Perspective

I am just sitting at Southpoint Honda in Calgary waiting for our lemon of an Odessy van to get some recalled parts switched and the brakes looked at. Vehicles are such a money sink hole. Never a good investment.

There are no kids running around me as they are all at school. It is hard to believe I am at that stage. I miss it! But I am enjoying some time to sit and think. I even went for an hour walk to Woody's RV and back. It would have been fun for Chris to be here for that. We like to imagine ourselves in an RV. Not sure that will ever become a reality which is totally fine. But RV "shopping" is a fun date idea and it was such a blessing to do our cheap(ish) RV trip last summer. 

I am thinking about perspective. I often tell Chris that I have lost perspective. I get caught up in how life was "supposed to be." I was so naive when I got married. We were going to live a simple life, I would be at home with the kids (maybe working 1 day a week), we would have one vehicle, a modest home, and as many kids as the Lord would give us. We would live the traditional life and it would be all sunshine and rainbows 😆. Like I said, I was naive but full of hope and faith as well.

Life is all about making decisions, easy and hard, and it has led us down a road where we have a mortgage + a home that will require thousands of dollars in fix ups (for the basement), vehicles that require hundreds or thousands of dollars in repairs and we are fighting against the mentality of a rat race society where neighbors and co-workers are constantly buying newer vehicles or toys or going on vacations. I am looking at these new vehicles here at Honda. How the heck do people afford a new vehicle? ($75,000). We can hardly make ends meet and I don't even understand why. 

An important decision to make is to be happy with what you have. Even still, everything is getting more expensive and it is getting harder for the moderate family income to make ends meet. Chris' full time work and my 2 days a week + picking up some extra shifts and working many stat holidays, doesn't seem to be cutting it. That being said, I have been considering working full time in a few years and have been doing the thought experiment in figuring out the dynamics of it. I have a co-worker with a pretty good line (only 6 evenings out of 19 shifts every 4 weeks) who will retire in a few years and I could work her line. But...how would the kids do after school activities? How would I be at the cross roads of their lives? How would I spend my 25 to 30 days of vacation a year? I think I could do it but it would be hard. So many people do it! I have been so blessed with the job I have and will always think it was sent to me from Heaven. 

I think of my kids future. Chances are, they and their spouses will be working full time trying to make ends meet as the economy spins out of control. Maybe we will have to establish a Watters Smith colony at the farm to help house our posterity 😆. Maybe the second coming will happen. Chris and Doug have been talking about that. 

I guess we just need to do the best we can, work hard, build up a food and water storage, try to keep a balanced lifestyle while striving to live within our means and being willing to save and sacrifice, all while keeping an eternal perspective. In my opinion, an eternal perspective is the best perspective to have: To know we are living for something more and beyond this life. I hope I can keep that perspective everyday. 

Keeping an eternal perspective is a wonderful blessing. 

Christmas 2024 and beginning 2025

I am not feeling overly motivated to write today but I am hearing the kids play playmobile (they got a pirate set for Christmas) in the background and they are laughing and having so much fun, and I have to get that in writing so I can remember it. They are all playing except for Selman who is next door visiting Nana and Papa. I love my kids so much. We are trying for no screen day Fridays and Caeleb and Elva are like a little Dad and Mom trying to enforce it and they took initiative to play with the others today. 

Elva and I had an outing this morning just the 2 of us. I had to have my yearly check up with Dr. Hudson and Elva came along with me. We shopped for groceries after and went to the little bakery in Vulcan for a pastry and apple cider.  

So, back up a couple of months. Mary and I dropped Louann off at the airport Nov 29th and then we went shopping at the busy south center mall. We made the spontaneous decision to have Mary get her ears pierced as Elva was 9 when she got hers done. She looked beautiful with them on but unfortunately has had infection after infection since (one ear even swallowed up an earing) and so they are out now. Maybe one day she can do that again. 

I bought our Christmas tree from the Nanton scouts after my day shift on November 30th. We were really wanting to get it in the hills behind Claresholm this year as it has been 3 years since the one time we went, but since I work 2 weekends out of 4, it is always hard to find a time to go to the hills. We decorated the tree after church on Dec 1st and then watched The Polar Express while drinking hot chocolate as per tradition. 

Elvas birthday was Dec 3 and on the 5th, Amber Puzey, Lindsey and a few others went to see Wicked with Elva. We loved it and she has been singing the songs from it ever since. I sure love my mini me Elva, who loves to sing and study. Except she is a little mom to the others, and I was not that way when I was her age as I was the baby. 

