I'm not a failure. But I am.

 It was the first day of school yesterday, and to prove that I'm not a failure, here are the first day of school pics.

AKD - 10th; MC - 7th

Bubby - 2nd

I even made a collage and added words to it.  I am so not a failure.

Yeah, right.  

Day 1 and I've already experienced schedule failure.  Thursdays are rough, but Tuesdays are going to be downright brutal for the next several weeks.  Here's how it all goes down.  MC has football practice after school until 5.  AKD gets home at 3, and Bubby gets home at 4:30.  AKD has bike practice 5:30-7.  On Tuesdays, MC has Boy Scouts at 6:30-8.

In order to get to the school to pick MC up on time, we need to leave home by 4:50.

In order to get to bike practice on time, we need to leave the middle school by 5:15 at the latest.  And that's if the traffic lights are with us.

In order to get back to bike practice to pick AKD up on time, I need to leave home by 6:35.  But wait.  I need to drop MC off at 6:30.

Notice I didn't even mention food in all that.

AKD's team.  He's the 3rd from the left in the 2nd to last row, AKA the tallest one.

It is a carefully choreographed balancing act that depends on everything running smoothly to succeed.  And yesterday...not so smooth.  Bubby came home from school late.  MC came out of football practice late and forgot his backpack.  AKD got to practice just barely in time (he was actually late, but they hadn't started yet--whew), and then we had to go back for MC's backpack.  The school was locked by the time we got back so we had to find a custodian.  By the time we got home and I sat down to eat, it was 6:20, which is when we would have had to leave if we were going to get MC to Scouts.  And I really don't mind dropping him off a little late, since everyone's always late anyway, but in order for me to get back to bike practice, MC needs to be on time to Scouts.

MC and his Scout cohort. 

No big deal.  MC didn't mind missing Scouts (I think his exact words were "yip" and "ee"), but this experience revealed just how precarious the whole situation is.  If one little thing goes wrong, the whole operation is in jeopardy.  Also?  It literally makes me feel sick when I know I'm going to be late for something.  Even more so when it's one of my kids' activities.

Oh, and guess what.  Football games are on Tuesdays and Fridays.  And the team travels.  Hopefully we'll have 2 parents around by then?

Are your kids back in school?  How was their first day?