A few weeks ago, I blogged about the project I planned to work on when my husband went away on business.  Well, we did it!

Unbeknownst to my dear husband, I purchased a book cataloguing program, with the aim of cataloguing his books.  Now mind you, this wasn't a project I thought I could complete in odd hours, or in a day or so.  The dear man has 28 boxes of books on the porch, and assorted others scattered about the house in piles or on bookshelves.  I knew I needed lots of time and simple meals, and as much help as possible from the kids.  And I needed him to be away.  The opportunity presented itself...and we plotted and planned.

In addition to cataloguing the books, the goal was to clean the porch.  I shall post before and after photos--they do speak louder than words.

Before:
This was what the porch looked like on the day we started.

We moved about nine boxes a day off the porch into the living room, as well as the piles stacked on top.  I set about getting them into the computer program.  The children read ISBN numbers off the books that had them, and then I did searches for the ones that did not.  (I still have a small pile of books I couldn't find on any of the searches--I will probably have to enter those manually.)

We did nine boxes each day from Wednesday to Friday, plus piles.  I also did the books upstairs where his "office" corner is.  By Friday night, the books were all moved off the porch, and it looked like this:

The living and dining rooms looked like this:
And yes we do store books in diaper boxes!

On Saturday, I had to do the last couple of boxes of books, clean the porch, put everything back, and clean the  house, all before we had to pick up my husband at 8:00 pm that evening.  (There was a reason I needed to have simple meals--I spent nearly all my waking hours doing something with books.)

We accomplished our goal--at least mostly.  I still need to do the books on the shelves in the house.

Here are the after photos:
 
I was going to post one of a tired but satisfied wife, but just realized that Boo had crept into the photo under my arm.  Since I don't make a practice of posting photos of the kids, you don't get to see the one of me either, until at least, I can do some photo-editing.

It is lovely to be able to walk on the porch without tripping over something.  It is also nice because I rearranged the shelves so we are able to get one window open for air.  I could even fit a chair back there some afternoon if I need/want to hide.

And I think that my husband is pleased.   He didn't say much, but I do find him wandering around out there on a frequent basis now.

Two weeks of life--no blogging.  Where do I start?  With last week I guess...

My parents were here for about five days.  We had a really nice time with them, but I can see how frail my Mom is getting.  In some ways their visit was difficult, but when you look at it from the standpoint of making memories, it was an excellent visit.

We played Tri-ominoes almost every evening.  It is Mom's favourite game, and it helps her mind to keep active.  We've been looking for the game, but can't seem to find it anywhere but online.  It looks like it is available on Amazon.uk, so maybe when we go to Scotland to visit, we can find it.

One afternoon the girls (Grandma, Belle and I) made a fabulous lemon meringue pie, while the boys (Grandpa, Daddy, and Boo) went fishing.  I think the pie was one of my best ones in recent times!  We were hard put not to finish it all at one time.

Boo was the successful fisherman of the day.  He caught his first fish--with a fly rod!  He was most pleased, and his Daddy, the Scottish minister, was extremely proud of his wee son.  Boo had landed the fish before he told his Daddy he caught it. 

There was much sadness after church on Sunday when the Grandparents departed.

But when Monday rolled around, swimming lessons started.  We signed up for the first two weeks of the summer session in our town's outdoor pool.  Now, one has to realize that we live in Canada, and even though we are south of the 45th parallel, the first two weeks in July can be somewhat chilly.  The poor children have been bravely entering the pool when the temperature outside is in the low 60s, and yesterday, the pool heater broke!  So today they shivered both inside and outside the water.  This year so few people signed up for the early lessons that there are only 4 kids in the pool during their session.  The folk in charge put my two together even though they are in separate levels.  They are having a good time so far, and I hope they both improve their skills.

The weather did warm up a bit today though, and it looks as though both the weather and the pool will be warm enough tomorrow.

And what have I been doing since we ended our school year???  Cooking, baking, cleaning (not much) and trying to keep together.  Granted, last week was very busy trying to keep things rolling smoothly with two extra people in the house.  This week is busy with swimming etc.  I have hope that the last two weeks of July will settle down a bit.  I have worked a little on some summer projects, but haven't accomplished a huge amount, and not nearly what I want to do.  When I worry, I wonder how I can possibly be ready to start school in August, but I know I need to just take one day at a time.

