Cleaning with Lemon Oil

I'm a little late on my blogging lately, but I plan to catch up. I'm slowly learning more about using doTERRA essential oils and cleaning with them. This time, I used 5 drops of lemon oil on a cloth to clean my daughter's filthy dry erase board on her easel. She was even impressed with the results!

Before--










After--It's clean and shiny again! Some of those stains took a little elbow grease, but they all came off.

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a fabulous New Year! I have been working on my goals for 2013 using this post from Thirtyhandmadedays for kids--http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2012/12/new_year_resolutions/ and this one for myself--http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2012/12/new_year_resolutions_printable/ .  Ilove the way she phrases things--simple yet effective. This is the method I used last year, too, and found it much easier to stick with my goals when presented this way.

More to come on 2013 goals in the future!

Loving the Coconut Oil!

If you read my post last month, you'll know that I've recently discovered the beauty of coconut oil as a hair conditioner from another pinterest pin. Yesterday, I found this pin on pinterest here--http://healthimpactnews.com/2011/80-uses-for-coconut-oil/ that describes 80 different uses for it! I'm all for things are reasonable and have multiple uses around the house.

First thing I did was try the coconut oil as a moisturizing lotion for my legs, arms, and hands. All I did was literally scoop it out of the jar and put it on my skin to rub it in. It was a bit greasier than I like for lotions, but my skin feels amazing this morning! So soft and moisturized! I have super dry skin in the winter, so this is huge.

Next thing I did was try the coconut oil as a chapstick for my dry lips. Besides dry skin, I really get dry lips in the winter, and my other chapsticks are not cutting it. A little coconut oil on my lips really did an amazing job last night. Hoping to get them back in shape soon.

If you are looking for cheap and easy DIY Natural health and beauty recipes, check out the above link for 80 uses for coconut oil!

Merry Christmas!

I got a little off track w/ my blogging last week while finishing up holiday shopping/ wrapping/ cleaning and then having my daughter home for half of the week for Christmas break. I have loved spending time with my friends and family.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

doTERRA Family Physician Kit--a Family Review

My follow-up to an earlier post this week, I plan to blog about our initial experiences with our new doTERRA Family Physician Kit. We have had our kit for 3 weeks now and have taken it on vacation. During that time, we have started to get a few colds, had some aches and pains, fevers, upset stomachs, pink eye, and headaches, and the flu and stomach flu are both going around my daughter's Kindergarten class. We were on a cruise with over 4600 other people and through numerous airports during this time.

*****small disclaimer--I am a current wholesale member and new consultant with doTERRA, but I didn't receive anything for this post nor am I looking to gain anything by posting this other than helping my friends and their families.

The Family Physician Kit contains 5ml bottles of the following oils--lemon, peppermint, lavender, on guard, breathe, melaleuca, oregano, digestzen, and frankincense. You also receive an audio cd for information about using the oils and a 15ml bottle of Slim and Sassy. We have tried all of the oils at this point, and all three of us are reaching for the oils first now. My husband even asks me to put the "fix it" stuff (aka On Guard) on him, and my daughter sticks her feet up in the air for oils!

Our Ailments Over the Past 3 Weeks--

Runny Nose/ Cough--used Breathe and On Guard, worked great. We love On Guard!

Upset stomach--Digestzen worked for hubby and for our daughter after her motion sickness

Fever--used On Guard and Peppermint for our daughter at bedtime, and her fever was gone when she woke up the next morning. She felt great!

Pink Eye--currently using Melaleuca and Lavender oils around my eyes, and they are stopping the itch and reducing the pink/ red. Will post pics tomorrow.

Sinus/ Tension Headache--used Breathe and Peppermint, added Frankincense a few times. I did have to take an excedrin at one point when the hormonal headache was added on top of the others, but the oils mostly did the trick here. I ordered PastTense (for headaches) to see how this works next time.

Joint/ Muscle Pain--used Deep Blue oil, and hubby felt better; used it on my daughter's finger and felt better

I have also been putting a drop of lemon oil in my water for detox and feel it helped. I have treated a sinus infection and pink eye on myself with great results--no doctor's appt. or antibiotics! Woohoo!

