Times when renting makes me sad

For 90% of the time I'm happy enough with renting.  It's a roof over our heads and a much bigger roof than if we had bought our own place.  The other 10% of the time I get a bit panicky - mostly about the future and that's crazy because God will provide - he always has and I don't doubt that he will continue to do so.

But the thing that made me sad over the Easter weekend was how much my kids loved staying with friends who had dogs.  We have a cat but not a dog because it's harder to apply successfully for a rental property in Sydney if you have a pet. And you tend to get a lot more attached to dogs than cats (well, our cat anyway - who isn't all that interested in us).

My 10 year old whispered to me after being away for 24 hours - 'Mum I get to spend four days with dogs - I feel so happy'.  She's told me before that her future husband will be interrogated about his willingness to have a dog.  I'm warning her future beaus - be prepared!

And my eldest child now asks people who have dogs if they own their house.  He's doing his own little survey to see if it's actually true that you need to own your house to have a dog.

It's a momentary sadness though.  There are much harder things in life to cope with than not having a dog.