Our Story

 

 

  

My passion for herbalism and the desire to have a homestead and homeschool my children have been a decade-long journey. Two years ago, the stars aligned and we moved to our present property situated in occupied Lenni-Lenape territory, presently known as central New Jersey. Our two acres of land are stewarded with intention and respect, and we are part of the mid-Atlantic region, zoned 7A. 

 

My husband, Matthew, grows a plethora of peppers and tomatoes, in addition to a variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers. He has a permaculture design certification and beyond the garden gate he is working to transform our property to an abundant native landscape. You can find me by his side, shovel in hand, ready for his direction and ready to sneak in a new plant I learned about in my herbal studies. We grow elderberries, lavender, lady's mantle, sweetgrass, lemon balm, sage and so much more. With these plants, we make herbal medicines and teas, tasty oxymels and shrubs, beautiful bouquets and preserve our harvests to nurture and nourish our family.

 

We believe in eating local and aim to produce as much of our own food as possible. In following a whole foods diet, we also stock up on the produce we don't grow at the farmers markets and fill our freezer with local, grass-fed meats and dairy. We have a small flock of hens to provide us with eggs and compost our scraps and we have two top bar hives which house wild swarms of bees that we've caught. We practice treatment-free beekeeping and only harvest a minimal amount of honey each year to allow for the bees to keep their stores throughout the winters. The wild swarms of bees pollinate our garden and tending the hives is one of my favorite homestead tasks. There is something so magickal about the hum of the colony and the work ethic of the hive mind.  

 

Waxing Moon House, in its early years, began as a candle making endeavor, but I always envisioned it being more than that. With a love for all things natural and beautiful, I fell in love with beeswax candles and began crafting them myself in 2018. I sourced beeswax from local apiaries and my homestead fantasy expanded to include beekeeping. In our narrow, row home in a historic river town, we didn't have the space to keep bees but every inch of our small yard was dedicated to plants. Making candles and tending our little garden was a therapeutic process that spoke to my soul. 

  

When our family grew from four to five, in 2021, a move became imminent. We loved our little row home but we were quickly outgrowing it. We hoped to move out of state for a fresh start until the perfect home in my husband's hometown caught our eye. With a newborn in tow, we moved from a quaint two-bedroom home to a four-bedroom homestead, surrounded by farmland. It was a dream come true and the first order of business was building hives and attracting swarms. That first year we observed our landscape and could finally start making some real progress on our homestead journey. 

 

Just after our daughter's first birthday, we learned our family was growing again and we decided that it was time to lean into our homesteading and homeschooling dreams wholeheartedly. We pulled the older kids out of public school and began de-schooling to prepare ourselves for this next chapter. With the desire to live authentically and in tune with nature, we felt that the public school system was not aligned with our values. 

 

I had always wanted to homeschool the boys, and never planned to send them to public school. Months before my oldest was to start kindergarten though, my first husband and I decided to divorce. It was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make and meant that those homeschooling and homesteading dreams were put on hold. As a single mom, I went back to work and enrolled my oldest in school. 

 

Upon meeting my current partner, I shared with him my desire to homeschool when the time was right and we bonded over our love of nature. Matthew would bring me tomatoes, peppers and lettuces from his garden and I introduced him to the world of teas, tinctures and herbal medicines. All these years later, it feels like a dream to grow our family from four to six and to be working collaboratively with nature and teaching the children along the way. 

 

As a blended family, we've spent a lot of time articulating our family values and navigating the highs and lows of life. Our family has been through a variety of hardships; divorce, addiction, death and financial strains to name a few but together we have persevered. We place a high value on personal growth and development and believe that life is our greatest teacher. We rely on natures rhythms to ground us and guide us in this journey and Waxing Moon House is the outlet where we share the trials and tribulations. 

  

Celebrating the eight sabbaths of the wheel of the year, with our family and a community of like-minded friends and family, we have built a foundation of practices and a system of values to point us north when we find ourselves lost. Rituals, routines and rhythms are adapted seasonally and make possible the managing of our homestead and homeschool. 

 

When I'm not wrangling chickens or children and covered in flour, you can find me at Vaux Studio in Philadelphia where I manage a boutique, micro-wedding venue. My partner, Monica, founded Vaux Studio in 2018 and we joined forces in 2021 after Matthew and I exchanged our vows with our immediate family. I am the resident florist and director of operations. In addition to hosting micro-weddings at our studio in Philadelphia, we plan bespoke weddings continentally and abroad. 

   

 

We're so glad you're here. Let's make magick.