1) It’s officially Thanksgiving break.
Asher actually has this entire week off! Lucky him. Ethan had school Monday and Tuesday, complete with several tests and quizzes. He’s done now until next Monday.
I don’t really have much of a break. I mean, I’m obviously off Thursday, but I didn’t take Friday off.
Due to the way our travel plans are working out for 2024, I am going to be using a lot of my allotted vacation days in the first half of the year. Since at my hospital the vacation hours have to be accrued/earned before we can use them, it means that I will be running pretty low on days by mid June. As in, besides our planned vacations, I cannot really take any other vacation days until after June 15. (Not counting holidays, etc.)
It’s not actually that bad- I mean, I have 2 full weeks scheduled off over Christmas, a week in March, and then two weeks off in June. But I don’t have much wiggle room to take extra, random days off (unless I flex my hours or something) until after our June trip (and I re-accumulate more vacation hours).
I do have a half day tomorrow though (using “sick/appointment time”) because I scheduled back to back eye doctor and dentist appts for the boys! On Ethan’s first no school day. I’m such a fun mom!!! 😅
2) Book gift idea: “Kid Legends “ Series
I mentioned this series to my sister as a Christmas idea (she has a 4, 6, and 8 year old) the other day and thought I’d share here, too:
My boys used to LOVE these books. Love love love! They read them all on repeat. These are so fun and so good (and educational).
Each book contains short (true) stories about famous athletes, artists, scientists, etc and their lives when they were kids.
3) Made egg muffins this weekend and the boys (especially Asher) are obsessed.
Made half with egg/bacon/cheese and half with egg/sausage/cheese. SO EASY (just beat eggs, add the cooked bacon, cheese, salt and pepper) and bake for 12-15 minutes.
Keep in a Tupperware in the fridge, grab, heat a few seconds in the microwave and eat! I am sure these are not a novel idea, but I haven’t made these in ages. They are such a great thing for us to have on hand.
4) Charlie in front of the Christmas tree:
This was this morning, when I was calling him to go in his crate for a while. He was like, “Um, no, I’m good. If I just sit very still and cute, can I stay out with you all day??? 🥺”
Okay, that’s all for now. I need to get to bed… Asher is going to the early 5:30 am swim tomorrow because they moved the other, evening practice to 10:30 am due to the upcoming holiday and no school tomorrow… but he has a dentist appt at that time. So it’s 5:30 or nothing. 
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for an interesting work project I’ve been doing that has been kinda fun 🙂
GRATEFUL KAE 
It sounds like you are going to have a lot of good time off in 2024, so I guess sucking it up now is the name of the game. I have to work tomorrow (Wednesday) but will hopefully get out early, then the 4 day weekend. Yay!
Those egg muffins look great.
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thanks for the book recommendation, will check it out for lizzy.
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Okay, you and I will be trudging off to work on Black Friday together! I do have today off though, so I’m not complaining. My son is home all week, my daughter and husband have no school all week, so it feels very festive around here. And no school for my daughter means less work for me. I could have requested Friday off, but like you, I have some days coming up (in January and February) that I’m taking off, so it makes more sense to work now.
Charlie!!! Yes, he probably figures if he sits quietly in front of the Christmas tree looking adorable, you won’t have the heart to put him in his crate.
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Because I just started a new job, I have very little vacation. I am taking Friday off because otherwise I would literally be the only one in my office and that is creeptastic. So I’m actually borrowing ahead for vacation time (which is FINE, it’s just that I’d have to pay it back if I was fired and/or quit) and I don’t really love that, so I’m in the office today on Wednesday and the phone has rung once, I haven’t gotten a single email, and I’m getting paid to read blogs. Next year I’ll definitely take off Wednesday AND Friday like everyone else.
Remember that Charlie doesn’t see his crate as a punishment! It’s a cozy, safe place for him to hang out!
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You have some exciting time off to look forward to in the months ahead but it’s kind of nerve wracking to have very little wiggle room. Although it sounds like your sick time comes from a different bucket? We don’t have any sort of defined PTO policy at work. I try to target taking 6 weeks off/year but I am at about 4 weeks for the year. And some of my days off were due to school closure or Paul’s surgery in August, etc. So not like “fun” days off. I am working on trying to take more of these “shouldless days” in the future. I have 2 days marked off ahead of Christmas so I think one will be a shouldless day and the other will be a more productive get ready for Christmas kind of day.
I don’t have to work this Friday, though. My new hire and I split up the days so I am working today and he’ll monitor emails on Friday. It should be very very quiet as a lot of our clients (financial advisors) are not working. Paul is at the after school program today (they provide child care for most of the non-school days). He gets to go to Grand Slam this afternoon for laser tag, trampoline, arcade games, mini golf, etc and Will is at daycare. So today is a pretty normal day but it is very quiet at work which I am LOVING. Have a very happy Thanksgiving!!
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When I worked in an office, I remember that sometimes I really enjoyed working the days around the holidays. Most people were gone and it felt really laid back.
I do the doctor’s appointments thing on my kid’s day off too. Fun moms unite!
And thanks for the reminder about egg muffins — I have been intending to make some for a long time; they are one of the only ways I semi-tolerate eating eggs, and eggs are such a great source of protein.
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Sometimes I like working days around holidays like others mention because they are so much quieter and in my experience, end up being shorter days. And yay for egg muffins, my breakfast every. single. day! I love how compact and yet have so much nutrition/energy in them, and so quick and easy to reheat/eat on the go.
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If it’s any consolation, I am working on Friday too. We have to accrue our vacation time too and I am trying to always keep a nice balance in my account (just in case) but it sounds like you have enough time off until June.
How many days of PTO do you get??
I think I have never made egg muffins. Can you believe that? 🙂
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I currently get 5 weeks of pure vacation time, not counting holidays or any “floating holidays” (holidays that fall on the weekend that then become extra vacation days (sometimes up to 1-2 per year)). But when we switched to the accrual method a few years back, I had sort of saved up a bit of a balance and rolled those forward into my next year. So I’ve been kind of carrying a buffer of hours forward, if that makes sense, which is why even though I have 5 weeks scheduled off already before June, I will still have more time accruing after that that I can use in this calendar year, if I want. The hours just keep accumulating and rolling forward- we don’t have to necessarily use them all up in the year. There is just some max number we can’t accrue past without using it, but it’s BIG and I definitely use my time off so it’s not a problem. 😉
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Love the gift idea- my boys are 6 and 8 and I think they will enjoy these. Happy Thanksgiving!
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We also accrue our hours, but can use them ahead of time but would have to pay them back if we quit, so I try not to do that just in case. We also can only roll over 5 days to the next year, so I try not to leave more than that (which is not hard, as I too use my vacation up pretty much every year!). However, I do like having a few extra just in case, although we also have sick hours that I never use (but can be used for kid’s appointments and things like that)!
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As a 10 month public school employee, we have 15 illness days per academic year in addition to whatever days you have accumulated from years prior. We also have 3 personal days per academic year. I like to take all my personal days- although they turn into sick days so we don’t loose them. If I’m sick or the kids are sick, then I draw from the personal day “bank” if I need a mental health day I also take from there. Personal days is save for first time kinder garden drop off, taking an extra day for spring break travel, and my kids school graduation ceremonies.
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