We've been doing our fall schedule for about three weeks now. We've started dance, and acro lessons, and cooking class, and homeschool co-op, and soccer (and school of course!). And I'm having my typical adjustment period as I try to fit all these puzzle pieces together.
Yes, our summers are busy too, but they're a different sort of busy. Everything centers around the golf club for the most part, and I can juggle swim team, lessons, tennis and golf without ever needing to get in the car.
There's one day - FRIDAY of all days - that is just unbearable in how it came together. It did fit, and it does work, so I'd feel guilty if I didn't stick with it. But it's also so insane that I can't believe I'm actually doing it.
Madison is in LOVE with cooking class at a particular local cooking school. It's the one non-dance, non-dance adjacent activity that she actually begs to do. I love that she's passionate about dance, and she IS willing to try other things (see: swim, tennis, golf), but if I told her we couldn't fit those in, she'd be fine with it. Dance is her number one, everything else is a distant second, unless it helps her with dance...except this cooking class. So even though this cooking class is actually a bear to fit in, because there are very few classes and most of them clash horribly with the unmovable dance, we try hard to make it work.
The problem is that Madison was assigned her private lesson for her solo on Fridays. And Reagan, who actually showed a huge interest in soccer, has soccer practice on Fridays (as well as HER private lesson). So we have three unmovable things on one night.
So I drop Madison off at cooking, kill 30 minutes or so with Reagan, drop Reagan off at her private lesson at the dance studio, drive back to cooking to pick Madison up (10 minutes late) and drive her to the dance studio, getting back just in time to record the end of Reagan's lesson so she can practice. Then Madison goes back for HER lesson, I have Reagan throw soccer clothes over her leotard, and I race her over to the field. Once I make eye contact with her coaches and assure them I'll be RIGHT BACK (parents are supposed to stay), I race BACK to dance, record the end of Madison's lesson, and zip back to the soccer field with Madison in tow to watch the end of practice, until the sun sets and we can go home.
I'm tired just typing that, and I need to keep this schedule up for the next SEVEN Friday nights. I was so hoping that it wouldn't work after the first week, so I could let everyone know that decisions had to be made. But nope, it works JUST well enough where the teachers are impressed with our dedication.
Fantastic.
The GOOD news is that, thanks to the fact that my long wait is over and I FINALLY have my new car, I can finally crack into that carpool group, and I've got some help the rest of the week. The first day I had that car I sat down with a few of my friends and we worked things out to save some sanity as we cross town multiple times a week to get to the dance studio.
And somehow, SOMEHOW, it's all fitting together. All those scheduling and driving and timing issues have all clicked, and the girls are well settled into their new fall routine, and loving each and every activity they're in...which somehow, somehow, makes it all worth it.
