We had our 3rd Grace Girls meeting this week. We learned about foraging nature to use to craft & decorate with. Mrs. Mary led this topic.

The original plan had been to head out into the woods to forage nature ourselves, but because of the recent heavy storms we have been having as a result of Hurricane Helene, along with the early darkness of Fall evenings, some of the moms brought the nature from their backyards inside to us.

The girls had so much fun “foraging” for nature items that stood out to them to decorate a tablescape with. I thought it was funny that we just decorated our table using Nature last week to celebrate the Autumn Equinox and had to share ours with Mrs. Mary. I love that she also celebrates nature and prioritizes creating family traditions, like me, and that she didn’t judge me for celebrating pagan holidays.

There was a really neat variety of nature to admire. There were pumpkins, gourds, okra, flowers, pine, leaves, plants, wheat, & pinecone.

I got some new inspiration also! I’d love to get some tree stumps to use for my centerpieces! I have a faux one from a cakestand that I put my wedding cake on, but the real ones are way cooler. I didn’t get a photo, but she also had a long, more rectangle-shaped log piece that was perfect for this!!!

They had fun trying out different methods. Some used baskets, some used tree stump rounds or rectangles, some used Mason Jars or directly on the table itself.

I think Athena did really good for her first time. She’s definitely the youngest girl in the group currently, since she just turned 5 this same week and that is the minimum age requirement.

The next part of our night was learning about Flower Presses and getting to use them and the beautiful flowers & plants that Mrs. Mary had pressed for us.

As an old fashioned girl, I always just used heavy books to press my flowers! This was my first time seeing an actual press, and I’m officially obsessed.

I literally sped directly home to beg my husband to make me a simple flower press over the weekend, if we have wood pieces to spare that could work for this. The screws we definitely have, and I can easily obtain thick cardboard from my work, repurposing extra wine boxes.

One of the girls’ mom’s made her the most beautiful flower press for a gift with her name engraved in the wood, and straps to keep it closed instead of screws for much easier accessibility. She said the straps were very affordable from Amazon, so that’s an option I can consider in the future too.

She printed out examples for us to use the pressed flowers to make a card for someone we love, but I decided to hold onto our first pressed flower crafts that we made together as a family. I love the way they turned out.

The pressed leaves looked so cool & still so fresh! The Lambs Ear was still so soft & velvety, and even shone a bit in the light.

The girls picked the color of the cardstock they wanted to use as the background for their cards. Then they chose their pressed nature they wanted to use.

Some girls drew vases, others made small photos. Some decorated their envelopes or inside of the cards too. I really enjoy seeing each girls creativity & ideas. I love that these tiny nature-loving seeds are being planted in these girls heads at such young ages.

I also love how many other moms in the group make nature a priority in their families lives & homeschooling. There is such a huge disconnect in most of “society’s children” from nature, to the point where it is now considered a “disorder.” Nature really is the greatest gift our Creator ever created for us. Nature provides everything a human needs, and not enough people truly celebrate Mother Nature & definitely not enough give back to her in this technology-driven world. My wish for each of these girls is that the seeds planted continues to grow strong in their love & appreciation for nature and that they continue to grow a deeper connection with Mother Nature as they learn more about her & her blessings she provides to us.

These were our cards. They had extras and immediately asked me if I would like to make one too because they knew it would be “right up my alley.” Since I was the very last person to begin, with such a late start I just picked whatever was left that spoke out to me. I’d love to do this again with more time to plan what I want to create! The wheels in my brain are already going crazy with all the ideas for how perfect this hobby is to go with our other gardening projects & future plans.

I placed them above our newest Nature Wall. I thought it was the perfect spot for them & love how they look up there. I’m so glad we attended this meeting – it was such a good one!

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov