Public Transit "Experiment" Results...

I've been meaning to update with the results of our bus "experiment". It went well, but, of course, wasn't perfect. We will probably continue to use public transportation on occasion, but for the most part, it won't work for us on a regular basis.
We did have a wonderful time using the buses. We met all sorts of people, from all sorts of backgrounds. Elderly, disabled, people going to work, college students, and other families. Everyone we came across was friendly--even those that tried their best not to notice Lyddie smiling and saying "hi", finally gave in and accepted her gift. The buses were very clean, and pretty much on time.

Our local public transit won't work for us to use on a regular basis for multiple reasons. The primary reason is that it serves only the city. Aliana's piano lessons and our homeschool co-op are both outside city limits in neighboring counties. While church is on the busline, the buses don't run on Sunday, and Wednesday night church lets out too late to ride the bus back home. Piano, co-op, and church are our primary outings.

We will likely continue using the bus occasionally. During the summer, we will go to the park more frequently, and will likely utilize the bus for that. We will also ride for light shopping trips and library visits. All but 1 of our dr.s are on the bus line, so we can do those appointments also. Most surprisingly, both of the menfolk who were the MOST opposed to ever riding the bus, have both expressed interest in using it for regular transportation to work!

I think our experiment went pretty well. We learned about public transportation. We now know how to get where we need to go. Mostly, we had fun, and we enjoyed each other while learning something new.

A week in the life...

Buses and allergies.... oh my!!

Everyone in our home has now been on thier first public transit excursion. Daddy went out with us last Saturday, to the mall, so that the 3 middle children could try out the "Spider Jump". He enjoyed his first busride, and started brainstorming ways to use it to get to and from work. The only major problem that we've run into is the amount of time that it takes to get from one place to another, but I'm sure that is due to our not knowing the bus system well. Alekzandr (17) had his first trip with the rest of us on tuesday to see what it was all about, and then rode it by himself on Thursday to go to work. He enjoyed it a lot more than he expected to. This week will be our second full week. Now that we know a bit more about the system, we will start looking at the most cost effective ways for us to use the buses.

Easter Sunday, my girlies played in the grass and fallen cherry blossoms (yes, I found my camera, now I MUST start using it more!!!). Fun, girly, itchy... I was sure to give them all baths to wash all of the pollen off. The next morning  (5) required a breathing treatment and her eczema started flaring. I assumed it was from the nature frollicking. Lyddie (11m) and Aliana (8) were both doing ok. As the week progressed, Bekah's eczema continued, and seemed much worse than a roll in the grass and blossoms should have given her, Lyddie's skin became quite dry, and Aliana developed eczema on her hands and wrists (she does that from time to time when she uses scented soaps and lotions). Tonight, while getting Lyddie's bath ready, I began reading the ingredients to the new baby shampoo I got just before Easter--- it has milk and oats in it. The milk explains Bekah's eczema and breathing troubles, and oats are often cross contaminated with wheat, which would explain Lyddie's dry skin (though she didn't have an all out gluten response). Sigh, maybe one day, I'll get it all right. Untill then, I'm glad for Grace and good lotion.

Cover Us, We're Going In!!

Into the church nursery, that is...



After investigating last week to see how free flowing the gluten-ey cheerios were in the church nursery, speaking with the Wednesday night caretaker, and being satisfied with her response.... Lydia (11 months) will be attending the nursery for the first time tonight.

In our family, new babies are treated as part of Mom for the majority of the first year (another post for another day). As Lyddie nears her first birthday, we've decided to let her go to the nursery on Wednesday evenings-- NOT Sundays yet-- she'll still be with me then.

Now to pack her a snack for her diaper bag... I think we'll go with gluten free animal cookies and rice chex.

Day 2

WHO KNEW!!??

 it seems the reason I've not been to the mall for 10 years is because I hate to drive/park there!! It was quite enjoyable to hop a bus and ride there. The girls rode the (tiny) carousel, and begged to go to the "bounce place" (I declined this time).

Sorry, no pictures, I couldn't find my camera this morning before we headed out. I'm going to have to hunt it down.

I wore Lydia in the moby today, and she did a much better job of napping when she got tired.

We rode one bus to see where it went, and learned that we could make almost any of our Dr. appointments via public transit~ WOOHOO!! Only our family practitioner is outside of the bus routes, and really, I wouldn't want to take a sick someone to the dr. on the bus anyhow. We also learned that this bus would take us to Meme's house (Daddy's mommy), THAT was exciting stuff.

