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! :)