We recently put up a Little Free Library in our front yard and we are absolutely loving it!
As stewards of this library, we get the opportunity to learn information regarding Little Free Libraries and Book Giveaways before the general public. Today I got an email about a REALLY cool giveaway from Little Free Library & Scholastic and wanted to share it with you!!!
50 people will win A FREE DogMan Themed little Library (+Stewardship, posts for mounting, and official charter sign), 1000 Scholastic books, and a swag bag of Dog Man Products. The link will take you right to the application!
The contest ends April 12, 2024 at 12 PM (CST). Good luck!!!
Lately, I’ve felt like the food quality everywhere has gone downhill really bad. We rarely eat a meal out, but when we do we are always met with disappointment and upset tummies.
Sometimes though, ordering a couple pizzas is really convenient, especially for a large crew.
But this pizza is seriously so easy, so much better tasting than take out, and WAY cheaper. It takes literally no time at all! Once you realize how quick & effortless it is to make your own pizza at home, you’ll never have to order take out ever again.
Ingredients
3 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 Cups Warm Water
1 Tablespoon Yeast
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Oil
STEP 1. Mix your yeast with your warm water. Stir immediately, then let sit for 5 minutes until frothy & bubbly.
STEP 2. In your stand mixer: add flour, salt, and sugar. Whisk until combined.
STEP 3. Add yeast & oil to stand mixer bowl, mix using the bread attachment. Let knead 5 minutes.
STEP 4. Gather dough ball onto floured surface & cut in half. Roll out onto pizza pan and add sauce, cheese, and toppings (do not pre-bake crust).
STEP 5. Bake at 500° for 10 minutes
That’s it. Seriously. It’s THAT easy!
Pizza is so versatile, you can use any ingredients you already have on hard or plan ahead with your favorite toppings. This dough makes 2 Pizzas. Make them both at once, or freeze one for a later time to make pizza night even easier!
Mia is officially a Certified Youth Dog Trainer! 🐶
She really wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up and wants to begin taking steps now to make that happen! Her first big step towards her goal was taking & completing a course on dog training through Everybody’s Doggy.
Since we have 4 Shepskies, she has a lot of opportunity to practice and perfect her training skills. She has been working with them diligently. She is able to have each dog follow her commands, including during meal times while they all wait in a line with a full bowl in front of them until she gives permission to eat. It is very impressive.
Her next step is to find a local animal shelter that is in need of volunteers. There is a kitty only one around the corner from us which would be extremely convenient, but it wouldn’t utilize her skills in dog training, so we may have to venture out of our immediate community.
She also hopes to get the opportunity to help friends or family members let her work with their dogs as well. Maybe in a few years she could offer dog walking services in the neighborhood.
Once she reaches high school age, she plans to take a veterinary course at the local vocational school. I really love that homeschooled children are still eligible to take the certification courses while continuing their education at home.
She is, and we are, very proud of her for taking steps towards her future already and she asked to celebrate by making cupcakes. I helped a little with baking, but she did the Frosting & decorating on her own (with inspiration from Pinterest of course) and the cupcakes turned out soooo freaking cute!
She did vanilla cake with chocolate Frosting & dog faces, and chocolate cake with vanilla Frosting & paw prints. She used mini oreo cookies for the center of the paw print and chocolate chips for the paws. She used regular size oreo cookies (golden & original) cut in half for the dog ears. Sprinkle eyeballs, and a fruit by the fruit for the tongue.
I love that she is following her passion & love for animals ❤️
Ella & I finished our Maturation & Sexual Reproduction Unit today. I found it to be a good and informative unit without it being cringe or uncomfortable at all.
This was my first big sex talk as a mom and I had anticipated it to be awkward, but since I never had an actual discussion about sex (or puberty in general) with my own mother, it was very important for me to have with my children. It wasn’t awkward at all and neither Ella or I ever felt uncomfortable. She asked questions and I made sure she knew she was able to come to me any time with any questions she has no matter how embarrassing they may seem.
The unit covered all things from body terminology, to puberty, to sex and childbirth, and more. The last lesson in the unit was regarding personal hygiene and steps to take now to be responsible in adulthood (like washing your own laundry).
It was suggested (but not required) in the unit that I put together a hygiene kit for her to end the unit so my mom & I took Ella shopping for personal hygiene items and then put together a hygiene basket for her.
I loved putting this together for her and knowing that she is prepared for puberty! It was a nice bonding experience with her and I feel much more confident to repeat this unit again in the future with the rest of my children, although I do think I will add a few other puberty book options in their kits as well going forward.
