Natural Egg Dyeing

We try to avoid artificial dyes and flavors as much as we possibly can, but it seems to be in everything these days. Especially around the holidays, like say Easter with all of its cute dishes containing colored eggs. No problem! You can dye eggs with natural ingredients around your house or from the store. 

Dyeing eggs is one of my favorite Easter projects! Seriously I love dyeing eggs! Last year around this time our little cousins from the farm down the street came over for an egg dyeing pizza party! We had a blast! 

Things You Can Use To Dye Eggs:

Orange - Yellow Onion Skins, Cayenne Powder or Chili Powder

Brown - Tea, Expresso Powder or Coffee

Blue / Turquoise - Red Cabbage or Blueberries

Pink - Beets or Cranberries

Yellow - Tumeric Powder, Lemon, Carrots, Saffron or Orange Peels

Lavender - Grape Juice

Purple - Red Wine 

Green - Parsley, Green Tea Spinach

Red - Yellow Onion Skins + 2 Tablespoons Vinegar 

We used red cabbage, instant coffee, canned beets - we used the juice from the can as one dye then boiled the actual beets for a second one- and spinach. If you are using a solid vegetable instead of liquid like the juice of the beets or grape juice, chop the vegetables and boil until the water is colored.

Find containers that can hold the dye plus several eggs (bonus points if they have lids too!) Homemade dyes don't work as quickly as the pellets of food coloring so expect to soak them for several hours to overnight depending on the look you are wanting. We left ours for 9 hours. 

Related Article: Boiled Egg Chicks

Boil desired amount of white eggs, prepare dyes and pour into containers. Place eggs into the container of dye, make sure all of the egg is covered. Place in the refrigerator until the desired color is reached.  

Related Article: Easter Traditions

Here are some old pictures of Brianna and I dying eggs- told you I loved doing it!

A Day At The Rodeo - Bold Enough Challenge

We spent Saturday night at a the Bold Enough Challenge Rodeo in Gallatin. We had such a good time, so I thought I would share some of the photos with you. 

Cowboy in the clouds.

Rock Castle

Rock Castle is located in Hendersonville Tennessee, it was the home of Daniel Smith and his wife. He and his twin were born in Virginia in 1789. Construction began in 1784 but was delayed until 1791 because of Indian raids.  

He married Sarah Michie in 1773 (she managed much of the construction of their home while her husband's work took him away from their home). They had two Children Mary Ann (nicknamed Polly" and George. His daughter married Rachel Jackson's (President Andrew Jackson's wife) youngest brother Samuel Donelson. After his death, she married James Sanders. His son George became a captain in the Tennessee Mounted Volunteer Gunmen during the war of 1812.  

Daniel Smith served as a colonel in the American Revolution (later to be promoted to a colonel of the Washington County Militia), He was also a member of the committee to frame the Bill Of Rights. President Washington appointed him Territorial Secretary of southern Ohio.

 He served two terms as one of Tennessee's earliest Senators. He surveyed land boundaries in middle Tennessee (he surveyed the area that would become Nashville).  Smith drafted the Tennessee Constitution, he was also one of the men chosen to draft a constitution for the Continental Congress in 1796.

 Later he became an Indian negotiator, he negotiated most of the treaties with the Cherokee in Tennessee. He was also a map maker (he created maps of Tennessee and Kentucky) He is the man that named Tennessee, originally spelled "Tennasee" or "Tanasi" pronounced Ten-ah-see (named after a Cherokee village in east Tennessee.

#Travel #History #HomeSchool #PlacesToGo #Tennessee 

Keeping Faith In The Chaos

There are times when life is going well, great... it's as smooth as a calm lake. 

Everything is perfect. It couldn't get any better, and then there are times like these... 

We had been trying to adopt a baby and found out that the young lady that was pregnant decided she didn't want to be pregnant anymore so she got an abortion.  We were all heart broken. We prayed for this young lady and her child and they were like family in our hearts.  The abortion went badly and the girl had to be rushed to the hospital for surgery.  They said she would never have children again.  Our hearts broke for her and the baby.

