Mia asked if she could make a bouquet for her piano teacher, Ms. Bayleigh. She is seriously the sweetest 🥰. I really love that she is always thinking of others.
We also took one of our little gift baggies for small items & filled it with wildflower seed mix, then attached it to the vase so that she could start her own little cut flower garden at her home with her son 🌼.
I think that she did such a great job putting this together!! This is definitely how we will be giving out our bouquet gifts from now on!! We could also attach a mini handmade card to each one. She even wants to open a little flower shop in our driveway with mini bouquets to sell! I think we could definitely sell them!!
I am going to begin planning an entrepreneurship class for the kids for this year. We will learn the basics of business & build what inventory we can over the winter – collect vases, make mini handmade cards, Ella sews, etc. Then, when spring/summer comes around & flowers begin to really bloom, we can rent a booth at a local farmers market, the Kids City Flea, and the Kids Market. We are so fortunate to have such great opportunities for child-entrepreneurs here in town. You can never be too small to follow your dreams.
Mia was so excited to bring her flowers to Ms. Bayleigh!! I really hope that it puts a smile on her face. Mia said that she told her that it “she had been having a bad day but that really brightened her day,” and that the mother of the student before her told her that “those are the most beautiful flowers she’s ever seen!” Those compliments made Mia so happy & proud of herself and that sure makes my mama heart happy ❤️.
We’ve accomplished another one of our homeschool goals that I am SO happy to tell you about!!!
Our front flower garden has officially become a Certified Pollinator Habitat through the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden!!!!
We have put so much time, love, & money into this garden & I am SO proud of this accomplishment and honor! They sent us our yard sign, a packet on the best pollinators for Ohio, a packet of wildflower seeds, and a patch.
🌼 Welcome to Our *CERTIFIED* Pollinator Garden 🌼
Plant For Pollinators Garden Certified by the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden signPoppyZinniaBlanket Flower Purple Coneflower, Zinnia, Blanket Flower, Marigold, Phlox, Red Hot Pokers (in bloom)Red Hot Pokers (no bloom)Shasta DaisiesZinnia Blanket flower, coreopsis, Black Eyed Susan, Bellflower, Veronica SpeedwellVeronica SpeedwellCoreopsisCrape MyrtelBlack Eyed SusansButterfly Bush, Black Eyed SusanLavender, Roses, Bellflower Hyssop, BellflowerSpiderwort, Milkweed, Shasta DaisyPhlox, BellflowerPoppy, Coneflower, Zinnia, Black Eyed Susan, Shasta DaisyBellflower Blanket FlowerBlack Eyed Susan, Shasta Daisy + Nectar Feeding StationZinnia MarigoldPoppyGolden AlexanderHibiscus Pollination in Action
The Golden Alexanders & Hibiscus are actually in our backyard, but they are still pollinators so I included them. The Hibiscus are especially fun to watch because the bees come out so fluffy when they are done. What a blessing from Mother Nature!!!
I have so many plans to expand our pollinator garden way further once we finish filling in these spaces completely first. We added a lot of these flowers this year and I’m really excited to see how much they grow next year as they become established. Some haven’t even begun flowering yet! I’m especially excited for those ones to come back next year, because the second year is always better.
This is only the beginning of our journey, & the first certification we have planned on our Homeschool Goal List. It’s so cool watching our goals come to life in front of our eyes though! I am teaching my children to not just talk about goals, but actually set out and accomplish them, no matter how long it takes. And how freaking amazing is it that we grew all of those beautiful flowers (and more)?!
Plus, it warms my heart that the kids enjoy creating beautiful bouquets for me & our home from our own garden. This one Sasha made is really, really cute. 💐
We are also currently propagating some more pollinators that we have picked up around town to add to our garden. It’s my secret way to add flowers for free 🤫. Always opt for picking a flower off the ground that has already fallen if possible, rather than picking directly from the plant.
My oldest son gifted me this amazing propagation station and it goes SO perfectly with our science wall.
Thanks to our pollinator garden, our kids have also developed a new hobby: trapping & releasing bees in their bug viewer (or hands, whatever). This is the most Sasha has collected at one time out of our garden:
We also found a mini hive they had started inside one of my watering cans. Unfortunately my children emptied it from the watering can so the bees abandoned it, but it made a super cool addition to our Nature Wall.
