My morning routine....Young Living style.

As I was finishing getting ready yesterday morning, I was struck with how Young Living has truly taken over our lives.  So I decided to take a few minutes and document my morning....YL style. Of course, as the day went on, I never took the time to actually post it - ha. Better late than never. ;o)

1 - I started the morning with Thieves Dentarome Ultra toothpaste with a drop of  Orange Vitality essential oil on it for some extra benefits. My teeth feel so clean and shiny after using this. I don't love the flavor of the Dentarome Ultra alone (I got the Dentarome Plus in my ER order this month to try after I finish this) but with the drop of Orange, it tastes so good.

2 - Got the youngest on the bus and threw a load in the wash. I love how little of the Thieves Laundry soap you need to get your clothes clean and fresh.

 

3 - Time to shower...Being totally honest,  I used to really REALLY not like YL shampoo but once I realized that my hair, like my body, needed a detox, I decided to suck it up and push through the first week of icky feeling and now love it. My hair feels so clean and healthy when I use it. I think all my buildup was fighting with it until it finally gave in and let itself be clean. It takes just a tiny bit of all of their products, which makes them last forever. The Orange Blossom facial wash is so concentrated that I put about an inch of it in this foaming pump bottle that I picked up on amazon and fill the rest with water. About twice a week, I add in about 1/2 inch squirt (lol) of the Satin Facial Scrub - Mint to the pump of Orange Blossom in my hand and give my face, neck, arms, etc a great scrubbing. My shower smells so amazing with all these oils flowing around. It's a great start to the day. I've used the Morning Start shower gel for about a year before trying out the Sensation Bath/Shower Gel because I wanted to try something different. Loved both and if I wasn't lazy, I would make foaming pumps of these too. It really takes such a tiny drop of them...I've used this bottle for about 6 months (I just checked my order history and I got it for free on Sept 20 by cashing in ER points I had saved up) and I still have at least 1/3 of the bottle left. These products last forever, smell amazing, work wonderfully, and don't fill our body with toxins....win, win, win, win!

4 - Ok - time to get out of the shower -  and move on with the day. lol. I used these two products in my wet hair to help to tame the frizzies. My hair is getting more wavy as I get older, and not in a "wow, your hair is so pretty and wavy" kind of way...more like a "woah! hot mess alert" kinda way. So I add a pump of the Mirah Shave oil and a drop of Essential Beauty Serum to my wet hair before drying (with a diffuser on the hair dryer) and straightening...or not straightening, depending on how I feel (or how much time I have!).

5 - Progessence Plus was the first product from Young Living that I ever used, and I've now used it every day for the past 3 1/2 years. Trust me. It's amazing and I have two spare bottles here in case something happens and I can't get a new bottle from YL for a while. Each bottle lasts me about 3 months and I used it every.single.day.  Having balanced hormones makes not only me happy, it makes the people around me happy. ;o) Today, I have a ton to do so added some En-R-Gee to the bottom of my feet before getting socks and shoes on.

6 - Ran to the kitchen quickly for my morning NingXia Red/NingXia Zyng drink. Fixed the middle two kiddos their morning NingXia shot and added a couple drops of Slique Essense to my cup. I love these metal straws (also from amazon - everything but my children pretty much comes from amazon!) so I can add vitality oils or Slique to my drinks and sip throughout the day.After I finish my glass of Red/Zyng, I keep refilling the glass with water all day. I sometimes add an additional drop or two of oils but the flavor from my morning drink lingers normally. (See the Lavender lotion on the counter? Paige is loving that this time of year as she is riding bikes a lot and her hands are getting too much sun.)

