for fun ends up being something that my cousin recommends to me. We're both really into books, so we love giving each other our suggestions. Around 10am it started to get sunny outside (if you live in Michigan, you know how rare that is in the winter), so one of my sisters and I went for a walk. I had so much fun! When we got back, we both made each other tea, because even though it was sunny, it was still about 25 degrees out. As we drank our tea, I played a game of Monopoly with one of my other sisters. I ended up winning, but I tell her 'it's just because I'm older than her, someday you'll beat me!'

   I hope these stories make your day just a little better! May God bless you all and may you feel His love!