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This week I am not writing my normal blog-subject email. The IT folks are working on the network systems this weekend and I am going to have no access to my email.  If you are a client, please read the latter half of this email as it explains, briefly, what is happening.

A couple of weeks ago I was at the office, late in the afternoon, when I got a call from Heather: “Where are you? The tornado sirens are going off. I need to go get Sydney!”  By the time I got to the house, the weather had passed (no tornadoes) and the whole family was still hanging out in the basement.  Fortunately, the whole family knows the routine, to include the dogs. 

As we embark on another Mother’s Day weekend without my mother in-law, Connie, with us, I can’t help but think she would have liked this topic.  She was a life-long educator whom I had as a teacher in the 7^th & 8^th grades.  Heck, when Connie was a new teacher, she even had my own mother in class for a year.  Whenever this topic would come up in conversation, though, Connie didn’t want to sound old and was quick to add “that was my first-year teaching and I taught High School then!”  So, in honor of Connie I ask:  What did you learn today?

Ok I will admit it: I like history.  Not only do I enjoy learning about historical people, places and events, but I also love to visit the places where they occurred.  No matter if it is an event as monumental as the D-Day invasion, where I’ve had the opportunity to stand on Omaha beach at 0630 on a subsequent 6 June; or something as insignificant as sleeping in a Conestoga wagon on Laura Engle’s ranch in South Dakota: I truly appreciate the historical importance of such experiences.

Do you have a grocery list?  Do you keep a daily ‘to-do’ list?  How about a bucket list?  It seems that my life is, and has been, dictated by lists.  Perhaps it began with my mother who had “a list” that I earnestly tried to stay off of but often found myself on, which meant I was in some sort of trouble.  In the Boy Scouts I had a very specific pre-camp packing list to help me stay within the motto of “Be Prepared”.  In the military, as an Aircrew member, we live by checklists.  There is a checklist for when we first get to the airplane, when we fly the plane, and finally as we leave the plane.  I’ve even tried (unsuccessfully) to implement a checklist system at work.  Rhona told me that I can have my checklists and she’ll continue to operate as she sees fit – fair enough!  Of course, I have lists at home too.  There’s the grocery list, the weekend “to-do” list, and the “I’m running out to Home Depot/Ace/Lowes and I pray I don’t forget anything” list. 

As a Life-Centered Financial Planner (yeah, that’s a thing), I’m always looking for ideas on how I can help people live a more purposeful, fulfilling life.  Reading an article this past week had me reflecting on some recent conversations I’ve been involved with, mainly: the feeling of being stuck in a rut.

How does one get “unstuck”?

How have you been?  Are you ready to “lose” an hour this weekend?  I’ve always found it curious “Daylight Savings Time” – what is actually being “saved”?  We can’t really manipulate time.  Aren’t we just, essentially, lying to ourselves? 

Here comes a new year.  I find it interesting how we look at the beginning of a New Year with such fanfare after all: isn’t it just another day?  Nope.  We have made it a time of celebration, resolutions, and a time for reflection. The first celebrations date back 4,000 years to ancient Babylon, so I guess we’re just carrying on tradition.

Are you done with your Christmas shopping or have you not even started?  I am somewhere in the middle.  I’ve been struggling this year with “what” to get people.  I typically strive to get something a person “needs” versus something they may “want”. Yet, whenever I buy something that I think my wife needs, it seems to always fall flat.  And, after being married to her for 20+ years, I still have no idea what she wants. 

Author Frank Baum began writing the Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1898 and finished the book in October of 1899.  When he wrote of Dorothy’s adventure through Oz, he penned the phrase “Lion, Tigers, and Bears – oh my”.  I can’t help but wonder, if he were writing today, if Dorothy would be more concerned with “Phishing, Hackers, and Scams – oh my”.