We went back to the Plaza, and rode the bus that took us to the mall and to Target, then back home.

THIS is when I learned that "buses are always late on Friday, and it being Good Friday, people are off work and out shopping more"

this is why we were 2 hours later than we had hoped to be getting home with overtired little girls. I think we will avoid the bus on Fridays, and particularly holiday weekend Fridays. I suspect Monday may not be good either for the same reason.

Still, it was a good day, we met several interesting people in our tavels:

*The Korean lady who asked Lydia why she was so grumpy looking (anyone who knows Lyddie, knows that she NEVER looks grumpy), then proceeded to talk non-stop for the next 1/2 hour until she arrived at her destination. Her name is Kelly, and she's a nanny~ not only do I know her life story, but those of the children she nannys for as well.

*The man at the mall food court who cleaned his grill before cooking Bekah's hamburger when I told him that she is allergic to sesame, and would he please cook her burger on the far side of the grill (thier buns had sesame and he toasted them on one side of the grill). He then gave her a PILE of pickles.

*The pleasant lady that we chatted with at the mall bus stop and played peek a boo with Lyddie.

*A fellow new bus riding mom who's car has been in the shop for over a week and had to get out and do something.

*The cycleist who sat in front of us and kept dozing. I wondered if I should tap him when he started to fall to the side, but he woke himself when he started to lean.

*Various grandma and grandpa types. One of whom asked if the girls (Aliana, 8, and Bekah, 5) were twins. This isn't the first time I've been asked this question, particularly when they are positioned in a way that one cannot see the size disparity. I told her "nope, same face, 3 years apart".

I was pleasantly surprised that, even with the long waits, we've not encountered one grouchy person. People on the bus seem to just go with the flow. Something else we can certainly learn.

Public Transportation, Day 1...

Day 1 went quite well!

I started with a trip (in the van) to the bank, then to the bus office to speak with Gloria, who explained the schedules to me, and I bought our passes.

Freshly informed, we headed home and rushed to the bus stop to catch the bus that comes at 15 till the hour. Unfortunately, I was thinking 15 AFTER the hour (at 1:15 planning to have lunch when we got to the shopping center). At the bus stop, we met a nice man that was carrying groceries home. We waited for quite some time and had to run to catch the bus comming the opposite direction at the other end of the block. We'll do better with the times today.

We found the bus to be quite clean, pleasant. The bus was rather full, but the other passengers were patient as we figured out how to scan our passes and took our seats in the back of the bus. The children watched all the goings on, and asked lots of questions. Aliana was particularly concerned that she would accidentally pull the yellow cord (signaling a request to stop), and made sure to sit well away from it. Rebekah stood and held the pole, while Charles bounced from seat to seat (until I told him to pick and plant).

Our bus took us to the Plaza (the main hub, all the bus routes begin and end here. We could have stayed on that bus and only lost about 20 minutes, but, it was already after 1, and the children (ok, and mom too) were hungry... so we got off and had lunch at the Plaza which cost us about an hour and a half. Got back on the bus and got going the right way.

This ride was longer than our first. Again the children chose the back of the bus, which was pretty empty this time.  It didn't take long for Lydia to learn that sitting on Mommy's lap on the bus is a perfect opportunity to nurse. She was quite tired, but she doesn't sleep very well when she's not at home in her bed. Rebekah stood at the window and looked out, Aliana, again sat well away from the yellow cord (which Lydia pulled when I asked Charles to hold her for a minute). And Charles layed across the seats.

We arrived at Kroger and got the shopping done. We got to the bus stop just as the bus was passing us (I got the time mixed up again, SHEESH!), so lost another 40 minutes there. On the return trip the children had decided to sit in the front. Aliana was worried that we shouldn't sit there, because someone may need to sit there (the front is the part of the bus that is wheelchair accessible). There was only 1 other passenger, so I assured her that if someone needed to sit there, we could move. The other passenger got off at the next stop, and we had the bus to ourselves for the remainder of the ride home. Lydia nursed and went to sleep. Our operator, Harris, got a kick out of Aliana's plans to pull the cord. She was worried that she would miss pulling when it was time for us to stop, and asked me continually if it was time. I told her pull it when we turned the corner at the fire station. As we were turning the corner, she asked "NOW MOMMY? NOW?", "yes, Dear, you can pull it now"... "ding, stop requested"... I wonder what Harris was thinking about this crazy bunch that just left his bus!

YUP, we're doing it again today! I think we will try going further out and switching buses, picking a route and seeing how far it goes! (this time, I'll remember to take the camera)