Lets Talk About Essential Oils

  There seems to be an overwhelming obsession with essential oils as of late.  I am no stranger to oils and wanted to share some of my personal research, discoveries and what finally brought me to using essential oils in my own home.
  My Mom has been using oils for as long as I can remember. She is a firm believer. We would often make jokes about my Mom being a witch doctor and that if you got near her and had any form of ailment beware she might work her voodoo magic on you. Until as of late, I have been a firm skeptic.
  I think that in order to accept a different way of thinking especially when it comes to health and medicine you must get to a point of desperation that you don't like the options given and have the desire to seek alternative solutions. I had got to this point with my own health. I personally felt I was hormonally imbalanced. I was depressed, short tempered, grumpy and frankly I didn't want to be around myself so why would anyone else? I had spoke to my doctor and the options he presented were discouraging and offered to many possible negative side effects. So out of desperation I finally was ready to have a serious conversation about essential oils. I spoke to my Mom but I also spoke to other people who have experience with essential oils. I looked into different brands because not all essential oils are created equal in quality or price. I gathered enough information that I felt I was making an educated decision. I chose to try Butterfly Express oils for 3 main reasons:

1. Quality! This is a huge factor. It is important to use an oil that is therapeutic grade. Butterfly Express offers very high quality, therapeutic grade oils.
2. Price. I am on a budget and so are most of you. When I compared the different brands of therapeutic grade essential oils I had to ask why the huge price difference? Well a lot of the time, if you look at the business structure of the company it became quite obvious why one brand of essential oils is so much more then another. Butterfly Express oils, on average, were half the cost of popular comparable brands. 
3. Personal results. Did the oil work for me? Each body is different and will respond differently to different blends of oils. I found that the blends I tried from Butterfly had the positive results I was seeking.

  So what are some of my favorite must have oils? To start with Le Deliverance. This is a must have especially right now with so many viruses and bugs going around. I use this oil in two different ways. I apply it directly to anyone who is sick, thinking of becoming sick or is more susceptible to getting sick. I also like to diffuse this oil into the air because it kills airborne viruses and bacteria. To diffuse the oil is very simple, you know those Scentsy candle warmers you have sitting around your house? Just remove the wax, fill it with water and add a drop or two of oil. Don't let the warmer go dry or you will need to clean, refill and add more oil. I love this oil and although I can't say we don't ever get sick when we do it is very short lived. 

  Another favorite oil that I buy in the gallon size is called Le GoodNite. I LOVE this oil. I apply it to the bottoms of my kids' feet at night to help them settle down and go to sleep. I also use it on my own feet to help me fall asleep more quickly. My kids often request this oil. Another oil I often use to help me sleep is Le Tranquility. It is specifically helpful for shutting down the chattering mind. If I have a lot on my plate and can't seem to stop thinking about tomorrow's todo list then I turn to Le Tranquility.



  There are so many other great oils - blends and singles available. How did I pick which oils to try? I made a list of what ailments my family dealt with - headaches, high emotions, eczema, burns etc. and then I researched which oils treated those symptoms. Here are a couple of helpful tips and some information to keep in mind.

• Single oils are just what they sound like, specific kinds like Lavender or Peppermint.
• Blends are a mix of 2 or more pure single essential oils in a way that gives more effective results then if the oils were used separately.
• Essential Oils are very concentrate and powerful. They should be applied to the skin with a carrier oil. Pour a small amount of carrier or massage oil into the palm of the hand; add a drop of essential oil and apply to the area of concern or massage into the bottom of your feet. I use almond or coconut oil as my carrier oil.
• Essential oils work with your body to regenerate and heal the body, mind and spirit without the side effects traditionally found with prescription drugs. 
• There are usually multiple options for the same ailment. You can try one blend and if it doesn't give you the results then try a different blend. For example for headaches alone there are over 14 different blends suggested. That is because there are so many different types of headaches.

  If you would like more information about essential oils please give me a call. 

52 Week Photo Project - Week 3 Nightly Routine

Tuesday Night is our crazy night! I thought it was a good idea to have ALL the kids' extra curricular activities on the same day. It actually is nice the rest of the week but Tuesday is a little intense. Especially this last Tuesday.  It was my turn to teach preschool in the morning. If I am not teaching preschool then I am volunteering in Mikele's class. That afternoon, as soon as Brock gets home from school, I take him to his guitar lesson. Kassie and Allie sit in the car with me and Kassie does her reading and homework while we wait for Brock. Then we race home and Kassie gets changed for ballet and Mikele gets ready for tumbling. Mikele has arrived home from school while I was at the guitar lesson. We head out again, pick up the neighbor girl, and drop Kassie off at ballet. We have a little time before I take Mikele and her friend to their tumbling class. I don't get to stay and watch Mikele because I have to race back over and pick Kassie up from ballet. Then I head home. (Mikele's friend's Mom brings them home from tumbling). Jason is in charge of dinner on Tuesday nights because I don't get home until after 6:00 and Jason and Brock have scouts at 7:00 and on this particular Tuesday I also was teaching my scrapbook class which starts at 6:30. By the time everyone is home and tucked into bed I am done for the day.

