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 mini homestead has really taken off this year! I am really proud of how far it’s come and what all I added this year. We don’t have a huge lot of land we are working with, but we have a decent size yard & we are planning to use every inch we can to live off of. Eventually, we’d love to own our own big farm with our own water source, but for now we are fulfilling our mini homestead dreams + getting knowledge & practice for the real deal!
As a vegetarian, I really want my kids to know where their food comes from + how to grow their own food from seed. I want them to know how to be self-relient & self-sufficient. Part of that is learning how to stretch food as far as you can take it & waste as little as possible.
I am Ukrainian, so naturally it’s in my DNA to love beets. I thought that would be a great vegetable to start with! Today I am going to teach you how to use the entirety of the Beet to make not just one meal, but an entire days’ worth of meals from just a few beets so that absolutely no part will be wasted & you stretch your produce as far as it can go.
We will then compost the scraps & propagate our Beets to re-grow in our garden, so that even the used up & unusable parts still get re-used too and leaves you with 100% zero waste.
The first step is going to be peeling, slicing, and then washing your 6-8 Beets. Make sure to SAVE your beet tops (the part that looks like lettuce.) You will want to cut this off, wash, rinse well, and set aside to use.
To cook your Beets:
Place sliced Beets, 1/2 cup white vinegar, 2 bay leaves, 6 teaspoons Minced garlic, 2 teaspoons sea salt into a pot, then cover with water.
Cook for 30 minutes, drain, rinse, & let cool. Now they are ready to use!
Breakfast: Raspberry Banana & Beet Smoothie
Smoothies are such a great way to start the day! This one was really yummy! In most beet drinks I’ve had, there is an overwhelming beet flavor. This one has a much more subtle beet taste too it, but you can definitely still taste it. The color was so beautiful!! Just throw all of the ingredients together in the blender & enjoy!
1 cup ice
Raspberries
Beets
1 banana
1/2 cup vanilla Greek Yogurt
1 tablespoon chia seeds
2 tablespoons Oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1 1/2 cups Almond milk
Drizzle of honey
Lunch: Beet Salad with Balsamic Drizzle
I used a spring + arugula lettuce mix as the base of this salad. I dressed the salad with homemade dressing {listed below}. Then I topped it with Mozzarella Cheese balls, chopped up Beets, walnuts, salt & pepper, & my favorite: Nonna Pia’s Balsamic Glaze.
Dressing:
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
2 tablespoons Almond oil
Juice from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon parsley
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon Green Harvest Seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Minced garlic
Dinner: Beet Top & Feta Bake
Ella has been asking for quiche lately, but this Tart is even better! It is just like quiche, but much creamier & uses a lot less eggs. It’s SO tasty, I could honestly eat the entire thing to myself in a day or so.
Place beet tops in a large pot & cover with water & salt. Cook until wilted, drain, set aside to cool. While beet tops are cooking, Preheat oven to 350° & roll out your pie crust over your pie pan, then set aside to cool.
Once beet tops are cool enough to touch, fill bottom of pie crust. Next, evenly spread Feta cheese to create a layer over the beet tops.
In a mixing bowl, mix together milk, eggs, & Creme fraiche until blended. Salt & pepper to taste, mix again. Pour mixture over Feta cheese layer. Cook for 50 minutes. Let cool for at least 10-15 minutes to set.
1 pie crust
Beet tops (from 6-8 beets)
Feta cheese (6 oz)
1 container Creme Fraiche
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Salt & Pepper to taste
Dessert: Chocolate Beet Cake
This was good, but definitely would have been better with chocolate Frosting. I thought that the ice cream would have been enough, but it was still more dry than traditional chocolate cake. That didn’t stop it from being gobbled up though!
Large beet
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup sunflower oil
Half a bag of dark chocolate chunks
Beet Propagatation
• Day One •
Place the rest of the unused beets in a shallow bowl with water. I used this pie plate because it was big enough to fit all of mine.
Day Five
New leaves have began growing on our Beets over the last few days, which means they will be ready to plant in the soil soon! I’m planning to let these continue to grow their leaves in this dish for another week or so, then move them to their permanent locations in the garden.
I had a lot of fun with this no-waste challenge & hope that you were able to get some inspiration from it! I am definitely inspired to continue learning how to run a no-waste mini homestead & excited to figure out what vegetable I’ll use for the next challenge!
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!
We have been studying Botany this spring, so we took a field trip today to Krohn Conservatory to see all of the really neat plants & the Butterflies in Space exhibit. 🦋
The Butterflies really liked Ella & kept landing all over her. She thinks they were attracted to the other butterflies on her dress. 🦋
Mia did a good job with getting butterflies to land on her card. She had to give most of her butterflies 🦋 to Athena, though.
