One year down

It's been a year now since we moved from Provo to Michigan.

It's been a lot of fun. It's also been really hard.

Not the being pregnant, starting grad school, making it to 8 o' clock class with morning sickness, doing three projects over Thanksgiving break, having tests upon tests and projects upon projects all the time, writing a masters thesis, finishing grad school, giving birth, learning to breastfeed, taking care of a newborn, moving across the country kind of hard that August 2011-August 2012 was.

But still hard in its own way. The taking care of a baby, trying to get a nap schedule going (ha), dealing with sickness and teething, being bored and lonely yet not able to get out, feeling homesick kind of hard. The kind of hard that every parent gets to deal with. The kind of hard that seems more difficult than the crazy busy kind of hard if only because I didn't really have time to think about how hard life was when I was crazy busy.

Anyway, if I could impart advice on 2012 me to make it a little less hard, here is what I would say:

1. You can always choose to be lonely. You can also choose not to be lonely, though that one is a little harder.

2. Count on getting the music callings. Choose to enjoy them.

3. Don't be afraid of womenfolk. They make good friends.

4. Go outside as much as possible.

5. Make sure the dishes are done every night unless you are planning on not doing anything the next day.

6. Teach your baby to nap on the go. Ooh, that one would have been really nice.

7. Take full advantage of the library.

8. When you are feeling down, service is a better antidote than psychoanalysis of yourself. In general, the less you think about yourself, the better. Although, it probably is good to analyze yourself every now and then just so toxic thoughts don't build up.

9. Try to structure your days as much as possible. Read scriptures every day. Exercise every day. Pray lots and lots.

10. Count your blessings! This will be the best year of your life yet!

Even though this year has been hard, it has also been really rewarding. It's been fun to have a little bit more free time and do things that I may not have much time for in the future, like family history, experimenting in cooking, and obsessing over every wonderful milestone Joseph has had. I've loved exploring lots of parks in the area, getting to know our ward, learning from people who don't see the world quite the same way, and just being the wife of a grad student.

Here's to another awesome, adventuresome year!