Motherhood Math

So yesterday, I was helping Hannah with her math homework.  It went something like this:

There are forty cars.  You count 9 times more white cars than yellow cars.  How many white cars are there?

It was a tricky problem for a forth grader, but guess what? In all my adult life, I can say I've never honestly cared how many white cars there are... what I wish they'd taught me in Elementary math would be how to solve a story problem similar to this one:

Your oldest child has violin lessons at four thirty.  It takes 13 minutes to drive there.   It takes 6 minutes for everybody to get their shoes on and get in the car.  (But you better plan on eight, so they are all still happy once they get in the car.)  You need gas, that usually takes 10 minutes, maybe you'd better chance it and fill up on the way home. At what time do you need to start rounding up the kids?

In case you were wondering, today I got this problem wrong.  I usually do, by a few minutes.  So as I was watching the clock and pondering on this equation, wondering how to get it right next time, I see a cop car... and yes he turns his lights on and flips a U-y.  46 miles in a 25 mile an hour zone.  (You can do the math and figure out what that's going to cost me, think upwards of $350).  So next time, when I'm hurrying them out the door and  Hyrum asks, "Maybe we could just skip it this week?" I may or may not respond "No, I'm not wasting that $15 I already paid for your lesson."   I'll do some more motherhood math...