We {Heart} Essential Oils

We LOVE Essential Oils in our house!  My kids love them so much that they are always asking me to put "My Oils" on them.  When we were first introduced to essential oils in April of 2012. Jon, being a man of science, is skeptical of Essential Oils (EO) in general, and I was skeptical too.  The main reason we started trying essential oils was for my postpartum depression, but there were a few other things that were going on that made us want to try the EO's.  A few of those pesky problems were:

*Persistent Eczema

*Daily Migraines 

*Common colds

*Chronic upset tummies

*Sore joints from exercising

*Increased frustration from work

Jon's family kept touting the virtues of EO and so we decided to give it a try.  We ordered our oils and they came a few day later.  I was sad because my depression oil didn't come but it did come with a bonus oil called WakeUp that I had no clue what to do with.  I looked up the oil in a reference book that I had received and noted that this oil was used for helping people feel more energetic and awake.  Even though it wasn't the oil I was expecting I was excited because I was struggling with sluggishness in the morning.  It was so bad that if I didn't start my day with a shower I had trouble getting going before noon. As a mother there is no way in this world that you can start your day that late without having chaos on your hands.  I decided to give WakeUp a try and diffuse it in the morning.  The difference was incredible.  I was able to get up out of bed and start cleaning my house at 8 am and not be the least bit groggy.  I was sold on WakeUp.

As you know from my last post I have postpartum depression.  They say that home can be heaven on Earth but my depression made everything in my life just the opposite.  I was willing to try anything to help fight the depression and so I started using EO.  I have several EO that I use for my depression, but the one that I like the most is Baby Me.  Baby Me is also used for Mothers and babies.  The only way that I can describe the effects of Baby Me would be for you to imagine an empty jar that you fill with rocks.  Even though the jar appears full there are still gaps, so you take sand and fill in those gaps.  When I wear or smell Baby Me, I can feel the gaps in my soul fill and I feel good.  For me Baby Me is even better when I apply it and then go running. I was sold on Baby Me.

Kate has horrible Eczema all over her body, her eczema is so bad that some nights she can't sleep.  We have tried EVERYTHING and nothing has worked, the closest we have ever come to relieving her itching was Aquaphor, but even at that we had to apply it all the time and she would still be extremely itchy the next day.  So I whipped out my lavender oil and applied it to her whole body, a week went by before she started to complain again.  Now we apply it after every bath and if for some reason she needs an additional application she will come up to me and say, "Mom I need you to put some of my oils on me."  We were sold on Lavender.

I have daily migraines and during my pregnancy with Emma they were the worst.  So I started using the Mygraine.  If I can catch the migraine just right I can stop it.  Usually I have 5 severe migraines a year.  In the last 9 months that I have been using oils I have only had one medium migraine and that was in the middle of our move.  Mygraine has not cured my migraines, but it helps reduce the intensity. Sold.

We noticed such a significant difference in our lives that when an issue came up about anyone, Jon would joke and say, "I bet there is an oil for that."  I take him up on that and do my research and ordered the needed oil.  As we start using it we notice a difference as the condition improves.  Not only are we able to see a difference others have noticed differences too, especially Brett in school.  Now I never leave home with out our "most used" essential oils on hand, just in case.

Since starting essential oils in April we have used essential oils with great success for things like:

*That time of the month when everything is out of whack(I ordered that oil in bulk).

*Helping a child focus in school

*Get into the holiday season

*Colic

*Burns/rashes

*Cold and flu season this year x2 

*Leg cramps

*Helping my kids with their emotions

*Aches and pains

*Sinus infections

*Acne

*Sleepless nights due to teething

We have been super blessed with the use of EO in our home.  I buy my EO through a company called Butterfly Express. Butterfly Express sells 100% therapeutic grade essential oils.  These oils are the same quality as Young Living and Doterra but less expensive.  The reason they are less expensive is that when you buy from Butterfly Express you are buying directly from a company that doesn't have a ton of overhead and it is not multi-level marketing.  If you get your oils from one of Butterfly Express' distributors you can get your oils at an even lower cost to you.  I have nothing against Young Living and Doterra except for their high prices.  There is no way that I would be able to have Essential Oils in my home if I had to purchase them from either of these companies.  I have several family members who sell from each of these companies, I have used their oils and my family members have seen great results in their lives with their oils.

