Just A Typical Thursday {Vlog!}

It's been over a week since I've posted a vlog. I just really didn't know what to record. So today I just decided to record throughout the day and see what I come up with. I like the end result.

Please comment below! I'd love to hear from you! 

© Mama Dani's Musings

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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.

© Mama Dani's Musings

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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.

© Mama Dani's Musings

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Good Bye 2013, Hello 2014!

Holy moly am I late with this post. It's almost February! But then again, how long has it been since I wrote a post!? Too long!

I like to begin the year by looking back at the previous year. In 2013:

• Maddy turned 4 and had a mermaid party. 
• I lost count of the butterflies we released.
• We added to our flock and hatched eggs for the first time.
• Our rabbits had successful litters.
• We kept 2 female and 1 male rabbits to expand our rabbitry.
• I processed my first rabbit.
• Maddy preformed in her first dance recital. She did beautifully!
• Sean started playing soccer. Maddy joined him later in the year.
• We're officially homeschoolers. According to our city, Sean's a kindergartner but he's more on the first grade level.
• Richard and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. 
• We added a house rabbit to our homestead; a lionhead named Thumper.
• Sean turned 6 and had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles party.
• Emily turned 2. She just had a family party but had a Dora/Minion/Thomas the Train cake...her favorite things.
• Our does (minus one that was too young) had another litter in December.

Now to look forward to this year. In 2014, I plan:

• I plan to do monthly photo shoots of the kids.
• I plan to blog more.
• I plan to use natural options more when it comes to medication and cleaning.
• I plan to eat dinner at the kitchen table more...we've become too lazy with this somehow.
• I have something else I plan to do but I'll make that announcement later. ;)

I will post a couple of update posts with more pictures this week.

© Mama Dani's Musings


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Good bye 2012, Hello 2013

We're saying good bye to 2012 so I'd like to take a look back on what happened this past year. I typically link back to posts but many of my posts are still missing pictures from when I moved pictures in my web album; I hope to finish fixing it soon.

Our 2012 Christmas card picture

• We started the year in a baby moon with a brand new baby.
• We celebrated Maddy's 3rd birthday with an art party. 
• We had to get rid of our mutt, Keme because she attacked our other dog, Annabelle.
• We adopted a pug pup, Gizmo.
• Maddy tried dance again in the summer. She loved it and wanted to continue in the fall.
• We released over 70 Black Swallowtail butterflies and still have 41 chrysalises in our butterfly cage to release next spring.
• Sean started Kindergarten. 
• Richard and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. 
• We celebrated Sean's 5th birthday with a dinosaur party.
• We adopted a rabbit trio with the plans to breed them for meat come spring time.
• I worked with a group of locals to get the city to reconsider zoning that bans backyard hens. We won!
• We got 3 baby chicks; half of what our flock will be. 
• We celebrated Emily's first birthday!
• We changed a lot of our eating habits and I lost 16 lbs!
• I am ending the year with a booming daycare business. Most of the kids I care for are the same kids I had last year.

Even though I failed at project 52 posts this year, I did take a lot of pictures through out the year. 

Looking forward to 2013, here's what I'd like to accomplish:

• Our healthy changes will continue. I want to lose 10 more pounds.
• Along with taking lots of pictures of the kids, I will start being in pictures more.
• While on the subject of pictures, I will do a better job at quickly backing up all pictures instead of them sitting on the computer for months first.
• We will be trying our hand at gardening again and this will be a better year.
• We need to do some major decluttering around here.

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© Mama Dani's Musings

Thankful Thursday: Family

A day late, I know. But I was waiting to get a picture. This week I'm thankful for family. About 4 weeks ago our van died. It was our only vehicle so it put us in a bind. Thankfully we have family close by: my family across the street and hubby's not 5 minutes away. I don't know what we would have done without them (and hubby's friend from the ship yard). Without them, hubby would not have been up to get to work (both jobs). I wouldn't have been able to get to my newest job running the church nursery. We would not have been able to make our weekly chiro appointments. And we wouldn't have been able to go grocery shopping. I'm extremely thankful for their help.

