Slow Living in a Country Cottage, Joy in Simple Living

Hello dear friends and welcome to Gottage Time. In today's video, I'm sharing some decorating in the cottage and a few glimpses of the simple life in the country. I let my cilantro go to seed in the garden last year and it came back in a lot of different little patches and it seems to be a stronger plant when I let it self-seed. So I think I'll do this from now on. I'm picking the leaves off of the bigger stems and then I'll wash it and I'm gonna dry it in the dehydrator for I think it took about nine hours for it to be completely dry. I love to use cilantro in so many dishes and I figured out that with the amount that this dried it was about a pint's worth. I separated it into two different jars but it would be about ten dollars worth of cilantro that I have dried. I'm adding a few little touches of spring and kind of resetting the fireside room and the dining room today. I really wanted to use these yard ornament statues of a duck family. They're a little bit more chippy than I like. I don't really care for chippy so I may take them outside and paint them white. The mama duck with her babies though just kind of says spring to me. I'll be using several of my floral teacups. The cilantro is completely dry. If you are drying herbs the way you know that it's safe to jar them up is if there is no gill at all in the leaves. If there is any gill then they need to dry longer. This cilantro is my first harvest from the garden this year. You can't tell on the video but it retained its color really well. It is a really vibrant green color. At the time when I'm filming this video I am unaware that we have any flowers anywhere on the farm. And then later today I walked outside and saw a lot of irises on one side that I usually don't go on that side of the yard very much. So anyway I put my vase here on this round table because eventually I will add irises to it. And I think the vase is pretty just to be out with the flowers on it. I apologize for the light over here by the dresser. I filmed this twice and the lighting just wouldn't cooperate with me this time. It always feels good to freshen up the spaces as the seasons change. I've been waiting for some bananas to get ripe so that I can make banana bread. Well today we had one banana left and I'm gonna make some banana bread. I would prefer to have two bananas but just to make it extra special I'm gonna add some chocolate. The days here at the cottage do go by pretty slow. Most days are filled with making meals, tidying up, and spending time in the garden. And then we end the day with family bible time. Sometimes the boys will go outside and play tennis and we may watch them for a while. I just feel very fortunate to be able to live this slow living lifestyle in the country. Whether you're enjoying a simple slow living lifestyle or not, I just encourage you to find joy in whatever phase of life you're in. We definitely have not always enjoyed a life in the country. We've lived in the city but I'm just not a city girl at heart. We've had ups and downs like everyone else. I wish I could go back and try to find more joy in the seasons that were not my favorite. Thank you so much for watching today. I'm glad you stopped by. I hope you'll say hi in the comments and I will talk to you again soon. Have a very blessed week.