I am not trying to market anything with this post.  Using EO has been a great blessing in my life and I want to share it with you.  If you already use EO and have a company that you love, great.  If you have been interested in using EO but have been dissuaded by the price then talk to me and I can help you find a reasonable price.  Just PLEASE be careful of companies that sell oils at a ridiculously low price, chances are that those "essential oils" have been diluted and have no therapeutic properties what so ever.

If you have any questions about Essential Oils, please do not hesitate to ask. I love talking about essential oils and am excited to answer questions.  You can leave a question in the comments or you can email me, my email address is on the sidebar---->

If you want to try essential oils in your home let me know, I am distributor for Butterfly Express.  You can find out more about what oils are available at www.butterflyexpress.net

Postpartum Depression Part 2

When you start to feel the weight of the dirt crushing you, giving up is about all that you can think to do, and I was ready to give up.  Until I found out that there was a sister that lived close by that went running everyday.  I invited myself to go running with her.  She was so kind in letting me tag along and I am sure that I altered her exercise routine and that I talked her ear off way more than I should of.  She ran a mile every day and I pretended to run, it had been seven years since I have actively ran, due to knee problems so I was definitely not in running condition.  Still I knew that my friend would be by every morning and so I got up and went with her.  Her kindness meant the world to me and she was a positive force in my running.  I cried the day that I ran a half mile with out stopping for water or a break.  Running with my friend coupled with Essential oils, and I was starting shake the dirt off and step up.

We moved from Michigan to Washington and I started to have a tough time again.  Things in Washington had not gone as planned and even though we are still in a better place, things were starting to get really rough again. I had stopped running and stopped using my essential oils.  Christmas was hard, I had not had a Christmas that hard in the last 14 years.  I was actually praying that Christmas would pass me by or that maybe I would just die in my sleep of Christmas Eve.  My mother and my sweet husband were doing everything in their power to help, My mother and father bought me a live Christmas tree that smelled soo good.  Jon bought me a poinsettia  which is a tradition and something that I love to get at Christmas time.  The best gift ever was when everyone had pitched in and made me a distributor for Butterfly Express, the company that I get my essential oils from.  Christmas was better than I had plan and I started to shake things off again.  This time I was not going to let it get me,  I started to faithfully use my essential oils and  I asked out back yard neighbor (who is in our ward) if she would watch the kids while I went running everyday.  She agreed and two days later I was out running the neighborhood. I ran for what felt like forever in a huge circle and ended up at home.  I felt great and I didn't stop when the running got tough, when it got tough I could hear a voice in my head telling me to not stop but to slow down.  Encouraging words kept coming to me during my run and I was grateful for the voice of my Michigan friend helping me through my run.  I mapped my run and it was a complete mile, I was elated and I cried again.

I am still not past this depression, but I am in a better place. I am re-working at my testimony of who I am and striving to become a better person.  I think that Satan has been able to easily drag me down because I became complacent in prayers and scriptures.  I know that when life gets hard that I need to work hard to pull myself up.  I have learned not to judge those poor mother who have depression and I hope that someday I will be able to use my experience to help someone else in need.  Feel free to ask questions in the comments below or to send me an email, I am very open and willing to help in any way.

Postpartum Depression Part 1

I remember my first doctor appointment after I had Brett, they made me fill out a questionnaire.   I thought it was silly because it was asking me questions like, "Do you have thoughts of hurting yourself or your baby?"  I couldn't fathom the thought that anyone who just had a baby would want to hurt themselves or their baby.  I was young and completely clueless at the problems that mother could face after having a baby.