Sasha was the first to “catch” a butterfly 🦋 & she was very proud of that. I am pretty sure that she also caught the most butterflies out of all of us.
Athena had a bit of difficult time catching the Butterflies, but she was quick to take all of the ones her bigger sisters caught. 🦋
Moses loved chasing the Butterflies as they flew around the greenhouse. He had to keep being reminded not to touch the Butterflies, and to leave them alone while they were on their fruit feeding trays. 🦋 He still had a great time, nonetheless.
Mia wanted to take a photo of me with my butterfly too 🦋.
From now on, I am going to place orange slices that my kids don’t finish into my garden for Butterflies to feed on. I’ll have to come up with some sort of feeding station for them, but I have a few ideas in mind!
I loved the way this butterfly spread its beautiful wings out on this flower. I can only hope that one day our butterfly garden brings us this many different Butterflies to visit us!!
After the butterfly exhibit, the kids colored space themed pictures, made butterfly wand crafts, & took a photo in the “photo booth” in the Krohn Discovery Space.
We went on the Butterfly Scavenger Hunt. The Butterflies were hidden around the Botanical Gardens and we had to find them. We loved walking around and taking photos in the Picture This app of different plants we loved and wanted to add to our gardens while looking for the hidden butterflies.
It was a really great way to get the kids involved in looking at plants and making something kids would usually find “boring” to look at into something really fun & exciting for them.
My father in law got these really great shots of the girls running through the waterfall. It loops around to a cave behind it which was lit up with lights & more space decor. It was the kids favorite spot at the conservatory.
I especially love the photo of Mia. She looks like a beautiful fairy in it.
He also got this great shot of what looks like a mama butterfly with her baby butterfly under her 🦋. I thought that was really cute!! I love how similar the spots are on both butterflies. Moses is currently really into grouping things by mama & baby, so it was a cute little sign from the universe & natural world for us to get to see.
Even though we’ve been there before, we had a really great field trip today! The kids were all really well behaved & engaged. It was short enough where the kids never got to the point of being overdone, but wasn’t short enough that we felt that we wasted our time or money.
I loved that they pointed out things that we have been learning in our botany unit study!! That gives me so much reassurance that they are truly learning & taking in so much information and most importantly, actually applying it in real life! That makes me feel like a successful homeschool mama and I’ll take any win I can right now!!!
The weather has been so beautiful lately, we have been trying to do as much of our Botany classes outside as we can! We have put a ton of work into our back yard as a family, so it has been a really peaceful atmosphere to do our classes in.
Sati & Rocco decided that they wanted to take the class with us today as well.
The first thing we did today was learn the parts of a plant, and what each part is meant to do. For example, the stem sucks up the water for the plant and keeps it upright so that it can grow big & strong to support the weight of the plant. Sometimes a little man-made help is needed by using cages or trellises.
Then each girl picked a live plant with roots to examine & draw in their Botany workbooks. Mia worked with a Blueberry Bush that was purchased. Ella worked with a tomato plant that was propagated when a piece fell off of my tomato plants while planting.
When we were finished examining, drawing, & labeling our plants, the girls planted them. Ella added her to our tomato patch (and thought it was funny how small it was compared to the rest of them, *pictured below*) & Mia added hers along the fence next to my root vegetable garden.
Speaking of root vegetables, we also discussed them in our lesson today!
When we were finished we prepared our green bean seeds in a jar of water for next week’s lesson & checked back on our seeds from last week’s lesson in their ziploc bag “greenhouses.” The girls observed what has happened to the seeds over the last week, and what they think will happen over another week. Next week, we can check on our little pots from our Art, Play, Hike day & see how our wildflowers are doing also.
Botany has definitely been our favorite science unit so far!! It’s been so much fun to do as a whole family together & very hands on in every unit. I also love how many beautiful plants that we will get out of this unit! I’m excited to start incorporating some Botanical field trips into our classes also! We have a few fun ones picked out!
We went to the Art, Play, Hike homeschool meet up today! This is a free group for children of all ages, hosted by the Cincinnati Parks department.
Each Tuesday, this homeschool group meets at a different park around Cincinnati to do art projects, take a Hike, and make new friends to play & socialize with. Today it was held at French Park, which is right by our home.
We showed up an hour early by accident so we decided to take our own big hike while we waited for the rest of the group to show up. I told the kids they could choose which trail we took. They decided on one we hadn’t taken before. By the time we finished our super long hike, the group was ready & set up to begin.
Our first art project today was decorating kites! The kids were really excited to do this project.
Our second art project was decorating flower pots, then filling with dirt & planting wildflower seeds. Mia mentioned that it was great for our Botany class!
