Recession Mama Michele Ashamalla: I can't believe the end of August is here. I had such grand plans for the summer. I was going to get a loft bed for my son, so I could put a desk in his room. I was going to paint the bed currently in his room and move it into my daughter's room. I was going to research middle-school options for my other daughter. I was going to try to get my parents to have a caregiver come more often. Instead of just seeing them on the weekends, I was going to go over during the week, too. I was going to exercise and lose ten pounds. I was going to write -- really write: I'd start that novel, or at least knock off a few short stories. Why, if I just wrote five or 10 pages a day, it would be done in no time!