Happy Birthday YS, WHAT ALICE FORGOT..., what if you lost ten years of your life?

Today my youngest child turns 9. NINE YEARS OLD! As in, half-way to eighteen! I can't believe my BABY is nine. It's kind of freaking me out.

Combine that fact with this book I've been reading for book club, WHAT ALICE FORGOT by Liane Moriarty. If you haven't read this book, you MUST get your hands on it right away. In the first chapter, our protag, Alice, has some sort of injury (don't understand that part just yet) and when she regains consciousness, she thinks it is ten years prior. In a moment, she loses ten years of her life. She thinks she's pregnant with her first child and madly in love with her husband when, in reality, she has three children and is on the brink of divorce. The whole premise is SO thought provoking. She is astounded by the new phone and gold Amex card in her purse. She is also amused by her husband's new job title, and you know these things are just a few things that surprise her from the last ten years.

So go with me on this journey. Imagine you hit your head at the gym this morning, and regained consciousness thinking you were ten years younger than you are now. What would surprise you about your life? What would delight you? What would disappoint you?

I think I would be a little surprised by the age on my face, hands and hair in ten years. I would definitely be surprised that I have a fourth child. The two dogs might make me shake my head in wonder.

I would be delighted with my children, how healthy they are, how well they are doing in school, what great kids they are. I would be surprised that my two older children are in a private school with an hour commute every day. I would be surprised that my children aren't more musical because that was always such a priority for me.

I would be disappointed in the state of the stock market growth over the past ten years. I would be proud that our country had elected an African American president but probably not surprised. I would be disappointed that I'm still trying to keep off the same ten pounds. I would be amazed at the growth and ages of my nieces and nephews. I would be amazed at some divorces and amazed that some people are still married.

I could go on and on about these things, but I want to shift ahead ten years now. What if the same thing happened IN TEN YEARS? What, about the next ten years, will surprise me? What may disappoint me? Where would I like to be in ten years as a wife, a mom, a writer?

I will write more about WHAT ALICE FORGOT once I finish it, but for now, it is doing what all the best books do, MAKING ME THINK!