Because of this hobby, we will be adding bee hives along the side of our home for them so they can have a safe space to make their hives & honey without anyone interrupting their hard work.
I’m SO excited to add this to our mini homestead! That will be so cool! Hopefully we’ll soon be making our own honey! Luckily, we know some backyard bee keepers to turn to for guidance so that we can turn this new goal into a reality next 🐝.
Around the corner from our home, there are two Little Free Food Pantries that seem pretty abandoned. They are almost always empty, or near empty & have a really un-cared for environment.
They aren’t in the most easily accessible location, and the parking lot is currently being used to store construction vehicles. I feel like they don’t stand out very well so they aren’t being utilized as well as they could be. I’d really like to take these over to beautify them, make them more welcoming & bring them back to life.
We stopped by today to see what was going on with them & what kind of shape they were in, restock them a bit, and pick up trash that was left behind (including a bag of frozen green beans that went so bad in this heat 🤢). Someone has been using the pot as an ashtray, which we cleaned out. They honestly weren’t too bad, just in major need of some love… and some flowers 💐.
I think our first step will be to make some new colorful signs for these Little Free Pantries so that people can be made aware of what they are. I’m going to make that a project for our kids this week. I think that it will be another good lesson to teach our kids to take care of our community, and leaving the world a better place than we found it.
We are finally crossing another accomplishment off our Homeschool Goal list! 🐟🐟
The kids have been setting up their little Fishtank in the dining room for the past year now! They decided to go with a SpongeBob theme in their fish tank, and it ended up looking so cute!
After it got all set up, we filled up the water, filter, and chemicals for it, then let it sit a few days.
We started out getting 2 Elmerald Green Cory Catfish for our first two fish. They are supposed to be very easy beginner fish & they are very playful, which is something I really wanted for the kids fishtank. The kids named them Bob 🐟 and Fred 🐟.
We had to leave the bag they came home in, in the water for at least one hour to get safely acclimated to our water temperature from theirs.
I didn’t want to add more than 2 in case they didn’t survive the move. As a kid who often won bagged up goldfish from the local Midwest church festival games growing up, I remember the disappointment of excitedly checking on my brand new fish, only to find one floating at the top instead. I wanted to give our kids fish a better chance at life than those poor goldfish ever had.
They are already having a great time hanging out with Spongebob & friends!! They are so fun to watch.
We will be feeding them Algae Wafers & occasional slices of zucchini, squash, cucumber, or pieces of romaine or kale! They are known for eating the Leftovers of fish flakes that reach the bottom as well, so once we add more fish they will have that as well.
Next, I will take one kid each week (youngest to oldest) to pick out their own fish to add to the tank. If you add a bunch of different varieties at once, they will be more likely to die, so it is important to introduce new fish slowly.
Then once each kid picks their own fish, I’ll be adding 2-4 more Cory Catfish. They prefer to have schools of at least 4 or more (if size allows.) Since we already have 2 of the Emerald kind, I will be choosing another variety to add diversity. After that, we will be finished with the kids fishtank and can move onto preparing the fishtank in the living room 🐠.
Ella has officially joined the School of Rock Family!! She begins her Rock 101 Band this weekend & is super excited!
She recently completed two School of Rock Camps in June: Beatles Camp & Pop Legends Camp. Before Beatles Camp, she only played piano. While there, she fell in love with guitar.
While at Pop Legends Camp this last week, she gave drums & vocals a try too! She did great on drums. Her rhythm was perfect. She did good with singing, but she’s so shy & quiet it was very difficult to hear her during her Friday night performance. I am SO proud of her for giving it a try. Singing in front of a group is very scary.
She is really excited to begin her Rock 101 Band this weekend. She’ll meet with her band once a week to practice together & will have a performance at the end of the season. She’ll also have a private guitar lesson once a week as well for personal growth.
She has already gained so much confidence in her short time at camp. I can’t wait to watch her really bloom over the next four months.
Kaden also had his Michael Jackson & Bruno Mars concert this past Sunday. It was really nice!
We went out to dinner at Agave & Rye with my parents & his dad’s side of the family, and his best friend, Anna. I couldn’t help but feel so blessed. The way my pregnancy & start of life began with him, I never would imagine we would all be here one day sharing a meal, laughing, catching up on life, & having a great time.
Kaden of course did it all – vocals, drums, guitar, and keys. He’s so talented at all of the instruments he plays, but his vocals are really taking off. His best song was Grenade. I was blown away by how good he sang it.
