homeschool

Silk Road Supper (with Recipes) + A Field Trip to Jungle Jims

homeschool, Motherhood, Recipes, Uncategorized

In our History course, we are currently learning about The Silk Road. This week’s assignment is making a Silk Road Supper.

We were given 4 courses (appetizer, main dish, side item, and dessert), Ella & Mia each chose two courses that they were going to be responsible for. I also chose 2 of my own to contribute to our feast. Ella chose a main & side, Mia chose the appetizer & dessert. They prepared their grocery lists by writing down the ingredients from each recipe that we needed to buy, leaving out the items that we already have.

Our next step was to go on a field trip to the grocery store and learn where the ingredients that we needed were sourced from, then buy the items that we need for our supper. We are fortunate to live where there is not only one Jungle Jims, but two, and either one a 20 minute drive for us. We decided that was the perfect store for this assignment.

For my friends outside Ohio, Jungle Jims is an International Grocery Supermarket. It’s sort of like an amusement park, but for foodies. It’s currently listed as the largest grocery store in the world. People travel from all over the country to visit this market.

You can shop international products by country. You can watch old-time animatronics perform or join eating contests. You can hang out at the lounge for beer & wine testing, or check out a cooking class at The Cooking School. Visit their Award Winning Restrooms. Watch the Jungle Jims Story in the theater or take a guided tour.

There is nearly every type of food you can think of from all over the world. It’s really fun to find new things to try that you otherwise would never know even existed.

It really is such an interesting place. If it’s your first time going, plan on spending at least half of your day there, if not more. It’s very easy to overspend though, so we try not to spend too much time browsing when we go. There’s a huge shopping area for kitchen tools & accessories, and a giant old school toy section filled with toys from my childhood & collectors items.

The surrounding Plaza around Jungle Jims has plenty of food options if you’ve made yourself hungry while shopping and want to grab a bite to eat on your way home. Don’t leave without checking out the renovated Monorail that once upon a time in Cincinnati history rode guests through King’s Island’s now-retired Lion Country Safari exhibit.

They are currently expanding the jungle, and I’m sure, surrounding Plaza as well. I’m so excited to see what all is added!

A Silk Road Supper

• APPETIZER: Bruschetta al Pomodoro • (Mia)

I feel like this was a strange dish to be included in a Silk Road Supper, considering tomatoes are native to the Americas & did not reach Italy until the mid-1500s… after the Silk Road had already closed nearly 100 years prior… but we’re all about celebrating other cultures so we kept it on the menu 🤷🏼‍♀️. It was delicious though, so we’re glad we did!

• MAIN DISH: Middle Eastern Market Chicken • (Ella)

I forgot to get a picture of the finished dish, or of what it looked like packed inside a pita wrap – we were all so hungry by the time dinner was served. Ella made a rotisserie chicken in the crockpot. She’s getting really comfortable working with meat.

I made a Ready to Cook vegetarian legume “chicken” for myself. I don’t usually buy these products, but I wanted to try to get as close to the menu as possible for myself and I’m glad I did. It was so delicious.

• SIDE ITEM #1: Gan Bian Si Ji Dou • (Ella)

Ella chose to use ground turkey for this recipe. I think we would remake, omitting the meat all together. We substituted regular rice wine because I could get it at my work with my discount. Dad got to drink the rest. He said it tastes like if vodka & wine had a baby.

• SIDE ITEM #2: Biryani Rice • (Mom)

This ended up being Sasha’s Favorite dish. I’ve never had it so I have nothing to compare to. My husband said it tasted “Middle Eastern.” I think that means it turned out right? It was what I was aiming for. I thought it was good, and had the most pleasant aroma. I caramelized the onions all day (10 hours) in a crockpot and I feel that they still never got very caramelized. They smelled amazing while they cooked, though.

• DESSERT: Sakkarai Pongal • (Mia)

I liked this a lot. It sort of reminded me of Ukrainian Kutya, but thinner. The kids were disappointed, they thought it tasted more like Oatmeal than pudding and saw this as more of a breakfast option than a dessert option. I could see that. I did have some with breakfast the next morning and can confirm, it’s awesome for breakfast.

• BEVERAGE: • Ukrainian Kompot (Mom)

My reason for choosing this (besides that it is so delicious) is that the Silk Road branched off to the Black Sea, off the coast of Ukraine, which has always been a vital trading route, even today. China has been working on re-opening the Modern Silk Road that Ukraine aims to be a destination on for trade. Ukraine’s land is known to be the most furtile in the world and is known to be The Bread Basket of The World from their major exportation of wheat, soy, barley, maize, and sunflowers. Plus, we’re Ukrainian and I’ll use anything as an excuse to celebrate our culture!

Kompot is so great because in the summer you can serve it cold, then in these cold, winter months you can serve it warm like tea. It’s a great way to use up fruit that is turning mushy, but not yet moldy. Instead of throwing those away, place them in a gallon-size ziplock bag in your freezer. Once you fill a bag, use it for making Kompot to cut down on food waste & enjoy a delicious fruit drink.

