This year my family made some pretty huge life changes. I realized that I didn’t want to be away from Darah so much, we realized that we really weren’t happy living in Memphis and we decided to take a new job opportunity for Tim in a city neither one of us had ever even visited before this year. The cost of this decision was a high one, moving from two incomes to one and leaving a house that continues to sit on the market in Memphis. It has been for sale for 5 months and I believe only 4 different people have even come to see it. Oy… I have mentioned before how tight money is around here. Tight is really a bit of an understatement.

And yet, in some ways, I feel as though I won the lottery.

When we talk about winning the lottery and what we would do with the money, we see that money as a tool to enable us to have the kind of life we dream of. I honestly don’t dream of having a mansion. We used to live in a 2,100 square foot house with just the three of us, and is was WAY too big, and took FOREVER to clean. The thought of 5,000 square feet is seriously just unappealing, people.

Yes, of course I would indulge myself in some nice things (quality furniture, extended vacations, lengthy trips to see family) but what we would really try to get for ourselves is more time with each other.

And my friends, we already are getting lots of that! We chose to live super close to Tim’s job, which means his commute is 5 minutes by bike. He’s home every single day for lunch. He also has the type of job where he is not expected to come in early or stay late. We chose a neighborhood that is walkable and a city that is overflowing with free or cheap activities that are so much fun. We are getting much of that quality time that we long for and that we previously thought we’d have to be independently wealthy to obtain.

Kind of ironic, isn’t it, that at a time when money is so tight, we are so richly blessed in the ways that matter the very most? I’m so grateful!