They provided baskets of paint markers & stickers for the kids to color their pots. The kids had a lot of fun personalizing them.
Moses fell down so many times on our hike he was covered from head to toe in mud by the end of it. We are trying to live with the “no such thing as bad weather” mindset, and he had fun so that’s all that matters.
The kids were really excited to run around and fly their kites. The got the hang of it pretty quickly and were able to fly them really high in the air!
Our second hike with the group was much shorter, but we went into depth about the different plants & flowers that we saw that are edible, pretty, or invasion (and how to safely remove).
This was a great meet up today & I’m really glad that we went. We all had a lot of fun, got a lot of exercise, and got to make some really cool crafts with each other & new friends.
The weekend began with the Expo, picking up our race packets, t-shirts, do a little local vendor shopping, and of course take a few photos. I had to be at work so we had to rush through the Expo this year, but that definitely saved us from spending unnecessary money.
Ella made Flying Pig chocolate lollipops for us to celebrate. They turned out really adorable and tasted yummy!
Ella & I before the race got rained out & delayed! We were supposed to begin at 9 am, but we were first delayed at hour back to 10 am, and again until noon. We took the opportunity to go grab a Bagel while we waited.
After a long delay, we got back downtown to the start just in time! I had planned on walking briskly, but Ella was determined to run the whole thing- so we ran!
Ella & I after we finished the race! She was really excited & proud to get her first medal! I was so proud of her for being able to finish the whole thing with only a couple short walking breaks (for the most part because I needed it!) She’s already planning for the 10k next year!
Our friends met us at the finish line with Ukrainian flags for us!! It was really nice to have that support & friendship. It made the day even more special & filled with love!
We went out to a nice (but rushed) lunch afterwards at Taste of Belgium. Ella loves Breakfast food, so we had originally planned on going to First Watch, but with the race being delayed, they were 30 minutes from closing by the time we were ready to leave- so we had to change plans, but wanted to make sure Ella still got her beloved Breakfast food. Since Belgium waffles are her ultimate favorite breakfast, it worked out perfectly.
We had a really great time running the 5k together with Grammy Kat this year! It was a really great memory to make, and I’m excited to make The Flying Pig an annual tradition for our family.
Next year, I definitely plan to take off work the day of so we are able to get the full experience of the day.
I hope you are having a good week out there! It is feeling more springy here in regards to sunshine, but still pretty chilly and a recent morning freeze. I am excited to share a couple exciting spring things around my house that are getting me super excited for the coming days of spending all of my “free” time working in the garden.
I have big plans, but we are currently working on an extra tight budget. This year instead of splurging on everything then getting overwhelmed, I’m going to have to decide what is most important and beneficial to my family, and really focus my energy and attention on those spaces. I’ll also have to remind myself that every step I take is a step toward my goals, even if it feels like baby steps right now.
First, I went outside today to find that my peach tree is producing a ton of baby peaches!! There are so many more than I had expected! I can’t wait to add an apple tree this year so that next year we’ll have delicious apples and won’t even need to travel to the apple tree farm to get them!
Niko & Mia recently added pavers around my garden bed. He also put a small fence around it to keep the dogs out. It’s all ready for my tomato plants to go in once we pass the freezing date. They are getting big and I’m beyond ready to get them in the ground!
My indoor herbs are thriving also. I love having fresh herbs in my kitchen to use when I’m cooking. It’s so much better than the dried ones.
Last, but not least, I’m so excited to get my new plants in the ground! I got a bunch of new flowers for the front flower gardens. I got new herbs for the backyard herb gardens. I got cabbage. I got a Blueberry bush. I got a few more tomato plants of different varieties.
It is definitely feeling like Spring around here!! I feel off to a really good start for this season, & cannot wait to watch all of the beauty come to life!
I made him Vegetarian Borscht with Garlic Pampushky. I picked up some Ukrainian Sour Cream (сметана) to serve with the borscht. It was a really yummy & healthy meal! He really enjoyed it & was happy that I made it for him. It made me happy that he was eager to try it.
I have been waiting a long time to try to make it and today seemed like the perfect reason!
My mom made Ukrainian Poppy Seed Cake for his dessert. They were waiting until after they went out on their date to eat it, so I am anxiously waiting to try it- but it looks and smells amazing and I, of course, love poppy seeds!!
Last week his sister, Ірина, came to town to visit so I made a batch of homemade Varenyky for her. My uncle complimented them big time and said that it was like Grandpa Joe was still alive. My dad & Irene laughed about a memory they had of him making Varenyky alongside a pint of vodka. When the Varenyky was finished, so was the vodka.
