Ummm...yeah. It's time.

It. Is. Time.

It has been a wonderful summer. Dare I say that never before has my family had such an action packed summer. We have traveled so much, with trips to the beach, and trips to the lake with dear friends. Weekends full of boating and tubing and swimming and sun-kissed conversations over yummy food while listening to bands. There have been wonderful nights by our neighborhood pool with friends - nights filled with laughter. There have been close friendships that have become even closer for both me and my children. We have seen movies and bowled. There have been parties and kid sleepovers. We have been soooo lucky this summer! It has all been absolutely wonderful!

But I will just go on and say it...

I. Am. Done.

It's true. There is truly not one more ounce of energy left in my body.

Today, when I came a hair's breadth away from stretching out on the floor of Toys-R-Us, I knew everything was screeching to an end.
Granted, those who know my youngest will understand that a trip to Toys-R-Us with him after he found an unexpected giftcard after cleaning his room might even suck the energy out of a Jack Russel. But right there, in my big old Palooza pants, I almost melted in the animal habitat section like the witch in Oz.
I think I started downhill when we finally had a toy picked out after 8,472 questions, and then he saw something on a lower shelf, threw himself on his knees in front of it and exclaimed, "Oh, this is NOT over!!!"

I felt like I could cry from exhaustion. Granted, maybe I need to get my iron checked or something, but I clearly did not feel like this at the beginning of the summer.

And if I'm completely honest, there are other signs that maybe my quality of summer parenting has peaked.

Take the sock monkey in the shrubs. Right now, as I am sitting here typing this on my front steps, there is a huge sock monkey in my shrubs. Nevermind the laundry or smudges on my front window, but a dang sock monkey. Right now. Maybe fifteen yards from me. And I just don't care.
I might have cared early June. But tomorrow is August and I really don't care if the entire stuffed animal section of FAO Schwarz is in my shrubs.
Another sign summer is winding down?
I'm exercising.
Not to be thinner or to fit in half of the sad and lonely clothes in my closet, but in an attempt to find more energy and to have a few quiet moments away from everyone that has common DNA.
And last but not least, my mental health may also be slipping a tad. At first, I just felt crazy from all of the sibling squabbling. Who doesn't? The endless arguments over the most ridiculous things. But now my mind is wandering into odd arenas. But I am telling you as sure as I am sitting here, for those times that Jessie or Good Luck Charlie is over and we ACCIDENTALLY see a snippet of Dog With a Blog, I know with every fiber of my being that when that dog is trying to make a point in his serious voice or is being sarcastic that it is the exact same voice that taunted Drew Barrymore in the first Scream movie.

For real.

Yep, if that isn't a sign that Mama needs to get back on a schedule, I'm not sure what is.

And FYI, my youngest just told me that the remote control helicopter that we just bought actually isn't a remote control helicopter like it looked like on the box but just a helicopter on wheels that has some missiles that shoot out.

He just came out here to show me the missiles, pressed the button to launch them, and the helicopter wings fell off.

And just like that I'm transported back to Oz.

Here we go again...Zimmerman verdict

After the ruling in the Zimmerman case, Facebook is exploding again. "Friends" will soon be spewing attacks at each other, while others will choose to "hide" friends from view. Still others will continue to complain about the politics all over Facebook, but will silently stay on social media, continue to read, and then complain about what they are reading.
I've never quite understood when people complain about social issues on SOCIAL media.
Anyhow, this case is very emotionally charged and very sad. It shows how circumstances can so quickly get out of control. It shows how every action leads to another action. Unfortunately, sometimes things snowball and point A leads to point Z very quickly.
This case had all the components for a politically charged stew. Race, guns, self-defense, possible profiling, etc. There was never a way this case could conclude without backlash of some sort.
As I sit and read posts coming from both sides, I'm really trying not to debate. Even though my college degree (Criminal Justice/Political Science) really makes me want to debate. I was one of the lucky ones who got to follow the entire O.J. Simpson case through my criminology class.
But another reason I can't debate, is because fortunately or unfortunately, I can see some points on both sides. And as I also understand it, sometimes if you make a ruling following the law, that does not mean the ruling will be what it OUGHT to be.
Basically, after thinking on it all, and thinking on it some more. All I can come up with is this...
To me, the sad thing about this case is that in the end, Zimmerman may have genuinely feared for his life. But the reason the altercation occurred in the first place is because Zimmerman acted like a wanna-be cop who wanted vigilante justice and even ignored dispatcher orders to stop. So is it POSSIBLE that Zimmerman feared for his life? Yes. Whose fault was it that he was in a position to fear for his life? Zimmerman's. There is a whole lot of gray in this case. No one but those two people truly know what happened. And one has been proven not to be the most honest person, and the other is dead.