A Better Deal

Good morning and happy October! Only nine days I can work on Joanna’s dress so guess what I’ll be doing today?

A couple of weeks ago or so Paul mentioned to me the possibility of either Amena attending Gardner High or being homeschooled if she continually misses the bus. Honestly, something does need to change because she’s missed it by so much I’ve had to drive her three times already and we’ve had to catch the bus three times as well I believe. That’s just way too much for this being the sixth week of school.

Yesterday I told Amena that I was not going to take her if she missed again because there was pretty much no fuel in the white Jetta and it would take too long to put it in and I just wasn’t going to, anyway. She was cutting it a bit close but she was moving along and Paul got up (he’s almost never awake before 7:00) and told her about either attending Gardner High or being homeschooled. I just thought, ‘Great, I think things are okay this morning but if that was me, I’d miss it on purpose now.’ You know, me being me. She didn’t miss the bus.

While the boys were working on school, I did some figuring that I’d thought about when Paul mentioned this plan to me but hadn’t taken action on until yesterday. I wanted to figure out exactly how many miles it is to these different places and about how long it takes to get there. This is what I found:

From our house to Quabbin Regional High/Middle School it is 13.7 miles and should take, according to Google Maps, 24 minutes to get there.

From our house to church is 7.4 miles which should take about 17 minutes.

From our house to Gardner high is 6.6 miles which should take about 16 minutes.

So, for a base, if Amena misses the bus, I have to drive 27.4 miles for a total of about 48 minutes.

If Amena were to do homeschool, she would be going to seminary at the church every morning so I would be driving 14.8 miles for about 34 minutes every day. This does not take into account the fact that I would be sitting and waiting for her while she was there unless I wanted to double the miles and time to 29.6 and 68, would have to change my milking schedule, and would not be here when Cedric gets on the bus. This would be 74 miles and 170 minutes (2 hours and 20 minutes) for a regular five-day week.

If Amena were to attend Gardner High, she would still be going to seminary at the church every morning but ought to be able to get a ride from there to school. She would need a ride home every day because although Massachusetts has school choice, if you attend a regular high school like Gardner, you have to provide transportation yourself. That would put daily miles at 28 and time driving at 66 minutes. This would be 140 miles and 330 minutes (5 hours and 30 minutes) for a regular five-day week.

None of this takes into account what would happen on snowy days when there might be school but our driveway might not be plowed. Amena would be missing seminary on those days as well as being late for or missing school unless Paul could either get up early enough to plow or show me how to do it.

I know I have a tendency to over-analyze some things but sometimes I think it is warranted. In this case, Amena missing the bus, even the three times this year I’ve had to take her all the way to school, is a much better deal. I emailed this information to Paul because I knew he would be interested even if he never mentions to me that he read it. Sometimes we have these incorrect perceptions of time and distance and until we really take a look at it, they remain with us. I know I didn’t realize that Quabbin Regional Middle/High School was less than 15 miles away. That’s like driving from McCloud to Mt. Shasta. That’s like driving from where we lived up Highland Flats to Bonners Ferry. Quite honestly, I thought it was more like 20 or 25 miles. And driving to the middle of Gardner, well, I really have nothing to compare that to. It’s like a hop, skip, and a jump.

In other news, school has been going pretty well for Seth and Joseph. They have been managing to get their work done pretty quickly which is nice for working on dresses.

In spite of that, I am behind on Joanna’s dress. Yesterday I needed to clean the dining room so that I could cut Joanna’s dress out and I managed to do so but it really sapped my energy. I think I need to keep track of what I’m eating and make myself eat more. Losing weight is great but I need to be able to function and if I don’t eat, I certainly won’t be able to do that.

Today I really need to get the library cleaned so I can use the iron and ironing board in there. I don’t want to have white skirt dragging on a nasty floor that’s been peed on by a dog too many times to count. Just yesterday she did twice. Once right after I’d emptied the mop bucket from mopping the dining room and once later in the day. I wasn’t pleased either time, especially since she’d been outside just before each incident and then came in and did that. She’ll become an outside dog if it keeps up.

Joanna and Lincoln are using 100 bars of soap as little gifts for the wedding. That’s pretty cool. I thought personalized labels would be nice so I did personalized labels for 20 different kinds of soap. When Seth and Joseph went over to see Joanna Tuesday, we took 20 bars of soap and their labels. I worked on the rest of the labels while Cedric was getting a haircut Tuesday after practice and again while I was waiting for Seth at scouts. When Seth and I got home, I finished them up. When Joanna came over yesterday, I printed the labels out and we went shopping for the rest of the soap. Pretty cool. Joanna says Lincoln thinks I should do one for him since I have some for other family members. He wants his to be Lincoln’s Leather Bars. I’m thinking there might be a market for that.

Right now I’ve got to get out to the goats before getting to work on other stuff. Have a fantastic day!