The step mother is sometimes the last one to know...

On Thursday’s I leave work early to shuttle five children to several different activities. Here is a quick glimpse:
2:30 pm leave work 3:00 pm pick up kids 1,2 and 3 from school. 3:15 pm Zip home to change for gymnastics and pick up 8th grader who arrived by school bus. 3:30 pm  Fly over to the high school to pick up teenager and equipment from music club. 3:40 pm Deliver teenager back home to start homework. 4:00 pm Drive like a crazy mom to gymnastics with four out of five children. Make sure our little gymnast feels supported, wave and provide several thumbs up from the parent viewing area, manage homework for the three other kids, think about dinner, text World’s Greatest Husband for ingredients and his ETA. 5:15 pm Arrive home, read mail, start applicances any appliance – dishwasher, oven, washing machine – anything but the margarita maker. 5:15 pm Start dinner, in another post I can get into the specifics of this task- 7 people, picky eaters, you get the drift. 5:30 pm Referee a fight, a discussion, or a dilemma, this may be child 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or children 1 through 5. 5:45 pm Finish cooking and absolutely ask for homework progress reports as this determines if we will be up late with tears.6:00 pm Eat dinner as a family. 6:30 pm Convince children to participate in a chore while getting basketball uniforms on, school clothes picked out for the next day and backpacks packed for any additional homework that needs to be completed while watching the basketball game. 6:45 pm Arrive at gym for basketball: One game at 7p and another at 8pm. 9:00 pm Back home to start the bedtime routine. 10:00 pm Collapse into bed, kiss World’s Greatest Husband and snore.

Ok, so you think that is a full day, right? Well this past Thursday just to add a bit of blended family spice to our life… I couldn’t locate a kid….. Yep, you read that right. I couldn’t find one of our 4th graders. Standing in line at parent pick up – child one? Check. Child two? Check. Child three? Child three? Child three? Where is child three? Have you ever lost a kid at school? Let’s just say... a lot of people get involved … and do so lickety split.
Check the music room, maybe she is practicing recorder.
Check the office.
Stop the buses.
Call the classroom.
Call the wrong class.
Call the right class. … and then I hear the secretary say “Oh, that is right, double ear infection.” She hung up and said, "Oh yes, she was absent today." Why is it that the step mo is always the last to know?