I hope you enjoyed our Silk Road experience as much as we did. We thought it was a lot of fun and very hands on & family-oriented which we love. I am really grateful that we were able to take a field trip to such a large international market for this project. I’m also grateful for being presented with new foods to try and having children with an adventurous & open eating palate who are always willing to try new foods with me.

Jungle Jims, circa 2021

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov

Mom Set Free | Bible Study

mental health, Motherhood, Uncategorized

I’ve been struggling heavy this year. Struggling to keep up. Struggling to cope with grief & choices I made in the past. Struggling to keep the lights on. Struggling with mood swings & resentment. Just… Struggling.

I’ve decided to do some soul cleaning & mind work by going back through the Mom Set Free Bible Study.

I worked through this Bible Study a few years ago in a Mom Group. I felt like I got a lot out of it, but that I was also a completely different person in a different place at that time. I’ve added a few more children since then, learned a few more life lessons, and began finding real confidence in motherhood & homemaking.

I don’t have the time to complete each day’s work on a daily basis in this current season of life we’re in here, so I am aiming to work through one “day” slowly throughout the week until I make it through the entire workbook, sharing on Sundays.

Opening Questions

• If you could go back to the time when you were preparing for your first child, what advice would you give to the younger you?

Make your own decisions – do not let family or doctors make decisions for you. This is your child, not theirs. Worry less about names & shopping for clothes and spend more time researching everything. Research formula. Research vaccines. Research circumcision. Research Johnson & Johnson. Research Gerber. Research c-sections; trust in your own body, not a psychiatrist. You don’t need surgery or the pharmaceuticals being pushed on you. Start eating real food, stay away from processed poison. Learn to cook so you can teach good food habits from the start. Move out on your own.

Looking back, it’s absolutely wild how far I’ve come as a mother from my first pregnancy 15 years ago. I’m a completely different person. I have completely different values. I have a completely different mindset. Back then, I still had such a childish mind. I made mindless decisions that I strongly regret based on what others, or society, told me to do. Today, I would never. I’ve had life changing experiences with each child that has led me down different paths that taught me to leave society & raise my kids my own way. With each child I’ve gained more confidence in my abilities as a mother, and learned that being at home with my children is what I was called to do.

• What are some of the pressures mom face each day?

I cannot speak for other moms, I can only speak for myself. I homeschool during the week. I work my entire Saturday which sets me back days, all for a measley $100 – Our family’s only income for the last year & a half. Keep up with laundry, cleaning, meals, lawn & garden work, grocery shopping, meal planning, daily baking, cooking all meals at home from scratch, I take care of the cats. Getting kids to appointments & activities. Planning birthdays & holidays. Extended breastfeeding & cloth diapering. On Sundays, we have Ukrainian School where I am helping Ms. Tetiana with the preschoolers.

• What weakness has parenting revealed to you as a mom? What is the hardest part of being a mom for you?

I am controlling. I over-react to mess & too much noise. I have a hard time accepting help. I set unrealistically high standards for myself then get angry when I can’t achieve these standards.

I honestly couldn’t tell you what the hardest part is. Every day is different. Some days the hardest part is being ignored. Some days it’s when you realize you can’t remember how long it’s been since your needs have been met, but you have to keep pouring from a bone-dry cup anyway. Some days it’s sick, cranky kids. Some days it’s feeling like a total failure, that you can’t do anything right. Some days it’s everyone around you fighting & having a meltdown while you try to keep your own emotions in check. Some days it is feeling like you have no help or anyone to turn to, or worse, turning to someone you trust and being told, “well, you asked for this.” It depends on the day. It depends how my mental status is – did I get enough sleep? Did I eat?

• What are your biggest worries and concerns when you think you are not enough for your kids or for God?

I know that I am enough for my children. God wouldn’t have trusted me with them if I wasn’t – after all, they are His children first. However, there are human behaviors that I worry about impacting them, like when I yell. I apologize every time, but I still feel terrible. I try to be better than I was the day before, but I am human. While my husband has been out of work, I’ve felt like I am not able to do enough for them whether that be gifts or special outings. I have felt like a failure. I have felt like a disappointment. I especially feel this around birthdays & holidays. I do know, however, that the more that I compare, the more unsettled I feel. I only feel like I’m not doing enough when I compare what else could be done – a direct result of American consumerism. When I begin focusing on what I want (greed) & don’t have (envy), I begin feeling less than. We may not have everything we want, but we have what we need and most of all we have each other & that is enough.

Never in my life has it crossed my mind that I’m not good enough for God. I thought that was the whole concept: I was fearfully & wonderfully made in His image, and so were you. Saying I’m not enough is saying His image is wrong and that I know more than Him.

• Read Isaiah 26:3. What did you learn from this verse?

I had to look up what this was trying to tell me. What I learned is that if I look towards God, I will find the inner peace that I am searching for. I can’t control my way to peace, I must surrender. When it all seems like too much, ask God where to start. He will calm the heart & mind if I just trust in His plan.

