Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

It is no secret that I like to do things the simple and natural way. A couple from church keeps chickens that produce eggs in the most beautiful natural shades and shapes, and every so often they bring us a dozen or two as a thank you when JC helps out with their cars (thanks, y'all). 

To celebrate the season of eggs, I decided to dye some today, naturally. So, in case you're on the hunt for a last minute and easy easter egg activity, here is an idea that is about as easy as chopping up some vegetables. 

Begin with the fruits, vegetables or spices of your choice - mine were blueberries, red onion skins, yellow onion skins, turmeric, and paprika. But I've also used red cabbage before with beautiful results. About one cup of fruits and vegetables per one cup of water, 2 TBSP of spices per one cup of water.

Mash the blueberries and skin the onions, place each in a pot and simmer roughly 15 minutes. If using cabbage, chop the cabbage. For the spices, boil the water and pour over the spices. 

While the dye is simmering, go ahead and hard boil your eggs. I used a dozen plus two for our project today.

Strain the fruits and vegetables, and let cool to room temperature. Once cooled down, add 3 TBSP of vinegar to the dye (2 for the spices) to help set the color. 

Submerge the eggs and let them sit in the dye until the desired color is reached. Roughly 10 minutes, but some might take up to 3 hours or longer. I highly recommend using white eggs. Brown eggs work, but your colors will turn out different. 

The beautiful thing about this project is it's almost completely waste-free. Just keep your vegetable peels from dinner, hunt down the spices in your cabinet and you're all set to go. 

Live loved!

Let all your hearts...

... prepare for Him. We've been humming merry tunes over here and I'm also taking some much needed time to focus on family these days. Follow along on Insta to check in with us. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Simple Life: Handmade Christmas Decorations

Natural holiday cheer. Decorate the house a bit, invite family and friends over for mulled wine or cider and set an evening of Holiday spirit merriment. Simply done. Instructions below. Enjoy.

Popcorn Cranberry Garland

You need:

Popcorn - preferably a day old and stale {trust me}

Cranberries - only the still hard ones {trust me}

Dental Floss

a needle

Happy stringing.

Dried Oranges 

You need:

Oranges {by the bag full}

Dehydrator or oven

Slice the oranges and place in dehydrator for 24 hrs or on a baking sheet {single layer} in the oven for 2-4 hrs at 200 F

Dried Oranges and Cinnamon Ornaments

 

You need:

dried orange slices {see above}

cinnamon sticks

twine {of your choice}

My house smells delicious!

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Simple Life: St. Nicholas Day

Since I find myself in the season with young children, I thought it might be nice this year to start on a simplified version of some of the traditions from my childhood. Growing up, I have always cherished the time before Christmas (eve) with a warm heart. And now, well into my adulthood, this time from the beginning of the first of Advent until New Years', has me think of those bygone years with fond memories, as well as a hint of nostalgia. 

I'm not quite sure whether or not beginning our own traditions really will mend my always recurring wistful reflections of younger years, but never the less I'm thinking of these special rituals as a tribute to my childhood. St. Nicholas being one of many for this last month of the year. 

Nicholas was born in the 3rd century to wealthy parents in the Greek area of Patara, now southern coast of Turkey. His parents passed when he was still young. As a devout Christian, he used his inheritance to give to the poor, needy and sick. Dedicating his life to God, he was made Bishop of Myra when he was still a young man, but later also suffered for his faith even being imprisoned under a Roman Emperor. He died on December 6th, AD 343. 

One of the stories we hear of the good deeds St. Nicholas has done, is about a father of three daughters. Having no dowry to be able to marry, the daughters were destined to be sold into slavery. On three different occasions, a bag of gold mysteriously made it into their home, thrown in through a window and landing on socks that were hanging beside the fire to dry. The gold was enough to provide for a dowry, saving the three daughters from a life of slavery. 

This year, while retelling the story of St. Nicholas and the three young women, e and I washed our boots on the back steps. We placed them at the door in the evening and when she woke up this morning, she had a chocolate Santa and some chocolate coins in hers, as well as a small gift {a puzzle} beside it. {And for the curious among you, j's gift is are homemade stacking blocks from a tree in our back yard| This was a simple beginning to this tradition and as she gets older we will add more and more details to this tradition with a special meal, cleaning the whole house and the like. I don't know how close or how far apart we will be living as a family when everyone has grown up, but I hope my children will always be able to remember their favorite Christmas traditions with fond memories and maybe even build upon them with their own families in the future. 

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Simple Kids: Currently Reading

This has been a hectic week for us, for no particular reason really. It just happened that way. One thing, however, to help us slow down and regroup - besides spending time outside - is reading books. We often times begin our mornings snuggled up in the kids' room, reading a book or two {or three} to help us {read: Mommy} wake up properly. 

