• Why is it easier to keep the house clean when it’s “for sale” or when company is coming over? But when it’s just normal, everyday living, we tend to make a mess or leave messes around.
• As I get older time goes by much more quickly. It seems like we just celebrated Christmas and now it’s already March.
• 60 degrees feels warm outside in the winter, but in summer we think that’s cold.
• Why do we find it necessary to have so much stuff? And when we clean we feel we have to hide stuff in drawers or somewhere to make it look like we don’t have so much stuff.
• At what age do we lose the sense of wonder? And if we’ve lost it, can we get it back?
• Who says you can’t eat dessert first? Okay, so as a parent I haven’t actually had dessert first. But there have been days when we’ve had just dessert for dinner. Maybe tonight we’ll try it and see how it goes.
• And why is it, that when I find something that I like or fits right, the company that makes it finds it necessary to change or stop making said product. Take note, it didn’t work when Coke tried it. Some things are better left alone.

Okay, that’s all the randomness I have for now. Back to your regularly scheduled day.

This is just plain silliness. My daughter has figured out how to use the video camera on her cell phone and this is the result.

She definitely has a flair for the dramatic. Next step is to let her use the Flip camera and see what she comes up with.

Today is Theodor Geisels’ birthday. He would have been 106. In honor of this day, share with us in the comments your favorite Dr. Seuss book or if you can, your best Seuss rhyme.

And if you have already read the book “Dr Seuss and Mr Geisel” I highly recommend getting a copy here.

Personally I can’t pick a favorite book. I guess I’ll have to go back and take a look. I think I’ve enjoyed them more as a parent than I did as a child. But sometimes it does make my tongue go quite wild.

But the nomad in me is coming out again. It’s time for a change. While I don’t like the actual moving part (mostly the packing, the unpacking is fun  – kind of like Christmas all over again) the thought of a new place, a new beginning is exciting to me.

A lot of people when they hear we’ve listed the house say well where are you going? To be perfectly honest yet the only answer I can give is “I don’t know.” There are so many different variables right now, it’s hard to give a specific location based answer to where we could possibly be six months from now.

We have been working with good friends Douglas and Debbie Crumbly to plant a church in the Acworth Georgia area. So there is one location. My husband has left his full time job to focus on the consulting company he started a few years ago. (If you’re in the market for a top notch computer consultant contact him.) So based on that, clients could be anywhere in the US. Most of the work he does he is able to do from home, but it is helpful to be near to a major airport when he does have to travel to meet with clients. Then there is the 9, soon to be 10 year old daughter. As I’ve said before, she is incredibly smart. She is also talented in the area of the arts. So that also impacts the decision as to where to move to. We want her to have opportunities in school as well as in the community to further her education, not just in the basics, but also in the areas that interest her, whether that be art this week, fashion next week, or acting the next month. And then there is the “slim” chance that we could win the house in New Mexico that is being given away in the HGTV Dream Home sweepstakes. We entered just about every day for the duration of the contest and I think we had at least a dozen entries per day. And I realize that our chances of winning that are 1 in I don’t know how many million, but someone has to win, why couldn’t it be me.

I come by this nomadic spirit from my family. When I was growing up I remember my Oma & Opa (my mothers parents) moving a lot. My father traveled for business. We would also travel for vacations or when the whim would strike. Dean and I (before Amy) would take spontaneous trips when we could too. We have also traveled a lot since adopting her, some when he would travel for business, other times for family fun. I have seen many different places and there are many more I would like to see.

So as you can see there are a lot of different considerations that need to be made before I can say with any certainty where we will be next. So I leave you with this one piece of advice. Never write my address in your address book in pen, always use a pencil. Because you never know when I’ll move again.

* And in case you are wondering, that’s a 1955 Chevy Nomad pictured above.

Being the parent of a smart kid sometimes it’s hard for me to keep up with her mind. She thinks of things in ways that I don’t and because of years of society saying “this is the way we do something” it’s hard for me to not correct her and say “no, do it this way.” Who am I to tell her that her way is wrong. It may be that she comes up with the next “big thing”, what ever that may be. Then I see videos like this and I think, I have to find a way to encourage that mind of hers. Because she is one of the ones he talks about in our next generation, the future society.

I’m still digesting it all, meditating on different experiences I had, words that were spoken in to my life.

It is definitely a season of change around here – especially if you’ve been following the last couple of weeks posts.

Dean has left his “full-time” job and is now contracting. This has been the best move for him in a long time. He’s happy and is excited about what he is doing and what the future holds. For more information or to hire him, check out http://www.rubywillow.net or find him on twitter @dj_becker.

Amy is going to be 10 soon. I can’t believe how quickly these years have flown by. It seems like just yesterday we were in China meeting her for the first time, celebrating her first birthday, and becoming a forever family. She too is going through changes, physically as well as emotionally. (As a side note – I don’t recommend going through early menopause and puberty at the same time. Trust me on this.) And that could be an entire weeks worth of posts in itself.

And here I am, almost 44 trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I have a pretty good idea, but it’s a work in progress right now. Not yet ready for prime time. More to come on that later too.

Oh, and we’re getting ready to list our house for sale. If you know anyone in the market for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, beautiful home in Rome, GA, send them my way. Once the listing is actually up, I’ll post a link and you can see for yourself what a great home this would be for someone other than us.

That’s all I’ve got for now. What’s going on with you?

But I know after a week around the minds that I will be with I will have plenty to share with all of you.

So in the meantime, enjoy the archives. If you’ve read them all, and can’t wait until next week, follow me on twitter. See you all next week.

Like so many, I don’t do this often enough either. But I also know how I feel when I get a letter or card in the mail that isn’t a bill or some other junk mail about hail damage to my roof. And when I do, I wonder why I don’t do this more often.

So today I encourage you to take 5 minutes and write a note, a card, even a post it note if that’s all you have, and send it to someone. It doesn’t have to be flowery or verbose, just something to let them know you were thinking about them. You’ll brighten their day – and I’m betting yours too.