• What does it mean to rely on the peace & power of God? How would that reliance change your parenting?

This is one that I feel that I’ve been working on while my husband has been out of work: really putting my faith into God taking care of us. It has been HARD. Most days I feel like the entire world rests on my shoulders and it will literally collapse if I don’t get it all done. I have to keep reminding myself that He doesn’t give us more than we can handle. I have to keep reminding myself that this is all part of His plan. I need to learn to let go of my need to control, and fully allow Him to do His work through me.

Knowing that these are God’s children and he has lent them to me to watch over them in their Earthly journeys is something that changed my parenting drastically. It really puts into perspective how important our jobs as Mothers is. We are trusted to care for them, keep them safe, treat them as good as God would. That’s a huge job! But it’s also SO beautiful that I was chosen for this.

• What do you want to gain most from this Bible Study?

I’m hoping to work through the traumas I have been carrying for so long now and let Jesus carry it for me. I hope to bring more peace into my heart & home. I hope I learn to let go of these grudges I hold & need to control, and learn to trust in God’s plan for me instead. I hope I can begin giving myself more grace. I hope to lean in and form a deeper relationship with God. To do personal reflection on areas that I need to work on in my life. Maybe get to connect with other like-minded mamas.

Thanks for being here on my journey.

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov

🍂 Nature 🍄 Journaling 📖

homeschool, Motherhood, Uncategorized

Our friend, Mrs. Mary, invited us out to her beautiful property in Indiana today to go on a Homeschool Nature Hike. They are also into the Charlotte Mason lifestyle.

Her property is that of my actual dreams. She has a beautiful farmhouse filled with all vintage and handmade items. It is so cozy, especially this time of year with her fire burning in their fireplace in the living room. It has the sweetest laundry/mud room with beautiful natural sunlight and  vintage & natural decor that would make doing laundry feel so peaceful and joyous.

Out back is a huge nature trail through the woods, a barn, a pond with a beautifully crafted gazebo, large garden spaces, so much room for kids to run around and play endlessly outside. Best of all, her son’s family lives next door. That’s exactly what we dream of!!!!

Before our hike, she fed us all lunch and shared her personal Nature Journal with us, then gifted us each our own new nature journal to get started with! That was so sweet & thoughtful of her to do for us. We peaked through the book that she uses as inspiration for how to create a Nature Journal.

She has been doing this for many years and has fond memories recorded from trips she’s taken where she was able to experience the wonders that the Creator has freely given us. I love the idea of looking back years from now with special memories brought flooding back by pages recorded in our Nature Journal. She’ll jot down notes or places she made an entry. She adds poems & words of wisdom in her journal. I love that.

Afterwards, we took a lovely hike through the woods, then came back and let the kids play outside for awhile. They have a great fairy garden that the kids loved. I’ll have to  put a lot more work into ours. They have such cool Nature in their own backyard! That is exactly what I long for in our forever home. We left in time to miss the dreaded Friday late afternoon traffic, came home and the girls took time working on their first Nature Journal pages.

All of us really enjoyed finding mushrooms. We spotted several different types while we were out on the trail. I love them so much! There were really big ones & really small ones and the ones we see the most often: Turkey Tails. It’s fascinating how many different varieties there are in just her forest alone!

The mushrooms definitely made it into the Nature Journals. Mrs. Mary told me that she keeps another book of Spore Prints that she makes. I’m really excited to check that out next time we are invited. She also has a Nature Wall like us too!

We tasted Rosehip. It’s very sweet! I liked the way they looked. We learned that Rosehip is often used in tea. I had heard of it before, but had no idea what it looked like or what it was a berry.

Rosehip has a lot of medicinal purposes, which is why it is popular in teas. Rosehip can help with joint pain & inflammation, lower blood pressure & cholesterol, and aid in digestion. They help improve eyesight & skin. They are also used to treat bronchitis, coughs, & colds and have a ton of Vitamin A and E so they help strengthen your immune system. They also protect your vascular system. I’m definitely going to have to start incorporating this into our diets more.

Besides tea, they are also used to make jams & jellies, syrup, soup, or a sauce. I’m interested to try those!

There was also so much moss on the trail! I really, really love moss. I loved the way this shaggy type looked growing off of the trees.

Athena also liked the tress with moss & the whispy, twirly branches hanging from some of them.

This cool stuff is called Fan Clubmoss. It was popping up all over the trail! I had never heard of it before, but when I got home I looked it up and found they also have so many medicinal purposes! They treat rashes & wounds, skin infections & chafing, urinary Tract infections, kidney infections, and bladder infections. It can also be used to naturally dye cloths & fabrics. It is so amazing what all Nature is capable of & I absolutely love the way it looks!

Another fascination was the animal skulls along the trail. This was a raccoon. There was a second decomposing raccoon later down the trail that still had some of its furry meat-suit attached (Athena thought it was a monkey) and a teeny tiny bird skull that was so cute!