I also made this little tribute photo to his dad, who passed away in 2017. I haven’t been able to stop staring at it.
I know I sound crazy when I say this, but he communicates with me through music.
A few weeks ago, a mutual friend of ours passed away. I was speaking with another mutual friend of ours outside my home at night about it all and life & how few of our friend group from highschool we have left here Earth side. I told her I felt like some of my dreams for Kaden died with his dad. Especially of them jammin’ out together, father & son, because music was everything to him. It gave him life. It has always given Kaden life too.
The very next morning THIS SONG was released by Sublime. Sublime was one of mine & Teddy’s favorite music groups. We went to a Sublime with Rome concert (among many other concerts) together while we were still dating. The original singer of Sublime, Bradley Nowell, died in 1996. His son Jakob joined Sublime as their singer this year. This song features never before heard music from Bradley with a verse from his son, Jakob. They made music together. Not even death could kill that dream. Life has come full circle ❤️.
The lyrics of the song itself wasn’t the message Teddy was sending me. He was letting me know to not give up my dreams for Kaden because of him. He was letting me know that his soul is being healed by Kaden making music. There are even Ukrainian butterflies flying to make sure I got the sign. He also wanted me to know he’s kickin’ it with Bradley making dope music & wanted to make sure I was jealous of that 😂. He always loved bragging about the musicians he got to meet & smoke with while he was still here.
Enjoy watching Grenade from Kaden’s performance. The video quality isn’t the best, but his voice definitely is! 🥰
I’m officially obsessed with making my own Ice Cream! It’s so fun & easy. There are SO many flavor combinations to try!
If you don’t know this about me – one of my dreams is to start an ice cream 🍦 shop called Morozovo’s because the Ukrainian word for Ice cream is морозиво, which is pronounced in English like our last name just with an extra “o” on the end! I really (like.. really, really) love ice cream & feel like it’s a calling for our family!
Our first step was to go out into the garden and collect some fresh mint. Athena was my big helper in this step & had a lot of fun with it. She said she felt like she was in a wedding carrying the “bouquet” of mint.
After we collected enough mint, we sat down together on the swing and picked off all of the leaves and placed them in this mini colander to be cleaned once we were back in the kitchen.
We collected and picked a good amount, then took our colander inside to clean & roughly cut the mint. I find using kitchen scissors easiest for this.
We then poured our pint of heavy whipping cream into the Dutch oven pot on the stove, threw in the chopped mint, and heated just until hot to let that flavor really begin to release into the cream. Do not overheat, or it will not whip as well for you. Remove from heat, let cool to room temperature, pour into container with lid, and let cold steep in the refrigerator for at the very least 12 hours.
After cold steeping in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours (the longer it steeps, the stronger the mint flavor will be), strain mint leaves by using cheese cloth over your Kitchen Aid Mixing Bowl.
Whip the cream with the whisk attachment until you have a Whipped cream consistency. Hand mixers would probably work even better, if you have those.
Once Whipped, add in 1 can of Ukrainian Sweetened Condensed Milk & whip again. I imagine American Condensed Milk will work if you don’t have access to a European market, but the Ukrainian one just tastes SO much better {see note}!!! Finally, add 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract & whip again one final time.
{NOTE: after comparing Ukrainian to American Condensed Milk with my тато, we found that Ukrainian Condensed Milk has at least double the amount of sugar as American, which is why it noticeably tastes better than American Condensed Milk. With this difference, you will have different results if using American Condensed Milk. You may have to add in sugar, but since I have not done it this way, I am unsure of when or how much sugar to add.}
Gently fold in mini chocolate chips until all mixed together really evenly. I used semi-sweet because that was all that was available in mini, but feel free to use whatever you like here. Milk, dark, mini, chunk – it’s your ice cream, make it exactly your way!
Once all blended together, pour into a Loaf pan & place into freezer. The first day is good, but the second day is even better so if you have enough self-control, let it freeze overnight for best results. However if you need to try it right away, same. Just make sure to save enough to try the next day too!
Once it freezes & you are ready to eat, let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to let it soften up a tiny bit to make scooping easier. Scoop into bowl or cone & enjoy!
The flavor of the fresh mint in the ice cream is SO good! Plus I was super happy to use up some more of my mint in my garden! All of the kids agreed that the homemade Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream was way better than store bought – even Sasha who has never liked a store-bought mint chocolate chip before. She was the first to ask for seconds!
