Pros and Cons

When my relationship with my husband starting getting serious, it seemed like big decisions would be a common occurrence, since he moved so much for his work.  So I bought this pros and cons notepad for us, half-jokingly, but also to bring some order to the process of planning next steps.

We recently had to break it out again, not to decide about leaving Houston next year, which we already view as a likely scenario, but to decide if we should accept an opportunity to move out of our current home as early as August.  We have wrestled hard with this decision; we love where we live this year, but it also a bit of a splurge while we are saving for a home purchase.  The early release offered by our landlord would afford more flexibility and more financial savings as we make our plans for next year.

But it also would produce a massive upheaval, six months ahead of schedule, and just after the dust settled from the last big life disruption.  Making this decision has been exhausting and a little confusing, and brings to mind a recurring area of reflection for me: how we use our head combined with our heart to deem as acceptable the cost of some opportunities, but to reject as too expensive the price tags other ones.  It is difficult, but necessary, to quantify in dollars stress levels, comfort, convenience, togetherness, free time, and general satisfaction.  In order to make daily decisions we all do it continuously.

Our first instinct in this particular situation was to seize the opportunity, live with the temporary chaos, and try to save as much money as possible in the next six months.  Further consideration, however, revealed my own considerable fatigue with regard to rapid-fire moving.  While we don't want to live here forever, it is relaxing and pleasant and perhaps something to savor until it comes to a close.  I do not want to race away without enjoying and exploring a bit more of Texas, nor am I convinced that the financial savings reaped from this possibility would validate the stress of the resulting circumstances.

So we made our list this weekend, and for now, it appears that we will slow down instead of speed up a departure.  Probably.