It will be really neat to watch as their journals become more detailed the more they get into it. I am so excited to begin working in mine. This is something that we will definitely be doing for the rest of our homeschool journey & I’m sure even longer as we will then pass it on to their children when that season of life comes around.

I really love Nature so much & am so happy to be raising children who also love and appreciate Nature as much as I do. Ella really gets so into it each time we go on a Nature Hike. She loves using the PictureThis App to find out the names of different plants she wants to learn more about. I’m happy they would rather be outside exploring Nature & the world around them than choosing to plop down in front of a screen wasting their lives away. There is such a big, beautiful world out there and now we have a new way to document the wonders we come across. So grateful for Mrs. Mary sharing this with us.

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov

Grace Girls | Cupcake Decorating 🧁

homeschool, Motherhood, Uncategorized

This week’s Grace Girls class was on the basics of cupcake decorating. We learned about frosting, how to make & fill piping bags, and how to use the piping bags to frost cupcakes or other desserts.

Our class was led by Mrs. Mandee. She did such a great job teaching the girls (and some of us moms) how to properly frost cupcakes. She prepared a little cupcake tray ahead of time showing different designs you can make using your piping bags.

Everyone was told to bring: a small mixing bowl, a rubber spatula, and a large Mason jar. My wide-mouths are currently being used, so we brought standard size. In the future, I will be using wide-mouth for this.

Mrs. Mandee taught us how to make our piping bags. We take one bag and one tip and place it inside as far as it will go without disrupting the bag. Make a mark using your scissors halfway up your piping tip to indicate where you will be cutting. Push your tip back a little bit, cut at the mark you made, then push tip back down to the end so it is snug in the bag.

The piping bags should look like this when they are ready to be used:

Once they are made, place your piping bag inside the Mason Jar with the ends open around the jar to prepare for filling your piping bag.

This tip to me was a game-changer! I have typically avoided using piping bags in the past because of the mess I would make filling the bag. This prevents a mess! It makes it seriously SO easy!!!

Next, Mrs. Mandee scooped out her Buttercream icing into her mixing bowl and explained that you must whip the frosting really well before placing into your piping bags to make sure you do not get any air bubbles into it.

She shared that at home this is her favorite recipe to make homemade frosting, but because there was a large number of participants, she purchased bulk frosting from Sam’s Club. We went through 80% of the bucket in the class!

To fill our bags we:

  • 1. Stir, stir, stir until as smooth as possible. Add a color, if using.
  • 2. Using a rubber spatula, scoop smooth frosting into the prepared piping bag in your jar.
  • 3. Shake your frosting to the bottom.
  • 4. Twist your bag from the top of the frosting to the end to close it.

When making designs, we want to twist not squeeze the piping bag. We will continue to twist like this all the way down the bag until it is finished.

Finally, Mrs. Mandee demonstrated how to make various designs before it was time to work independently. Then continued to show us new ones throughout our practice time.

We stirred our frosting, filled our piping bags, and practiced getting used to working with our piping bags and making designs on parchment paper.

When we were finished practicing with both size piping tips, we scooped our frosting back into the bowl with our rubber spatula and started the process over. We stirred & refilled our piping bags to get ready to frost our own cupcakes.

I loved seeing the different designs being practiced. Over at Sasha’s table, a mom made an adorable butterfly! She shared that she had previous employment experience at a bakery years ago.

After a lot of practice, it was finally time to frost our own cupcakes! Everyone was given 4 to decorate.

Ella made American flag cupcakes to celebrate America, Veterans, and her birthday (Veteran’s Day).

It was the perfect time for this lesson with her birthday next week. I will definitely be using my new frosting skills on her birthday cake this year! So thankful to learn this lifelong skill!!

I chose to leave mine un-sprinkled, but one of my girls (Mia) decided to practice her sprinkling once we got home. I gotta say, she did a really great job! She used tweezers to line them perfectly around. I think she may have found her new life passion.

Athena had to miss out on this night unfortunately, but we brought her home a piping kit & un-frosted cupcakes so she didn’t have to completely miss out on the activity. I also gave Moses one of mine to decorate too.

We will be doing a second part to this class though, which will be “advanced” cupcake decorating beyond simple frosting. That is a class that we are all really looking forward to!

Our next meeting is our annual potluck Thanksgiving Feast! This is one of our favorite traditions now. We will be spending the next 2 weeks planning & then preparing our dishes. Ella, of course, signed up to bring the turkey again for the second year in a row! It was the biggest hit last year and she was SO proud of herself! That girl will be a pro at cooking up a turkey feast before she even has a family to fix it for!

Any suggestions for what we should bring to our potluck Thanksgiving Feast?! I’d love to hear them!

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov

Autumn Equinox 🍁 | Mabon Celebration 🍂

homeschool, Motherhood, Uncategorized

We welcomed the shifting of seasons into Fall yesterday with a Mabon Celebration. If you do not know what Mabon is, it is the official day of Autumn’s beginning and a day that we are supposed to give thanks to Mother Earth for all that she gave us over this last season of summer.

