Spencer and I have said for years that after Ashtyn graduates from high school we are going to move to a smaller home--maybe even a condo. The time period is just right because Landon would just be finishing middle school, so a move does not displace him from his high school niche.
Suddenly we realize that Ashtyn graduates in something like 10 months, and yup, you guessed it, the house hunt has begun.
Nobody panic. It's not like we are planning to just disappear in 30 days or less. Dang! Our house hunt from Magna to West Jordan took something like six years!
There are many, many things to consider as we look around. In addition to trying to find a home we love, for the right price, in the right location (as if THAT was not enough!), we are also trying to picture what 10 years (or 20 or 30 or 40) will mean for us in that house, price, and location.
For example, neither of us likes yard work, so something with a small-to-nothing yard sounds fabulous (this is where the condo comes in). But I also hope to be surrounded by hundreds of grandchildren (OK, that's not realistic, but I can dream, can't I?) someday. I want them (and their parents) to have a place to hang out and maybe bring their friends over and watch movies and play in the yard (or pool or whatever) and maybe have barbecues and definitely have sleepovers and, and, and...
In the meantime, we still have three children at home for the time being, so we need a place for them to hang with their friends and park their cars and, and, and...
Today I watched our neighbor's granddaughter sit during Sacrament Meeting and examine our neighbor's hands: the veins, the lines, the spots, the knots--she checked it all out very carefully, often comparing her small, 9-year-old hand with her grandfather's nearly-70-year-old hand. It was sweet and adorable. And it made me think that 10 years ago--when we moved here--his hand was not even 60 years old. And suddenly he's facing 70 squarely in the face.
Which is not really that important, except that as we choose a home I want it to be a fit for the time while we're in our 40's and have teens at home; and the time in our 50's when our grandchildren (stay with me here) are toddlers and young children and their parents are struggling with money and everything else that comes during that young adult time of life; and the time in our 60's when our grandchildren are growing and becoming and exploring and EATING and we decide to serve a mission; and the time in our 70's when maybe things start to quiet down and it's just the two of us and Spencer doesn't run marathons every few months; and so on (with any luck).
Maybe my view of the future is not what will happen at all. Maybe our children will not live close by us. Maybe one of us will be ill or will die. Maybe we'll be housing all of our children and their children for years on end. Even these possibilities lend themselves to my point, however. I want to find the perfect place for whatever contingency may come.
Maybe we'll find that place. Maybe we already have.
I just don't know.