52 Week Photo Project - Week 2

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.

Thomas Jefferson

This week's theme is the Family Room. What makes any family room special is not the furniture or decor but the people who fill the room. Our family is a little crazy and our family room tends to be very chaotic but at the end of the day I am grateful for each member and what they bring to the chaos.

For this week's photo I captured some of the chaos while the family was playing a new game we received for Christmas called Headbanz.  The idea of the game is that everyone has a picture on their forehead and they have until the timer runs out to ask yes/no questions to help them figure out what the picture is. Allie liked to be in charge of the hourglass timer. The only problem was that she would let it start running then quickly flip it over so it would run out faster.

52 Week Photo Project - Week 1

1/3200 sec at f/1.8, ISO 100

  It is week one of the 52 Week Photo project. I am so excited about this project. The theme for this week is 52 steps from your front door. I did take more then 52 steps but this is a sign just down my street that I have always loved and wanted to photograph so it was the perfect subject for this week's theme.  Jason like the sepia version and I liked the color version so I posted the sepia here and the color version on my business blog post where you can add links to your photo. I can't wait to see what everyone else photographed!
  If you would like to join the 52 week photo project here is a link to the details and themes for the year and and here is a link to the post on my iotamaker blog for adding your link to the post.

52 Week Photo Project

Last year I thought it would be fun to participate in a 52 week photo challenge. {A 52 week photo challenge is when you take a picture and post it on your blog every week. There is usually a theme for each week's post} The only problem was that I didn't stick with it. Which I regret because the pictures I did take I loved. So this year I am recruiting my friends, family, acquaintances and anyone else who wants to participate to join with me. You can all hold me accountable and I you. Why should you participate?

1. If you are like me you take fewer and fewer pictures of your kids, family and everyday life and want to change that.
2. If you are like me you have become a terrible blogger and where my blog is my family journal that means I am also a terrible journal keeper so taking pictures and posting them every week will help us accomplish two goals at once.
3. You want to improve your photography no matter what kind of camera you use and the key to being a better photographer is PRACTICE!
4. It will just be fun and you will have a treasure of photos after the 52 weeks.

I have put together a 52 week schedule (bottom of this post) and I am setting up a weekly post on my business blog where you will be able to post a link to your blog post each week. This way we can all see what everyone is doing and hopefully this will help keep us motivated. Here are a few more details that will hopefully answer any questions you might have:

• Do I need a fancy DSLR camera to participate?  -  Of course not! You can use any camera you want - iphone, point and shoot, DSLR etc. I don't care what you use just make sure it is your own work. 
• Do I need to stick to the weekly themes or prompts? No.  I have put together a schedule with weekly themes that are merely suggestions and to help get the creative juices flowing. You are welcome to pick your own topic or just post a favorite picture from the week. The point is to document your life and what is most important to you. Having a topic or theme will hopefully add variety and encourage creativity.
• Be Creative! Not only with the topic or theme for the week but also how you take the picture. Consider shooting from different angles - high, low, close up or even far away. Ask yourself "How would I normally take this picture?" and then try shooting from a different position.
• I will have a weekly Friday post sharing my photo and you will be able to add a direct link to your blog post with your weekly photo. I would ask that you link back to my blog post from your post so that others who want to see what we are doing or join in the fun can.
• You can post on your own blog whenever you want but as far as the linky submissions form it will be available Friday through Thursday. If you miss a week don't give up and just start again on the next week.
• I encourage you to check out other people's posts and share some comment love and words of encouragement.
• I reserve the right to delete any submitted entry from my blog post that I find offensive. I doubt I will actually have to do this but you never know. We live in a crazy world.

We will start the first week of January with your first post scheduled for Friday January 4, 2013 and the theme is "52 steps from your front door." 

To be clear on the dates here is an example of week 1. Ideally you will take your picture between Sunday December 30th and Friday January 4th. Post your picture on your blog on Friday, January 4th and then add your link and thumbnail to the blog post on my blog. If you don't get your picture taken and posted on Friday, January 4th don't despair. You have until Thursday, January 10th to link your post for week 1. Clear as mud?

If you would like to participate or if you have any questions please  leave a comment on this 52 week blog post.  I am excited to hear who will be joining me on this journey.

Story Time

  I will never receive the Mother of the Year award and on most days I feel like all my interaction with my kids is me asking, begging, demanding that they get their homework done, clean up there stuff, clear their plate, do their choirs, go to bed and the list goes on and on. But every once in awhile there is a few minutes where I find myself cuddled with my kids and enjoying a moment bliss where all that required stuff can wait.