Hopefully this will give you some ideas about what to put together in puberty pack for your pre-teen!
Pysanky is the Ukrainian art of decorating Easter Eggs. Pysanky comes from the Ukrainian verb писати meaning: to write. The history is really interesting!
Each egg has a special message using symbols on it that is meant for the recipient of the egg. Below are the symbols and their meanings. What you wish for, for yourself or who you are giving your egg to, is what you will write onto your egg.
Моя перша писанка – останній рік
Last year I made a very simple pysanky with only a flower on it. It was my first one ever and I was not confident enough to make a detailed one, so this year I made it my goal to do a much more intricate design.
I chose chickens and floral because I really want to manifest chickens for our mini homestead this year as well as a bountiful garden. I also chose Tryzub because that is dearest in my heart (was also my very first tattoo on the day I turned 18!), and I wish for the war to end and for all Ukrainians to get to feel peace again.
I think I did a much better job this year and I am really proud of how it turned out, although I do still cherish my first pysanky from last year very much too.
PRO TIP: wear tight fighting gloves if you are worried about stained fingers.
Ella also got to make her very FIRST pysanky today in школа. She did an amazing job!
перша писанка з Елла
Мія, Саша, і Афіна all got to make an egg craft at школа as well. Мія got to paint her egg. Саша і Афіна decorated their eggs out of foam & various craft supplies. They are perfect spring/Easter decorations! I hung the foam eggs in the window.
If you are new to pysanky and want to give it a try, I am including the instructions from yesterday’s class below (special tools and dyes are required):
In November of 2022 my husband and I quit caffeine – all of it, including milk & dark chocolate 🍫.
Before I go any further I should probably explain to you that my daily fluid intake throughout most of my life consisted of hot coffee, iced coffee, Red bull, and sweet tea with little to no hydration in-between, with the exception of Gatorade.
Every morning began with 2-3 cups of hot coffee, then I’d switch to Red Bull for my day time drink. Anytime I had to leave my home, I stopped for an Iced Coffee as a “reward” for adulting. Anytime I ate out, I gulped down as much sweet tea as I could, bringing a to-go cup home with me. Trip to Panera? Super charged lemonade for there, Iced Caramel to go. Coffee ice cream, tiramisu desserts, coffee infused cheese. I could never have even caffeine, or so I thought.
The detox was miserable (and because of the extremely high levels of caffeine, probably dangerous). My head hurt so bad the first 3-4 days that I could barely get out of bed. I felt so uncomfortable and off balance. I was so grumpy. I missed the delicious smell of coffee brewing, filling up my entire home with the delicious aroma.
Then, slowly, I began noticing the changes in me. The first I noticed was how much energy I had. I would wake up, fully rested, clear-headed, ready to tackle the day immediately. I no longer had fatigue or grogginess or any sort of brain fog whatsoever. My energy lasted longer as well, no more mid day crash. I wake up with the energy of a small child which is really helpful when you have a ton of kids and a home & school to run.
The second thing I noticed was that my previously-diagnosed “anxiety disorder” completely disappeared. I was no longer living in literal fear. I was able to let little things go. I wasn’t completely overwhelmed by every aspect of life. I felt completely comfortable and content for the first time in my life.
When I drank caffeine I had so much anxiety there were times I mentally and physically couldn’t go into the grocery store because it was too overwhelming to me. I was having panic attacks constantly and living in paranoia. At the point of quitting in November 2022 my brain was SO overwhelmed at all times that a simple question was too much for me to handle. I’d either completely shut down unable to think or I’d have a meltdown over handling “too much.” It was horrible and absolutely not normal behavior even though social media has “normalized” it.
The third change I noticed was that I began sleeping deeply through the night again. Before I never felt like I was fully asleep. I’d immediately bounce out of bed with the slightest sound, which in an older, modest home you have a lot of unfortunately. I had believed it was a symptom of my PTSD and that I would always live with it, but as it turns out, it was actually my body being negatively affected by caffeine. Not getting any sleep was causing all kinds of other issues such as moodiness, acne, etc. Don’t get me wrong, because of my PTSD I do still have some sleeping issues, but I am experiencing less.
Getting sleep is SO important for your body and mental health and I am so grateful that my body has naturally healed by eliminating caffeine, allowing me to get proper sleep again. Sleep is something that I value very much now.
