The pictures that went with this blog disappeared during the Multiply Meltdown.
Two pictures of homes, representing two life paths.
The first one is our humble mobile home, on our land in paradise, an area where most people only spend a few weeks on vacation. The place is in desperate need of some fixing up, we are working on it. Almost everything in it is secondhand or old. Not antique, just old.
We have just had a snowroof put over it, so we can now look at the crack in the ceiling without worrying that the roof will come down around our ears.
The mansion belongs to our young relatives near Calgary, a city where people work.
The owners of the big house work hard at high-stress professional jobs for what they have. They are good generous people with a social conscience whose taxes help to keep the welfare state, such as it is, happening.
I do not begrudge them their more lavish lifestyle one bit.
Nor do I envy it.
During my weeks as fill-in Nanny I got some idea of what it takes to maintain 2 fulltime jobs and a young family. It made me all the more grateful that we have never tried to do this.
I’d rather live in a tipi again than have every moment of my day scheduled like that!
Our area has some new retirees who have worked hard in the city all their lives and are now enjoying life’s last season here. Financially they are much better off than we are. But if I had to do it all over again, I would choose the same path. Apart from the fact that I am not organized and competent enough to pull off the Super Mom act, no amount of money now can compensate for all those years that we got to spend here.
Exit Auntie Ien, humming "I did it my way".
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