7- I've recently been introduced on facebook to Jen O'Sullivan's oil page. I love watching her vidoes and learning how the oils work and new ways to use them. She told us about this face serum recipe that she uses and I decided to give it a try...and am hooked!!! I use a drop or two each morning and night on my face and cover with coconut oil that has Melrose in it (premade in the jar). Please don't take note of the fact that I can't, for the life of me, remember how to spell Myrrh without autocorrect, or of my fancy "face oil" labeling! I added in Cedarwood the second time I made it because a) I like how it makes my face feel b) It is so good for us! and c) It's cheap - so helped stretch these more pricey oils.

8 -This week has been a bit hectic with some big things going on concerning our foster daughter. I was starting to get a headache so pulled out my iTovi and scanned myself. My #1 oil was Acceptance - lol. I added a drop to this simple leather bracelet that I picked up a couple of weeks ago at the Pioneer Woman's Mercantile for $8. I love it and put oil on it each morning and then can smell it all during the day.

So there you have it...my first hour of my day in oils, and I haven't even started the diffuser yet. Phew. When I think of how many toxins and junk we put in and on our bodies before learning about Young Living, I shudder. I'm so thankful that a friend introduced me to YL and for all the ways they have helped our family live a more healthy life. If you want more information about how to help your own family take charge of their health and wellness, let me know. I'm happy to share more of our story with you.

I'd love to see how you use Young Living in your daily life. Post in the comments or make your own blog post and link me up! I'm always changing up what I use and love hearing what works for others. :)

Things that make you go hmmmmmm.....

Last night, as soon as Caleb texted that he made it home and was waiting in the driveway for his friend to get here, I fell immediately asleep. I didn't even hear them come in the door a few minutes later. I woke up thinking I slept like a log....then stepped out of bed and saw this:

My watch said I slept 8 hours, but only 2 hours was "deep sleep." Apparently during some of my non-deep sleep, I decided to take my sock drawer out of the dresser? What the what?!?

I asked each of the kids if they did it. T was at a friends and says he didn't sneak home and do it. The other three didn't come in my room either. Maverick is a bit of a crazy dog, but not sure he would do this and then leave the socks in the drawer. I'm pretty sure if he was the culprit, there would be wet, holey socks scattered around the room.

Troy texted that there has to be a logical explanation, he just can't come up with one just yet.

The only thing that logically could have happened is that aliens came in and removed my drawer from my dresser and then got scared off by the sleeping dog and left before matching and folding them like a good alien.

Or I sleep walked and am lucky this is all I did.

Hmmmmmm......

Choose thankfulness...

February has tried to get the best of us it seems. Sicknesses, car trouble, and disappointments (major and minor) have pretty much been part of every day this month. We are ready for March and for lent and preparing for Easter. We could really get down thinking about all these things...OR....we could make a choice to find things to be thankful for in the midst of this crazy month. Some of these things are pretty big in our mortal eyes, and some are really more inconveniences. But even in the bigger ones, we are choosing to be thankful.

We are thankful that the mighty T-and-T are back to good health. (strep and flu and a bonus migraine hit this month!)

We are thankful I sometimes buy random clearance things that I can pull out on days like this when two are home sick and are tired of sleeping or watching Netflix.

We are thankful for medical advances that help add years to lives of our loved ones that desperately need it.

We are thankful that it only takes three washes (with a variety of "remedies") to get the skunk smell out of clothes.

#notanarmadillo

We are thankful that we have an "extra" car to drive while ours was being repaired...again.

We are thankful that hubby has a job....and for facetime and calls/texts when we are apart.

We are even thankful that his car broke down only 3 hours into his 21 hour drive instead of in the middle of nowhere or further away. And that the little town he broke down in "happened" to have a Ford dealer with a hotel across the street.

We are thankful that God has a plan for our littlest one's life, even though we currently have NO idea what that is, which is scary and frustrating for us.

I am thankful that my daughter loves to bake and shares the batter with me. My pants aren't as thankful for this!

We are thankful that we have friends who love us and laugh with us and keep us moving along when it seems like if one.more.thing goes "wrong" this month, we might just tap out.