I'm also very thankful for my brother. He's a mechanic. He helped hubby find out what was wrong with the van and that we couldn't fix it at home. He then helped me sell the van. Hubby was working last weekend and I would not have been able to explain what was wrong with the van like my brother. My brother was a key part in buying a new vehicle too. We ended up looking at Jeeps. My brother knows Jeeps inside and out; his Jeep is his baby. He went with us while looking at potential Jeeps. He is why I know we made a good choice on the one we bought. It does need a little work but not much. That's why I had to wait till this morning to get a picture of our Jeep. We borrowed a trailer from dad's work last night and my brother used his truck to tow the Jeep home. All it needs is a water pump and it'll be on the road. Hubby will do that tonight!

So, good bye van. Hello Jeep!

Linking up to:

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© Mama Dani's Musings

Our Story

Megen over at Sparing Change wrote about her and her husband's story and asked others to share theirs. I couldn't think of a better idea for a Valentine's Day post so here's my husband's and my story.

Our story starts back in August 1999. It was the first time I noticed him. I was about to start my freshmen year of high school and was on the bus going to summer band camp. I still remember what he was wearing when he stepped onto the bus. He was a junior that year and with me being a freshmen, I didn't have the nerve to speak to him....yet. I admired him from afar until it was about time for a school dance; winter dance. I wanted to ask him to the dance but being shy I slipped a note into his locker. I didn't hear from him and after awhile I began wondering, "did I put it in the wrong locker!?" Our homeroom classes were right next to each other that semester and one morning my bus was late. I got to the hall where our lockers were and there he was walking toward me...Mr Griffa had sent him to take a plant to Mrs Baine. I gathered up the courage and stopped him to ask him if he got my letter. He had. But he wasn't going to the dance. I was crushed but I continued to crush on him. One of the things I remember about homeroom class that semester was the little hall that connected my homeroom to Richard's. There was another Richard in hubby's class and my friend, Elicia, and I would spend the time before the bell rung some days looking through that little hall watching the Richards.

As time went on, he wasn't showing any interest in me so I gave up. That was until about the beginning of 2001when a boyfriend broke up with me and Richard began flirting with me. Valentine's Day Dance was coming up. I wanted to ask him to go with me but I didn't want to be turned down. Finally my friends had had enough. They black mailed me one day at lunch. They told me that if I didn't ask him myself, they would do it for me. I nervously walked over to his table and asked. He said yes! He had also started driving me to and from school around that time. On February 1, 2001, he was dropping me off after school and asked me to be his girl friend. I was a happy girl!

Newly dating: Valentine's dance 2001

Fast forward to 2005. We were still dating. We had talked about marriage but there had been no proposal. ...until one evening after work. We were sitting on his bed and he popped the question. It was spur of the moment; he had no ring. I said yes!!...and we went ring shopping. It was awhile before the date was set. We moved into our first place together in March 2006, the date was set for October 14, 2006 and the wedding planning began.

Engaged:

Wedding Day

October 14, 2006 was a magical day. We were surrounded by family and friends and everything was perfect. The honeymoon wasn't so bad either. ;) We were loving life. Then a very difficult event happened. I lost my Granddad in December of 2006. My grandparents and I were very close so I took this very hard. Richard was my rock. Later that month we began talking about children. We had only been married a short time but had been together for over five years. The thing that made up our mind was the fact that we wanted our grandparents to know atleast one of our children. I only had one grandparent left, my Granny. Her health wasn't the best and losing Granddad was really difficult for her. February 2007 we got to tell her that she was going to have another great grandchild. Sean was born November 1, 2007. We lost Granny in July 2008..very shortly before we found out about our surprise baby, Maddy. We went from a family of 3 to a family of 4 on April 1, 2009. The latest change to our family was just 6 1/2 weeks ago when we welcomed our third child, Emily, into our family.

Our new family of 3

In her post, Megen says, "What the fairytales don’t tell you is about how difficult it can be for two completely different people to come together as one." I whole heartily agree. We've been married for a little over 5 years now. We've had our ups and downs; some high highs and some low lows. There is no perfect marriage and one thing you can not understand before hand is the work a good marriage takes. Our lowest low wasn't all that long ago, while I was pregnant with Emily. Looking back, I don't think we were as good as we should have been before getting pregnant again. I respect Richard so I will not go into details but he did something to make our marriage begin to snowball. It came to a point where if we were going to make this work, we needed to do a lot of work...and we did. I joined Megen in an online marriage book club. Richard did some reading too. And we talked a lot. Through all this we began to see both of our faults and what we could improve. Slowly things began to look better. It's an on going thing to keep things going good. We both have to work at it, working hard not to go back to our old ways. But we love each other and we are committed. With time I believe things will get better and easier but then I don't believe there's ever a time in marriage that there isn't room for improvement. One of our highest highs was Emily's birth day. It was amazing. Once again, Richard was my rock. That day proved to me that we've made a lot of progress.

