Have Computer, Will Tutor

Since having the kids, I have been tutoring in order to make a little extra money. I enjoy teaching and, quite frankly, I like talking to anyone over the age of three during the course of the day.

I advertised when I first started. I made business cards, for lack of a better description, and handed them out at the local schools. The last high school I taught at has me listed as a tutor. I even signed up at on online tutor search site.

Each year I've had about three or four students. Some found me through the high school I taught at, some through the business cards. A couple students are from the school I currently teach at, either to prep to get into my class or after they've gone on to high school.

This past summer I had to let a couple students know that I would be moving away for the year and would be unable to tutor them during that time. The one girl left and called within five minutes (seriously, I thought she called because she left something at my house) and said she'd like to continue working with me. She asked if I could get a webcam and Skype.

I talked it over with Chris and we decided it would be no problem. I talked with the parent of the other student I was going to tutor and they wanted in on that too. I even talked to a couple people who said "Why don't you try teaching your class that way, so you don't have to take a year off from teaching?" I decided against that because I am just too hands on with projects and I didn't want to deal with parent conferences, grading and other nuances from across the country.

So now I have three days a week that I put the kids down for their naps and turn on the computer. It has worked out extremely well, thought it's not as nice as being there. I use a white board to hold up problems and show work and my students do the same. There are little problems like feedback or connection issues but they have been minor.

There are only two little problems. The tutoring needs to be during nap time because otherwise I spend too much time shooing the children away and trying to distract them. "Who are you talking to, Mom? Oh, hi Clare! Look at this!" And there is the time difference of three hours. So even if I wanted to tutor in the evening, it's ten o'clock at night for my students.

I'm still getting requests for tutoring from different places. I received a call from a mom from the high school and she said I had such nice things said about me, it was hard to turn her down. And despite putting up a sign saying "unavailable" on the tutoring website, I am still getting requests from their. Which reminds me, I have to go politely decline someone that just sent an email today.

I've thought about tutoring here in California. However, this house isn't big enough for me to tutor a student while the kids play quietly in the other room. There is no other room. It's a dining room/ living room combo. I'd have to lock the kids in the bedroom and then would find every stitch of clothing, every diaper and every wipe strewn across the floor.

Not Cold Enough

On Friday morning, as we prepared breakfast, we noticed that there was some strange water in the freezer. We figured we'd left the door cracked overnight and went about our day.

After lunch, I noticed that the ice cubes were definitely melting. I had repeatedly checked that the door was closed throughout the morning, so my reaction was "uh-oh."

That night at dinner Chris pointed out that the milk was definitely not as cold as usual. He pulled out the refrigerator to check the coils and vents, but there was a back covering everything. We promptly emailed and texted the landlady to let her know we had a problem. She let us know that she'd come over Saturday to check it out.

Her "checking it out" only involved getting measurements. She didn't bother even opening the doors or pulling it out. Instead she went out and bought a new refrigerator. Which is awesome except that for whatever reason the store couldn't deliver it until Wednesday.

If it were just Chris and I, we'd make do. But having the kids and eating most meals at home presented some problems. So we splurged on a mini-fridge!

Isn't it cute? Reminds me of college. And, oddly enough, it's louder than the old, full-sized refrigerator. We're keeping some basics in it and going to the grocery store daily to pick up meat for dinner.

Meanwhile, Chris rolled the old refrigerator out into the courtyard for the guys to pick up when the new one is dropped off. He tossed most of the food. That created a problem unto itself. They have mini garbage cans here to impose the rules about less waste. The landlady already filled half of it with her garbage and we'd already filled the other half. So, Chris dropped two more garbage bags into the yard waste bin (which is not used) and I transferred them onto the top of the garbage can this morning just before the garbage truck came through.

The new refrigerator should be here tomorrow. I don't expect anything grandiose but I am excited that all of the shelves should work to hold in food and not break and let food fall every time the door is opened.

Fixer Upper

I keep meaning to post things about the house we are staying in. I plan on doing a nice post about the plants that bloom around here. We saw tulips coming up in a neighborhood lawn while out walking this weekend. Tulips, in January! It blows my mind! I'm used to tulips in March and April and worrying about them when they get an inch of snow covering them. Not here though.

However, things aren't looking all that peachy at our place right now. I could show lots of pictures and rant on and on about things that need fixed or that we would change. Then I remind myself that it's not my house and it is perfectly suitable for living in.

However, when you come home to overgrown bushes and mud every day, it can be a downer.

Funny, the owner did trim these bushes yesterday. I don't know for sure what prompted it but I do know that trimmed off chunks of bush are lying in a long pile out there now. I am confident that they will be there for days to come.

I think I've finally broken Josie of the habit of running through the mud, getting in the car and then smearing her shoe all over the car door.

Ah, but better than coming home to overgrown landscaping is coming home to a water heater next to the driveway!

It's not lawn art, I checked. I left a subtle hint that we'd like it gone in the owner's mail. It's a flyer advertising free pick up of large items this week. I highlighted the date and where it listed water heater. See, I told you it was subtle.

We've told everyone about the compost pile in the back yard.

Nothing to fence it in, just grass and leaves added to it every other week. And children trying to climb into it. And the ant trail leading to it. Squirrels digging into it. Nowhere for it to get used.

The best part of the pile is the plywood and wires thrown into one end of it. Totally biodegradable!

I can only hope that the trimmed bushes get added to the compost pile.