Mama Dani's Musings: 2014

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Good Bye 2014, Hello 2015!!

It's that time again! Time to say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new year. I like to say goodbye to the old year by reminiscing.

In 2014:

We begun the new year will lots of new life in our little suburban homestead ...and more in February! ...and more later in the year that I didn't blog about, including hatching eggs under a broody hen for the first time.
I focused on my crafty side and opened up my Etsy shop: Made by Mama Dani
I started the year having just lost a few daycare kiddos but have ended the year with a full house and a nice wait list for my home daycare.
We said goodbye to our beloved Dachshund Annabelle.
And said hello to a little firecracker Boomer.
We started a new school year with Sean in the 1st grade and Maddy in kindergarten.
I brought back Fun Lunches for the kids.
The kids had a fun and busy year with Maddy continuing dance, Sean continuing soccer, and Sean starting scouts, and we all started going swimming at the ymca: update post #1 and update post #2
Maddy turned 5, Sean turned 7 and Emily turned 3 this year. ...my my have they been growing!
Richard and I celebrated 8 years of marriage!
I became serious about bettering myself. I logged my food and made better choices. I worked out regularly with cardio, weight lifting, swimming, and yoga. I've lost about 14 lbs!

Onto the new year! My intentions for 2015:

As cliche as this is, I plan to continue working at bettering myself. I will work on the last 20-30 lbs I want to lose. I will continue to make good food choices. I will continue to work on making exercise part of my routine. I plan to lift weights 2-3 times a week, have regular swim time with the family, and regularly practice yoga. Join me on my facebook group Girls Rule {Boys Drool} Fitness and/or on MyFitnessPal
I will be beginning the year with 30 days of Yoga with Yoga with Adriene. I'm going to give morning yoga a shot, wake up and get on the mat before I do anything.
I will find more time to read. I am working on Wicked and then plan to read the other 3 books in the series.
I will learn more sign language and share it with the children I care for. I will start this with one of my Christmas gifts this year: Sign to Learn: American Sign Language in the Early Childhood Classroom
I will expand my butterfly garden this spring. I need to add more nectar plants to attract more butterflies and need to replenish the Milkweed that did not return this year.
I need to remember to write down all the cute kid moments I want to remember years from now: with my Kids Say series
And lastly, I will continue with my creative outlet: knitting and crocheting. I have started a stack of crocheted granny squares. My goal is to continue at least 1 square a day until I have enough for a patchwork blanket for myself.

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Saturday, September 27, 2014

This Week's Lunches: Sept. 22-26

Monday:

Elephant shaped pb&J sandwiches, orange, some of our jello plant cell model

(grape = chloroplast and orange = nucleus)

Tuesday:

Ham/turkey roll ups, cheddar cut outs, pineapple, pretzels, hummus

(hummus wasn't a big hit)

Wednesday:

Princess and Cars cut out ham sandwiches, raisins, ants on a log

(ants on a log was not a hit)

Thursday: no picture...just left over spaghetti in normal bowls

Friday: A huge hit thanks to the veggies

Carrots in a spinach cup, chicken burgers, bread sticks

ranch and ketchup for dipping

Friday, September 19, 2014

Our Lunches: Sept. 15-19

Monday was a huge hit!

Ham/lettuce wraps, cucumbers, and pretzels

Tuesday was a flop...

Black beans, tomatoes, and rice over lettuce, grapes, and tortilla chips

Wednesday was another hit!

Face sandwich (pepperoni mouth and ears, provolone and food marker eyes, lettuce hair), pretzels, and peaches

Thursday:

Mini shells, peas, diced ham, covered in shredded cheese, bell peppers, and spinach dip

Friday: somewhat of a flop

Flower shaped pb&j sandwich (even the kids asked "what is that suppose to be?"), mixed veggies, and apple slices

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Who said homeschoolers miss out on socialization!? Mine most certainly do not! Fall is just about here so all our activities have started up again. Sean is continuing with soccer. Moving up to U7 he's playing on a bigger field, bigger goals, games are longer, and they have referees. I love watching him play. He enjoys it so much!

Sean has started a second activity. This one he's been counting down to since he could pretty much talk. Last week he begun Cub Scouts as a Tiger Cub. Isn't he cute in his uniform!? He's following two of his role models with scouts: eagle scout, Uncle Justin, and scout master, Granddad. Sean and Granddad were both so excited that Sean was finally old enough to join that Granddad helped Sean go to his first meeting will almost all the requirements for the bobcat badge signed off on. All Sean needs now is to learn the cub scout law. Don't let the sourpuss look fool you; he was just annoyed with me for taking another picture because the one before was blurry.

Maddy is continuing with dance again this year. It's her third year and she's moved up to first year barre. She also has a different teacher this year...the same teacher I had most of my time in dance. She has also tried out hip hop but isn't sure if she's going to continue with it.

