My afternoon every day.

Since P and I both work outside the home, he is usually responsible for getting the children up, dressed (I leave out the outfits, perfectly coordinated with the weather), fed, sunscreened, medicated, and dropped off and school and daycare. I am still responsible for V's lunch, and setting out their coats and shoes. If I had to do morning and evenings I do not think I could work outside the home. In his last position, he used to travel a lot and it was just so tough on me to do both. I had a rough time getting up earlier and getting the children up earlier. It also causes me to get into work almost an hour later (8:30) then I like to be there. In addition, the traffic to work is much worse the later I go in.

So I do pickup. P really doesn't have a predictable evening schedule. Although in his new job of three months, it seems like he is getting home earlier ~ 7:00 pm, most days, and no weekends. I leave work anywhere between 4:05 and 4:35 pm. It is a 20 minute drive to my house (on most days). Fortunately, my home, daycare, and V's school are all within one mile of each other, unfortunately, it is an extremely busy road with no sidewalks. Some days I use the 20-30 minutes to run a few errands - usually Kroger or gas or pharmacy. I stop at the daycare and Benny is always glad to see me! I strap him in and 0.4 miles down the road we pull in to V's school. She attends before and after school care and really, really likes it. If you are early to pick her up, she is not pleased about it. Benny loves to pick her up. If it is after a certain time, they are playing on the playground. Benny loves to go slide while I find her and sign her out. Then we have to walk all the way through the school (It's a big school) and collect her things and out to the car. The best part is that Benny loves to sit at the desk in the front lobby and pretend he is a student. "My books go down here, and my pencil goes here". He is so proud.