Lost in Transition

Feel like I am constantly on the move lately. I am in the car an awful lot.
I get in the car in the morning and drive kids to camp, to bus stops. Then I am driving again to the grocery store, to yoga, to home, wherever. Then I am back in the car to get Emmett from his morning at school(now camp). We drive home or maybe stop and do an errand. Then later we are back out in the car to get Eli from the bus. Sometimes Emmett doesn't want to go out again, but he is still far too little to leave at home, so.... pile him in the car and drive away.

Lots of things live in my car. In my travels, and with my ADD head, I never know where I may be stopping, so it is better to be prepared. So, I have all sorts of things in the car. Yoga mat, snacks for me (fruit, celery sticks) and snacks for the kids, polarfleece blankets in the back, for if we need something to sit on, or to put some flowers onto so as not to get dirt in the car. There are CDs of kids music (Tom Chapin mostly), and of my music(wiiiiide variety). Books and activity books are in the seat backs for the kids. I have lots of coupons stashed for the off chance that I will be going to a store, and will be able to use the coupon. Hate it when I get to a store, and know that I have a coupon for $10 off, sitting right on the ledge at home. There is usually a bag with something in it to return to a store that I might pass in my travels. With the gas prices so high, combining trips these days is an art form!

I do wish we lived in a more european type setting in the way that the public transportation is so prevalent and the walking into towns is so typical, and the shops there are just right for that mindset. Instead we are in big suburban, consumeristic America, and we drive everywhere. yuck. And in the heat and humidity we have now in this part of the summer in CT, I find I like having the AC on, and I know that uses more gas too. But since I am more of a winter chick, I would rather be in Maine with the cool evenings where I can enjoy sleeping with a big cozy quilt, but still enjoy warmth, and alot less clothing during the day, and enjoy the chill in the evenings that allows for jeans and sweaters even in July. But I digress.

Mostly, I long for a place and a time, where I am not feeling like I am shuffling people and things on an ongoing basis. I long for a place in a peaceful setting where I know people who are around, where I can enjoy being relatively settled. I could even go for a cohousing environment- they intrigue me... on so many levels. But there goes my ADD again. As I finish writing this, I am looking at the clock to see how long before I need to hop into the car, yet again today. I will drive down the road about 4 miles to get Eli from the bus from camp. I will have to first get Emmett into the car, which is okay, but it makes me nuts that he can't just get in and sit down, he needs to be checking out all sorts of things first, and I will have to remind him to get his little hiney into the seat. Four year old time is a whole different thing. You have to budget extra minutes for pretty much everything, and then you can relax and laugh at the inconveniences, and the funny little insights that come with that pace.

It's all in balance.