My husband jokes that, other than our moves from Alabama to Minnesota and, 18 months later, Minnesota to Alabama, we tend to move just a quarter-mile down the road. That’s a bit exaggerated, but just a bit.

No matter how far you are moving, though, you’ve got headaches. Lots of headaches.

This will be our fifth move in five years. Historically (yes, we have quite the moving history now!), as our friends and family can attest, we have been horrible movers. We have been disorganized, in denial and downright disgusted by the process. Seriously, how much stuff can one family collect in a short period of time?

Fortunately, when we moved into our current home in January we knew it was temporary and therefore didn’t unpack all of our boxes. As a matter of fact, there are still some boxes we haven’t opened from our 2008 move to Minneapolis. And back. When we settle into our “forever” home later this month, it might feel like Christmas as we unpack boxes filled with treasures we thought were long lost.

Why we moved so many times in the past several years doesn’t matter.  It was part of the journey and has led us to the here and now. This is a great place to be. We are packing our belongings in advance, committed to getting it right this time as we anticipate a smooth relocation process.

We are also mentally preparing for my mom’s arrival in July, when she will move from the Twin Cities, her home of some 50 years, and become part of our household and core family unit. That is the real reason for this next move. This next season.

Sigrun Hovland, Mom to me, is 78 now. Her biggest move came when she left Norway for Minneapolis in her 20s to join my father, the late and great Gjert Hovland, who had immigrated to the States several years earlier. This move, which takes my mom from Minn. to Dixie, should be relatively easy. She has been to Huntsville many times and appreciates the pace, the people and yes, even the climate.

The Petersens? In two weeks, we will be moving just down the street, .93 miles curb to curb. And hopefully this time around, we won’t need quite as much Tylenol, avoiding some of our past mistakes that led not only to headaches, but massive moving migraines.