It is a time to reflect and relax after working hard all summer. Let go of what is no longer serving you or your soul. Let go of toxic relationships that are holding you back, as well let go of bad habits & self-destructive thoughts in yourself. Finish up the tasks you started, but have not yet completed. Reflect on goals you’ve accomplished, focus on the goals you have set for yourself that you still need to work towards, or set new ones all together.

We began our Fall festivities with a field trip attending the Homeschool Harvest Festival in Heritage Village.

We played old-fashioned games like Bobbing For Donuts. Bobbing For Apples would be a more historically accurate game, but for sanitary purposes donuts was the modern chosen object. It was still really cute, and was actually in one of my books that I use as inspiration for celebrating each season. I think that Bobbing For Apples for would still be a fun fall activity to try together – maybe as a family game night.

I loved the old time vibes mixed with all of the nature. The leaves were as big as the younger girls heads! There were so many different kinds of acorns. We collected a few of our favorite things for our Fall dinner table for our Autumn Feast.

We learned about pickling foods; why we do it and what different types of foods that people would pickle to preserve. My girls are already pros at this, and they were the only children who knew what Beets were.

We learned about using a meat smoker to smoke meat and that back then it would take 2-3 days before it was finished smoking. That would have been my husband’s favorite part of the festival.

We also learned how to make bread in the brick bread oven and Cornbread over a hearth stove. It reminded us of our latest Grace Girls meeting where we learned to make pizza over a fire. Making bread was an entire day of work from early in the morning until the sun was down, making Loaf after Loaf for a weeks worth of bread. The family who lived in that home {before it was a museum} had 15 children, so they needed a lot of bread!

It made me really grateful that today I can spread my bread baking out more than one day and that I don’t have to wear full length, full sleeve dresses with bonnets while I bake. I’d be baking myself in that attire.

During question time, one child asked how they are supposed to microwave their food.

We learned about trains and different ways of transportation since cars did not exist.

We learned about old fashioned tools, made a pumpkin on the printing press, and explored the General Store. We all really enjoyed looking at all of the antique items. They were things we’d still want today!

Their pumpkins were so cute. I think I’m going to laminate them and find a way to use them for decor. Another possibility would be to use them in our Fall Sale.

We learned about how doctors used leeches as medicine to suck the bad blood out of a patient. Each of the girls got a gummy leech.

I really loved The General Store and this Pantry. I love vintage things so much amd honestly prefer them over any of the cheaply made things today. The things back then were meant to last. You’d buy once and it would last multiple lifetimes, passed down through generations, still working. In fact, everything in the museum was still in perfect condition. The things today are meant to last one to a couple uses then either breaks or you must soon replace with a newer model to keep up. I can’t stand this way of life.

I loved how the store is set up. All of the bottom rows and anything out are meant for children to play with, and everything behind the glass is meant only for looking at. They had so much fun playing with everything and doing the scavenger hunt.

The girls learned about how electricity was not available, so people had to make their own metal lanterns to keep a candle in once the sun went down. They would push holes in the metal in pretty designs for the light to shine through. They made tin ornaments to represent the candles.

The girls didn’t want to stay for the Yarn Dolls. The line was ridiculously long. They saw some children holding theirs, and made a statement that the Corn Husk Dolls that they made in Grace Girls was a lot better to make than the Yarn. I think Yarn was a lot cheaper, faster, and easier though so for a big event like this, that would make more sense.

A cute throwback from 2022

We also didn’t get to do candle dipping which is one I was looking forward to. We were under a heat advisory by the Park Rangers and weren’t allowed to do an outdoor fire. They prepared take-home kits for 400 children, but ran out much quicker than expected. Even though we didn’t get a kit, that makes me really happy that so many more families have decided to join the homeschool world this year.

I really want to add a scarecrow to our garden next year. I think they are so fun. I also really loved this box that was supposed to contain Herb Garden Information, but instead it contained spiderwebs. It was still really cute and would be fun to add something similiar somewhere in my front yard as maybe a Seed Sharing Box.

We enjoyed ourselves and are glad we went. It was a nice way to begin this new Fall season together. After going, I realized that I give my kids a really good blend of both the old world, and the more modern one as far as homemaking goes.

The upcoming events all sound really fun. I’m hoping for us to be able to attend at least one of them.

I also took the time to put our Fall poem we are memorizing in Ukrainian School in a beautiful layout so that I was able to print it out and hang it up for us to read daily with our Sing a Song of Seasons poem. It helps me a lot to read along to what I am listening to in Ukrainian language. Without the words, I can get a bit lost.

The Decor

We collected nature to create our tablescape. I really wanted to decorate without buying new items & show that you really don’t need to spend any money at all and still have a beautiful Fall home.

I decluttered most of my holiday stuff last year. As much as I love decorating, it bothers me that we only use these items for a very small fraction of the year while they sit in a bin in storage taking up a lot of valuable space for the rest of the year. This is a really great way to still decorate and not have to store the items once we are finished with them. Instead, we can just move some to our Nature Walls & the rest right into our compost to move on to its next life phase in our garden.

