{BOOM! Thanks, as always, for tolerating my extreme desire to pay down debt and work toward a new kitchen floor. Every penny counts toward the Arens debt calculator. We are making progress!}

I think I need a vacation. While the Labor Day weekend was air-clearing for me, my brain feels dried up. This morning, I thought it was Saturday and started muttering to the little angel to go find her blue leotard for the first day of ballet. I was halfway into three projects at work when Beloved forwarded me an email and I realized one of us was going to have to stay home from scheduled trips to Iowa for my cousin's wedding shower or my daughter's sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa A because the Kansas City Ballet Nutcracker auditions are that weekend for those who wear blue leotards. And the girl who never wants to do any sports activities at all wants to be in the "real" Nutcracker this year. (braces self for rehearsal schedule, kisses social life goodbye)

Summer feels over even though it's still 95 degrees outside, mostly due to the ridiculously packed schedules of everything starting up again. The engines are already coming in hot every night. And I have one kid! Who doesn't do that much! How is everyone juggling their dual-income, three-kids-in-soccer schedules?

I feel like I might suck.

I feel drained, already, which freaks me out because it is barely September and my girl is already thinking about Halloween costumes.

Just a little vacation. Just a few days.

But when?