I think today is the first day since October that we have been able to open the windows without the furnace kicking in during the first few minutes.  I've washed all the sheets and remade the beds (a routine chore--believe me, I've done it more than once this winter!), and somehow the feeling of spring is definitely in the air!

It gives me the urge to get into some real spring cleaning.  Unfortunately I am still having some trouble with my little pain, and doing lessons all day doesn't exactly give one the time needed to tackle a big project.  So here I sit, trying to decide between blogging, knitting a row, or doing a bit of cross-stitch.  Maybe if I keep this short, I will have some time to do one of the other things.

The children are taking advantage of the mild weather and spending as much time as they can outdoors.  It is so quiet in here right now!  While there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground, I believe the "wellies" have come out.  Boo told me "I have to keep my toes curled up!" so I guess we will be shopping for a new pair soon.

Which reminds me of another funny of the day.  Boo is always asking math questions at the table--sometimes at the expense of eating his food.  Today after yet another problem presented, Daddy says "What does Boo plus chicken equal?"

Boo's immediate response?  "Cock-a-doodle-BOO!"  I'm still laughing!  I think he has inherited his Grandpa's ability to "Pun".

Ah Spring!  I am ready for it!  At the same time I dread it a bit--it will be so hard to keep the noses to the books when outdoors beckons...do you feel the same way?

It was a busy Friday.  We managed a bit of an Art lesson and a bit of Home Ec. this morning (making pizza), for our Friday fun day stuff.

This afternoon we went to skating where the children did very well--both skated on their own without a chair as a prop for most of the hour!  I was so pleased--and I need to take my camera.

Following skating we went to another town where somewhere around 30 homeschoolers had been scheduled to get some special swim training.  A program for the P.S's had some extra money available, and we were able to get in on that.  45 minutes of swimming with an instructor X 2 weeks.  The kids had a great time, and I was delighted that they were able to spend some time in a pool in the middle of winter, reviewing stuff they learned in swimming lessons over the summer.

The way home was pretty quiet, punctuated by loud yawns from the children.  They were tired, and so was Mommy!  And I didn't have to do anything except be there.  We picked up dinner from the grocery store on the way home, and now the children are in bed.  I went upstairs a few minutes ago and found them both still awake.  Despite heavy comforters, both had cold feet--and I KNOW from experience that it is impossible to go to sleep if your feet are cold.  So I bumped the heat up a notch in hopes that they will soon succumb to slumber.

Now I am sitting here wondering what to do--not bored because I have nothing to do, but wondering which of the million things I have to do would best be done with a tired brain.  This usually happens in the evening.  Sometimes I then get a second wind and start on something--forgetting to go to bed on time. Posting one of my usual unrelated photographs--this was taken around 7:30 a.m. one morning last month, as the moon was setting.

I woke up with a bad migraine today--the worst, and maybe the first I've had since November.  I made the mistake of not treating it aggressively at the beginning, and paid for it later when it didn't respond to the medication I did take.  Somehow I managed to get up, make breakfast and get lunch in the crockpot before it got unbearable.  Most of our morning lessons I conducted from a horizontal position on Belle's bed.  This morning I wasn't tired enough to be able to relax and just sleep it off.

It got better around lunchtime, and I managed to tackle some of our afternoon lessons, but I cut it short when the headache started to come back.  I did manage to get dinner in the oven before taking to the couch for the remainder of the afternoon.  Dinner now out of the way, and another dose of medication down, and I am coping for the moment--as long as I don't move my head suddenly.  I sincerely hope it is gone by tomorrow.

The children are very sympathetic to my plight, and of course didn't mind having more time to play today.  I am delighted with the fact that they can do more of their work semi-independently, just coming to me with questions.

Sometimes I wish I could just take a sick day and not worry about stuff piling up later in the week.  I felt I had to keep functioning for most of the day, because otherwise I'll be "behind" for the rest of the week.  I should feel fortunate because this isn't a busier week.

Here's to a better tomorrow!

Today Boo said to Grandma, "I wish you could stay for five months!"
To which Grandma replied, "Surely you would get tired of me and want me to go home if I stayed that long."
Boo's immediate response was a hug and a resounding, "I would NEVER get tired of you, Grandma!  I love my Grandmas!"