I think it ended up looking really beautiful and it meant more that we collected the nature together as a family than just bought at a store. It is just way more us.

The Menu:

The rest of the family had Pork Chops with apples, onions, and cornbread stuffing; I made Vegetarian Apple & Sage Sausage (Field Roast brand) for myself with the same side of stuffing mixture. It was my first time having apples in my stuffing and it was seriously a game changer!!!

The sides were Sweet Potato Casserole, Harvest Salad, & Sourdough Discard Sweet Rolls.

To drink, we had Apple Cider.

All of the different Fall flavors came together SOO deliciously! I’m definitely going to be remaking a couple of these dishes again at Thanksgiving!!!

For dessert, I made a Pumpkin Pie with homemade whipped cream to go with it. I loved making the little leaves for the crust and will definitely be doing that again, but with way more leaves next time. I loved the flavor of this pie, but not the texture so I’ll be re-working that in the coming weeks to prepare for Thanksgiving.

We have so many more fun Fall activities planned this year. I really want to take in each day of this season and make it extra special for our family. The last year has really been a struggle for us financially & instead of continuing to live in constant worry, I really want to slow down, live in gratitude, and begin appreciating what this last year has blessed us with instead of money, because it’s been so much. We may not have any money, but we are so very rich in all the right ways.

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov

Grace Girls | Building & Cooking Over Fire

homeschool, Motherhood, Uncategorized

This week we had our second Grace Girls meeting of the new school year. Our last meeting was learning how to properly set a table.

We started our night out with the devotion reading and a light discussion about what we read in our Bright Lights curriculum.

The meeting was hosted again by Ms. Darla and she taught the girls a lot about Fire Safety.

We learned what to wear and not wear around a fire. You want to wear jeans and short sleeves preferably. No flowy tops, dresses, or skirts. Hair must be secured back safely away from your face or cut short so it doesn’t catch on fire.

The most important question to always ask before building a fire is if it is legal to for a fire to be built there. Certain states have different regulations & seasons when fires are permitted, while other states ban fires all together due to high risk of forest fires.

When choosing a location to build your fire you want to look for:

  • No overhanging branches
  • Nothing flammable within 10 feet
  • The amount of wind the location gets
  • Is a pit provided? If not, dig one before building a fire to keep it safely secured in one location. It is best to line your pit with rocks.

Next Ms. Darla explained that we only burn wood for fuel. However for tinder & kindling you can use small branches or twigs, pinecone, evergreen branches and needles, pet fur, dryer lint, sawdust, or paper.

The girls worked together to group the wood in piles of large & small, and tinder/kindling in a bucket. She had bags of pinecone she had already collected over time.

Ms. Darla taught the girls different ways to build a fire, and what each kind is called. I had absolutely no idea there were so many different ways to make a fire. I thought it was just one way: build it 😂. The visual designs were really neat & helpful.

The girls then got into groups to pick a type of fire to build. Each group did a really good job!

We then went back around the fire to learn a bit more fire safety before we could get started.

We learned that you NEVER leave a fire unattended, and that you NEVER build a fire without adult permission & supervision.

If you do need to leave your fire for any reason: put it out first using water, covering with dirt or sand, or by spreading it out to reduce the heat.

Next, it was time to build the fire. Sasha really enjoyed this part. She was so adorable carrying the biggest log she could hold over for fuel.

The girls did a really good job building the fire. They even decorated it with pinecone and evergreen, draping kindling along the top and sides to make it pretty. It definitely was the prettiest fire I’ve ever seen!

Ms. Darla taught the girls about different tools needed to start a fire. She taught them about using fire starters and how they are important tools to pack when camping. She also taught things we could use if we don’t have Firestarter handy. She taught about the different size lighters and what each is good for. She also taught that when handling fire, we always use leather gloves to protect our hands.

For liability reasons, Ms. Darla lit the fire for the girls. They did such a great job building it! It burned really, really well and evenly. It was so beautiful and cozy – a perfect way to welcome in the start of cold nights here in Ohio.

The girls hung out for awhile, running around playing Ghost in the Graveyard together – another fun & spooky way to welcome in the season changing to Fall. They swung in the tree-swing and caught up with friends, while Mom’s got a chance to catch up with each other too.

Once the embers were hot enough, Ms. Darla began getting the fire ready for cooking while the girls went to the table under the light to start making their campfire Pizzas.

Once they were finished assembling their campfire Pizzas, Ms. Darla put them carefully on her makeshift oven set up.

She used fire grates, with racks on top of those. She then placed a baking sheet on top of the racks, and used a disposable baking pan lid as a cover to trap heat. Once the lid was on, she placed a smaller secondary disposable lid on top and filled it with hot embers to add heat coming from under, around, and above.

Once the Pizzas were finished cooking, she carefully removed them from heat and transferred to each girls paper plate. Ella said it was the best pizza she’d ever had, and that’s a big compliment coming from someone who doesn’t typically enjoy pizza.

