Tag: landscape

Things I Love: July 2017

by Meagan Visser | Jul 31, 2017 | Things I Love | 0 |

Hi, friends! July has come and gone, although a little too quickly for my taste. I’ve been...

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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? ✉️

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Dandelion is a tenacious herb. It grows almost year round here in East Tennessee, and it can grow nearly everywhere. Yes, you can even push back the snow and often find dandelion greens beneath. You can poison it, smother it, or pull it, but eventually, it will pop back up. Instead of hating it, why not embrace it and learn to use it for better health?

All parts of dandelion are edible and nutritious, from the flower to the root. Dandelion is a source of several minerals and some vitamins. 🌼 The flowers can be dipped into batter and fried as fritters, or you can pull off the individual petals of the flower and sprinkle them into salads, use them on baked good toppings, or make a pancake syrup from them. 🌱 The leaves can be sautéed with other greens, added to soups or fresh salads, or used in baked recipes that call for lettuce. Just remember, the larger the leaf is, the more bitter it will taste, so choose smaller-sized leaves when eating dandelion! 🍠 The spring root can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute, and the fall root can be used as a prebiotic for beneficial gut bacteria.

Dandelion roots (and large leaves) are quite bitter. They are stimulating to the digestive organs, such as the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas, thus, improving digestion, absorption, and elimination. If you’re struggling with digesting your food properly, using dandelion bitters before meals is a great option. You can also use dandelion to support the liver in its metabolism role—encouraging it to remove waste and hormones from the blood.

Small dandelion leaves tend to have a salty flavor, and are more nutritional. They are also stimulating to the kidneys, thus, encouraging elimination and the removal of waste from the body. Thankfully, because of dandelions mineral content, it offsets losing too many minerals through the urine.

So no matter what time of the year you come across dandelion, there are always ways to incorporate it into your diet and wellness benefits to gain from it.

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Some people feel depressed by rainy days, but I quite like them.
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In fact, some of my favorite memories from college were those rainy days when everyone dressed down in warm, comfy clothes, came to class with umbrellas dripping with rain and steaming cups of coffee in hand, and tucked themselves up tightly in chairs prepared to take lecture notes. Afterwards, we would gather at the campus library for a group study session complete with books and papers strewn across tables, laptops open, and the quiet sounds of whispered ideas, the clicking of keys, papers rustling, and pencils scratching. And on those evenings, I would most often head home to my tiny downtown loft apartment where my roommate and I would eat potato soup and saltine crackers and binge watch our favorite tv shows late into the night.
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So, yeah. Rainy days bring some fond memories back to my mind. What about you? How do you feel about rainy days?
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#mybeautifulstories #artofslowliving #guhlifestyle #livefolk #simplethings #seasonalliving #lifeinappalachia #easttennessee #moutainliving #tinymoments #documentlife #flashesofdelight #intentionalliving #makingwinter #dreaminginpictures #myslowandsimple #ourbackyard #morningstories #simplebeautifullife #aquietstyle #aslowmovement #simpleandstill #myquietbeauty

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You guys, parenting is hard. It’s probably the hardest work I’ll ever do in my life, but I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to be mom to these four boys right here. They are the best! They may not always have the best attitudes or respond the way I would like them to, but I could say the same for myself. We’re all learning and growing together in life, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Being a parent has grown and matured me in ways that nothing else could, and I never want to take this time I have with my boys for granted. I want them to feel loved, secure, and free to become the person God has created them to be.

So what do you say, mom and dad? Here’s to giving ourselves grace, parenting our children throughout lens of love, and taking life one day at a time.
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#artofslowliving #guhlifestyle #livefolk #simplethings #seasonalliving #lifeinappalachia #easttennessee #moutainliving #tinymoments #documentlife #flashesofdelight #intentionalliving #makingwinter #dreaminginpictures #myslowandsimple #ourbackyard #morningstories #simplebeautifullife #boymom #momofboys #familymemories #familylife #graceparenting #creationsings #motherearth #seasonalliving #cyclesandseasons #naturelover #nature_up_close #natureseekers

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We’re getting there, folks. We’re getting there. We’re sealing the floors this week, and moving back in, hopefully, by the weekend. That leaves next week to unpack EVERYTHING and settle in.
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Our next project will be putting baseboard and crown molding everywhere and to finishing painting all the doors and trim.
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Oh, and I should really buy some lights for this room!
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#guhlifestyle #simplethings #tinymoments #documentlife #myslowandsimple #simplebeautifullife #guhhousetohome #diyhomeremodel

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So I’m one of those people that refuses to decorate for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. Anyone else with me? 🖐🏻
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I think it’s because I view Thanksgiving as an autumn holiday 🍂, and I want to give my family plenty of time to appreciate and celebrate it before moving on to the next holiday.
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As we move toward Thanksgiving, we talk a lot about our blessings, friends, and generosity with the boys. We want them to recognize the blessings in their lives and thank God for providing so abundantly for them. We want them to realize what a gift friends are and learn what it means to be a true friend to others. We also want to teach them to live with their hands open, not closed, so they can share the blessings God has given them with others.
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We’ll wrap up the Thanksgiving holiday with a day filled with visiting family and sharing good food 🦃 and conversation—all things I’m extremely grateful for. After that, we’ll move on to the Christmas holiday.
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Now that we have a new home, I think I’d like to start a new family tradition of picking out our Christmas tree 🎄 and decorating it on the day after Thanksgiving.
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So what about you? Do you decorate for Christmas as soon as Halloween is over, or do you wait until Thanksgiving has passed? I’d love to know.
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📸 2018 Christmas at @biltmoreestate
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#artofslowliving #guhlifestyle #livefolk #simplethings #seasonalliving #lifeinappalachia #easttennessee #moutainliving #tinymoments #documentlife #flashesofdelight #intentionalliving #makingwinter #dreaminginpictures #myslowandsimple #ourbackyard #morningstories #simplebeautifullife

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Yesterday I was talking about the winter season and how it’s a time for rest and rejuvenation, so when I saw this list from @ninetypesco, I thought it would be the perfect thing to share with those of you who want to live more seasonally-aligned lifestyles.
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Which of these types of rest do you want to incorporate into your life first? I’ll go first in the comments below.
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#artofslowliving #guhlifestyle #livefolk #simplethings #seasonalliving #lifeinappalachia #easttennessee #tinymoments #intentionalliving #makingwinter #myslowandsimple #simplebeautifullife #cyclesandseasons

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