Tonight I had to put my foot down.  The children are sharing a bedroom and for the last five nights, have been keeping each other awake.  It was showing today....attitudes and bickering, and a state of not-knowing-what-to-do-with-themselves.

At least the weather cooperated a bit.  I was able to send them out with wellies and coats to bring in firewood this afternoon, and Grandma and I were able to walk to the post office for the mail.  Had this not been possible, I think we all might have gone stir-crazy.  The weather was beautiful when the sun was out briefly.  This is what I love about Fall--the sunshine on the leaves that have turned beautiful shades of yellow, orange and brown.

I gave the children most of the day off so I could sew, and I made a skirt for Belle.  I have material for two, but I am just not fast enough at sewing to do two in one day.  They did do math tests and worked on their Grandma lapbook.  But tomorrow it is back to the books, for the morning at least--they need the routine.

The other day, I was down in the basement doing the washing when a wee little field mouse ran by me.  It was little and brown and had a cute face---BUT it was in my basement!  We have had a mouse only one other time, right after we moved in.  I never saw that one until after it was caught.  A month later we had six feet of snow in one month.  It being my first winter here I was not phased.  I thought that was normal for this little town in the snow belt.  Then I heard that it broke records for years and years!

But I digress.  This little mouse ran out again when I was down rotating the laundry the next time.  And my dear hubby and I had just been talking about the many many birds at the feeders these days, and wondering if their presence was indicating stormy weather in the offing.  Anyway, I called him down, and informed him that the trap needed to be set.   We were both sad about this as mice, field mice at least, are cute.  But we baited the trap with peanut butter and waited.

Today I was back down with more laundry--it never ends, does it?  And the wee mouse ran out in front of me again.  The next time, it was no more.  I was confident that it did not suffer as its head was securely in the trap, and those traps are very effective.

I will keep you posted on the kind of winter we have this year....

Grandma and Grandpa are up.  One of the first things my Dad said to me was "We need to use your kitchen.  We brought strawberries to make jam."  They had arrived mid-afternoon, and I was thinking about dinner, so my first thought was "Now?".  But it was decided to do it after dinner was cleaned up and the children were in bed.

So after dinner we topped strawberries by the seeming millions and made jam.  It is my first time making anything but freezer jam, so I learned a lot.  I did make freezer jam, as we had more than enough berries for one batch of jam.  We had also had strawberry shortcake for dessert.

The children are in swimming lessons these two weeks.  Today it was thundering and raining so the kids had a "dry" lesson, coloring and learning safety things.  I hope they can swim tomorrow--especially since our town's pool has developed a leak, so I have to drive 15 minutes to the next town for lessons.

I'm toast tonight.  I have 12 things already on my list for tomorrow, and that doesn't count the little stuff, so I'd better think about heading to bed.

It has been a very nice week so far.  I did spend Monday trying to conquer last week's Mt. Washmore, and I am delighted to say that after washing, drying and putting away six loads, I got on top until tomorrow--when I need to wash sheets.  I also baked bread from scratch, made stew in the crockpot, and brownies from a mix--all in preparation for my brother's visit.

He arrived late afternoon, and while we miss his dear wife (she is away on a trip with friends), we are enjoying his visit immensely!  I have listened to stories of life overseas in the evenings, and the children have enjoyed building long long Lego trucks and renovating their Lego house with their Uncle.  We also worked on filling in/evening out the bumpy back yard.  Today we have plans to do a little bit of shopping--since the weather has not been conducive to taking the children for long walks or on a bike ride.

I've been to the Dr. again about the migraines, and we have opted to try a preventative (hopefully) medication rather than a traditional migraine med.  I have a month or two (barring any problems) to see if this works before I have to go and see her again.

It has been nice to take a few days off formal lessons and to let the children have some life lessons--getting to know an Uncle they haven't seen much in the past four years.  In my spare time I have been working on some projects around the house--sorting recipes, and organizing ebooks on the computer.  I would also enjoy an evening cross-stitching if I get a chance.

She threw up only once last night and then slept for most of the night.

I, on the other hand, didn't.  Somewhere around 2 a.m. I woke up with a migraine.  With the fogginess of one just awakened, I thought it might "go away" if I just lay still.  An hour or so later it was much much worse.  I think it was one of the worst I have had recently.  I dragged myself out of bed and downstairs so I could eat a piece of bread and take some medicine.  Some time after that I found sleep.

