Carpooling

After a few harrowing mornings of stress and mishaps (like when my husband nicely had the coffee ready to go with a touch of a button, and I stumbled down, bleary eyed, and poured a new pot of water into the machine, flooding our kitchen counter and floor), we seem to have settled into a new routine. We all have our roles and responsibilities, even our three year old. My husband and I have started doing what we've always vaguely talked about doing, prepping things the night before (hence the coffee disaster). Nothing like having kids to force you to be organized.

One of the things I've enjoyed most about our new routine is the carpooling. It's something we used to do when my husband and I both worked downtown, but we got out of the habit when my new job spared me the commute in. I like it for the obvious reasons, it's less expensive and better for the environment (we are Vermonters, after all!), but I also enjoy the time spent with my 3 favorite people, with no interruptions.

It's nice to drive with our little chatterbox going a mile a minute about anything and everything. It's a stream of consciousness that is often hilarious, always entertaining. Prompted occasionally by a question, he rambles on for the full 20 minute ride to daycare, sometimes getting so excited about what he's trying to say that he becomes a broken record: :"and...and...and...and...and...and". I love it. It's a great way to start my day, and a nice way to wind down after a crazy work day.

We probably won't carpool every day. As the 2nd dropoff, I am without a car all day, so no sneaking out to replace my brought from home lunch with something else (aka McDonald's). No taking advantage of those days when my very sweet boss says "it's dead, why don't you guys get out of here." Even still, when our lives are as crazy as they are, it's nice to suddenly find an extra hour of togetherness where previously there was chaos.