Christmas was beautiful this year, like always, except that we all got the Flu. I only got the tail end of it, 2 days after boxing day, but still worked 5 days in a row (just wore a mask). Mary, Caeleb and Selman got it the last week of school and Mary and Selman were so sick they had to miss the school Christmas concert and the Ward party. Elva was amazing at the school concert. She had to memorize many lines to be the wicked witch of the northwest for their play "the Wizard of oz and Christmas." They all did a great job! Camellia and Doug came to the ward party on Friday with their family and we had a yummy roast and entertainment including a visit from santa. After my Saturday day shift (Camellia joined me at work so she could work on her OT charting), we had a ham dinner at Nana and Papas and the 10 grandkids did the nativity in their living room. Elva and Elizabeth got the flu that weekend and I was the only one to go to church in our family on the 22nd. I sang a duet with Myrna Puzey (Star Bright) in sacrament meeting and then I went to work for an evening shift. 

We did graham cracker houses on Dec 23 (Monday) as I got the day off of work. Didn't have much candy to put on them but the kids had lots of fun and we displayed them on our puzzle table in the living room. We had a delicious Christmas Eve Turkey dinner at Mom and Dads on the Tuesday at 4:00 pm. Chris does a great job on the Turkey. Then we watched Mr. Krugers Christmas and Mr. Beans Christmas. After we came back to our house, the kids went to bed really quickly (listening to "twas the night before christmas" mouse version that I listened to when I was young) and were probably all asleep by 9:00. Chris and I watched a couple of Christmas movies after and were up till midnight. Kids were in the living room at 0700 on Christmas morning to open stockings. We ate our traditional Cracked wheat for Christmas breakfast and then went to Mom and Dads at 0915 to open gifts which took until 1030. It was fun to have a cozy fire in the fireplace to burn the wrapping paper.  The kids each had another kid to buy for this year. Chris and I got them each a bin to put their belongings in and in that bin was a nerf gun. And Santa delivered a gift to each as well. Barbie motorhome, doll trailer and calico creature stuff for Lizzy and Mary, video game (mario odessy) for Selman, Nerf gun for Caeleb and cowgirl boots for Elva. Nathan joined us for Christmas eve and Christmas morning, and he got the biggest gift of all. A new computer. I hope it helps him to be happy. 

I worked boxing day, short shifted to a day shift the next day, worked 3 shifts after that and New Years day evening (I like to pick up holidays for the overtime money). In total, I worked 8 shifts during those 2 weeks the kids had off. It was manageable. We enjoyed New years eve playing boared games at our place with a friend from 2:00 pm until almost 10:00 pm. We celebrated at 10:00 with glow sticks and sparklers. Then she and her girls went home while we watched the movie Muppets Christmas and the movie New Years Eve. Elva, Caeleb and Mary stayed up till midnight while Selman and Lizzy fell asleep on the floor. We had Eric and Rachel and their girls over on New Years day for crepes before I went to work and then we went for a night away with Nana and Papa and the Nelsons at the Lethbridge hotel/wave pool on Jan 2nd to 3rd. I took the kids to the Nelsons for Jan 3rd to 4th after Chris and I did an epic start of the year $2000 Costco trip (which he drove home and put away).  I went to the temple with my friend Lindsey on Jan 4th. 

It was hard for the kids to go back to school (especially Mary who had 3 weeks off since she was sick), but we are getting into a routine again, complete with curling on Tuesdays for Elva, skating on Wednesdays for Selman and Lizzy + singing for Elva + chess club for Mary +YW/YM for Caeleb and Elva. Wednesday is our busiest day! Then Thursday after school is mentorship for Selman and Mary and Friday is piano for Caeleb and Selman. 

Last weekend Nana and Papa took Selman and Lizzy to the Nelsons and after I worked the Saturday day shift, I picked up Elva from a birthday party in Vulcan, picked up Caeleb and Mary from piano in Champion (Mary has only had a few lessons) and then we went to Lethbridge so Caeleb and Elva could see a Kodiaks basketball game with the Champion youth while Mary and I went to see Moana 2 at the theater. Afterwards we joined the others at the game. It was fun but we didn't get home until 1115 pm and I had to work a day shift the next day as well. Busy, Busy. 

Life is busy but good. At times I feel overwhelmed, but I feel so blessed that I have the capacity to cope with being busy.