Weeks later a friend called us with another woman that was pregnant and needing a loving family for the baby.  Needless to say, it was a bad situation and she was forced into an abortion.

Mr. and Mrs. Cottage was driving to take Grandma Cottage to a doctor's appointment and we were hit by a lady as we sat at a red light. She never even slowed down.  We had decided at the last minute not to go with them and if we would have gone we would have been hurt very badly. Grandma broke her back and Mrs. Cottage hurt her hip, shoulder and got really bad whiplash. Months of physical therapy and pain. 

We were expecting a lot of company, so we decided to buy new furniture for our livingroom.  The next night we woke up to the sound of water dripping. With further investigations, we found that one of the upstairs toilets had overflown in the night and water was pouring out of the fan/light fixture in the living room ceiling all over the brand new coffee table.  The end result was the bathroom, shower, and spare bathroom flooring, the ceiling in the living room ceiling and flooring all had to be replaced. 

A couple days later we also had to rip the drywall out on one wall in the living room because a pipe burst. 

The house sounded like a massive plane was parked in the living room which kind of looked like a lab from a SciFi movie or a crime scene. Big sheets of plastic cover every entrance and in the center of the room, huge dehumidifiers hummed like engines on a plane. It was miserable!!! especially when the AC went out leaving us in the heat of sweltering southern summer.  It was over 100 degrees F. by day and the machines put off more heat.  Becuase of the AC and the noise we were all piled into one room all day for a week... 7 days have never stretched longer than that week. 

Five out of seven days a week Mrs. Cottage and Grandma had to go to physical therapy. The only nice part of this was the building (and car) had AC. 

There were days I just laid on the pallet on the floor and cried begging for it please stop as I listened to worship music. And like a wave, it finally let us come up for a breath. And I found my faith had never been stronger.  

It was so hard on my faith. We were walking with God and living for him and things just kept going wrong. Mom (Mrs. Cottage) knew how important it was that we hang onto our faith and she had us write messages of faith and bible verses on the 2x4s that made up our home. Our walls and ceiling were covered in words of faith and protection.  If nothing more than to remind us of our faith and reinforce that in our own hearts. 

Our Trip To Lost River Cave

Mr. Cottage and I had a few hours to kill so we decided to visit Lost River Cave on a trip to Kentucky, after a quick stop at the store for a pair of tennis shoes (I left the house wearing flip flops. Not the best walking shoes I know, but in my defense I hadn't planned on going to this cave). But I have to say it was beautiful! Even if it had rained a for the entire week before so it was kind of muddy. 

The water was stunning, the forest beautiful and the underground boat ride was really neat. Even if I was a little scared of falling off the boat and into the water. I had never been in a cave before so I was amazed by it all and just how fast the current was. As our tour guide said to keep all purses, phones, cameras inside the boat. There will be no retrieving them if you drop them. If you dislike small spaces don't go on the boat ride, especially if it has rained a lot. In a couple places, we could touch the ceiling of the cave. After the cave tour, we walked a couple of the trails and visited the butterfly habitat. We had such a great time!  

  

This building was used during the American Civil war to store ammunition.

During the civil war, the Civil War the Confederate temporarily used the cave as a shelter in 1861. About a year later Union troops camped here before marching on to Nashville.

Along the beautiful pathway.  It is so green and gorgeous.

One of the waterfalls on the property.

Chandelier in the cave where the old nightclub was.

Later in 1933, they turned the entrance of the cave into a night club. People from all over flocked to the "Cavern Nite Club". 

Dinah Shore, Francis Craig, and his NBC Orchestra sang here along with some of the biggest names in big band. 

Don't know who they are? Click the name and listen.

Dinah Shore 

Francis Craig

NBC Symphony Orchestra 

In the early 1960's the clubs era came to and end with the building of I-65 rerouting traffic away and the passing of laws stating that alcohol could not be served below street level.  

This rock formation is called the sheepfold.  Can you see them?

Lost River Cave and valley are a 68-acre nature preserve located in Bowling Green Kentucky. It hosts Kentucky's only underground boat tour, walking trails, and wildlife habitats.  

#Cave #KY #FamilyFun #LostRiverCave