We are thankful for encouraging words through songs and sermons and scripture and blogs and even memes. ;)

We are thankful for the wonderful name of Jesus. We sang this at church and it is stuck in my head.

What are you thankful for today?

Wednesday With Words - and a picture

Trenton worked super hard a few months ago in Civil Air Patrol to meet a goal that the squadron had. Last night, he was one of three cadets recognized and rewarded for their achievement.

He was so proud and we are so proud of him. It wasn't easy and he considered quitting after not passing once or twice, but couldn't let himself give up. He sucked it up and worked hard and tried one last time...and blew his goal out of the water. He had to run a mile and do a certain number of situps and pushups. He could easily run the mile and do the situps in the amount of time needed but the pushups were hard for him. He and I talked a lot about how he can't do it...alone...but he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. (Phil 4:13) He was going to quote that while doing the pushups. On the final testing night, he did and did about double the amount he needed to do - surprising himself and all of us. ha.

I hope it's a lesson he carries with him for life. He can't do everything alone, but he can do ALL things through Christ.

No dot day!

Each night before bed, I look at my calendar on my phone and see what we have to do the next day. Each event has a dot. Some days have just a couple and some have way too many. Last night, when I checked, I got super excited....NO DOTS TODAY!

We slept in...woke to the sound of  the dynamic duo, T-n-T, trying to break the army men free from the ice prison they had frozen them into over night (T has done this for years...freezes army men or toys in cups of water. At least it's not anything that's alive!).

Got up and had breakfast and started piddling around the house. I cleaned off my desk and sorted 6 months worth of crap important papers. Then moved into the kitchen.

Sometimes I get a little side tracked and just clean random things...today was one of those days. But I didn't stop with one random thing. I cleaned about 8 cabinets and 4 drawers...so far.

I put the family to work matching up lids and containers that I pulled from the cabinets and drawers where they have been hiding. How do we have 25 extra lids? Where are the containers? Who even knows. 

Then took some of the containers that had broken lids and used them to organize drawers. LOL

Threw out expired things and things we don't use...and things we don't even know what they are. Any ideas what the heck this is? It's been in my randoms drawer for many years. I guess I thought I'd figure it out one day?

I kinda thought it was to cut butter and slide it off? But why does it have a chicken on it?
Hmmmm....
It worked great to open a package that came today. ha.

All in all, it's been a rather productive "no dot" day. I'm still in jammies at 4 pm, but that's ok. It will just make going to be tonight a little easier - ha.

Hubby is at the store with T buying a bigger live trap. After seeing that he caught the opossum, a neighbor wants him to try to catch an armadillo that is tearing up their yard. lol! I'll keep ya posted if he catches anything cool. ;o)

Happy Weekend!!

Just another Thursday....

Today started with Paige and I driving 3 hours each way to pick up the hubby, who was on his way to California for business yesterday when his car died 3 hours into a 22 hour drive. ugh. Car is in the shop but he needed to be home so we loaded up school and headed for a road trip.

I had an appointment at 1:30 so we had to leave early to make it back. While waiting for the dr, I get this series of texts from Paige, who is now home with Trenton. What the heck?!?!

 I'm glad there was no one else in the waiting room because I literally laughed out loud at them poking the poor thing to see if it was dead. #itflinched

Again...what the heck?!?! I have some odd children!

I came home and made him release the nasty thing. Ewwww.

Trenton has the flu and hasn't changed clothes in two days, but he was sure excited to finally catch something in his borrowed trap. Now he's going to really want one of his own! He knew there were critters under the shed....I'm thankful it wasn't a skunk! We definitely need to live in the country! Our neighbors must thing we are nuts.

How was your Thursday? Anything as exciting as a 6 hour trip before noon and catching a possibly rabid creature? It's ok...there's always next week. ;o)

Almost wordless Wednesday

The past few days haven't been awesome and today was no exception. 

The highlight?

Sushi Wednesday at Sprouts.

Yum!

The end.