Have you ever picked up a stick?

It’s kind of a ridiculous question. I imagine everyone has picked up some kind of stick in their life. But have you ever picked up only ONE side of the stick? To be clear, I’m not asking if you’ve lifted one side or the other—instead, have you been able to pick up the whole stick and leave only one side on the ground?

I love watching the sky. The super moons, the solar and lunar eclipses, the stars and all the constellations, and even the sunrises and sunsets. The skies are beautiful, mysterious, and thought-provoking. At the end of the summer this year, I watched the sun and moon live in the same morning sky. It was awesome. This occurred for several days in a row. I even took pictures, loving how different the sky looked in either direction.

I have old lady lips. I don’t know how it happened so fast, but here I am. I rarely wear lipstick anymore because the lines are so severe that any lipstick practically gallops off my actual lips and into those lines. It is obnoxious.

Another school year has begun, and this time of year always makes me pause and reflect a bit. This is my third time having a senior in high school. I was thinking I should really be a pro by now—but I’m not. However, I have learned quite a few things while raising my kids. Here are my top five.

I was attacked by a fly this week.

That sounds a bit dramatic. I’ll try to be more factual.

A Texas-sized fly flew around my head, darting in and out of my ears, sometimes hitting my face, and other times biting my back for 20 minutes while I walked. It was crazy.

Several weeks ago there was a video circulating of a Men’s 3000M Steeplechase Final. If you haven’t seen it, look it up and watch. It is worth your time. Kenneth Rooks, an NCAA champion from BYU, took a fall a few laps into the race.

What is your goal in having children?

Are you hoping to have a pod of superfans, cheering your every move as brilliant and inspired? Do you want a group of always-happy, never-failing, goal-accomplishing humans? Is your competitive spirit driving you to create kids who will always be the BEST—at EVERYTHING??

My husband’s family gets together once a year for a reunion. We’ve been doing it for years. My extended family also used to get together annually…but as people got older and more spread apart, it became harder to do.

Last summer, my family didn’t have a reunion. Even though the reasons were understandable, I was sad about it.

Awkward is an adjective. It can be defined as causing difficulty, or hard to do or deal with. A second definition is causing or feeling embarrassment or inconvenience.

In 47 years, I can think of a million different awkward situations in my life. Some of them I have caused and some of them I have simply attended.

The last two months have been pretty great for me, and it’s all because my frozen shoulder is getting better. Hooray! I don’t have much pain, I’m not taking pain medication anymore, my range of motion is SLOWLY getting better, and the fortress of pillows I used to build each night so I could sleep is no longer needed.

I am unorganized.

I have plenty of evidence to support this claim. Early in our marriage and hating the impending pile of laundry, I threw the colored clothes in with our whites—not surprisingly, everything came out pink. Whoops. Running late, I backed my brand-new car out of the garage and hit the side, almost ripping the passenger side mirror clear off. Oof. In a rush again, I backed up a different car in the garage with the trunk up, destroying the back handle and severely scratching the door.

Years ago, my mother-in-law brought a box of my husband’s things to our apartment. Normally, I hated when she did this because our space to store anything was limited—but this time there were a few items that I absolutely loved. One was a book from Brian’s childhood. It’s titled What good luck! What bad luck!, and I fell in love with it immediately.

Pacifiers.

Not everyone believes in using them, but I did. Pacifiers were a tool in my mom-survival box, and I never left home without one or two.

Back in the summer of 2009, we moved from California to Utah. Brian had finished his medical residency and we were finally moving on! Our move was eventful. This is the story.

My junior year of high school was a pivotal one for me in many ways. One terrible experience stands out though, and it had nothing to do with my academic study.

Sometimes I really listen to my intuition and make smart decisions. And sometimes I am just stupid. This story is about one of the stupid times.

I’m sitting in a waiting room while one of my daughters has a procedure done. For the past twenty-three years, I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time waiting in doctors’ offices, for diagnoses, procedures, and surgeries to end.

It was mid-February, and I was in constant pain. My shoulder was in the process of freezing (adhesive capsulitis), and everything around it hurt.

I was sleeping terribly, up every couple of hours because of the pain. I had a hard time getting dressed, so I was often sporting the same baggy sweatshirt day after day.

Everyone knows someone who is easy to love, right?

But have you ever wondered why? What is it about them?

I did. I wondered about it A LOT. I used to think people like that were unicorns. They were a mystery.

In the spring of 2010, Brian and I were in the middle of making a huge decision—where he should take a job.