Crunch Time

We are rapidly approaching that time of the the summer I like to call "crunch time". Our weekends are getting few and far between, and all of those grand plans we made at the start of the summer are staring us in the face. The big question: will we have time to fit it all in, and if not, what will go on the back burner?

In my past life as a retail manager, there was never a question, the answer would be "no, we will not fit it all in." At that time, I had one free weekend a month, and those were typically filled up with plans at least six months in advance. While I do not miss that type of rigid scheduling, it was nice to know there was a cutoff somewhere. Now, I have high hopes and aspirations, but then quickly degenerate into stress and tension when these jam-packed weekends present themselves to me.

I am looking forward to our upcoming vacation, but that is another kind of "crunch time". Thanks to Delta's $15.00 "first bag" policy, we are trying to restrict ourselves to 2 checked bags. I am a championship overpacker at the best of times, but faced with a STRICT limitation like this, I am a quivering mess. On the one hand, my kids are small, and their clothes take up little room. On the other hand, they are kids, and prone to spilling, drooling, an the occasional bout of "spit up", and we need to be prepared for these occurrences by bringing multiple shirts, shorts bathing suits, you get the picture!

I will try my hardest not to let my stress about our summer plans keep me from enjoying the very things that we are looking forward to, but it's hard. I'll just keep telling myself "one day at a time" until I wake up and it's autumn already.