What happened to me? How did I get to this place? How did I find myself scrolling through the yahoo home page and the one title that jumps out at me is “laundry detergent tests”. What the heck? What is going on in my life that the most interesting headline to me is about laundry detergent?

What happened to the young, vibrant woman who longed to travel to exotic places, see new things, take risks, be a bit wreckless and make a few bad decisions. How in the world did I get from there to here?

I’ll tell you how in one word. Domestication. That sounds weird, doesn’t it? Like I’m a cat? I once was feral but now I’m domesticated? Hmmm. Maybe not exactly the terminology I was wanting to use, but close enough.

There’s just something about having four kids, a pile of animals, a house and a husband that will turn any exciting young lady into a boring house wife. Another sad thing is how great I am at percentages. I love sales on anything and everything. I love to take naps and a great night’s sleep is one in which I get at least four hours that are uninterrupted.

Every once in a while I feel like I’m missing out on life, but then I realize how lucky I am. No, I didn’t get to travel and do a few risky things that I wanted to, but I do have some amazing kids and an awesome husband. I’d be lying if I told you every day was a dream and life was a breeze. It’s not. It’s actually hard, but it’s very rewarding and so worth it.

Joy Larson is a mother of four boys, graduate of the University of Montana, animal lover and writer.

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