The fourth thing that I noticed was that my digestive system regulated on its own. Before quitting Caffeine, I dealt with a lot of stomach ulcers which I haven’t had any since. I don’t have nearly as many gastrointestinal issues. I’m eating more regularly- the Caffeine suppressed my appetite causing me to slip back into disordered eating, a lot of times going the entire day without consuming any food- living off the calories from the sugary beverages alone, which as a nursing mom isn’t good.
I did drank caffeine while nursing my children. I regret that a lot, knowing what I know now, however at the time I convinced myself that it was necessary to get through my days as a mom of many, especially the 3 under 3 days. Now I know that Caffeine gave me way less energy and way more stress trying to get through those days. It also cause my babies to be a lot more fussy & unable to sleep well- especially Moses.
This last winter we did, regretfully, introduce chocolate back into our lives. I’ll admit, the kids and I ate too much of it over the Christmas holiday. I noticed the kids behavior became very out of whack from that. They were fighting non-stop, way more emotional than normal, and not listening at all. Since limiting the chocolate again, the issues have gotten a lot better for the most part. I think sticking with the white chocolate is probably best for us, although I’m going to have a bit of a tough time re-giving up the chocolate chips in my ice cream again.
I have began drinking a lot more water. I like to drink water with lemon & cayenne pepper in the morning. I also enjoy a hot cup of caffeine-free tea on chilly mornings. Breakfast Essentials or other protein shakes have been a go to morning drink for me as well. I have been limiting my soda/pop intake for a long time already now, but I do occasionally drink a Sprite or Cream Soda when I’m craving one. I’ve replaced iced coffees with Smoothies or milkshakes. Definitely a lot more water though and my body feels so much better because of it.
A couple years ago when we began homeschooling we made a list of goals that we wanted to achieve together as a family. One of those goals was putting up a Little Free Library in our front yard for the neighborhood kids to be able to love reading as much as we do.
Today we finally achieved that goal!!!
I am absolutely obsessed with how it turned out! I registered it to the world map under Morozov Montessori (our homeschool name) Library.
I have already began adding a few flowers under the library, but my plan is to fill the entire bed with flowers to make it so much more colorful & welcoming, for humans and butterflies 🦋.
It came with 2 posts (1 tall & 1 short), but we chose to place it on this dead dogwood tree instead. After spending years trying to bring this tree back to life, we decided to give it new life instead. We are going to save the posts and use them for a later project.
I’d like to add a couple garden stones walking from the sidewalk up to the library. I would also like to come up with an idea of how I can fill the empty space under the library. Maybe a small planter? Maybe a small fairy garden? Maybe hang a little wind chime? Hang dog poop bags? The ideas are endless (and I would love to hear yours!), I’ll just have to wait and see what speaks to my soul.
All in all, I am just very, VERY happy to have it up finally and really excited to continue making it great!
We had sewing class today & Ella finally finished the Valentines Day gift she has been working on for me. Ella had embroidery one week, and the other little girl in her class was sick another week, so it ended up being a little bit of a belated gift, but still extremely loved!!!
Ella with her finished project at class 🥰 I love how much her confidence has grown through sewing & embroidery.
It is a Peek-a-boo Picture Frame!! I seriously love it so much. It turned out ADORABLE!
We also had a really fun time playing Banana Grams Jr. together while the other little girl in our class took her turn on the sewing machine. We have the adult version which is essentially the same exact game, but all the tiles are the same color. I want to get the Jr. version to use with the younger kids.
Yesterday I had 11 years free from heroin. It feels like another lifetime ago.
I’ve never really liked talking about “sobriety.” I’ve been to at least a dozen different treatment centers and I am the 100% The Outlier.
I did not get sober by some miracle or some force Greater than myself. I got sober because I’m stubborn. I got into an altercation with a corrupt judge over the fact that I told her that she can’t expect anyone to get sober “by the book” and that was why her Drug Court was failing. By failing, I meant that a huge majority of her clients were either dying in the program itself or manipulating their way through the system to complete the program, then immediately relapse and die once completed. She called it “contempt,” told me it was her court room and she knew better than me, I was just an addict and would never change, then threatened to ship me to Marysville Prison for 5 years for disrespecting her.
She put up every single obstacle in my path that she could. She denied me the right to get mental health treatment claiming I had no history of mental illness, even though I had documented evidence dating back over a decade of being treated by a psychiatrist and psychologist, and had documented trips to the psych ward.
She denied me the ability to go to the treatment center for mothers. I was currently pregnant with my second child and I had my son currently with my parents as his legal guardians. When I inquired why she denied this program to me, she refused to provide an answer other than “no.” This program would have allowed me access to maternal care- which she denied and I did not get until nearly my 3rd trimester. My daughter was born with some long lasting effects due to that.