This morning I woke up feeling wiped out.  Post-migraine fatigue, I guess.  I made it through breakfast and morning lessons, and gave up after lunch, choosing a nap over afternoon lessons.  I still don't feel totally myself, but hope that will improve after a walk in the rain tonight.  (Hopefully it won't pour while we are out.)

Tomorrow we all get to go to the dentist.  I predict pain in the pocketbook.  Some time after that I hope life will return to some semblance of normal--the normal that gives me nothing to blog about.

Three to go.  But I sure hope not!  Belle had a great day of lessons (we all did) and seemed fine all day.  After supper I noticed she didn't look herself at all.  She was a bit green around the gills and had a bit of a tummy ache.  No fever.  Sure enough, after lying down for a bit, she started throwing up.  Very sour tummy.  I can still hear rumbles.  I hope this isn't the beginning of a night of it.  Belle has always had trouble stopping once the vomiting starts.  Fortunately I have medicine on hand, and will give it to her if the throwing up persists.

I'd been looking forward all day to my walk with a friend.  Now I can look forward to it tomorrow. Lol.  Oh and I am hoping that no one else succumbs.  Dear husband has nursing home duty tomorrow and we all have dental appointments on Wednesday.  This could be an interesting week.

Gotta keep a sense of humour....

Six years ago today, and it was a Saturday too, I was recovering from the birth of my second child, and marveling that I would have two children both born on Saturdays, both in time to allow my minister husband to take regular services on Sunday.

I can hardly believe how fast time has gone.  Now he is six, growing like a weed, with a wonderful sense of humor, and an eagerness to learn that would encourage any teacher.

We had a very nice day, and now at almost 9 p.m., he is still awake and bright-eyed, even though he has been in bed for an hour.

Grandparents are here safely, in spite of the snow-covered roads, and we are all happy to see them.  I am hoping for a restful and enjoyable time for them for the next few days.

I love you, Boo!

Yes, it is the beginning of the last year of my thirties.  It is also the anniversary of my engagement to my husband--12 years ago today, he asked me to marry him.  And yes, he did propose on my birthday!

Yesterday I baked an apple pie--the closest thing to a birthday cake for me.  We enjoyed half of it today--the other half is for tomorrow.

The presents from my immediate family are still to come.  I am not sure of all I am getting, but I know some of it will be some Pampered Chef tools.  I am invited to another neighbour's party at the end of the month, and I am looking forward to that for sure!

Tomorrow I hope to take most of the day off (apart from washing sheets and a few other household chores), to celebrate my birthday.  In the morning, we plan to work on a project for our science course, but the rest of the day will be free for them.  I hope to get in an hour or two of cross-stitch.

One of my goals for this year is to finish a major cross-stitch project.  I am not sure which one yet, as I have several on the go, but I think doing that will mean cutting back on computer time in the evenings.  That will not be a bad thing, although I still hope to keep up on everyones' blogs.

It has been a nice day for a birthday--the nicer thing about it is that I get to keep on celebrating--tomorrow, and next weekend when my parents come to visit.

Boo's sad saga of illness continues.  On Friday night a rash appeared on his right arm.  Itchy raised bumps, some filled with fluid.  The poor boy was quite unhappy with the itch.  By Saturday morning it was on the palm of his hand.  Some of you are folk with medical backgrounds.  How many rashes show up on the palms?  Not too many.  This prompted a call to the hospital for a visit with the on-call doctor.

We went in, and were seen and closely examined for all the symptoms of other things that affect the palms of the hands, and came home with a diagnosis of a "zoster-type" rash.  He was immunized for chickenpox, and this doesn't look like chickenpox.  It does look like shingles, although it is not presenting as shingles normally does.  Fortunately for him, he is not (at this point anyway) experiencing the pain that often accompanies shingles, but he does itch.  He is being a very good boy, and is not scratching.  I am so proud of him.

Other than the rash and a stuffy nose, he is behaving much like a well child.  He did all his schoolwork today and played well.  The only other thing I am noticing is that by dinner time, he looks tired.

We have missed church for two weeks now.  I have enjoyed sermons from the internet, mostly from pastors in our own denomination.  But I have also missed the fellowship of being in our own congregation.  I hope that Boo will be well enough to go next Sunday.  The downside of the life of a pastor's wife is that you don't get to trade off going to services when the children are ill.

