I remember back in my single days, people used to pester me about buying a house. I guess they thought a 27-year old woman shouldn’t be living in an apartment, throwing away her hard-earned cash on rent when she could be throwing it away on lawnmowers and air conditioning filters and homeowner’s insurance.

“You don’t need a husband to buy a house,” was an unsolicited comment I used to get a lot, which was funny. They were right, I didn’t need a husband…but I wanted one. Could I have afforded a mortgage? Probably, but geez, I didn’t want to take care of the maintenance and upkeep all by myself.

And now, here I am…maintaining and keeping up the house all by myself. Now to be fair, I’m not slaving away all day. I have someone who comes in and cleans every two weeks and someone who mows the yard but sheesh, that’s the easy stuff. The tougher things include washing the windows…and trimming trees and clearing out the weeds that thrive in hot Texas heat. Don’t forget about going to Lowe’s to buy a masonry bit so I can drill a hole in our brick exterior to mount a bracket and hang an American flag.

But on the flip side, I get to plant jasmine bushes out front and buy patio furniture and sip a glass of wine on my back deck after a tough day at work.

So, it’s all good.