And lastly, we recently joined the YMCA. While on vacation a few weeks ago we did a lot of swimming in the hotel's pool. Maddy took to the water like a fish. With frequent opportunities and a little nudge, I believe she will be swimming in no time. Sean, however, was the opposite. He clung to the stairs and didn't even want to be carried out into the water. The YMCA that we joined has an outdoor pool that starts as a splash park and gradually gets deeper. We've gone 3 times now and it has done a wonder on both children. Maddy's jumping in, going under water, and begging for time without her puddle jumper on. Sean will not only leave the stairs but will swim the length of the pool with his puddle jumper on. He will also slide from sitting on the side into the water at the 3ft level. Major improvements!! This is now how we end the week. Friday evenings we go swimming as a family. With scouts, dance, and soccer taking up 3 of the 5 weekday evenings, it's nice to have 1 weekday evening where we get to relax and enjoy an activity together.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Fun Lunches Are Back!

You might remember back in 2011 our fun lunches started out as muffin tin meals then I branched out and just made lunches that weren't necessarily in muffin tins but still fun. Well, those fun lunches are back, with a twist. I bought EasyLunchboxes (Brights) and EasyLunchboxes (Classic) for our containers. Not all of our lunches will be fun and extra pretty but the kids think that the containers alone make their lunch fun now. Here's what we've had for lunches so far:

Last Friday was our first: ham/turkey rollups, provolone flowers, cheddar moons, bread stars, goldfish (note for next time: separate them; they got soggy), grapes, peaches, pineapple

Monday: Dino sandwiches, bell peppers, ranch for dipping

Tuesday: zucchini veggie pasta, cheese cut outs, ranch for dipping (can you tell the kids love dips!?), ham/turkey rollups, crackers

Wednesday: Owl shaped sandwich (cucumber & raisin eyes, cheese beak), cucumber & ranch, yogurt & m&m's

Thursday: Whole wheat quesadillas, salsa & sour cream, pineapple

Friday: PB&J sandwich, yogurt, banana

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

History Lesson: What is History?

Today was our first lesson using Story of the World. The lesson was: What is history? and How do we know? We read the pages out of SOTW but didn't do either of the activities they suggest. Instead, I winged it. I have a lot of family history documents for my mother's side of the family so we pulled out the resources and worked on a family timeline. We had the knowledge that we know, my phone to text grandma to ask her for her birth year, the computer to access the family tree website I made awhile back, my great grandparents' passports, a family bible from the late 1800s, and a photo album of other documents such as birth, marriage, and death certificates, newspaper clippings and letters (mid 1900s). We did a second timeline to go off from our main timeline. The second timeline was for the children listed in family bible. Those children were born from 1892-shortly after 1914 (the only date we have on the last born is the day she died). Amongst these children was Sean and Maddy's Great Great Grandmother, Pearl. We learned that Pearl had 15 brothers and sisters. Sean was most interested in how many siblings Pearl had. Maddy was most interested in finding her middle name throughout our family history. We discussed how names are sometimes passed down through families and found several names that have made their way through our family tree.

The Beginning of Our 2014-2015 School Year

Monday was the beginning of this year's school year. Even with doing a little school over the summer, the kids were excited to get back into the swing of things. I plan on getting back into the swing of blogging our schooling. However, I will not be blogging everything we do.

This year Sean and Maddy will be learning science and history together and will be doing math and language arts separately. For science, we're using R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey, Life level 1. For history, we're using Story of the World, Vol. 1 Ancient Times. I would have preferred to find a completely secular history curriculum but I really like everything else about SOTW. We will skip a few chapters and use other resources to expand on the other chapters. World Religions is just a resource book I wanted to get. We want the kids to be knowledgeable about all religions. The nursery rhyme cards will be used for copy work to improve handwriting. Both will be using Singapore Math this year. Sean will continue with Explode the Code and Maddy will be trying Recipe for Reading for language arts. Sean will be reading the Magic Tree House books and using the reading comprehension book: Reading With the Magic Tree House

Mondays are our light days. They work on their handwriting and do art. Tuesdays and Thursdays are science and language arts. Wednesdays and Fridays are history and math. Monday's copywork was a version of the rhyme "Rain, Rain, Go Away" They then illustrated the rhyme. Maddy says that "Hpe" spells happy. ...not bad for a kindergartener. :)

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Goodbye Sweet Girl: A Memorial for Annabelle

This weekend we had the heartbreak of saying goodbye to our 8.5 year old dachshund. We're not exactly sure what happened but she wasn't acting herself the day before she passed....which gave me this gut feeling that I couldn't shake. I'm sad to say that I was right and she was nearing her end. Annabelle was my first dog and I couldn't have asked for a better pup. She was born on Valentine's Day 2006. We brought her home when she was incredibly tiny! She couldn't even get up the steps to the apartment we were living in at first!

One of her favorite toys started out much longer than her.

Annabelle knew how to get comfy. Her favorite fabric by far was fleece. She'd bury herself in it when she slept and wake up with "frito feet". ...a smell it seems all doxie owners know.

Her first trip to the beach: She had a blast but the sand caused a bit of trouble. All she wanted to do was sniff the sand...which caused sneeze after sneeze. Check out those flapping ears as she ran!

One thing she seemed to love was getting that last drop of my dad's beer. ...she is a German breed after all! Her and dad had a special relationship. For awhile, anytime she would greet dad she'd roll on her back and pee.

Annabelle had a boyfriend. His name was Apollo and he was a parakeet. Annabelle would spend time on the back of the couch just watching him, exchanging kisses every once and awhile. This is where her middle name, Avian, came from.