i like Canada more than America?; schedule change
Happy belated 4th of July out there! ironic how i was on time with saying Happy Canada Day and plum forgot to post about my own country's independence day (you were in my thoughts the whole day though!!!). well, at least my friends back home are celebrating right. we already played with firecrackers like a week ago, so it was kind of redundant to do it again so soon. plus, it's been raining cats and dogs because the rainy season has started :P between the rain, humidity and all around gray days, i haven't been the most jubilant of people lately ^_^;; the most i did to celebrate the 4th was to put Kay in her annual red, white and blue patriotic dress, which still fits her thank goodness ^_^ i didn't get a pic this year, but here's a pic of her from last year in it:
she's grown up to 105 cm now, so she had to wear some red capri pants with it :) i was tempted to teach the kids at the daycare the American anthem, but decided not to in the end because i thought that was a bit selfish of me ^_^;; the kids probably don't even know how to sing the Japanese anthem, so can't be pushing my own culture on the kids before their own :P
yea, so i've been really grouchy lately, and i blame it on the weather and i guess a little on my new schedule. despite the fact that i agreed to increasing my hours, because i want the daycare to cover for me and my family's health insurance, i still need to get used to all the full days i have to work now in the week.
what prompted the change, you ask? well, we got a big stack of national health insurance bills from the gov't last week, and all i can say is that we were happy that our income for the previous year was pretty much 0, because we still had to pay the minimum required by the gov't, which wasn't much, but still a big chunk of money.
so wait... you have no income and you STILL have to pay for health insurance??
yes, it's an archaic system that is pretty much bankrupting the country in a way... :P if you want to know more, here's a wiki link that explains all about it :)
basically, since both hubs and i aren't "full time employees", we have to pay 30% of our medical fees. this also ties in with how much your making in a year too. so the more you make, the more you pay, in a sense. there are a lot more details to this as well, but the bottom line for us is come next year when my income at the daycare is accounted for, we'll have to fork over a huuuuge chunk of that to pay for our health insurance because of that 30%.
so in order to prevent that from happening, i asked the daycare if they could cover me and my family. they'd already asked me before if i wanted to raise my hours, so i could get insured by them, but i would have had to work an extra 4-6 hours (total in a week: over 30 hours). i wasn't too keen on that idea at that time since i liked having my half days, but when hubs pointed out how much we would be spending just on our health insurance bill next year, i thought it'd be best for the whole family to raise my hours. so now, i'm working 32 hrs a week, Monday-Fridays at the daycare and 4 hrs at the Eikaiwa on Saturdays.
my new schedule will take some time to get used to, but we can always use the extra money :) besides, the time that i use to work on lesson plans for the daycare at home, i'm getting paid for to do at the daycare now, so yay for that too! ^_^
hopefully, i won't be totally pooped out on Sunday, because we're going to be celebrating Kay's 5th birthday then! i'm still figuring out what to do for Kay on Monday at the daycare. last year, i made a whole bunch of cookies for our playgroup in Taiwan, but can't do that for the daycare kids, i don't think... ^_^; well, one thing is for sure and that is Kay's wearing her princess ball gown on that day. she insisted, so i'll give her that since it's her birthday ^_^;; i'll try to remember and take pics this time :)
she's grown up to 105 cm now, so she had to wear some red capri pants with it :) i was tempted to teach the kids at the daycare the American anthem, but decided not to in the end because i thought that was a bit selfish of me ^_^;; the kids probably don't even know how to sing the Japanese anthem, so can't be pushing my own culture on the kids before their own :P
yea, so i've been really grouchy lately, and i blame it on the weather and i guess a little on my new schedule. despite the fact that i agreed to increasing my hours, because i want the daycare to cover for me and my family's health insurance, i still need to get used to all the full days i have to work now in the week.
what prompted the change, you ask? well, we got a big stack of national health insurance bills from the gov't last week, and all i can say is that we were happy that our income for the previous year was pretty much 0, because we still had to pay the minimum required by the gov't, which wasn't much, but still a big chunk of money.
so wait... you have no income and you STILL have to pay for health insurance??
yes, it's an archaic system that is pretty much bankrupting the country in a way... :P if you want to know more, here's a wiki link that explains all about it :)
basically, since both hubs and i aren't "full time employees", we have to pay 30% of our medical fees. this also ties in with how much your making in a year too. so the more you make, the more you pay, in a sense. there are a lot more details to this as well, but the bottom line for us is come next year when my income at the daycare is accounted for, we'll have to fork over a huuuuge chunk of that to pay for our health insurance because of that 30%.
so in order to prevent that from happening, i asked the daycare if they could cover me and my family. they'd already asked me before if i wanted to raise my hours, so i could get insured by them, but i would have had to work an extra 4-6 hours (total in a week: over 30 hours). i wasn't too keen on that idea at that time since i liked having my half days, but when hubs pointed out how much we would be spending just on our health insurance bill next year, i thought it'd be best for the whole family to raise my hours. so now, i'm working 32 hrs a week, Monday-Fridays at the daycare and 4 hrs at the Eikaiwa on Saturdays.
my new schedule will take some time to get used to, but we can always use the extra money :) besides, the time that i use to work on lesson plans for the daycare at home, i'm getting paid for to do at the daycare now, so yay for that too! ^_^
hopefully, i won't be totally pooped out on Sunday, because we're going to be celebrating Kay's 5th birthday then! i'm still figuring out what to do for Kay on Monday at the daycare. last year, i made a whole bunch of cookies for our playgroup in Taiwan, but can't do that for the daycare kids, i don't think... ^_^; well, one thing is for sure and that is Kay's wearing her princess ball gown on that day. she insisted, so i'll give her that since it's her birthday ^_^;; i'll try to remember and take pics this time :)