Head. spinning.

I have been trying to get things done around the house today. I know, that's not a big surprise. But as I was running around doing stuff, I kept thinking about other things that I need to do. Some of them are no-brainers - you know, the usual work-on-the-laundry, do-the-dishes, pick-up-the-toys type stuff.

But, as TMOART:2012 quickly approaches, I realize that I have so. much. to. do.

By this time last year, I had everything planned. I knew where we were staying, I knew the routes we were taking, and I knew how much everything was going to cost.

This year has been a bit different. Plans aren't set in stone yet, we don't know where we're staying for half of this trip (more than half actually), and we keep finding things that are going to cost us more than what we had originally thought.

It doesn't really help that I have to put two new tires on the van before we go anywhere.

And I have another fundraiser walk/run coming up THIS SATURDAY that I totally forgot about until tonight. And there's another run that I have to get registered for before they stop accepting registrations.

And the kids are all out of school after this week, which will both add to and cut down on the chaos.

Ugh.

So I did what I do best. I started a list. Granted, I've already crossed off a bunch of stuff and I've added twice as much to it since I took the picture - but just having the preliminary list made has already helped to calm my nerves a bit.

At least it calms me down until I add more to it - but this is going to be one of those constantly-evolving lists - and until we actually pull out of the driveway to leave for the road trip, it's going to continue to change.

I will definitely feel better once we have the itinerary set - then we can figure everything else out after that. This trip is definitely going to be different from the previous versions - instead of staying AT my parents' house for a few days, we're looking for a place to go camping nearby. There are a lot of reasons why we are looking to do this, but even just trying to figure out something as simple as WHERE to camp isn't easy. Plus we have to find someone to watch the kids for a few hours while we attend my class reunion. Urgh.

But I know that regardless of what we decide, it's going to be a great trip - we know we are going to end up in Pennsylvania (that's kind of the point of the trip) but we also might end up as far south as South Carolina - but none of that has been decided yet.

Hopefully - within the week - we'll have the itinerary set. Then my OCD-planning can kick in and we can get all of the details planned! And then I'll feel like I can maybe relax just a little bit.....