I was listening to a podcast recently about perspective. They were specifically talking about renovations, but I thought the advice was great. It was basically saying that we should focus on the reasons behind why we went down a certain path in the first place, instead of thinking about small details that maybe didn’t turn out the way you wanted - focus on the big picture and the overall benefits to your life.
So you might not love the sink you picked out, or the fridge isn’t quite perfect, but if your goal was to have an updated and bright kitchen, if it still accomplishes that, that should be your focus. Remember the problems that you’ve solved and not the small details.
All that to say, we have a new car!
Here were our goals: The CRV was getting old, and suddenly requiring a lot of money to keep it running well. It was also too small. Ever since baby G arrived, Tom’s been squished while driving and it wasn’t sustainable. So we needed a new and reliable car, and we needed more room. Also I’ve been struggling when solo with the two boys, especially at daycare pickup. Anything we could do to make that easier would be a plus.
So the decision was made that Tom would take the Pilot, since that’s plenty big, and we would get me a minivan. YAY, who doesn’t want a minivan!?!?!
Well, me. Only because I LOVE the pilot. It’s pretty much my dream car, and it makes me giddy I love driving it so much. I really have very few complaints about it. But if it’s pouring rain, I get soaking wet while getting the boys in the car. Lifting the stroller up into the trunk was hard. If a car parked too close, getting the boys into their car seats was hard. Although it had extra seats, if we needed someone else to ride in the car, getting to those seats was hard.
The minivan solves all of those problems. All of them. Sure there are some things about it that I like less than the Pilot, but it does satisfy all of our goals, in addition to a few things we never knew we wanted, but the kids seem to be enjoying - like sliding seats that makes it possible for them to hold hands on the way home. (I know, I know. I’ll be reminding them of this in a few years while they’re fighting on the way home).
Perspective is a powerful thing. It really solidified my feelings that this minivan was the way to go this week, while driving another minivan. Why would I be driving a different minivan if I just bought one, you ask? Oh because our new car had a freak thing happen where a key piece of the computer system died and needed to be replaced. It was a big enough problem that the car couldn’t be driven until it was fixed, and weird enough that when we’d walk into the dealership everyone would go “OH - I’ve heard about you! That’s so crazy!”
So we were given a rental for the week - a comparable car from a different company (one we’d considered buying), and I hated it so much I was begging for my “Minnie” back. See? Perspective. It all worked out because I like our car better than before, and given all the diagnostics run on our cars lately, we should have two stable cars for the next few years. (*ALL THE FINGERS CROSSED*)
Bye Betty (right). You were a great car. We bought you before we were even engaged, and you signified the start of our lives together. You did your job, and we loved you for it.