This was such an awesome experience for the girls! I really wish I had a group like this when I was little – it really would have set me up for homemaking success later in life and taught me really necessary skills for living as an adult. I’m grateful to have it now with my own girls though – it’s even better together than it would have been on my own as a child. I’m grateful for the strong mother & daughter relationship foundation we are building. I really appreciate these classes and feel like I learn so much with them! The girls are always very excited to go.

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov

Homeschool Reminder!

homeschool, Motherhood, Uncategorized

Hey friends! I hope that you are as happy as I am that summer is coming to an end!!! For homeschoolers that means no more crowds!!! We get our libraries, museums, parks, and everywhere else back!!! Plus, of course, everything about Fall is awesome!!! 🎃

Just like with the Traditional Back to School year, us homeschoolers also have obligations for the new academic school year.

We are required to send a Notice of Intent to Homeschool to our local School Board of Education along with an Assurance of Home Education, which is due by August 30th of each subsequent year. Here is your gentle reminder to make sure to get yours in! However, if you are new to homeschooling, you are allowed to pull your child from public school at any time, it does not have to be before the school year begins.

I decided to make a new template this year for my Assurance of Home Education. I wanted to keep it simple, but still fun & aestheticially pleasing! This is how I made ours for the 2024-2025 school year!

♡ Reminder: you do not need to go into excessive detail about your curriculum. As long as they are able to see that you have a plan and an approved curriculum, you’ve put enough.

I organized it by Course of Study on the left, and what we’ll be using on the right. These are the subjects required by the State of Ohio. If you are in another check, please check with your homeschool laws to see if you have any other requirements.

♡ I also made a BLANK & EDITABLE version HERE to make things easier for you! Or if you are the kind of person who prefers to write things in by hand, you can download a non-editable copy below to fill in yourself.

📚✏️ Assurance of Homeschool Education ✏️📚Download

HAPPY HOMESCHOOLING!

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov

Grace Girls | Table Setting

homeschool, Motherhood, Uncategorized

Grace Girls is back in session for the new academic year! This makes our third year attending Grace Girls! Our first meeting was last night & the girls learned How to Set a Table.

Grace Girls is sort of like an etiquette class where homeschooled girls get together to both socialize and learn how to grow up to be Proverbs 31 Women (aka homemakers). They have so far learned knife cutting & Kitchen safety skills, how to preserve fresh vegetables from the garden, how to plan meals, how to host a fall feast, how & when to start a meal train cooking for someone in need (elderly or sick neighbor, a family who welcomed a new baby, new family moved in, a death in the family, etc.), how to make corn husk dolls, and how to hand sew, mend, & embroider clothes. My girls have mentioned to me how grateful they are to learn these skills & how useful the classes have been for them. 

Homemaking is something I had to teach myself starting from the very, very basics. I did not have a homemaking mother growing up. I am very grateful to be able to pass these skills on to my children while also still constantly learning new things myself.

Ms. Darla hosted our meeting. She taught the girls different ways to properly set a table. She worked on a tray, placing different styles, layers, & color schemes together.

She taught us that the most important parts to setting a table are consistency & making our guests feel welcome & wanted, rather than overwhelmed & intimidated.

She had different learning stations set up for the girls to take turns at so that no one space was too overcrowded.

Ella really enjoyed learning how to fold napkins at the first station. I particularly liked her napkin with the flower pocket. I would like to start setting our own table napkins that way for fancy meals & gatherings. It is so beautiful & will be an interesting way to use our flowers from our garden.

Mia loved picking flowers & putting together mini bouquets for table settings. I have never thought to do miniature personal bouquets for each guest, but I love that idea for future gatherings too. It especially sounds nice for a breakfast or brunch gathering.

At the second station, the girls each took turns setting their own place settings using fancy dishes. They enjoyed creating color schemes with the dishes, napkins, & placemats. Sasha had a lovely time arranging her favorite dishes – they were so much fancier than ours at home.

The third station was to set a Christmas themed table. I love the use of real pine needles & pinecones. That is so beautiful & festive. I’ll have to remember that for our own Christmas dinner!

Ms. Darla rented every book her library currently had on table setting, napkin folding, and hosting for the girls to look through to pick their favorite tables. She asked the girls what meals & what seasons the tables were set for. I took some photos from different books that I plan to use at my own home!

Of course we had to check our her beehives while we were there because we have plans to add our own to our home next year! Luckily, Ms. Darla also teaches homeschool families about beekeeping & honey extraction, so I’ll be able to get off to a good start!

We had a really fun time at last night’s meeting & we left feeling like we learned a lot. I love that each of my girls who attended found their own special talent to bring to homemaking & future gatherings. Ella found a way to make her love for origami useful at the table using napkins, Mia’s love for plants & nature brings creativity + beauty to the table’s decor and ambiance, & Sasha’s love for creating a beautiful space for each person she loves will be useful for setting each place at the table. Each person’s talents come together to create a magical gathering & after all, the most important part of the table is togetherness.

