My balance has been in extremes lately.

I noticed today when my iTunes downloads were the following...

Green Day...and Taylor Swift.

It made me think back on this September, and what it has been full of.

I've had some beautiful days, with what is shaping up to be the cutest class of fourth graders, contrasted with more days than I want to count with co-workers breaking down in frustration.

Weekends full of fun and family, and work on our house, have been contrasted with some time of extreme quiet, where the four of us seem to be existing in the same house, separately. We are a family of introverts, at heart, and are merely in self preservation mode, refreshing from the busy busy start of the school year. It hits us hard every time.

Nights where I sleep like the dead, and dream the strangest dreams, are contrasted with nights I wake up and can't stop thinking for one, two, or more hours.

Dinners of four star quality, where Tim and I comment about why we ever go out, contrast with nights of franks and beans.

Evenings where I have started back on a path I need, practicing yoga, balance, in the extreme sense, with nights where I am channeling Lloyd Bridges in "Airplane," saying "Guess I picked the wrong month to quit _____." Just pick a coping mechanism and fill in the blank, drinking, chain eating,"cocoon-ing" on the couch with my "Cymbalta Blanket" and my iPod, watching TV I don't even want to watch. You name it, some nights, that's where I am.

I know it will end. I know the extreme balance I have now, the highs and lows, will even out and we'll hit a groove. I know it will come, I'm just wondering when, and wondering how bumpy the journey to that point will continue to be.

Green Day says, "Wake Me Up, When September Ends," and I would seem to agree.