Do you ever catch yourself in the middle of something and saying "How did the pioneers manage without this?" Well, from Ziplocs to central air I say it a LOT! I'm also known for saying "I wish I was a kid today, they have all the good stuff." I often wonder how amazed someone around a 100 years old must be with all of the advancements over the last 100 years. Airplanes, cars, computers, etc. Our kids live quite the plush life. When your biggest concern is that the headphones for the DVD player in the car need new batteries, I think you've got it made. When I was a kid you were cool if you just knew someone that had a Nintendo. Super cool if you had a friend with a Gameboy. On Christmas I logged on to Bailey's Facebook page. All of the kids her age were listing what they got for Christmas. The majority got Iphones, Itouches, and Nintendo Ds's. I can remember my mom's first beeper. It was SO cool! Of course when she moved up to owning a cell phone (you know the kind that needed its own suitcase) I was blown away! Of course the coverage was awful and it was a brick but it was a phone without needing to be attached to the house. Run off a satellite in space! I love reading fictional pioneers stories. While they are in fact not true, they are based on a lot of real events. Do I think I could pull a handcart across the country with my kids in tow on foot? Um...that's a big NO! Living the spoiled life I do, I get uncomfortable in January at night if the car doesn't warm up right away. We are truly blessed!!! I often feel humbled by all that we have. Sure it gets stressful toting the kids around to tumbling, cheer, basketball, soccer, etc. but heck if I get bored I can switch to satellite radio and get over 150 stations to entertain me.
The part that keeps me up at night is that while we live in an age of so many advances and truly so much at our fingertips there are still so many suffering. People are losing homes. Some of which have no control over and some that refuse to cut back their lifestyles and blame the housing market for not staying in the boom that it experienced. Mat and I have been VERY fortunate to hold on to our home. When we built it we spent quite a bit more than we originally intended. It was difficult to even get subs to work on it based on the booming economy. At the time it seemed everyone was building bigger and better and we just couldn't do the math. We knew what a stretch our home would be so couldn't imagine how others were building twice the size and spending more on the actual property. I even had a comment made to me once that the person "deserved" the house they were building. HELLO? Have we been raised in a third world country without decent medical care or running water? Even the self-proclaimed "poor" around us have it so good. When Mat and I purchased our first condo, it wasn't in a great area of town. It wasn't new or fancy by any means. We took it and pulled out the nasty carpet ourselves, threw some new paint on the walls, gave it a good cleaning, and thought we lived like kings.
Then we turn on the news... There always seems to be tragedy all around us. The latest obviously is the earthquake that rocked Haiti. All of those hundreds of thousands suffering! They weren't even living the plush life to begin with! I am extremely grateful for my life. For being privileged to be raised in So. Utah. For the gospel in my life. For my BEAUTIFUL family! How I struck the lottery in the husband dept. I'll never know. We are truly blessed!
The part that keeps me up at night is that while we live in an age of so many advances and truly so much at our fingertips there are still so many suffering. People are losing homes. Some of which have no control over and some that refuse to cut back their lifestyles and blame the housing market for not staying in the boom that it experienced. Mat and I have been VERY fortunate to hold on to our home. When we built it we spent quite a bit more than we originally intended. It was difficult to even get subs to work on it based on the booming economy. At the time it seemed everyone was building bigger and better and we just couldn't do the math. We knew what a stretch our home would be so couldn't imagine how others were building twice the size and spending more on the actual property. I even had a comment made to me once that the person "deserved" the house they were building. HELLO? Have we been raised in a third world country without decent medical care or running water? Even the self-proclaimed "poor" around us have it so good. When Mat and I purchased our first condo, it wasn't in a great area of town. It wasn't new or fancy by any means. We took it and pulled out the nasty carpet ourselves, threw some new paint on the walls, gave it a good cleaning, and thought we lived like kings.
Then we turn on the news... There always seems to be tragedy all around us. The latest obviously is the earthquake that rocked Haiti. All of those hundreds of thousands suffering! They weren't even living the plush life to begin with! I am extremely grateful for my life. For being privileged to be raised in So. Utah. For the gospel in my life. For my BEAUTIFUL family! How I struck the lottery in the husband dept. I'll never know. We are truly blessed!
Jamie~ this post really makes you think. And yes, Kelly and I are always talking about what the pioneers went through and if we would be able to handle the things they did. But, sometimes when we are missing the things we take for granted and truly realize that we wouldn't have made very good pioneers, we tell each other that if we were pioneers we wouldn't have known any better, back then. You know.... just to make ourselves feel better. I hate to watch the news but I like to be reminded, as often as possible, how blessed we are. A day does not go by without thanking Heavenly Father for all our blessings.
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