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov

Our Favorite Places | Mason Cottage Day

Crafts & DIY, homeschool, Motherhood, Uncategorized

We are beginning our second year taking homeschool classes at Mason Cottage Day! It’s hard to believe it’s only been that long! I feel like Ms. Natalie is one of my dear lifelong friends who I’ve known forever.

So naturally, I wanted my first post of my new Series: Our Favorite Places, to be about her studio – Mason Cottage Day! In this series, I’ll be sharing about our very favorite places & what makes them our favorite.

Welcome to Mason Cottage Day

From the moment you arrive, her studio is so welcoming! She has a board outside her door with important information & business cards, as well as which classes she is currently offering.

We personally have taken Sewing, Embroidery, Baking, and Reading/Writing classes in our time at Mason Cottage Day. I think science would be a really fun class to take too!

One of Ms. Natalie’s former students made her this adorable giant wooden pencil & another student made her this name plaque. I love that she continues to display their artwork that they took the time to create for her even after they have moved on. It shows how much she truly cares about each and every one of her students.

Each month, Ms. Natalie changes the artwork on display. It’s so fun to see the different projects & types of art the students are learning, as well as what students have come up with on their own in the art room.

This is such a cozy reading corner for students learning to read, and I love the giant embroidery hoops on display. I had never seen them that large before!

She has a ton of books & learning games for all different ages. She has been working with Sasha on her reading, & it has been so impressive to see how fast Sasha has been making noticeable progress in her reading abilities.

One of my favorite things about Mason Cottage Day is that it is really geared toward homeschooling families. Siblings are welcome to come play for free during lessons! That’s incredibly helpful, especially for low-or-one-income large families who otherwise have to miss out due to pricing or scheduling conflicts.

There are plenty of interactive areas to play such as a kitchen/nursery/home play area, a doctor or veterinarian area, a building area, and a doll house area for children to use their imagination.

There is the cutest little hand-washing station for baking students, along with plenty of child-size aprons to choose from.

All of her baking is taught through these conventional ovens. They are the perfect child-size, beginner ovens to learn on.

Sasha has loved taking baking classes at Mason Cottage Day. She had learned how to make a good variety of different items. Her confidence in the kitchen is going up after each class & just like at our home, Ms. Natalie incorporates reading & math into her baking lessons, so those skills are also improving while she bakes. Sasha of course looks adorable in her little aprons & she’s always quick to let her siblings take turns helping her bake.

The art room gives students free-range to create to their hearts content. There is a painting table, all the coloring utensils you need, stencils, & tons of other various art supplies & tools. Anything out is able to be used, and if you see something in her art storage area that you want to use that isn’t out – just ask! She’s more than happy to accommodate little minds.

You can always count on seeing fun science projects or experiments going on from her science students – like this potato clock.

She even has a beautiful planter that is Ukrainian Petrykivka style, which makes my Ukrainian 💙💛 heart so happy to see.

Ella loves learning sewing & embroidery from Ms. Natalie. I have loved every single project that Ella has created for me. Ms. Natalie comes up with super cute, child-friendly projects. One of my favorite projects she has made for me was the peekaboo picture frame with the cutest photo of our kids at the park.

Another thing you can always expect to find at Mason Cottage Day is plants! Ms. Natalie loves plants & nature. She teaches about Monarch Butterflies in season & grows her own pollinator garden outside.

Because of our mutual love of plants & Pollination, we made her a bouquet from our own pollinator garden to bring to her as a gift. We love creating bouquets for people we love!

She has been such a great teacher and role model in our children’s lives. She is helping them learn lifelong skills that they can & will regularly use. She has the kindest & understanding soul. I look forward to our visits with Ms. Natalie as much as the kids do!

“I want children to feel comfortable in the studio. Everything is set up so that they automatically know what to do. It’s a great joy to see children of every age play, pretend, and learn while using all the different materials! Children always have very good ideas about what should be included, and I always take their suggestions seriously. A simple thing such as including little squeeze ketchup and mustard containers made one young person so happy…he had noticed that the play kitchen did not have them, and he suggested adding them. Playing and learning are very definite collaborative communication pathways. I hope the studio allows children to learn in their best ways!” – Ms. Natalie

Classes are an affordable $20 each, which includes all necessary materials! *Beginning October 1, 2024 classes will be raised to $30 each*

Mason Cottage Day is located at 105 E. Main Street, Mason, Ohio 45040. The free parking lot is located behind the Pop Revolution Gallery Building off of Mason-Montgomery Road.

It is right along the cutest little shopping Street – while you are there check out the Mason Whippy Dip for a yummy ice cream treat, or the attached Thai Terrace for a delicious dinner!

You can contact Ms. Natalie to visit her studio or schedule classes at nataliebaxter@yahoo.com

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov

Homeschool Field Trip | Krohn Conservatory

homeschool, Motherhood, Uncategorized

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!!!

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov