Work Update

Taking a break from work, so I thought I'd spew a few words onto my blog. No guarantees of readability, however!

The hot water heater took FAR longer to install than I had imagined. Bob and David hauled it down there on Tuesday and unhooked the old one, which meant No Hot Water on Tuesday. He had to work Wed so no hot water Wed either, but I figured he'd come home and finish 'er up. Not quite. But tonight, seems like the installation has been completed. I'll find out shortly when I go try to take a shower, at the end of day 3 of no hot water.

Yes, 3 days with no shower. Bleh. I was avoiding people in the grocery store tonight. Saw one woman I haven't seen in YEARS and I turned the other way. I looked that bad. Then David told me I look the same as I always do. Well, how reassuring is THAT. lol

It was SO NICE out today. But we couldn't think of anything to DO outside. We are just inside people. Sad, right?

So, what do my days look like now that I am working about 25 hours a week?

I aim to get up at 7 or so and work for an hour before the day really gets underway. Then I get the kids moving and do some lessons with them for the morning. Anything they need me for has to be done before lunch.

Usually I have them make lunch and I've moved lunchtime up an hour to noon. Afterwards, I do another hour of work while they have quiet time from 1-2. They can read, write, or draw during this time. Mostly they choose drawing. LOL

After that, I shoo them through their chores and any leftover schoolwork (homework to all you traditional schoolers) and think about dinner and evening plans. If I know I'll be going out, I try to get another hour of work done in there somewhere.

I usually end up with half the work done before dinner and half the work still to be done afterwards. I can't work more than an hour or so in a row or my eyes start to cross.

So, that leaves me working the last hour or so in the evening. That's the part I'd like to change most. I am working when Bob is home and the kids are ready to spend some family time together. Oh well.

Every week I've worked thus far I have been able to pick up extra hours. They only allow us to work 5 hours in a day, so that's my limit. I've found it easiest to just add 15 minutes to each of the hours I work to make up the extra one. So in every case above, I'd work 75 minutes instead of an hour. Not so hard to do that way as it would be to add an extra HOUR at the end of my day. I also get 2 hours of administrative time per week - for answering and reading emails, reviewing reports, and computer maintenance. So, I can work anywhere from 22-27 hours a week.

Oh, maybe you don't know what I am doing for work - I am evaluating the effectiveness of a search engine by rating the results that turn up for queries. More challenging than it sounds, in some ways at least.

So, I'm off to shower in HOT water hopefully, send the kids to bed (they're watching a movie) and then do my last hour. Tomorrow I think the kids and I are going to a passion play.