Other than that bit of excitement, life has gone on much as normal.  We had a full day of school today.  I also cooked a chicken to make broth, made leek soup, and biscuits, and fortunately for me, had leftovers for lunch.  I'm doing something different for the rest of the week, and that is attempting to do our main meal at supper time--hoping that reduces some of the morning stress.  More likely it will just move the stress to the afternoon, but we'll see how it goes.  Cooking is just not my favorite thing to do on a daily basis.  And actually, Belle did most of the biscuit-making today.  They turned out lovely and light!

Well, we all did pretty well at our little town fair this past weekend.  Five first prizes, including Belle's sewing, my cross-stitch, my bread, my husband's Tea Biscuits, and Boo's Lego camper; three second prizes, on Belle's drawing, my cinnamon buns, and my husband's cheese scones, and one third prize--on the Scottish shortbread.  My loaf of bread (as a first prize winner) was auctioned off for all of $2.00!

We, among others, are of the "humble" opinion that the judges were not aware of what real shortbread looks or tastes like.  His shortbread looks more like Walker's or Dean's than any I've seen.  Oh well, he still gets his pound of butter as a prize.

The kids took part in a Pedal Tractor Pull.  I was wishing I had my camera.  Belle came in third place (out of three ), but she came home with a medal and was pleased as punch to receive it.  Boo managed to pedal his tractor all of six feet, while a couple of other farm boys his age got it all the way to the end.  (Hmm....guess we need to do a bit more PE around here).

All in all, it was a good weekend.  I had done my usual house cleaning on Friday, so I had the day to play.

Well I managed to get photos taken and loaded onto the computer.  Let me see if I can successfully upload them to my blog.

Belle finished her project today too, and is quite delighted with her success.   So am I.  I am the epitome of the proud Mommy!

My dear husband is downstairs in the kitchen at this moment, preparing his entries for the Fair.  My bread is baked, and I also made cinnamon buns to enter.  Imagine doing all this when the temperature in the house is approaching 80 degrees.  We seem to be getting a final dose of summer.

Without further ado...

Well the children seem to be on the mend.  Boo is nearly back to his normal self--although perhaps a bit more irritable than usual.  Belle is much better than she was on Saturday.  I didn't have to give her anything for throat pain until this evening--after she complained of a headache again, and I could tell her throat was hurting a bit.  The throat still looks awful--swollen bumps and spotty.  Her temperature is nearly back to normal--just enough elevated to tell me her body is fighting the infection.

Wonder of wonders is that we managed to get most of a school day done!  The only thing I gave up on was the Read Aloud, knowing that we would have time to catch up on that later.  We started late both morning and afternoon.  Morning we managed to catch up.  This afternoon we didn't.

I'm struggling at bit with the usual back-to-lessons letdown.  My time off was busy enough that I was always doing something around the house.  Now I have just added 4-5 hours of school and prep time a day--except for Friday when things seem to be a bit easier.  Of course, it may seem worse since the kids were too sick to do their regular chores.  It should get better again soon.

Last night I had hoped to spend some time watching the meteor shower.  The children wanted to, also, so I told them I would think of waking them up.  Boo woke up twice before I went to sleep, but I told him it was probably too early to see anything.  I woke up just before the alarm was set to go off at 3 AM, and went to the window to look.  I saw at least two before trying to wake anyone up.  Then I went and got Belle.  She was excited at the prospect of watching and woke up right away.  Boo, however, was sleeping the sleep of the exhausted--totally limp and not wake-able.  So Belle and I put on our clogs and bathrobes, and ventured out to the deck to watch.  We were able to see some from there, but were bothered by the street light, so we carefully searched the yard with the flashlight--looking for skunks and raccoons--before we headed down the steps to a darker patch.  Our back yard is so full of trees that we didn't have a wide expanse for viewing, but we still managed to see around 15 meteors in the 30 minutes that we spent outside.  It was a very fun time.

Of course, being up in the middle of the night meant that we slept in this morning--hence our late start into lessons.

Well, another one is down.  Belle came down with the fever and sore throat all of a sudden last night, after having a headache a few hours earlier.  I put her to bed as I'd given her something for the headache earlier.  That wore off around midnight, so I was up to give her something for the fever.  She slept all night. 

