Kickin' the "Crud" that comes with Fall

It's my favorite time of year. The cool crisp weather change. Fall leaves that crunch under your boots. Warm soup simmering on the stove. The smell of pumpkin and cinnamon fills the air. Fresh air that makes you want to stay outside all day long. Beautiful early morning sunrises that take your breath away. A new perspective on life that makes you thankful that God is in complete control of everything. With all these wonderful things there is one thing that I do NOT like about this time of year: THE CRUD! You know what I'm talking about. That achy feeling, scratchy throat, runny nose, swollen eyes, and overall drain of energy.



Scratchy throat has been knocking at my door every morning for the past week. Stupid scratchy throat has never turned into anything else because I kick it down with essential oils every morning before it has a chance to turn into something yucky. However my poor Joy has come down with a bad case of the crud after being outside without a coat on one evening. She sounds so pitiful with her scratchy voice, runny nose, whimpers, and cough. Once again I am so thankful for essential oils. They continue to empower us as a family to take control of our own health. I wanted to share with you what we have been doing to kick this crud in the butt!

OnGuard - we use OnGuard on the bottoms of our feet about 2x a day right now to prevent the germs from spreading. While Joy is not feeling her best I have been applying OnGuard at every diaper change to help boost her immune system.

Breathe - doTERRA's Breathe Blend (respiratory blend) is great for opening up the respiratory system. I have been placing it on Riley's chest undiluted at every diaper change to help keep her lungs open and work through her congestion. I have also been diffusing Breathe and OnGuard in every room and makes sure she is sitting right next to it. She loves it and knows that it makes her feel better.

Eucalyptus - for Joy I have been putting 5 drops of Eucalyptus on a rag and placing it in the bottom of the shower then turning the water as hot as it will go to build up steam in our guest bathroom. I will take Joy in there for about 20 min and read with her while she breathes in the Eucalyptus. This has tremendously helped keep all the junk out of her lungs. I personally find it refreshing myself.

Peppermint - 1 drop of Peppermint undiluted on the bottoms of Joy's feet at every diaper change knocks her fever out. 

Serenity + Eucalyptus - I have been using one drop undulated of Serenity on the bottom of Joy's feet before every nap and before bedtime to help her sleep. I have also been diffusing 4 drops of Serenity and 4 drops of Eucalyptus in her diffuser at night to not only help her sleep through the night but also help her breathe well while she sleep. It has really made a difference. This is also my favorite combo to help me sleep. 

If you are interested in learning more about essential oils and how they work please join me for a Google Hangout Experience next Tuesday, November 18 from 7:30pm -9:30pm. The class will be live so you are able to see how oils are used in our house and you can ask any questions you might have. I will post a link on my blog and on my Facebook page on Tuesday evening at 7pm so you can join the class. If you would like more information please leave a comment or email me and I would be happy to talk to you more.

The Heartbeat

Surprise midwife appointments at home are one of my favorite things about having this baby at home. She texted this morning and said "can I come by around noon?" Woohoo! The best surprises come on unexpected days. I think it's awesome that she comes in, takes her shoes off at the door, immediately begins to interact with Joy, and then we lounge in the living room for about 30-45 min talking about all things pregnancy. She shoes Joy all the trinkets in her bag, reads her books, and genuinely gets to know my family. It's beautiful. There is no rush. There is no feeling like I'm just another patient.

The specific due date is still unknown and I'm totally ok with that. We aren't finding out the gender which makes me super excited. Another surprise. I'm measuring a bit big for where we "think" I'm supposed to be but hopefully the ultrasound next week will help. The best part of the entire time with my midwife is when we listen to the heartbeat. That little heartbeat just melts me every single time. The look on Joy's face when she hears it is priceless. She yells "baby!" We just listen for a minute and soak in that beautiful sound. I finally got to record it for Teacher to hear. I think he is feeling a little left. I remember going to my appointments when I was pregnant with Joy and Brave-One would go with me and he LOVED hearing her little heartbeat. In fact I think I still have that recording on my phone and listen to it every now and then.

I'm getting more and more excited for this home birth every single day. I'm working on securing a doula and a videographer. We are really going to make this birth special. It's going to be one to remember.

