Thanks everyone for your good suggestions.

The bus runs can't be cut out. It's for my 5 yr old who is too young to go by herself, and she is the only one at the bus stop, so I don't have anyone to ask to drop her off/bring her. Most days I don't mind because it gets us outside, and it's a time waster. But I'm finding it hard to get everyone ready now that the weather is colder. I only had 2 daycare kids last winter, so the whole coat/hat/mitts thing is taking much longer.

My parents and my ILs live 35 minutes away, and all work. I don't have any other family or friends in the area to fall back on, unfortunately.

I think I definitely need to be more structured. We do circle time/story time every morning, and we get to the park 75% of week, but I don't do a lot of arts and crafts. I find it takes me longer to prep and clean up than it does keeping them occupied, but maybe I'm trying the wrong activities.

Nap time is a work in process. I have a new 12 month old that only naps for 40 at the most. And two others that nap in the basement, and one always wakes up the other. THe girl is leaving next week, and I'm hoping things will get better in that departnemt. I just don't know how to keep the older kids quiet. There is my son, and another boy, both 3.5. I use to have them watch a movie upstairs in my room, but I was up there every 10 minutes because they were getting too loud. Now they watch a movie/tv in the living room where I am, but that is even worse because now all the nap kids can hear them if they are loud. I think I'm going to take the suggestion of the person who said that she gives her older kids a chance to keep quiet and if it doesn't work, to turn it off and it's nap time. I'll try that.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to write out such long and thoughtful responses. You've given me a lot to think about, and some great suggestions. I'm really glad I found this place