Wednesday, November 14, 2007

one car, two car, red car, blue car

I know many one-car families. I salute them. It's not easy to balance multiple lives & schedules with one car - but they make it work.
Mark and I have always had two cars - and this week has been an example of why our lives just wouldn't work so well with only one car.
Mark's Highlander has been in the shop since Monday (minor body work) - and may be there until Friday. All week, we have been operating as a 1-car household. In some ways, it's nice - because one of my biggest pet peeves is when we wind up driving two cars to the same place, just to wind up following the other person home. And we get these nice, *early* morning chats as Mark drives me to work in the morning.
HOWEVER - today (the day I usually work until noon) - Mark has a work commitment over 2.5 hours away. And he won't finish there until after 1:00pm. So I'm stuck - not a big deal, by any means, and it's a lovely day, so I'll probably take a walk to the bookstore on campus and hang out there for awhile. But it's inconvenient, to be sure. And on Wednesday nights, we'd normally go our separate ways and hang out with friends... but there's only one car. And poor (cough) Mark has had to wake up at a Set Time all week long (because my work schedule actually IS a schedule). I know he'll be happy to have his car back.
I'm sure we don't NEED two cars, and would certainly find a way to live with just one. But this week has made me grateful for the ways the Lord has provided for us - what a blessing it is that
we have two quality vehicles to drive around! It frees us up a lot more to spend our time working for Him.

3 thoughts:

Julie said...

We're going to have that 'problem' tomorrow and maybe a few days after that. No heat in the van.

I'm fretting about all the details. What if I have to go back for jury duty? We need milk. How will I get Michael home from school? Argh, it's frustrating sometimes. But, I agree. We have been blessed to have two working vehicles for almost three years. Yippy!

Courtney said...

It's easier than you think once you're committed to it. You just learn to take things to do with you--pay bills, read up for Bible study, prepare for youth group, plan grocery lists or menus for the week, etc. It actually becomes a nice way to have time to get things done!

Courtney said...

Oh, and it helps you connect with your Christian brothers and sisters (and sometimes others as well)! We've "swapped" car rides with various people through the years and then you get the benefit of spending time with other people and strengthening our community. Decades ago, people wouldn't think twice about asking a neighbor for help--a cup of sugar or help with the farming if someone was sick--but now we will spend $3 in gas, an hour of time and drive some distance to buy whatever we need, instead of allowing others to bless us with their generosity. I think it's a sad state we're in now.