My passion for reading books was born during my own childhood and has grown with me over the last decades. I remember our freshly bathed, still damp hair and the bare feet poking out of our pajamas, as we laid in bed waiting for everyone to gather; the way my father drew in his air while reading. I can still see him sitting on the bed with us, reading us a page from a 365 Good Night Stories book, his words gliding calmly over his lips. These recollections, deeply cherished and warmly remembered, resurface almost every night as I sit down in this house while reading to my children. Some days, e is sitting on my lap, softly nestling her head on my chest, and other days j takes over her spot, usually to nurse. But either way, we are making memories every time we sit and read together.

And while our own library of books is pretty significant - we have enough books to keep a good selection in the kids' room and another one in the living room - I also make it a point of borrowing seasonal books from our local library. With fall in full swing and Thanksgiving less than a week away, I am sharing with you today what has been on our nightstand these last couple of weeks.

The Hatseller and the monkey by Baba Wague Diakite

Where's Mommy? by Beverly Donofrio

Autumn Orange by Christianne C. Jones

The Thanksgiving visitor by Truman Capote

My Little Girl by Tim McGraw

How to Preserve Leaves for Decorations

On these days when the last of the leaves are turning and slowly making their way to the ground, fall colored decorations keep my spirits up. Especially the ones we collected in the woods and took home.

My favorite part of fall are the vibrant colors. Whether set against a deep blue sky or gray clouds, they are a beautiful reminder that we are moving from a season of dark green trees with an air filled with heavy humidity and insects calling late at night, to one of crispy cold days and silent nights that feel extra dark. Now that time change has passed and it gets dark before dinner time, it doesn't matter whether or not you participate in Halloween, Michaelmas, or even celebrate Thanksgiving, adding a few fall colors to your home is worth a try to cheer up the home. 

The best way to add some fall colors is to go for things you can toss guilt free after the season. I'm thinking dried oranges and cinnamon, apple cider simmering on the stove, pumpkins, gourds, corn husks, and homemade leave decorations. As a bonus, they are also budget friendly.

Preserving Fall Leaves

You need:

Vegetable Glycerin

Surfactant 

a heavy book

newspaper or wax paper

paper towels

fresh or already dried leaves 

Directions

1. Gather the leaves of your choice. I used both fresh and already dried leaves for this project. 

2. Fill a large bowl with one gallon of water, add 2 cups of vegetable glycerin and a few drops (3-5 drops) of surfactant to the bowl. Stir to mix.

3. Place each fresh or dried leave in the bowl, then lay on a paper towel to dry. You want to be more careful with a dried leave as they break fairly quickly.

4. Let the leaves dry for 1 to 3 hours or longer if necessary. Then, if preferred, lay them in between sheets of newspaper before placing them in the pages of your book to dry. The newspaper is optional but if you omit it, you may run the risk of messing up your book due to the moisture that is still in them. Leave the leaves in the book for a day or longer. 

5. Once they are dried you are ready to use them for your project or as decorations. My first ones are framed and my next batch will be used for window garlands in the kids' room. 

The difference in using dried and fresh leaves is that the vegetable glycerin with the surfactant helps keep the color better than if you were to just dry them. The solution also makes the leaves soft and less delicate for projects.

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Library visits

We've had decidedly too many posts with pictures for fall on here lately that I decided we could use a post decidedly not about fall. With pictures. About once a week we make our way uptown to the local library for story time and the use of their wonderful selection of toys. You see, library visit days, together with our walk through the woods day, our grocery shopping day and others, are part of our weekly rhythm. And my two love it. The library visits, I mean; not so sure about the grocery trips but we have to eat, right? 

The main library we use is one of three locations in our county and in addition to printed books also offers a wide variety of online resources. Before I had children I used to go by after work and get lost for hours looking for 'the' book to take home. Since then those days are long gone and now our main purpose to coming here is for them to spend time in the children's section. We can pass an entire morning flipping through books, playing with the toys they provide and listening to one of their talented storytellers. The whole staff in all locations we have visited so far, have always been quite welcoming and have shown my children loving attention every time, which is probably why all of us are always looking forward to coming here. On days I do feel like taking home a book myself, I have found it quite helpful to already pick out an author and title online while still at home, it makes taking home the chosen book a snap. 

At home, we continue to focus on reading and listening to stories to foster a healthy relationship to books {and music}. What we like to read {and play} will be for another post, but for now, please enjoy some moments of our morning last week. 

Having a wonderful and well-stocked library in our town also makes our decision to live minimally a lot easier. I can keep a handful of well-made toys and books at home for daily use, and between spending lots of time outside and coming here I know my children will always have "new" toys to grab their attention. My only regret with all three locations is that we live too far away. We have to take the car to come and visit. On the upside, though, we live within walking distance of our local state park. More on that later, though.