A familiar friend

My last post was pretty dreary. It's been a dreary time around our house. I love that even in a time of sorrow and struggle God is still on His throne and is still in complete control. Today we turned a corner. There is still a long road ahead but today we turned a corner. A familiar friend showed up at hour house today who had been absent for some time. This is that friend that doesn't have to ask permission to show up but just comes on over when it's ready. This friend met us in the back yard for almost 2 hours this afternoon. They showed up on Brave-One's face as he taught his little sister how to throw a ball. It jumped up on Resolver as we tossed a baseball back and forth. It met Joy in a bucket playing peek-a-boo. It even even showed up on me as I watched my children enjoy the sun and freedom of the air. Laughter, it's been so long! For a few hours we enjoyed the company of our old friend and asked them to stay awhile. We remembered how good their company felt and we didn't want to let it go. Laughter really is great medicine. I'm thankful that my Father catches every tear that I cry and allows me to feel the deep pain. And I'm even more thankful that He knows when a breath of fresh air is needed and laughter is the only thing that can release all the pain. 

Today we turned a corner. We are believing God for direction as we continue to follow in obedience. Today we felt a bit of peace in our home. Today we move forward. Today we laughed. 

Relying and Resting

Faith means resting -- relying -- not on who we are, or what we can do, or how we feel, or what we know.

Faith is resting in who God is and what he has done.

And He has done EVERYTHING.

Tonight as I was putting Joy down for bed she was screaming at the top of her lungs in resistance. She hasn't slept well in over a week. She has screamed and screamed unless I am physically touching her. It's been a very long week to say the least. Tonight as I was kneeling beside her crib, arm stuck through one of the slots so I could tightly hold her hand while she thought about sleep, I wept. I wept over the fact that my little girl is going through something that she cannot explain to me. I wept for a tremendous trial that are family is walking through. I wept that my husband is physically sick from all the stress asleep in the room next door. I wept for one of my children who is walking through something that is so much bigger than himself yet he will not allow anyone to walk with him. I wept. And as I wept the only words that I could sing to Joy was "God is so good. God is so good. God is so good, he's so good to me." Over and over again I sang this tune. I bet I sang it for almost an hour as I held her little hand and sobbed after each line. I know that God is good. Although I can't really "feel" the goodness of God at this moment I am thankful that doesn't change his goodness. My faith right now is very weak from the heavy burdens that we have been asked to carry. We desperately need some rest. I am opening my mouth and recalling what he has done for me because that is what will get us through. Relying not on who I am and what I can or cannot "feel" but who God is, has been, and will always be.

We serve a Risen Savior who is alive and sitting on the throne interceding on our behalf. He is all-powerful and has dominion over all things. Satan only has power over that which God has allowed. The Lord is Mighty and is bigger than all my burdens. He has never left me in all the dark times I've been through before this. The Bread of Life sustains me each day and is all that I need. He is more than enough for me. His grace is sufficient for me. His strength is made perfect when I am weak. He loves me because he created me in his image. He has called me an heir with Christ. He has written my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. I will spend eternity with him.

In this moment, in my heart, I am resting my head on my Father's shoulders just like my little ones do to me so often. As they run into my arms they rest their head on my shoulder in completely safety and rest. My heart needs to stay in that posture with my Heavenly Father. He is the only one that can provide me with rest. His love is the only thing that will always be.

Laundry that is more than clothes

Today I decided I was going to tackle some laundry but not just any laundry...the cloth diapers. Yes, we cloth diaper in our house and I love it. So very easy, cheap, and wonderful for my little Joy. However, the past few weeks she has had this horrible rash on her little booty that we couldn't seem to get rid of no matter what we tried. While we were gone on a trip to Utah my parent watched our kids and Joy was in disposables the entire time. Her rash healed up beautifully. Of course once I came home we started cloth diapering again and the rash came back. Yikes! I sure don't want to see my baby hurt. So...for now we went back to disposables until I could do a massive overhaul laundry day on the cloth diapers. Today was that day. I located every single piece of cloth diapering in our house and washed them with my favorite OnGuard laundry detergent. I then proceeded to dry them all outside getting a good bleach from the sun. The next step was allowing them to sit in boiling hot water for a bit, then giving them a good spin in the wash. They are now back to drying on the rack outside. Whew! That actually really did take me ALL day to do. No exaggeration.

