Zen and the Art of Motherhood

It seems a few of you are curious as to how I ended up with four children at four different schools. Funny I keep asking myself the same question -- over and over and over again. What was I thinking?

I wasn't. This was not the grand plan I had in mind. Not even close. Just last year I had it all. My three older kids went to our neighborhood K-8 school (School #1). They even took the bus, so I didn't have to worry about that. There was just one slight problem. We loved the convenience, but we hated the school. So early last year we began our quest for a better option.

After many, many open houses, we decided on a charter school (School #2). Unfortunately we weren't the only family smitten with this particular institution, making it EXTREMELY hard to get into. Feeling lucky (this coming from the person who has never won a single thing in her life!), I took a chance and tried to enroll my kids anyway.

As it turned out, the twins got in, but my oldest daughter did not. However, she was 11th on the waiting list, so I still held out hope. Silly me. Here we are, on the second day of school and I'm still waiting. Hence, she remains at School #1.

In the meantime, another little issue cropped up. School #2 literally panicked when they found out my son, who has some special needs, was on an IEP. I don't know how it is in your neck of the woods, but here charter schools can deny entry if they feel they can't meet a child's needs. As for the schools in our district who said they could -- well, lets just say I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than place my child at one of them.

Luckily we found another charter school, this one specially geared towards kids who "learn differently." Its a great model and perfect for my Pond Boy, and that's how we ended up with School #3.

As for the Little Stinker, he's in preschool (School #4) and will be going to a program at a local church three times a week. I guess I could have kept him at home another year, but considering my youngest doesn't have any playmates under the age of 10 and currently roars at people he wants to meet, we figured the socialization would do him good.

So that's the long and short of how I got myself into this mess. If you were a compassionate bunch, you would just shoot me now and put me out of my misery. But since I don't think that will happen, I guess I'd better buck up, fill up and get driving.