Coming Back from Spring Break

It’s spring break season here in the US and I had what is probably my last Spring Break trip with my daughter, who's a senior in high school.  I loved and cherished every moment shared with her last week. She is the last of my three children at home and my only daughter, so although I love all my kids dearly, I feel I have a special bond with her, a kind of a "girl" bond.  Not only do I love her as a mother, but I really like spending time with her - she has a happy personality and a lot of empathy for others. She helped me so much with Zēlos last year, working over the summer on social media, helping me move cases of product from our basement to the warehouse, even helping me out at my first market at Westside Market, in Cincinnati.  Of course, I'm happy for her going off to college in the Fall, especially because she's going somewhere she really wants to be, but I can’t help feeling that I will miss her and my "mom-with-kids-at-home" days a lot...cooking included!

Since our trip, I have been thinking about ways to manifest love and care in a welcoming and not awkward way, which I didn't really think about when my two sons went away to school.  I realized that my daughter's leaving will mean the end of an era in my life as a mom and I'll miss thinking about special recipes, weekly meal plans and all that love-through-food that I have been experiencing and practicing in all these years of raising three kids. I've decided that I will definitely be sending her lots care packages, something that I know for sure will be welcome. In fact when my eldest son went off to college, one of the counselors at orientation specifically mentioned that students love to receive care packages and encouraged us parents to send them frequently. My second son also complained often about the quality of the food in the cafeteria and how he missed our tasty, healthy groceries.  I didn't really think about sending them care packages until I started Zēlos and thought they might enjoy trying the food - that was when my second son and his enthusiastic vegetarian friends encouraged me to start a subscription service at their school because most of our products are vegetarian, healthy and so tasty.

I decided to not start the subscription service at their school (yet!) but I did decide to create special Subscription Boxes instead.  While I definitely had my college kids in mind, these special combos are a lovely gesture for any person, young or old, because they are easy to combine with other foods and create tasty meals in a breeze. They are also discounted compared to the products' original price, and come in a simpler packaging than our premium gift boxes. If you have a student or young adult that needs a little lift me up in every day cooking or just want to offer an antidote to the cafeteria or fast food blues, check them out in our website.