pretty much a mathlete

As I led the neighborhood group down the hill yesterday morning I needed fingers on all eighteen hands to count the number of times I said, "We'll have to wait till after school to play in the snow, right now we need to keep walking please!"

After school I gathered snow pants and mittens and mentally prepared for the putting on part.  If I guess how long something like that should take and then double it and then add ten, I can alleviate some stress as the mother.

While we wandered over toward the woods Andy and I quickly talked about keeping an eye on the clock and on the boys, about trying to gauge stamina in order to get them back home and inside before they got too hungry or too cold.

I am usually able to calculate timing in order for the boys to do something without a meltdown in the middle of the street, without me having to carry one of them three blocks back to our house.  I have to compare temperature to water consumption and subtract from their last bathroom break.  I must take into account the amount of energy already used that day and divide it by the hours of sleep the night before.  And then I need to compound all that with the fervor in which their last meal was eaten.

I know I'm not the only parent who understands this math.  And I don't always get the right answer.
But today it wasn't until we reached our backyard again that the boys decided they didn't like the snow.