The Slim and Sassy is definitely reducing my cravings to snack in the afternoons and evenings, and it tastes great. The bottle seems to last awhile, too, as I have most of the bottle left. For our family of 3, we go through the On Guard fastest, and I would highly recommend it to other families with kids, those with weakened immune systems, etc. If you have any questions, please list them in the comments, and I'll try to help.

Tomorrow's post--More information on these oils--what they are, etc.

Book Review--The Happiness Project

I love to read on vacation and have to have a good book in my hands for the airplane rides, time by the pool, and the beach. This year, I was able to read a newly recommended book to me, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubins. One of my main goals for this year was to read more books and focus on my overall health, including mental and emotional, and this book was perfect.

I think we can all learn to be happier and to appreciate what we have more. There were many helpful things about this book that I can definitely apply to my own life, but a few things really jumped out at me. Gretchen takes an overwhelming project, a yearlong happiness project, and breaks it down into manageable monthly resolutions. She came up with a list of things she knew to be true, 12 things she wanted to work on over the year, and then broke that down into several resolutions to focus on each month. She then kept track of her progress on a daily resolutions chart. I definitely need to do this.

I love the fact that as a Mom of two, she kept it real. She only focused on changing her behavior. I plan on doing a modified happiness project in 2013 as we finish up Kindergarten and start school full-time next fall. The one quote that has stayed with me from this book is that "the days are long, but the years are short."

I highly recommend this book, and I'm currently reading the follow up book, Happier at Home. I'm also getting things organized for my happiness project to start in January by following Gretchen's blog here--http://www.happiness-project.com/  Happy Reading!

My New Journey with doTERRA Essential Oils

As some of you may know, I recently started using doTERRA essential oils before our vacation, and I will never go back to a life without them. I've had several friends and family members asking what they are, what I think of them, how they are working, etc. and plan to address questions and my experiences here where I can write and share more. I decided to start out by telling why I took this journey and then go from there.

I have gradually started changing over our household items in the past year or two to more green cleaning items, less processed foods, and more natural health solutions for myself but still relied on the dr. visits for my 5 year old daughter. She doesn't get really sick but almost constantly has a cough, more so in fall and winter. Every time she gets a runny nose, it turns into several weeks of a cough. Our friends and family have grown to accept that she's not really sick but coughing.

Over the past two years, we were typically at the dr. once per month. Occasionally, it was a sinus infection or ear infection but mainly just a cough that they would attribute to a virus or to an unknown cause.  Allergies and cough-variant asthma were both mentioned repeatedly, but allergy testing last spring came back negative on everything. I do realize that they could still develop, and while her asthma test was also negative, the allergist wanted to put her on an inhaler to see if it would help her cough. We have turned down advice for inhalers and allergy prescriptions because we just don't feel comfortable trying random things on our daughter to see if they work.

Recently, we were referred on to an ENT specialist as her dr. felt it didn't sound like cough-variant asthma anymore. The specialist didn't find anything wrong and felt we needed to get more aggressive from the beginning when she gets this runny nose/ cough. She recommended OTC children's mucinex and possibly an acid reducing medicine if we feel the cough may be coming from acid (we don't). Again, not trying random medicines just to see if they work.

We decided this year to not get her a flu shot and try a more natural approach because honestly we figured we had tried the traditional medicine route w/ her the last few years without much success. Last year, she developed an allergic reaction to the antibiotic Omnicef. My Mom and Brother are both allergic to the "cillan" medicines and found out when they were older, so I'm hoping she doesn't develop more. Also, we recently had a friend develop Steven Johnson's Syndrome after allergies to antibiotics and prescribed medicines, so we were completely ready to give the all natural route a try. I spoke w/ a friend of mine who used doTERRA essential oils for her family and was an Independent Consultant and signed up that day for the Family Physician Kit, wholesale member, and to become an Independent Consultant myself although my primary goal is to keep my family healthy.

The rest of this week, I will keep blogging about the essential oils we have tried and our experiences with each one. We have tested out most of the oils in my Family Physician Kit at this point (unfortunately we've needed to), but I feel confident in sharing our results. Let me know in the comments if you ever have questions, and I'll try my best to answer them.