Change in routine..... for this week!

It is 7pm on Wednesday and I am at home... it is a very strange feeling!  Wednesday is usually my "Wonder Woman" day, but today my husband took the day off so he has taken on some of the transporting of children and I get to actually relax in the evening and tell you about my normal Wednesdays - aren't you lucky!

8:00am Head to elementary school to do a voluntary 15 minute "Read an English book" session with the 3rd and 4th graders.

8:40am Arrive home and make dinner for my father-in-law, daughter and husband ... usually curry, stew or something that can withhold sitting all day.

9:40am Head to kindy to teach a relatively nice, but very energetic 5 year old class for an hour.

11:40am Arrive home after a quick shop on the way home.  Check that the world hasn't fallen apart on the Internet and have a quick coffee.  Finish making dinner and make two dinner boxes for my son and I (completely different contents from the dinner for the rest of the family....) 

2:10pm Go and collect my son from school and drop him home to do his homework.  Race back out the door to be at my daughter's school by 3pm to pick her up.  Race her to piano and sit and wait, watching the clock anxiously....

4:20pm (if the piano teacher hasn't talked for too long) leave piano, drive home and drop my daughter off, pick up my son, making sure the dinner boxes are in the cooler box.  Need to be in and out the door in literally 5 minutes. 

Drive to Oita - this takes between 1 hour 10 minutes and 1 hour 30 minutes depending on the traffic....  Sit and watch my son at athletics for 2 hours (not by choice, it is just too far to drive home in between!).

8pm - leave Oita and drive home again... eating a dinner box on the way - sometimes a little tricky to drive while using chopsticks!  

9:10pm finally arrive home and try to get my son in the shower and ready for school the next day. 

In total it amounts to approximately 180km of driving.

And that is my normal Wednesday!  I think I need to encourage my husband to take more Wednesdays off work......

When this routine first started I didn't bother making the dinner boxes for my son and I and we just bought bento boxes at the convenience store on the way home.  Then the evening trips to Oita increased to twice a week and I was giving my son some maths practice in the car on the way there.... Approximately 500 yen per bento per person (I am not good at not getting a drink or something to go with it).  That makes 1,000 yen per night - times that by two nights a week and then times that by 50 weeks a year and you get..... 100,000 yen!  After we did those sums I decided that perhaps making a dinner box wasn't so much trouble.......