Richard, I love you. We've been together for 11 years and I look forward to many more.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Our crazy family of 5

Don't forget to read Megen's story and link up your own.

And everyone should read The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts

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© Mama Dani's Musings

Good bye 2011, Hello 2012

At the beginning of a new year I like to take a look back at the previous year. Here's a look back on 2011:

• We celebrated Maddy's 2nd birthday.
• We found out we were expecting #3!
• Keme had puppies.
• We evacuated because of hurricane Irene.
• Maddy tried out dance class but ultimately decided not this year.
• Sean had his first (and hopefully only) trip to the ER.
• Richard and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.
• We celebrated Sean's 4th birthday.
• We may finally have answers on Sean's small size.
• I had ups and downs with the daycare business but am ending the year on a good note.
• Last but definitely not least, we welcomed little miss Emily Noelle into our family on December 29, 2011....birth story to come.

I also attempted Project 52. I did pretty good right up until the end (only missed 2 weeks).
Here's most of 2011 in pictures:

I'm really looking forward to 2012. Here's what I would like to accomplish:

• Work on living on a budget better. 
• Build our savings.
• More quality time with Richard.
• More quality time as a family.
• Cloth diaper Emily...no falling back onto disposables like we did with Sean and Maddy.

Stay up to date by following me on twitter @MamaDaniBlog or "liking" my Facebook page. New followers: Welcome! Please leave a comment to let me know how you found my blog so that I can follow you back!
© Mama Dani's Musings

Christmas Cards

We decided to do something a little different for our family picture for our Christmas card photo for this year and of course I wanted to share it with yall: Merry Christmas!

I got the idea for this from this pin/blog.


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© Mama Dani's Musings

Good bye 2010, Hello 2011!

Wow, another year gone. A pretty good year too. Let's start with a look back at 2010.

In 2010:
**We became first time homeowners by buying the house that not only I grew up in but is also the house my mom grew up in!
**Welcomed a new fur baby into our life.
**Maddy had her first birthday.
**Sean went through lots of testing to find out why he wasn't growing normal only to have a growth spurt after all the testing was done.
**We had a vacation to Maryland to visit with family. On the way up met an online friend and her family in person for the first time.
**Sean had his third birthday.
**We had a day trip down to Nags Head to meet two more online friends in person for the first time.
**I started homeschooling Sean.
**We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary.
**I became an Avon representative.
**I had many ups and downs in my daycare business but ended the year better than I started it.

All I hope for is that 2011 be as good or better!

In 2011, I would like to:
**Make the pup a family dog...more training and exercise. She needs to learn not to jump on people, nip at my feet (herding dog!) and just be calmer! Then she'll be allowed in the livingroom with everyone else.
**Stop caring what some think of my attachment parenting/non-mainstream ways.
**Be more active...walking the dog will kill 2 birds w/1 stone
**More date nights w/hubby

Hello 2010!!

Happy new year!! 2009 wasn't a horrible year but I have a good feeling about 2010. Here are my 2010 resolutions:

1. Spend more one on one time with Sean and Madison
2. Start having date nights with hubby
3. Become a home owner
4. Work out more
5. Learn to quilt
6. Do better at blogging (I did all of last years blogging this morning..thanks to copy and pasting what I posted on FB, FTM and such lol)

This year will be a good year because I learned some VERY important lessons last year. There are some stresses that are easily eliminated from your life. The hard part is figuring out what's worth worrying about and what's not. Another thing is to learn that some people thrive off drama. My dad told me "Don't wrestle with a pig because both of you will get muddy but the pig will enjoy it." It's so true! In 2009 I also learned that no matter how hard you try, you can't get along with everyone. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just walk away and not worry about what is thought of you. You can't make everyone like you no matter how nice you are. I have learned what really matters. My kids are of course my #1 priority. If it's not in their best interest, then forget about it. I also learned that blood does not equal family and family is not limited to blood relations. Family (related and not) is not who is here now but who has always been here and never left. Family is everyday. My family is what matters to me...and you know who you are! Here's to a wonderful 2010!!