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I’m Meagan, a registered nurse turned herbalist, and I want to live life naturally. Follow along as my husband and I and our four sons figure out what natural living looks like for our family. And of course, I’d love for you to join me on this journey, too! There’s nothing better than having a good hiking buddy with a compass!

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growingupherbal

Wife, CM homeschool mama, RN to herbalist, lifestyle blogger, Southern Appalachian mountain dweller, and Christ follower | Can I send you letters? ✉️

The last month and a half has been hard—emotiona

The last month and a half has been hard—emotionally and mentally. In fact, I guess I could say the past six months have been that way, only more so here recently.

First there was the possibility of moving of the mountain, from a home I loved, to a new place. It felt like starting over just as I was beginning to feel settled.

Then came the hustle and bustle of a holiday season that, ultimately, ended up being harder than I expected. Expectations were made and unfulfilled. And yes, I understand that having expectations of others isn’t the best thing for us as they often go unmet and leave us disappointed. Perhaps I’ll work on changing expectations to hopes this next holiday season.

Finally, there were the circumstances beyond my control that I would rather have not gone through (and continue to go through). While I wouldn’t normally consider myself an anxious person, situations like these put my stomach all in knots, leaving me emotionally on edge and, basically, someone that I don’t want to be on a regular basis. but like most things in life, we take it one day at a time, supporting ourselves and others as best as we know how, and with time, comes healing.

During this crazy emotional time also came the beginning of a new homeschool year. This year, I have a different perspective on how I’m educating my children at home. While we still have structure and rhythm, I am allowing myself to pursue rabbit holes and break away from the schedule when needed. This is new to me, which makes me feel a bit uncertain, but I trust that this is one more layer to our school rhythm that will be most beneficial in the long run.

Lastly, another big change is coming to my life—one that I haven’t announced to many people just yet. It’s a bit scary, but also very exciting. Stay tuned, because I will definitely speak more on this in a couple of weeks.

I guess the point of all of this is to say that while the fall and winter seasons are normally some of my favorite seasons, this past year, they were not. With that said, I am so looking forward to spring. New life, new growth, and new prospects. Bring it on!

Every time Dean and I visit @biltmoreestate, we br

Every time Dean and I visit @biltmoreestate, we bring home a memento for our home. On our last trip, we bought a piece of art made from river rocks like these. Swipe left to see it!
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Today was a warm sunny day so we decided to go to the creek for our after-lunch nature walk.
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The boys explored edge of the creek, played in the water, and skipped rocks. They found worn pieces of broken glass and pottery, a claw from a craw dad, and big pieces of iron (very fitting since we are studying chemistry and elements in school).
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While I was watching the boys, I sat down to admire the rocks and noticed all of the various shapes, sizes, and colors of these tiny river rocks. I’m not certain what they’re made of to give them different colors, but they are beautiful. I collected a handful of them and brought them home to place an a little wooden bowl to adorn a table. Maybe one day I will use them get my own piece of art. Until then, they will sit here and bring the beauty of nature inside of our home.

Hands down, there is no place I’d rather live th

Hands down, there is no place I’d rather live than here in the mountains. I’m a mountain girl through and through, and the Appalachian Mountains are my forever home. From where I live, the Smokey Mountains are to our west and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the north and east.

With that said, I love to travel and experience new places with my family. Dean and I are trying to decide where to take our family vacation this year.

Part of me wants to go on a cruise and take the boys to the Caribbean. Another part of me wants to head to Florida and spend a week at the Universal Studios resort for some water and theme park fun (who am I kidding—I’ll totally be nerding out in Harry Potter World the whole time!) And then another part of me wants to travel somewhere less touristy and explore something different than normal.

I’m not quite sure when or where we’ll be going this year, but one thing I do know is that I’ll be so happy to come back home to these blue, smokey mountains.

If you’re struggling with hormonal imbalance, su

If you’re struggling with hormonal imbalance, such as estrogen dominance, one natural way you can support your body and encourage hormonal balance is by nourishing and supporting the liver.

The liver acts as a filter, helping us screen out everything we put on and in our bodies, converting useless substances into useful ones, and eliminating waste products the body doesn’t need. This is just one of its many jobs, so we need to do our part to support the health and function of our liver.

Overloading the body with alcohol, drugs, caffeine, or other environmental toxins puts a burden on the liver. Too much of a burden can cause decreased liver function, often in the way the liver metabolizes substances, thus, slowing down how effectively and how quickly the body rids itself of these toxins and their metabolites. This liver stagnation, as we herbalists like to call it, can result in a decreased capacity for the liver to cleanse the blood of excess hormones.

Hepatoprotective herbs such as astragalus (Astragalus membranaceous), licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), milk thistle (Silybum marianum), and others can help protect the liver tissue from damage from toxins or the damage that can occur when phase two metabolism is slowed down. These types of herbs not only protect liver tissue from damage, but they support the regeneration of liver cells, help to normalize liver enzymes, and decrease liver inflammation as well.

You can learn even more about hormone balance for women, check out my and my herbal buddy Caitlin’s (@thelocustsandhoney) ebook, Naturally Healthy Hormones: A Guide To Seasonal Herbal Support For Women (link in my bio).
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Whether you want to set yourself up for hormone success from the get-go, sail through pregnancy and postpartum period with ease, or manage menopause with as much grace as possible, this ebook can help guide you in the right direction. Not only that but if all the information we share in this book isn’t enough, we’re sharing 45 other hormone resources and a plethora of herbal recipes that can offer you some extra knowledge and hormonal support as well!

My little woodland adventurer. He found a stick an

My little woodland adventurer. He found a stick and reported that he was fighting zombie wolves.

Where he gets this stuff, I not sure. We did just read the story of Little Red Riding Hood in school the other day, so the wolves may have come from there, but the zombie part, I’m not sure about. It’s likely the influence of Minecraft.

As a parent raising boys in this modern digital age, I sometimes struggle with the things they are influence by online—YouTube gamers, for one!

On one hand, I would love it if they spent their days outside playing in nature, reading great books, and being creative with art, music, and building projects. Then on the other hand, I see the value of the digital world, such as learning computer coding, playing video games, and observing how people make a career online.

When I think about it, our homeschool days are actually filled with a bit of both. This is the beauty of homeschooling! We read great books, take nature walks, pull creative arts into our lessons, watch our favorite educational YouTube channels as a family, and take occasional coding classes. After school, the boys have a digital time limit of one hour a day, which encompasses YouTube, TV, tablets, and video games.

Most days this works for us, and I feel good about it. However, when their hour is up, it can be tough to hear the complaints of boredom or that there’s nothing to do—particularly during the colder months when spending time outside is limited.

I try to have plenty of other things around for them to interact with—art and craft supplies, card and board games, and toys for play. There’s also plenty of opportunity to help cook a meal or assist dad with a project, but sometimes those things don’t suffice.

I would love to know what your thoughts are when it comes to balancing digital time in your kid’s life and how you go about keeping them busy (without digital entertainment) when school is over.

We, women, can be a mysterious (aka, hard to read

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