danaschmoyer

[danaschmoyer]

A momma bird thought one of our bike helmets would make a good nest for her baby.

[danaschmoyer]

Journey to a Healthier Me

I have been battling thoughts for a really long time now. I know what it takes to get healthy, I know how great it will feel, but I also know what it takes. 

For a while now I have been daydreaming of how in shape I got after Zeke was born. I didn't start my journey until he was 7 months old, and something just clicked. I knew I needed to get healthy, and I did it. It was tough in the beginning, but my first goal was to complete something. To not give up. To show myself that I was strong enough. And I was. And I am. 

There is part of me that gets really really excited about the thought of getting back in shape. And then there is a part of me that is making things difficult to get started, and I can't really pin point it...except that I know I am lacking discipline.

On Monday I started a health challenge, and today was my first day to work out. The last day of the week. I'm surprisingly not disappointed in myself, because all week long my first goal has been to start going to bed earlier, and that has been improving! I know if I'm going to be able to have the energy to be a mom of 4, and get in shape, I need my rest.

I have been trying hard to focus on the positive side of things and not think about the negative. I know I have what it takes to achieve what I want. I just have to make it happen.

[danaschmoyer]

My first workout of the year! 2.5 mile run at 7am in 6* weather! Before going to bed, I set all my clothes out trying to see if I even had something warm to run in, went to bed late assuming I wouldn't go. Toby woke me up at 6:50, and I hurried around, and the running club started late. I really needed this! Thank you @adrienneschmoyer, @celbeam, and @brittnull for being an inspiration to me! And @gabeflowers, thanks for the last push I needed...this is my first workout of the day...going swimming with the fam in a bit!

[danaschmoyer]

Halle pretending to sleep in Baby Brother's swaddle. I'm sure gonna miss her being the baby.

[danaschmoyer]

Here are my favorite parts of yesterday's vlog. Click the link in my bio to watch! #newbaby

#newbaby

[danaschmoyer]

Pregnancy Brain: Fact of Fiction?

[danaschmoyer]

I Really Miss Writing

I've been thinking for at least a month now about coming back and blogging more. I would love to post more than one video a week, but that is more of a commitment than I can make right now. Especially with Baby #4 arriving next month. But getting to sit down and write out some thoughts sounds absolutely wonderful to me. I don't have to wait until a day when I'm not covered in food or not sweating from being pregnant in the summer, or even have to wait for the house to be quiet. As I write this, all 3 kids are around me playing, and Halle trying to type on my keyboard as well. Life as a mom. It's wonderful, adventurous, tiring, and completely worth it.

#blog #blogger #stay at home mom #mom #youtube

[danaschmoyer]

Planning a Garden

I had the great idea to use Pinterest to plan out a garden to do this year. Except already the first 2 pages I want to save don't have an image for them to pull from, so I can't pin it. Boo.

So I'll just use this post for the links that are unable to be pinned, and pin this instead. So much for making gardening easier.

http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id128/id128.pdf

http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id133/id133.pdf

http://www.kentuckyliving.com/garden/kygrowingzone.html

[danaschmoyer]

Woohoo! My second try of this fudge turned out much better!

[danaschmoyer]

I saw this yummy recipe on pinterest, but the link was broken. So after spending some time hunting, I found the recipe here... http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,177,130180-254199,00.html

But there wasn't a picture to pin it easily! 

So the only thing I could do was make it myself, and take my own pic. :) 

----------------------------------

2 cups sugar 1/2 cup milk 1 tsp. vanilla 3/4 cup peanut butter

Put sugar and milk in pan and bring to a boil. Boil two and a half minutes. Remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla. Stir just until mixed well.

Pour into greased pan (the smaller the pan, the thicker the fudge will be). Cool and cut.

----------------------------------

A couple important notes that I didn't do and wish I did... GREASE your pan! I forgot to, and had very few to make a pretty presentation with. Also, I used an 8x8 pan, which made for some really short fudge blocks, which isn't necessarily bad, just a note if you prefer thicker fudge, either double the recipe or use a smaller pan than 8x8. 

I also had a lack of patience waiting for the fudge to cool, (that's what I get for licking the spoon!) so I stuck it in the freezer to speed it along. I'm not sure it ruined it, but I'm sure if you have the time and patience, letting the fudge cool on it's own, or in the fridge is much better. Luckily this was a trial run before a party I'm going to next week.

[danaschmoyer]

School is so much more fun with finger paints. #picstitch

#picstitch

[danaschmoyer]

Our $40 Christmas tree I bought brand new! Set it up real quick to see if it was worth it, and I totally think it is. You can see some holes through the tree, but I only fluffed the front to get an idea of what it looks like. We'll fluff a lot more after Thanksgiving.

[danaschmoyer]

Here's a copy of my cleaning schedule for a year that you can get for yourself to either use, or edit to fit your life's schedule. Either copy the google doc, or download a copy so you can edit it. 

Here's my guidelines for making the cleaning schedule:

Daily: make beds, dishes & counter, wipe sinks, sweep, pick up

Once a week: garbage/recycling, vacuum, clean toilets, clean showers, clean mirrors, dust, change sheets

Twice a week: laundry 

Every other week: mop

Monthly: windows, disinfect trash, clean fridge, deep vacuum, deep mop

Your chores might change depending on how much carpet vs hardwood floors you have. I try to split up my monthly chores so I'm not doing my bigger cleaning all in the same week. And I like to keep things light for Saturday and take a Sabbath on Sunday.

VIEW, COPY & DOWNLOAD CLEANING SCHEDULE HERE

#cleaning #schedule #cleaning schedule #year #annual #housework

[danaschmoyer]

*click on the pics to get a better "full-picture" view

I posted on Facebook today how I spent an hour on the treadmill as I made a year long cleaning schedule for myself. I made a schedule at our previous house, and it helped a ton.

The top two areas it helped the most was:

My lazy days...you know, those days where you know something probably needs to be done, but you just can't think (or don't let yourself think) about what it is.

My overwhelming days... when I feel like EVERYTHING needs to be done NOW. I can look at the calendar and relax and say, "No, the floors can wait until Thursday, that is when I will clean them." 

Figure out for yourself, or use my guide for what needs to be done daily, weekly, twice a week, every other week, once a month, and do what works for you. My daily/weekly tasks switched from our previous house to current since our last house was mostly carpet, vacuuming was a much bigger part of my schedule, and our current house is mostly hardwood, so sweeping is a bigger part of my current schedule. 

I put my daily tasks in boring black because those are my musts. Then in a color that catches my eye are the unique tasks to each day. When making my calendar I write down my daily tasks first, then figure out what has to happen on certain days, like the trash has to be put on the curb every Monday for us, then I go from there of what we do each week, like hosting a Bible study every Wednesday night with a potluck and kids over, so my floors get to be mopped the next day. 

I also try to spread out my bigger tasks that only happen once a month. I'm not a fan of having a huge week of work, so I'll do one bigger task a week.

And as you can tell, I try to keep Saturday pretty simple so I can enjoy the day with whatever comes up for the weekend, and then Sunday is my Sabbath. No cleaning, just relaxing!!!

#cleaning schedule #house work #stay at home mom #clean house

[danaschmoyer]

Healthy, cheap, and easy microwave popcorn. All you need...lunch size paper sack, 1/4 cup popping corn, and throw it in the microwave for 2 minutes. Yumm!

#popcorn #microwave popcorn #healthy

[danaschmoyer]

Mini pizzas for dinner tonight! Mini while wheat bagels, spaghetti sauce, all the veggies/toppings you love and of course mozzarella. Preheat oven to 350*, cook for 10 minutes.

[danaschmoyer]