We give up on the bus

Our perfect bus-riding scenario is no more and it looks like bus-riding is no more. I give up!

For the majority of this school year, things just went so smoothly with the bus. My first grader caught the school bus right around the corner and my preschooler got on the van to head start about 30 seconds later. Wonderful. I was back in the house before 7:30 a.m., alone to brew coffee and get my day started.

It started falling apart when the head start reduced its enrollment back in March, and of course my child was one of the ones who had to go. We put her in the pre-kindergarten program at the local public school where her sister attends, and that went fine all except for the fact that I have to drive her to school myself and sign her in.

My morning routine was severely interrupted but I adjusted well. I get the six-year-old to the bus by 7:25 a.m. so she can eat breakfast at school and then drive the four-year-old to school by 8-8:10 a.m. before they go to breakfast at 8:15 a.m. Fine.

The whole thing was blown to bits when the time changed. I have had trouble getting up on time ever since then, and of course that makes it hard to get to the bus on time.

What we have done many mornings since then is feed my daughter and my niece — I have since acquired another child to get back and forth to school — breakfast at home and then take them all to school at the same time. We walk my first grade child to her class, then my second grade niece to her class, and then get the preschooler to the cafeteria before her classmates and teacher go to the pre-k building right before 8 a.m.

Things are a little rushed with this routine but that's still my fault since I love to lay in the bed and hit the snooze button.

I thought I had it all under control this morning. My two older girls and I walked out to the bus stop at 7:27 a.m. (the bus usually comes between 7:28-7:31 a.m.) to see absolutely no children there. The neighbor kindly informed us that the bus had already come. Rats! So we went back in the house for our new routine. The girls ate cereal and fruit for breakfast while I got the four-year-old ready for school.

I got everyone dropped off with seconds to spare and decided that with just two weeks of school left, we may as well just forget about the bus.

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