I hope you like it as much as us!
Ingredients
1 pint Heavy Whipping Cream
Fresh mint (I used probably 75-100 leaves)
1 can Ukrainian Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1 bag mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
1 – MINT: Gather, wash, & cut mint.
2 – HEAT: Pour Heavy Whipping Cream into pot on stove, using medium low heat. Add mint leaves. Stir constantly until just hot, then pour into container & let cool to room temperature. Once cool, refrigerate 12+ hours.
3 – STRAIN mint leaves from cream using cheese cloth over your mixing bowl. Discard leaves.
4 – WHIP the cream into a Whipped cream consistency. Add in 1 can Ukrainian Condensed Milk, whip again. Add in 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract, whip again. {🍦Begin at this step if NOT using mint🍦}.
5 – FOLD in chocolate chips gently & evenly throughout the cream mixture.
6 – POUR mixture into Loaf pan & freeze overnight.
I threw a Summer Solstice (Litha) Feast for my family last night!! Since I was working the last few nights, I am a few days late to throw this, but I think it overall turned out really nice!! Typically, a Summer Solstice Feast would be held outdoors since it is a celebration of the sun & all the blessings and warmth that the Earth provides for us, but it has been so hot this week, we decided to have our feast inside.
Mia did a really good job decorating the table with plants & flowers from our garden to make it look beautiful!
I made Swedish Meat Pies as the main course – both ground beef and vegetarian ground crumbles versions so that I could enjoy the feast as well! I definitely have plenty of Leftovers for meals this week for myself!
I made a Summer Salad to serve as the side which was delicious! The Summer Salad is laid on top of a bed of lettuce, then drizzled with Mangoraja dressing. The dressing was SO good & I’m glad there was enough leftover to bottle up to use this week.
For our beverage, Mia & I made a “Very Berry Lemonade.” We used Raspberries, Blackberries, and Blueberries!! It was so good and wasn’t overly sweet like a lot of lemonade!
Our dessert was homemade Strawberry ice cream! It was my first time making it, and I was so surprised how simple it is to make! Plus it only used 3 ingredients & didn’t require any special equipment! I can’t wait to experiment with so many more flavors!
I think that it turned out really nice and was really happy to make these memories with my family.
Along with a Feast, it is important to spend time in nature during this season, connecting with the Earth and all she has provided for us. We spend a lot of time tending to our gardens & herbs. My dad gifted me a herb dryer so that we can begin drying out our fresh herbs to use instead of buy. That will be used a lot!
Setting intentions while connecting with & thanking your ancestors, other spirit guides + the universe is another important ritual during the Solstice. It is a season for new life & new beginnings so it is a great time to make major changes in your life. I’m very excited for & accepting of new changes and blessings that are to come.
Another fun activity to do with kids during the summer solstice is to leave gifts for the fairies. Today, we will spend time in the children’s garden taking time to decorate & re-arrange their fairy 🧚🏼♀️ garden space and make it magical again, while listening to some beautiful music about loving & honoring the Earth.
With the weather being nice, we have had so many people stop by our Little Free Library lately! It makes my heart so happy every time that I get to witness a family stop by and pick up a book or two, or trade some of theirs ❤️.
It has been so much fun for our entire family running this library. From collecting book donations & making sure it stays fully stocked at all times with materials for kids of all reading levels, we try to do our best as stewards!
This last year I decided to keep Sasha behind in language arts because she just wasn’t getting it. I didn’t want to do the dissatisfaction that public schools do by just moving on to “grade level” when she doesn’t fully understand the concept, or worse, getting annoyed with her for not understanding because that certainly doesn’t help anyone, especially her.
I selfishly thought, if I do that, she will be “behind” her peers. If I do that, people will think I’m failing at homeschooling and tell me I need to give up and put her back into public school. Then I realized, two-thirds of American kids in public schools can’t read. I’m not hurting her by going at HER pace, I’m helping her not be part of that statistic. She’s not going to be “behind” anybody. She’s going to be right on her own time, and most importantly, she’s going to fully understand what she’s reading & be a strong, confident reader. Sasha is also currently working with our homeschool teacher of many talents, Ms. Natalie, helping her once a week to improve her reading skills in addition to her daily curriculum work. I know this was the right decision because she has come SO far this year using the Preschool curriculum instead of beginning at Kindergarten. It has made a huge difference and I’ve seen a huge improvement!
