We lost our Focus

This actually happened on the Thursday before Great Grandpa Paul's visit but I didn't want to spoil that fun post with this insanity ;~)

Thursday afternoon Adam called me saying I needed to come pick him up immediately... he was in the middle of the road with a dead car.

Awesome.

I grabbed the boy and off we went. By the time we arrived a kind stranger had helped Adam push the car into a parking lot and Adam had secured their permission to leave it temporarily. After some calling tow trucks and grabbing a pizza, we came back to watch the joy that is your car being put on a tow truck.

Seriously, I have experienced this too many times. Right Jaime and Adam?

Adam made a comment about getting it fixed quickly and for around $500... I only prayed that was the case but in my heart I knew differently.

Sure enough, Friday afternoon, while we are sitting with Great Grandpa Paul, Adam breaks the news he got from the mechanic.

Far... far... far more than our original hope. The car sprung a massive oil leak and the engine had locked up. Turns out those red lights mean something. Basically it would be pure insanity to fix a Ford Focus for that price.

Talk about timing.

I just remember telling myself not to freak out. I kept telling myself (sometimes audibly and sometimes in my head) that in a year this would just be a blip in our life. We will have pushed past it and would probably be stronger for it... so don't flip out now.

And I did a pretty good job (if I do say so myself ;~) I've come a long way baby.

So that's where we are.

Unfortunately it's tied to a lien for Adam's business so the decision of what to do isn't ours alone... something that makes me so very sad. We refuse to add another car payment to our already razor thin (especially now) budget. We have lots of 'if this, than that' situations but lucky for us, we have lots of cars in this family and we still have 2 to drive at all times. We have time to work it all out and decide on our best option.

In a weird sort of way, this will be good for us. Adam joked that we "lost our Focus, both literally and figuratively"... and he is absolutely right. We tend to go through these peaks and valleys when it comes to financial freedom. Sometimes we are so tight and on our game when it comes to finances... paying down and not spending.

And then we generally slip. A purchase here... an unnecessary expense here... and soon we are stopping at Starbucks far too often and spending money that we shouldn't for stuff that we didn't really need. It's a cycle with us.

Please know that I am not chastising anyone for the money they spend, Starbucks or otherwise. I am only talking about our slippery slope.

So lately we've been on that slope... and by on it I mean careening down it full steam ahead.

So really, losing the Focus will be good for us. We've been forced to make decisions and revamp our budget. We are looking at the bigger broader picture and how we can achieve more of our goals instead of just coasting through.

We have some monumental challenges but I think with little more figurative focus (and a lot less literal Focus), we'll meet them. Life is all about the ups and downs and how you handle them right?

breathe Jessica, breathe.