 Fast forward to a couple months before I had my sweet Emma, I was excited to welcome my sweet Emma into the world.  I have always had very tough pregnancies, with Emma's pregnancy it was no different. We had a few extra complications that were very frustrating and painful to deal with, but nothing compared to the sadness that I was starting to feel.  The worst part of the sadness was the inability to pin point the problem, I had no clue why I was so sad and so I just lived with it.  When Emma arrived I was so excited and she was perfect, but the excitement was short lived when we had to re-admit her to the hospital 48 hours after her birth.  It was three days of agony to watch me sweet Emma having problems, and the tubes and cords coming out of her didn't help my sadness at all.

Things got really bad when nothing in my closet fit, during the course of my pregnancy I had gone from 190 lbs to 150 lbs and then shooting to a whopping 210 lbs!  Nothing fit, not even at the store and the sadness grew and grew, until it had finally consumed me.  I was not in a good place and it was awful   I didn't know what to do, I was always tired and unmotivated to do anything and most of all I hated myself.  While controlling my weight after a bout of Hyperemesis is not easy for me, I hated myself  for not being able to control my body.  I had tried to exercise but I couldn't stay consistent enough to make any difference.   I felt so awful that I would lay in bed at night and just cry for hours.  Jon kept asking what he could do and I couldn't give him an answer.  I couldn't even explain to him how I felt, it was difficult to put into words.  I finally figured out a way to tell him.

 Do you know the story of the donkey in the well?  A farmer's donkey fell into a well, and seeing that there was nothing that the farmer could do to get the donkey out of the well he started to bury the donkey in the well.  With every shovel full of dirt the donkey would shake off the dirt and step up, eventually the donkey walked out of the well.  I am the donkey in the well, and my sweet husband the farmer.  There were a lot   people at my well, but all were confused and had no clue what to do so the just stood around and talked.  My farmer tried to reach me but the well was too deep and so a helping hand would not work and not knowing what else to do he just held his hand out there just in case I could eventually reach it.  Someone was shoveling dirt into the well and I couldn't shake it off, it was burying me, crushing me.  I just felt crushed and desperate.

Part 2 coming soon.

Who Cuts Hair In Our House?

Ugh, I have been so bad at blogging, and this time I have pretty much no excuses.  So with a new year I am going to resolve to start blogging again, just like I promised last year.

I love/hate being a busy mom.  Being busy means that the day goes by faster but it also means that my kids do get enough supervision attention.  Wednesday of last week, I was busy on the phone pretty much all morning.  I had just finished organizing thousands of picture on my computer and I realized that I was missing a folder of picture from our 2010 trip to Iowa.  It would be sad to lose any pictures of my kids, but this folder contained picture of my kids with their great grandparents one of who had passed away a year after seen them.  I was just sick at the thought that I had lost these photos, so I was on the phone trying to desperate see if anyone else had copies of these pictures.  Brett and Kate were down stairs "coloring" and Emma was napping.  Kate came to me and told me that Brett was running around with scissors and I told her to go get him for me.  He came up and we had a discussion about running with scissors, he agreed that it was not a wise idea and then went back to coloring.  I feed the kids lunch, get Brett off to school and get home in time to nap Kate and Emma.  As we are taking off our coats and shoes I notice a clump of hair on the floor, thinking it was from a hair brush I pick it up and throw it into the garbage.  As I am throwing it away I notice more hair in the garbage, then it clicks, someone JUST got a haircut.  The hair was long so that eliminated Brett and Emma.  I checked Kate, she had been scalped on the left, front side of her ear and her pony tail.  Kate told me that Brett had cut her hair when he was chasing her.  I was pretty upset and Brett was very lucky that we was at school.  Luck for us Grandma Ni cuts hair and she lives close, so we took a quick trip to grandma's house.  We had to take 7+ inches off of Kate's hair and layer it to make it look decent, and Kate was very sad to have her hair cut short but I had no choice.  I confronted Brett after school and he admitted to cutting Kate's hair.  Brett is still trying to convince Kate that she loves her short hair.  "Kate, don't you just love your short hair?" He'll ask, to which she has always replied, "No Brett, I don't  love my short hair."  Secretly, I am glad that Brett cut her hair, Kate hated me doing her hair let alone bushing it and I hated the whining that came with it.

Kate was having a bad hair day.

Kate now has short hair that she is learning to love and I still for the life of me can't find those pictures of Iowa.