My New Hobby

I have thought about writing this post for a long time, but put it off because I didn't want to look like I was crazy!  Anyway, I have a new hobby.  Way back in April I started playing with essential oils.  I started with a few and have collected many doTERRA oils over the past months.  I have really enjoyed myself, which I find strange because usually I don't like things like this at all.  Mike has tolerated me pretty well.  I annoy Maysen and Stockton with them, but they are pretty good sports.  Jorja doesn't complain, but Preston?  Wow!  He LOVES them! It is so funny!  He loves it when I get a new oil.  He loves asking about what it is supposed to help with.  He loves smelling them.  He loves letting me put the different oils on him.  It is awesome.  

If I could only choose one oil to keep, it would probably be lavender. Last month, Jorja burned herself while cooking.  I put the lavender on it and her pain stopped immediately!  I couldn't believe it!  She was quite surprised herself.  It would start hurting every fifteen minutes, but we would put on the lavender and the pain would instantly go away.  I was quite impressed.  I also like the lavender because it is so versatile.  It has so many uses.  It helps the kids sleep, helps with itching and bug bites, helps with teething (you would think I would be out of this stage by now!), and it is gentle on the skin so I can put it straight on without using coconut oil.  I pretty much love it. 

My second favorite oil would be peppermint.  I love the smell, but my older kids think it is too strong.  I used this on Preston when he was sick to get his fever down.  I was able to get it down a half a degree every thirty minutes.  Preston LOVED that!  The good thing about using oils instead of tylenol is it is so much easier to get my kids to do it!  I have had to fight them for years when they are sick.  We are talking 'sitting on them, holding their head with my knees while forcing them to open their mouth'.  Then I would get most of the medicine spit back up all over me.  YUCK!  The bad thing about using the oil instead of medicine is you have to be more vigilant.  I needed to apply this every fifteen minutes.  It wasn't a big deal though and Preston was a good sport. Although when Jorja got sick this same approach wasn't as effective for her.  Her temperature didn't go down as fast, it pretty much held steady. I also was in the middle of a crazy day, so I wasn't able to apply the oil every fifteen minutes.  I'm not sure if that would have made a difference, but I love having a different option than tylenol or advil.

I also tried this crazy concoction for my sore throat.  Warm water in a shot glass with two drops of on guard and two drops of lemon.  Gargle as long as possible and then swallow.  It was so gross!  I can't believe I did that!  But, it did work.  I did it twice about fifteen minutes apart.  At the end of the second time my throat didn't hurt at all.  That was pretty great for me.  I got a sore throat on our cruise this spring and it lasted the entire trip.  I was supposed to repeat that for the next two days, but I didn't want to.  My sore throat did come back, but not as strong.

Mike told me that if I wanted to really test if the oils work, I should get some that might make me more amorous.  Oh jeez.  Anyway I decided to humor him and had three different oils in a diffuser.  I put the oils away. They were driving me crazy and I found them quite annoying.  Maybe I'll get them out when I'm not so busy!  Mike was not happy with me when he found out why I put those away.  Haha.  I keep wondering when I'm going to get my life completely together.  Probably won't ever happen.  At least I have a good one to muddle through!  Luckily my family is more than patient with me.

In conclusion, I have been having quite a good time with these.  I don't think that they will replace doctors or modern medicine by any stretch of the imagination.  I have just loved having another option when my almost always healthy family gets under the weather.

I will end with a swimming picture.  I love our light!  So glad Mike didn't take no for an answer.  Mike and I went to Walmart and bought 20 forty pound bags of pool salt.  We dropped about half of the bags in the pool when we got home.  Mike had fun swimming around with the salt.  I just watched.  The pool was so warm!  How I have missed my warm, awesome pool!

Mike