52 Weeks: Week 42

As I look at the official flyer we have made to advertise our home for sale, I am getting a bit sentimental. If I was a mother with young children again, this house would sound like the absolute perfect home for us! We have really enjoyed living here, but we have outgrown the place. I hope that there is a family very much like we were when we moved in...a family looking for a great place to raise young children...and I hope we reach each other at the right time in our lives. For us, the sooner the better so we can move on to our new lives in Florida. For them, a family who is ready to move in to the perfect home for kids and begin raising a new generation here. It really is a kind of reciprocal thing: something that was perfect for us is no longer the answer, and at the same time, this house can be the perfect answer for a young family. I hope we find each other soon! This house needs to nurture a new family through those wonderful childhood stages. We are ready to pass it down to a new generation. I know the housing market isn't so great right now, but if it is meant to be, then it will happen regardless of "trends." Wish us luck! (ALL of us: my family who needs to move on, and the new family who will take our place) :)

52 Weeks: Week 41

As I say goodbye to my current hometown and prepare to move on to a new one, I wanted to do some special things. I went with my family to a major league baseball game downtown. We had a good time and enjoyed being in the city for one final event. I took pictures of the city and said goodbye to a place that has been home for us for several years. Ironically, we were playing a team from the city that we lived in before we moved here! :) I realized that I enjoy moving from place to place, settling in and feeling at home for a while, and then moving on again to a new place. It makes life exciting! I may miss a few things about this city, but I am more than ready to move on to a new one. I am really looking forward to creating a whole new life in a new hometown! :)

52 Weeks: Week 40

I recently found the scrapbook I had made for our current home. We chose the lot and all of the details and watched it being built from start to finish. We've had a lot of great memories in this house, but it is definitely time to move on. I think I will use this scrapbook to create a profile of our home when we put it on the market. It will make a wonderful home for another family...probably one with small children like we were when we moved in. We've simply outgrown this house now, and all of the surroundings that go with it. We are ready to move to a new place and call somewhere else "Home."

That makes me think of a conversation I had not long ago. It centered around the idea of "Where is home? What makes a place "home"? Can the definition of "home" change through the years?" The answers to these questions are complex and often differ from person to person. For me, even though I moved a lot as a child, at one time we had several family members settled in Memphis, so that became a second home for a long time. Through the years, relatives died or moved away,and now I have only a few distant relatives there. There is no longer one place, or even one region, where my family resides. They are spread out all over the country. I LIKE that because that gives me freedom to choose. There isn’t a place that my family considers “the old homeplace”…at least not anymore.

Life stages have changed a lot for me through the years, and my definition of "home" changed with each stage. Childhood/high school/college friends are spread out all over the country, so living by any particular one is out. The romance of my newlywed years used to determine where would be a nice place to live. And motherhood determined a LOT…and those needs changed drastically through all of the childhood stages. The “best place to raise kids” changed each time: the answer was different during the baby/toddler years, preschool years, elementary years, and now teen years. We moved to different regions of the country during each of these stages…desperately searching for the BEST place to raise the kids. Now that they are teens, our vision of the “best” place has completely changed…the perfect home for our kids to have a wonderful childhood is NOT the place for them to have the best teen years. So we are moving, and the plan is to find the BEST place for teens.

That brings us to Florida…there are SEVERAL reasons why we are choosing to move there. A LOT of the reasons center around trying to meet the needs of our teens. We found schools that meet their specific needs, regions that are full of activities that will keep teens busy(and hopefully out of trouble), and an overall lifestyle that seems to please them. The theme parks, water parks, and beaches alone are a HUGE draw to them! I think that our teenagers will really enjoy living in Florida during this stage in their lives.

So now it is time to move, and it is time to redefine "Home." I hope everything goes well and we are settled into our new life soon. I am really looking forward to it, and so is my family. Soon we will be "Home Sweet Home" in a new hometown and house! :) It is so exciting! :)

52 Weeks: Week 39

I am having so much fun editing photos! I think the artistic side of me is coming out! :) It's just so much fun! Well, I love the 4th of July for many reasons, but I LOVE calling it "Independence Day" for a very specific one. Remember that country song, "Independence Day"...I think by Martina McBride? It's all about a woman claiming her independence, and that is exactly what I am doing. I love my family, but it is time for me to stand up on my own two feet and declare who I am, what I need, and what I want out of life. Sure, people need people...it isn't about that, really. I just think that many women suppress themselves so much that they truly lose the real person inside, and that person needs to come out and speak for herself. THAT is what I am doing: I am letting the woman that was hidden inside come out for some fresh air...I am letting her declare her feelings and beliefs without fear of what others think...I am shouting from the mountain tops, "I am woman, hear me roar!" I feel like running around saying, "I'm free! I'm free!" because I finally feel that I CAN speak up for myself. In the past, I worried about what other people thought about me...and that kept me from feeling free to express myself. But not anymore...sometimes I create conflict with loved ones by expressing myself passionately, but that is just a risk I have to take in order to let the real "me" out. I am who I am, I think how I think, I believe what I believe, and I do what I want to do...deal with it. I am a free and independent woman, and it feels soooo good!! :)

52 Weeks: Week 38

I had fun playing with photos today, and I liked the way this made me APPEAR to be tough, self-assured, and confident. I WISH I had as much confidence as it appears...I guess if you "fake it" long enough it will begin to become true! :) At times, I am proud of my accomplishments and feel that I can do anything I set out to do in the future. At other times, I feel silly to dream such big dreams and wonder, who am I to be able to do such a thing! When I see others doing what I dream of doing, I think...if they can do it, so can I...BUT then I also begin to doubt myself and begin to rationalize why things work out for some and not for others. I truly wish I could build a strong and true core of confidence. One that doesn't waver so much and feel so insecure at times. I THINK I will begin to feel more and more confident as I accomplish more and more goals on my way to reaching my ultimate goals. I think success breeds success, and I my confidence will grow with each success, no matter how small. Sometimes I picture myself in the future living my ultimate dream life. On a good day, I think...that is EXACTLY how it will be and I CAN do it! On a bad day, I laugh at myself for being such a dreamer and tell myself that I need to "get real." When I have more good days than bad, and when I truly believe that I am capable of doing what I dream of doing, then I will become a "confident woman." Until then, I guess I'll just have to "fake it" and try to convince myself that " I CAN do it"! :)