Today's Quote

“As parents, we should remember that our lives may be the book from the family library which the children most treasure. Are our examples worthy of emulation? Do we live in such a way that a son or a daughter may say, ‘I want to follow my dad,’ or ‘I want to be like my mother’? Unlike the book on the library shelf, the covers of which shield its contents, our lives cannot be closed. Parents, we truly are an open book in the library of learning of our homes.” Thomas S Monson

Sunday, February 14, 2010

I just want to enjoy it

Someone made a comment over the Holidays that they don't tell some people when they get things, or are investing in things, because they don't like the "keeping up with the Jones"crap. Amen. I hate having a "dream" that I want to share with people, but can't because I'm afraid it'll turn into competition. I'm not really talking about any specific "dream" at the moment because quite frankly, all of mine are kind of out on the table right now. None of them are really at a secret level. All of the details may not be 100% known to everyone, but for the most part, they're there for most to see.

Anyhow, I don't care to "one up" anyone. Just because X person has a 5 bedroom house, doesn't mean I'm trying to out do them by getting a 7 bedroom house. We just need that amount of space. 3 or 4 bedrooms is just not practical for us at this stage of the game. It used to be perfect for us. But there are already 6 of us, and will hopefully be closer to 8 or more when we are done. So, 4 bedrooms is still cramped for us if you think about it. We'd have to buy something now, and upgrade again later. So, yeah, I guess 5 bedrooms would be ok.... but why go with the 5 bedrooms, when we WANT 7?

PLUS if David is going to be gone a lot, I want space to move around....we'll be spending a lot of time at home.

Also, vehicles. We told someone that our next level on vehicles is an Armada. I think this person thought we were trying to one up. But we have a 7 passenger van, and only have one seat available. An Armada holds 8. I like the look and the build of the Armada vs the Suburban or vehicles similar that hold 9. Obviously, we may have to go with something more like a 12 pax van at some point. However, the Armada is more like a need for space than trying to have the "bigger" car. And if we have 6 kids.... an 8 pax vehicle is the bare minimum space we would need.

Then there are the "toys" we buy. Those too are purchased more on need than extravagance.

We just don't care to compete. We buy what we want or need based on our Family. Not the bigger better model to one up anyone.

I just wish some people would give it a rest. Life if hectic enough without MAKING it that way with everything having to be a competition!

So to the person who said over the holidays that they don't share their joys because they don't like the competiotion they feel it creates, I say "I HEAR you!" and "I agree 10000%." It's too bad that's how you've been made to feel, and I will never try to out do you...... if mine's bigger, it's because I don't fit in the smaller version ;-).

1 comment:

Miriam said...

I'm with you. We needed a bigger house so we finally got one. We are so much happier being able to fit our kids here. Plus there are a lot of things to consider when buying a bigger vehicle. When we got our 12 passenger van we just decided no to upgrade twice. But I've filled that van up with 5 year olds. I have needed the extra seats lots and lots of times.

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