This morning, I phoned our local hospital (plays urgent care when the clinic is shut) bright and early.  They called us back before breakfast to come in and have her checked.  She opted to treat, and didn't even culture this time.  As soon as we got home, Belle promptly threw up all that she had taken in this morning.

So dear husband was off to the store to fill a prescription and get something for the nausea (which worked wonders), and now Belle is two doses of antibiotic in and asleep on the sofa.

I am functioning on about six hours of sleep, and am currently contemplating a nap.  Trouble is, the sofa is occupied, and I took all the sheets off ALL the beds to wash them, and haven't made them up again yet.

Dear Husband is not feeling 100% either, but has been informed that adults rarely get strep.  So we watch and wait and hope he is able to preach tomorrow.

We had a lovely time with my parents.  The children really enjoyed playing croquet with them in the back yard, especially after Grandpa decided they should take two strokes at a time for every one of the adults'.  Without being able to do that they had a hard time keeping up.  When they get a little better at the game they will lose that advantage.

Swimming this year was both a success and disappointment.  Both children made large gains in their confidence and abilities.  Boo was able to pass his level fairly easily.  Belle, however, had a long list of criteria to meet in order to pass hers, and she achieved over half of the list.  Turns out that only a few in her class received their badges, and she was not one of them.  One of the lifeguards informed us that several of them were talking about what a joy she was to teach!  That was an encouragement to us.  She really tried hard this year!

Grandma and Grandpa left this afternoon.  We were able to postpone the worst of the doldrums by taking them out for chocolate milk and cookies.  Then they played in the sprinkler for a while before their baths.  That was fun too, but you could tell that at times the pain of missing grandparents was acute.  Now they are both in bed, and I think, both asleep, but not before tears of sadness from Boo.  It is such a blessing having them close enough to visit at times though.  We would miss so much if they were far away.

Next week will be a week of preparation for starting our lessons the following week, as well as for doing some tasks we haven't completed yet this summer, all Lord willing.

Yes, it is number 11 for us!  I can hardly believe the time has passed so quickly!  It almost seems like yesterday when we were baking in record-breaking heat (it was 105 degrees in Portland that day), and waiting for our photographer.  He was almost a no-show, for he had gotten the date wrong and would have been out of town if it hadn't been for the fact that his wife was called into work.

It was a good day, but I have to admit that I am glad that it was a good day in the past.  I sure wouldn't want to do it over again.

Today is being mostly a quiet day at home.  We spent the afternoon shopping yesterday, and today I had to put all the stuff away.  I do have plans to spend time doing stuff I like--like cross-stitching, and baking.  I am planning to make Rhubarb pie for after dinner.  We are planning to go out to the little cafe in town for dinner, but will have desert at home.

My dear husband blessed me with...an iPod!  I guess maybe he is tired of listening to the stuff I listen to on the computer.  It is wonderful--so easy to wear around when I'm working around the house.  I know that I won't use it all the time--mainly because I don't want to tune out around the family, but I am very very happy to have it.

I'm away to do a bit of stitching--in the afternoon, no less!

It is a beautiful quiet morning.  Only Belle and I are up, and she is being quiet upstairs.  It looks like it will be another nice day today.

We've been having a good time with my parents.  They have slept well so far, and look less tired than they did when they arrived. 

Yesterday the highlight of my day was rediscovering, with Dad, a compost bin that was left here when the previous owners left.  It is in good condition with a little bit of dirt in the bottom, but it was as far away from the house as it could be--tucked between our garage/barn and the fence.  So I moved it to the other corner of the garage--still mostly out of sight, and I plan to try my hand at composting.   I haven't got a clue really, but I've been looking things up on the web, and I guess I'll learn by doing.

We also drove out to a local greenhouse, run by a Mennonite lady, to buy some plants for our garden.  So far I am not ambitious, nor confident enough to try to start my own from seed.  It is a bit cool still to put them in without covering at night, so they are sitting on the porch, being carefully watered and watched by my husband.

Today, I think the plan is to stay around, so between fixing three meals for everyone today, and preparing most of two for tomorrow, I would like to do a bit of weeding around the flowers and edge trimming.  It is really nice to be able to do stuff for a few days without having to think of planning lessons.  We'll be back to it on Wednesday, but right now it is nice to have the time off.