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.