cloth diapers soaking in boiling water

The other fun part to my laundry day was opening the dryer door this morning to pull out the clothes from last night only to find that one of my amazing hand made wool dryer balls had completely unravelled during the cycle. Oh no!!! I'm talking massive knots around all the clothes. It took me about 20 minutes to cut string, untie knots, try not to stretch out shirts, and find all the pieces of wool in the dryer. I have started with 4 dryer balls and after this escapade I am now down to 3 but one is starting to come apart so I'm afraid to put that in the dryer so really I'm down 2. Guess I will be making some dryer balls this weekend. Yay, trip to craft supply store for wool yarn. Making dryer balls is so very easy and takes very little time or money. I love putting a few drops of essential oils on the balls before they go in the dryer to give the clothes a nice scent that isn't artificial or full of toxins. Lavender, Citrus Bliss, Lemongrass, and Purify are my favorite!

just a small portion of the mess

My Courageous Joy

This is my precious Joy. She is the inspiration behind this blog. Teacher and I were married in 2005. We knew from the very beginning of our relationship that we wanted a big family both through adoption and biological children. Like most people we knew we assumed God had in his plans for us to have a few biological children first then adopt later. Well after 3 years of trying to conceive we trusted that God had other plans for us at that present time. Honestly I was pretty devastated at the inability to conceive so easily. It seemed like everyone of our friends were popping out babies every few months. Teacher and I desperately wanted children and we didn't understand God asking us to wait. I went through times of anger, bitterness, resentment, doubt, loneliness, and even feeling like God had closed his ears to my cry. It felt like such a long and lonely road. It was also very difficult to talk to anyone about my feelings. Even talking to Teacher was difficult. It's hard to put into words what a women feels when she isn't able to do the one thing she knows God created her to do. 

In the spring of 2008 I was sitting in a women's bible study and the woman teaching spoke on the story of Elizabeth and Zachariah. The story came from Luke 1:5-7:

" During the rule of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest assigned service in the regiment of Abijah. His name was Zachariah. His wife was descended from the daughters of Aaron. Her name was Elizabeth. Together they lived honorably before God, careful in keeping to the ways of the commandments and enjoying a clear conscience before God. But they were childless because Elizabeth could never conceive, and now they were quite old."

I loved hearing that Elizabeth and Zachariah "lived honorably before God". God literally has closed Elizabeth's womb until His perfect timing. It was as if God was speaking directly to my heart promising me that in His perfect time He would open my womb. He didn't want me to miss out on things in my life because I was just sitting around waiting for a baby. Although this was still very difficult to understand I began to trust that God saw the bigger picture. We decided to walk the road of adoption. I will post later about our adoption journey and in 2010, through local foster care, we added our 3 beautiful boys. Our journey as new parents was much like any body's CHAOS! Honestly, it has been a very challenging road. We walked in faith that God would redeem the struggles of our boys and bring peace within our family. Laughter was also a huge prayer request amongst our house often. 

In 2012 I decided that I needed to really find ways to take care of myself. Bitterness and resentment had taken over so much of my life that my ability to see God working was so very clouded. I got back in the Word and even took time to gain control of my health. The gym became my best friend and I was stronger than ever. Later that year we were going through one of the darkest times as a family. Stressed doesn't even begin to describe our season of life at that time. I was about 3 weeks late (which was not uncommon due to all the stress we were under) and I felt very prompted to take a pregnancy test. On Teacher and I's 7th anniversary I took the test (of which I had taken many before all with the same results) and this time the lines were different. I stood there not quite understanding what I was looking at. I walked out of the bathroom, said "Um, I think we're pregnant". Then we both just sat there. It was like our heads were spinning with what to do with this information. It was very overwhelming. In fact we sat there for what seemed liked hours not really saying much of anything. Finally I said "I don't think this is how we are supposed to be reacting to this incredible miracle. Let's do it again." I went back into the bathroom and came back out "Babe, we're going to have a baby!" He responded with much excitement and glee. Wow! This was so beyond a "good" time for us but we were over the moon that God had perfect timing. 

