Local living

It's only been two days, but I'm going to go ahead and say that this new schedule/daycare arrangement is a smashing success. For the past 2+ years, I have figured out daycare for Nora week by week. At times it has felt like a full-time job, piecing together part-time care for my little lovely. We've had the great fortune of not having to put her in any sort of a full-time care situation—between friends, babysitters, a great little drop-in daycare center in our old 'hood, and Greg's wonderful, fantastic, fabulous, and awesome mama, we've been pretty well covered.

For all those people, I am incredibly grateful and forever in debt.

And still … Having regular, predictable schedules for both of my kids—and having both of them within a mile of home (!!!)—has been absolutely life-altering for me. To illustrate …

What my days used to look like:

• Leave the house with both kids at 8:30 and drive across town to get to Sidamo's school by 9
• Go from Sidamo's school to Greg's mom's house in one of the western suburbs (in the opposite direction of our new house) and drop Nora off there
• Head to a coffee shop to work, arriving around 10.
• Duck into my car for phone meetings. Even in 100-degree weather.
• Leave the coffee shop around 3:30 to get Nora from grandma's and start the trek back east and north to get big brother.
• Drive back home, usually arriving around 5:30.
• Scramble to figure out what to make for dinner.

In other words, I'd spend 10 hours getting around 5 hours of work done, and I'd get home frazzled and frustrated.

In contrast, here's what yesterday looked like:

• Left the house of 7:25 to get Nora to school at 7:30. Greg dropped Sidamo off at school before heading to work (easy, since his school is 7 blocks away).
• Got back home at 7:45 and worked until almost 11, when I left to pick up Nora.
• Had a nice lunch with Nora at home, put her down for her nap, and got some more work done. 
• Left at 2:55 to pick Sidamo up at 3, and then came home to play and ride bikes with all the neighborhood kids until Greg came home, at which point we ate the delicious baked garden tomato pasta I had prepared earlier during a little work break. Also prepared during little breaks throughout the day: homemade yogurt, bread, and granola.

And I still got about 5 hours of work done. Yep, I think I'll be getting used to this.