Mikele's Birthday

Happy Birthday to my butterfly Mikele!!! I have been reading this parenting book that talks about a child's energy type. Mikele is definitely a type 2 child (type 2 in the book). She is all about fun! She is constantly coming up with new ideas and is full of energy. For her birthday she wanted to take pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to her school class and then to her tumbling class.  At tumbling they had her wear a big sombrero. Now where most people would have hated to be the center of attention and wear a big hat, Mikele ate it all up and loved every moment! For her birthday dinner she couldn't decide if she wanted home made mac and cheese or meatloaf. So she had the ingenious idea to just have BOTH! It actually wasn't bad together.

 I have no idea what she is doing. I rarely do. I think it was something they were doing at tumbling. You will have to ask her.

 PRESENT TIME! She is so particular when she opens gifts and cards. She has to do it in a certain order and yes she opens and reads every word on every card. 

 Mikele had seen this clock when she was shopping with me one day. She was very excited to get it for her birthday. It is sparkly just like her!

 She loves to be sparkly and dressed up! The only problem with her new outfit is that she is to darn cute! Funny story about Mikele: We were taking plates to the neighbors the other night. She had been home sick that day and hadn't changed out of her pj's. I told her she had to get dressed if she was going to go with us to deliver the plates. She came up dressed in her black leggings and her new sweater dress that she bought with her birthday money (very dressy outfit). She just casually declared "I just threw something on."  She loves to be trendy and dressed up.

 The big gift! If you read the "Santa" post you know that Mikele had two things on her wish list. One of which was a new ipod. Well she figured out that she was getting it because of the shape and size of the present. I am glad she wasn't disappointed. 

 Mikele wanted brownies instead of cake. I was fine with that. After making such a big dinner with two entrees I was good with an easy dessert. She is making her wish before she blows out the candles.

Santa!

We stopped in to say hi to Santa and place our Christmas requests! Allie is a total believer! Whenever she tells me "no" and won't obey I just remind her that Santa doesn't bring presents to naughty little girls who don't obey and she quickly appologizes and obeys. LOVE IT! Allie asked for an American Girl doll.

Kassie is a believer as well. She is the one who keeps track of how many days until Christmas. I get a daily update on how many days if you include today and if you are not including today. That girl cracks me up! She had a nice little chat with Santa. She also asked for an American Girl Doll.

Another believer! (as far as I know). Mikele was really torn about what to ask Santa for. She wants two things - a new ipod (her's is old enough that it doesn't play all the new games that Brock and Kassie can play) and an American Girl doll.  She was concerned about what to ask Santa for because it depended on if she got one of the item on her list for her birthday. We suggested that she explain the situation to Santa and then he could follow up on what she got for her birthday and could consider getting her the other item.

 Non believer! I am sad to say that this is the first year that Brock has known the truth. That said he was a good sport and had a nice little chat with Santa. He is requesting a lego robot that you can write a program for and then the robot does it.

The group shot! The first year with all 4 kids and no parents because no one is afraid of Santa.

Kassie's Ballet Recital

Kassie had her Sugar Plum performance the beginning of December. She LOVES ballet and was so excited to perform for her family. Her class was performing the clown dance from the Nutcracker. They were so stinking adorable. We started early in the afternoon with a dress rehearsal. Honestly it went TERRIBLE!! We went back upstairs and practices a few more times. To be fair the half the girls are in one class and the other half are actually in another class with a different teacher so they had only practiced together once before. Immediately after the rehearsal the first of two performances began. The performances ran back to back. The girls nailed both performances! They were fabulous! I was so proud of the whole group. Kassie can hardly wait for January and the next semester of ballet to begin. She will be auditioning for Cinderella in February. We will keep you posted.

Waiting for our turn to perform. Goofy clowns!

Kassie and her instructor Kaitlyn

Waiting for our turn to go on stage. (I was a parent volunteer so I was able to document the whole event) 

The cute performance. Kassie is the youngest in her class. All the other girls are 7-8 years old.

 The big finish! 

Kassie finished the dance by coming back on stage giving a big wave and cartwheeling off. 

Kassie's Birthday Part 2

I better get Kassie's birthday posts finished before I have another birthday to post about! It was Kassie's year to have a friend birthday party. She decided to have a Barbie Musketeer Academy party. We had 3 Academy Classes including: Knife Throwing (dart throwing at a balloon board), Sword Practice (hitting the pinata) and Stealth Training (Red light green light 1,2,3). 

After the games the girls enjoyed chocolate cake and sherbet ice cream. Kassie thinks it is funny to give crazy faces when I take her picture. What a nut! After cake and ice cream she opened presents and every present was AMAZING!! Don't believe me check out her facial expressions! Well she had a great party and she is an even better kid. We Love you Kassie!