I really love to cook the traditional Ukrainian foods for my family. I want to bridge the gap between the old generation and the new. I want to bring back core memories for my my dad and his sister, and make new ones with my kids and future grandchildren to carry on the tradition.
Irene told me about my бабуся, Olga, and that I reminded her of her mother 🥰. I never got to meet her, but always wished I had. I know she is with me as a spirit guide though.
I’m very grateful for another year with my dad, and being able to make these meals for him. It makes me so happy to do so. I’m grateful that he is still in good health & I hope for many more years to get to cook for him.
When we first began homeschooling, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. There was SO much information on the internet. Different methods for homeschooling, different curriculums, different kinds of curriculums. I felt lost and overwhelmed, so I asked one of the only other moms I knew who homeschooled for guidance. She gave me a lot of great information & advice about what worked for her family, which I would later come to find out didn’t work as well for our family, which is perfectly fine because it was still a learning experience.
Throughout that first year I learned more about homeschooling and I found a curriculum called The Good and The Beautiful, and immediately knew it was the one for our family for the lesson part of homeschooling. It is SO beautiful and makes learning so fun & interesting.
It is what is considered an “all in one” or “grab and go” curriculum in the homeschool world. That means that you, the homeschooling educator, would simply follow along with the book. Everything that you need is included, although occasionally there will be optional materials suggested to use to enhance the lessons even further. Minimal planning is involved, making it very stress free. I really enjoy that the hard part is done for me, in a way that is easy for me to teach. It really helped improve my confidence in homeschooling in knowing that I am fully capable of teaching my children, regardless of my background.
The younger children are very hands on with the parent or homeschool educator. As they grow older and obtain more knowledge & skills, the lessons become more independent, although you will still be needed as their guide and to answer any questions they have.
I also really enjoy what all is included, and how subjects are incorporated together so you aren’t teaching several subjects all day long. For Example, Ella’s 4th grade language arts included geography, art lessons, cooking lessons, creative writing, spelling, and more. She is loving learning about different countries and making the foods from that location. Her Gnocchi & Scottish Shortbread Cookies were big hits!
I wasn’t great with math in school, but this curriculum makes it very easy to follow along and helps you to refresh, and sometimes relearn the math lessons yourself. It also makes math fun for us. Ella’s 4th grade math includes video lessons to watch which I appreciate as a math-challeneged person. The younger grades includes directions for the parent/homeschool educator to follow for teaching the lesson.
The Good and the Beautiful offers free placement testing to figure out where your child is and where they are best fit to begin with this curriculum.
I also really enjoy the fact that you can either buy the curriculum, or download the PDF for free and print yourself. The library offers to print a number of free sheets per day, which would significantly reduce your cost. This is also a great option for moms who would like to test out the curriculum with their child before investing.
Since we have decided to stick with this curriculum, I chose to purchase one of every grade level for the main subjects, then photocopy a week’s worth of lessons at a time to work on with the girls. This way I am able to reuse this curriculum all the way through with all of the kids and not have to purchase everything new each year.
For science, I buy one master copy of the lesson plan, but I do buy individual workbooks for each child that is completely that class. I will be able to repeat the lessons with the younger kids later on and will only need to buy new workbooks in the future. We pick our units based on our family’s interests.
I incorporate local field trips into our lesson plans to go along with what we are learning. For Marine Biology we went to the Newport Aquarium. For our current subject, Botany, we will be going on field trips to the Krohn Conservatory & the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, as well as grow flowers from seeds, tend to our gardens in our yard, and add more plants. For Geology over the summer, we will be visiting Mammoth Caves. The freedom of homeschooling and having time to learn as a family is seriously the best.
History is the one subject that I do use a different curriculum for, although The Good and the Beautiful does offer it. I use Master books, Tuttle Twins, and a lot of YouTube videos. We also own a large selection of history books & textbooks.
As with science, we also incorporate field trips into our history lessons. In February we went to the Underground Railroad Museum for Black History Month.
I love that we get to go on field trips and experience life as a family
There is a free app that goes along with The Good and The Beautiful that you will sometimes need for lessons. This will include songs, spelling, audio narratives, videos, reading boosters, and more.
There is a big re-sale market for this curriculum, so if you do not mark in your books, you will be able to re-sell for close to market value of your money back when you no longer need it.
If you live & homeschool in Ohio, The Good and the Beautiful is registered in the Ohio ACE Marketplace, and can be 100% reimbursed through this program. New applications are currently closed for the 23-24 school year though, unfortunately.
I am really glad that I was able to find this curriculum. It works really well for our family and my kids constantly tell me how fun they think this curriculum is. I love and advocate for using the old-fashioned pencil and paper method over a keyboard because I truly believe in the power of it.
From Heroin to Housewife 