During group sharing time at the jail treatment center she sent me to instead, with absolutely no maternal care, I was asked to share my feelings. At first I refused to speak, but after being threatened with non-compliance (which would result in 1-3 day(s) punishment in county jail) I shared that I felt that judge and her little dog of a probation officer were some power tripping bitches. This got me kicked out of the program entirely & transferred back to the county jail. I told her she could do whatever the hell she wants to me, lock me up wherever for however long, but she will NEVER break my spirit. I gladly accepted my felonies and felt beyond relief to be back in county jail after the absolute hell that was that drug program. Then after a total of 6 months, start to finish, I was finally released from jail back out to society.
Luckily for me, I picked up another non-drug related felony (receiving stolen property) when I got home and was transferred out of her courtroom into the courtroom of my ex, who did the stealing part of the property I received. This was the absolute best outcome that could have happened. This judge was fair. This judge gave me a chance. This judge actually rooted for me. This probation officer rooted for me and believed in me. This probation officer valued respect, on both sides, instead of being an authoritarian. This was the team I needed.
I became obsessed with showing my old corrupt judge that I did in fact know better than her. My life mission became getting sober just so I could look her in the eyes with the biggest shit-eating grin on my face and show her who holds the real power here- ME.
11 years later, she’s been removed from the courthouse. I’m still sober. I told you I knew better, Judge Burke. My “shit attitude” (aka stubbornness) in fact is what got me, and kept me, sober.
Reasons Why I Call Myself an Outlier
• I’ve never supported AA/NA. I have been to many meetings in several different states, and they are all the same. The members of AA see themselves as the “superior” addicts & don’t approve of the members who use drugs and believe they need to be at NA, but the members of NA are typically there on a court-mandated basis so they see it as a meet up spot to make new addict friends or prey on weaker addicts to get them to relapse. Therefore, making it an unsafe environment for drug-using addicts, hence why they try to gravitate towards AA instead.
Beyond the initial turf wars, this program focuses on the fact that you are and always will be an addict. There is literally no hope of being anything else but an addict for the rest of your days. I just don’t believe that & I think that is both weak and sick thinking. I have addict tendencies, but I am no longer an addict. I WAS an addict. I AM now healed. Telling myself that I am no longer an addict, does not make me think that I am able to use now. I know that I can’t. I “play the tape through” and know that using once means never putting it back down, so I just don’t. Know better, do better in all aspects of life.
• I use Medical Marijuana & still consider myself sober. I am 100% against big pharma & taking pharmaceutical medications, although I do have to give credit to Vivitrol for my sobriety which I used for 1 year after initial detox. I was an extremely overmedicated child/teenager. I was the drug trial for Seroquel and at one point I was on 700 mg of it, while only 85 lbs myself. I could barely stand up. I had severe hallucinations that left me screaming for my mom to save me, however since she couldn’t see or hear what I could, there was nothing she could do to help me. It was hands down the WORST medication for any human to be on, and what is worse is my doctor assured me it was safe to take while pregnant with my oldest son, then he was born with tremors from it. I went against AMA and stopped taking ALL medications after he was born, and it was the best decision for myself. I strongly urge you to research “Seroquel Horror Stories” to save yourself or any loved ones who may be a victim of a doctor prescribing this poison.
I believe those medications had a HUGE impact on my addictions and mental illnesses. The list of things I had been prescribed over the years was long and I HATED every single medicine since the very first one. I hated the way they made me feel. I hated everything about them.
However with my addictions, came a lot of trauma and I developed PTSD. I use medical marijuana was a way to cope with my PTSD, disordered eating, and constant back pain from carrying 6 babies & 6 c-section surgeries. It works as an anti-psychosis for me, the same way that someone with depression would benefit from an anti-depressant. It helps me sleep & eliminates the nightmares that I’ve had since I was a child. Medical Marijuana also helped me quit a 15 year nicotine addiction back in 2018 which I had previously attempted using gum, patches, hypnosis, cold turkey, and other methods all of which none worked for me.
It’s been a long, strange trip getting here, but now that I’m here, I couldn’t imagine my life any other way. There have definitely been times that I missed the “old me.” I was so carefree and unapologetically me. I felt invincible. Every day was an exciting adventure. But I was so empty & alone. I love the life I’ve built. My husband, my kids, my home. Homeschooling & having a zoo. I love being healthy. I love the stability. I love the safety and security. I love getting to experience life with everyone I love & who loves me. I might even finally be starting to love… me.
From Heroin to Housewife 