With so many children left feeling a huge lack of confidence in reading, it’s no wonder so many kids say things like “I hate reading” and try to avoid it.
I think the biggest importance is to help children turn that hate for reading into a love for it. One of our ways to do that is to hunt for new Little Free Libraries together! We love finding new ones and enjoying how creative everyone is in their ideas! We enjoy trading books that won’t fit into our little library into ones that will. The kids love finding books for each of their siblings that they think they will enjoy. They also love tending to ours! Like they say “A family that reads together, stays together.”
I wanted to share a Cincinnati-based organization – The Queen City Book Bank – with you that helps make it possible for you to get your own Little Free Library in your front yard as well as provides you with gently-used books to fill your library with as well! Their mission is to get as many kids reading as possible to lift this statistic.
Their next free book giveaway day is July 9th, from 9 am – 3 pm. They ask that you please bring your own bags 🛍.
📚 If you are interested in becoming a Little Free Library steward in Cincinnati, reach out to their Program Coordinator, Shymain Walker, by email at Shymain@queencitybookbank.org
Our public libraries are currently hosting their Summer Reading Program as well! That is a great incentive to get your children reading!
Barnes & Noble also offers a free summer reading program too! No purchase is necessary to participate! You can go on a Little Library Scavenger Hunt together to find new books to read, or borrow from the library or friends.
There are so many ways & resources to get kids interested in reading! We as parents have to change this statistic ourselves!!! For the sake of both current & future generations!!!
“A child who reads will be an adult who thinks.” 📚
When she first went, I had been expecting her to choose either keys or vocals because she has experience with piano and she loves singing for fun, but she ended up surprising me & choosing the guitar!
She ended up really falling in love with it and asked to continue learning how to play! We applied together for a scholarship for her to continue lessons at School of Rock Cincinnati. We really hope that she is selected! I think it would be so great for her. It has really been such an amazing opportunity for her brother & I’d love for her to have that opportunity as well.
Her older brother Kaden was kind to pass down his beginner electric guitar & old amp to Ella for her to learn on. That made her really happy. Her grandma bought her a new guitar case for it.
Tonight she had her first performance at the school! Her band played Come Together and Twist & Shout. She did a really great job on both songs! My parents, oldest son, & Grammy Kat along all came to cheer her on!!
After her performance, my mom asked if Ella wanted to go to another SOR Music Camp which she, of course, did! That was really, really kind of her. My mom signed Ella up for her choice of the upcoming Pop Legends group in a couple weeks! She is really excited & grateful to get to go back! Hopefully soon, she’ll get to go weekly for guitar lessons!
My parents went on vacation this week and they hired Mia to help with dog sitting their toy poodle, Vera, during the day while they were away. Vera was a puppy mill rescue so she is very timid, especially when she is away from my mom.
We drove to their home twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon to let Vera out to potty & attempt to take her on a walk.
She was not at all interested in walks, especially the first two days. On the third day we drove her to Rhinestrom Park to hopefully get her excited about some new sniffs. She liked the sniffs, didn’t like walking more than a foot at a time. She really enjoyed going for a car ride, though.
After our adventure, she began opening up to Mia a lot more. She eagerly went on very short walks and felt much more comfortable sniffing around. She also did not shiver with fear anymore.
By the last day Vera was very comfortable with Mia. When we walked back towards her home, she kept walking past the driveway!! Normally she immediately dashed right down it.
Mia was really excited to have a real job taking care of Vera. She took her responsibilities very seriously and made sure to write down what times she came to take care of Vera.
Each time we spent between 30 minutes to an hour trying to walk with her or sitting with her on their deck to get a little sun. By the end of the week she was jumping up the side of the deck chair into our lap to cuddle.
Seeing how happy Mia was to take on this responsibility definitely motivated me to find a local animal shelter that will allow younger children to volunteer. I really love how interested she is in following her passion for taking care of animals. With how overcrowded the shelters currently are, hopefully it won’t be too much of a problem to find one that could use her help. She would also really like to take on more paying jobs with animals too!
She was a little sad that her week as Vera’s dog sitter has come to an end, but she’s very grateful for the experience & time with her. Also, since she is my parents dog we will at least still get to see her all the time!
From Heroin to Housewife 