Happy 10th Anniversary MapleMouseMama!! #Celebration

MapleMouseMama is ten. Wow, I truly can’t believe that I just wrote that. Has it really been ten years since my little slice of the internet was created? Yes, yes it has. 🙂 Now, you are going to find this a bit funny, but I always thought that I published my first post on the thirty-first of August in 2011, but it was actually a week earlier on the 23rd! As weird as it is, I have a good reason for this little slip up. August, particularly the end of August, has always been a busy time for my family and I. And it is not just because of this baby. 🙂

The end of August actually holds a few other reasons to celebrate. My husband Doug and I have our wedding anniversary on August 29th. ♥ This year we hit the 23rd mark! That is just as unbelievable to me as MapleMouseMama’s tenth anniversary. I can recall so much of that beautiful day, that it seems almost like it was just last week. Sometimes I wish it was. Sigh… But my hubby keeps the memories alive by getting me yellow roses on our anniversary. I carried yellow roses for my bouquet. And not just a few. I carried three dozen, long stemmed roses with greenery! That thing weighed a ton! 🙂 But I loved it. ♥ It was just gorgeous. It matched the dress my mom and aunt made for the flower girl to wear. That pretty little 7 year old is my niece Sara. Now thirty, she is studying to become a nurse!

But, I digress. I loved the dress that was made for Sara. It had miniature yellow roses all over, with some bits of green poking through. It was perfect! My dad completed the trio by choosing the song, “18 Yellow Roses” for he and I to dance to. Have a listen:

Okay, so the next reason this time of the year is busy is back to school. It starts next week on September 7th, meaning the kiddos had an extra few days of summer vacation. But that doesn’t make it any less hectic. There are so many things to do and this year we get to add in the fun of preparing for Covid and mask wearing. My kiddo’s stayed home last year and did virtual school, but they lost so much that our youngest is returning to in-school learning. As I am sure many of you can relate, it was hard enough for kids to not be able to play with their friends, face to face. But add in the stress of online learning and the results were not favourable. I pray this year will be a lot better.

The last reason the end of August is busy for us is because we celebrate my birthday! And because it falls somewhere around the Labour Day weekend, we usually celebrate it then.  This year will be no different accept for the fact that I will get to spend it with more of my family, thanks to Covid vaccinations! This year it is a little more, um, let’s say, interesting. Know why? I was born on September 2nd, 1971, so that means that this year I turn 50!!! Mother of pearl, are you kidding me?!? I am turning 50! In two days, actually, because of that extra few days the kids have off. So yeah, we have lots to celebrate and this MapleMouseMama has a lot to think about. 🙂

But my primary reason for sharing all of this with you was to share the tenth anniversary of MapleMouseMama. For five years, two blogger friends of mine and I would host #BloggersFete. Some of you may remember it. 🙂 For several weeks in the middle of summer, Bonnie from TheKoalaMom.com and Ashley from Tales of Mommyhood and I would have Twitter parties, Facebook parties, Instagram Loops and lots of giveaways. The prizes were donated by some of the many brands we had all worked with over the years. We would sometimes have a guest blogger join us, but it was definitely a labour of love for Bonnie, Ashley and I. We had to stop hosting #BloggersFete though, a couple years ago. We all have children, jobs and lots of responsibilities that were just getting to be too much. Something had to give. 🙁

But not every ending is bad. It is often the start of a new journey or adventure, right? This past year and a half has seen a lot of challenges and changes for the entire world. For me, one change meant that I was not posting on MapleMouseMama nearly as much as I used to. As sad as this was for me, sometimes we have to re-prioritize our lives until the winds settle. And that is what I did. But, I am hoping that the rest of 2021 and the start of my 50th year alive will yield some positives we have not seen in a while. Maybe that is what I will wish for when I blow out 50 candles! 

Now for some really great news! To celebrate my third child (Emily is 18, William is 12, MapleMouseMama is 10 and Georgia the cockapoo is 4,) over the next few weeks we will be hosting some giveaways! Just a way to mark these occasions and to say thank you for sticking with me and my crazy dream to be a writer. I really appreciate all of the comments, the compliments and even the critiques, but most especially the support. Cheers to you, dear reader. 

Make sure to keep checking back over the coming weeks to enter to win some lovely prizes! 

FT&PD

Suz