Taking the Plunge

As of today Dad has officially started a new job, and no, this is not an April Fool's Day joke. I've been meaning to post about this for a month now, since it became public knowledge back in January. Most of my close acquaintances know that in January Dad was approved by our Church congregation to become a full-time Elder, a sort of administrative pastor. Since Dad wanted to finish up a school session before leaving, he waited to give notice at the University until early April; his last day there was a week ago.

We've known that Dad would probably take the new job since last November(Big Changes Ahead), but it's still hard to grasp that Dad actually quit the job he's had for seventeen years, most of my lifetime, and is moving on to something new. Very few Dads over fifty with half a dozen children at home do such things, I think. It's an exciting and a bit scary step into the uncharted future, and it's Dad's dream job. I've no doubt it was brought about in God's perfect timing.

Besides the obvious change for Dad, there are several (seemingly large though perhaps insignificant)changes for the rest of us as well:

1. Due to the new schedule, we all have to get up an hour earlier in the morning. Before, Dad always left so early it really wasn't humanly possible for all of us to be up for breakfast and Biblestudy before he left; but now he's leaving later and we don't have that excuse/reason anymore.
2. So now we're also eating breakfast together and having morning Biblestudy as well. Before this, breakfast was a find what you could and be done by nine sort of thing. Shocking, isn't it? I'm on the lookout for cheap, healthy breakfast recipes that can be made in bulk. There aren't many.
3. Later nights. Since Dad is leaving later(even though we're getting up earlier) he'll be getting home later as well. You'd think that getting up an hour earlier would translate into going to bed an hour earlier, but so far no such change has been observed.
4. Since we're on a roll with schedule changes right now, we're cutting out Sunday movie nights. We've kind of kept it hush-hush that we watched movies on Sunday, since while it may fall in the "restful" category, it may not fall into the "spiritual" category in some people's convictions. I'm sure it's for the best, but Sunday evenings seem pretty empty right now.
5. I've also decided, for the sake of my overall health, to give up all kinds of chocolate.

April Fools. I could never give up chocolate.

Now we really are a pastor's family. Now I can see if that vague stereotype in my head of Pastor's families is really true: living on the brink of poverty and always eating beans and rice while running a hospitality hotel with a strong trust in God. I wouldn't mind the hospitality; though I might get tired of the beans.