The next few weeks I was pretty terrified to say anything to anyone because although I was thrilled that God had opened my womb I knew that the stress I was under could easily cause something to happen to the baby. I wasn't sure if I would even make it through the first trimester but I was going to be excited to carry that sweet little one as long as God would allow. What a gift for sure. Week after week went by and the baby was growing stronger. We hit the second trimester and started telling people. We had made the decision do everything as naturally as possibly with the pregnancy, labor and delivery. I was prepared for all the pain that was to come. After having 3 children that I missed out on their birth I wanted to experience every moment of little Joy's birth. Then the 3rd trimester rolled around and more stress was heaped upon us. I began to fear that there was no way our little girl would survive outside the womb. These were all lies Satan had used to rob me of such joy. Literally the week of Joy's due date was another SUPER dark time in our lives. Once again the fear crept in and I doubted God could bring this miracle to full fruition. At 41 weeks and 5 days I was told that our sweet little one was breached and not planning to come any time soon and that they would have to deliver her by cesarean. Teacher and I were devastated. We had prepared for months to deliver her all naturally and now the thought of having surgery and every drug given to me. I cried for hours. We went to the hospital and had the most horrific experience while waiting for surgery. We were told that we wouldn't be able to see the baby until after surgery and that there was very little they could accommodate us with on our birth plan. More devastation. My c-section was at 1:40 in the morning. If anyone has ever had a c-section that wasn't planned you understand the incredible sadness and mortifying feelings that go through you as you lay on that table. Our baby girl was born at 1:47. God sent an angel as a nurse in that OR because she brought her over immediately for me to see. Then after they wiped her down this nurse brought her back over and let Teacher hold her. I cried and cried and cried. The nurse even brought her right to my cheek and held her there for minutes as I got to touch my sweet baby girl for the first time. She was perfect. A true miracle. Her name is Courageous Joy. She fought her way into this world and continues to declare herself everyday after. Though the sorrow and fear lasted for so long the JOY really did come in the morning.

Tools in my toolbox

Mommy land has me often taking on the hats of doctor, therapist, and psychiatrist. When I was pregnant with Joy I was so very fearful I would loose her because her conception was such a miracle. I did everything I knew to do to stay as healthy as possible. With my other kids all in public school germs came through our house quite often and there was always someone sick. My older children have struggled a lot with depression, anxiety, and the inability to focus. We also deal with some sensory issues with one of them. Being a family who tries to do things naturally we struggled with putting any of our kids on medication. With being pregnant I also wanted to go through my entire pregnancy, labor and delivery naturally. We needed some tools in our toolbox to make both of these desires possible.

After a bad car wreck in November 2012 a friend shared with me my very first bottle of essential oil. She told me to put it on a few time a day to help with bringing my body back in balance and calming my nerves. I was so skeptic but I did it anyways. Wow, I couldn't believe how much that essential oil helped. It really got me thinking if essential oils could truly band e helpful for physical and emotional health. I spent the next several months reading all about essential oils and different essential oil companies. At that time people were just beginning to dabble into essential oils. Finally in late spring I went to a class a friend was having. Y'all, I sat on the edge of my seat the entire thing thinking "oh my goodness, this makes so much sense." I knew that essential oils would be a key tool for our family in both working through some emotional things with our adoptive kids and through my pregnancy. I truly believe it was a door God opened and we were obedient to walk through. At that class I made my very first order of essential oils and God has been using them in my life every day sense. 

The day my oils came in the mail I began putting them on every member of my family for any health or emotional concern I could think of. My personal favorite was to use on myself for sleep. I was almost in my 3rd trimester when I began using essential oils and I was hitting that uncomfortable stage in pregnancy. My stress level was through the roof dealing with my other kids and preparing for a new baby. Essential oils became my very best friend. They calmed my house down tremendously and brought some much needed peace for all. Once again I was praising God for these tools. 

We started noticing some changes in Brave-One within days of using essential oils. He was able to focus more and be "in the moment" so much more. Before he was a child with severe anger and fits of rages quite frequently. He began connecting, laughing, and not being so afraid. I felt like I was meeting my true son for the first time. It was beautiful. 

I was super excited to begging using these oils for all things pregnancy related. I remember sitting at dinner one night and could feel all the acid start to build up. One drop of peppermint oil under the tongue and that acid was gone! These oils started going with me everywhere.