The Problem
The sketchy chemicals in shower gels disrupting our endocrine system (hello, crazy hormones!), harming our organs and even our brain is disturbing on so many levels.Read more
Search Results for: stress
Pain Relief Cream
For years I assumed the pain relief cream on the market was safe.
How else could they make their way into my town’s grocery?
I was surprised by what I found.
Why is Everyone Talking About Young Living?
Why is everyone talking about Young Living?
Is it just hype? A fad?
Everyone and their brother offers “essential oils,” so why should we even care about Young Living?
Aren’t they one of those MLM things?
Backpack Essentials 4
TOOL: Diffusing
In this part of the series, Backpack Essentials 4 we will learn all about the power of oils in the air !
(If you haven’t gotten your kit with diffuser yet, click here: Young Living Starter Kit)
We have seen some amazing things happen when our air is clean, free of toxins, and helping support our family’s bodies!
I’ve added some of my favorite diffuser recipes in this post to help you get through this school year much easier.
Backpack Essentials 5
TOOL: A Well-Stocked Backpack
Lets continue with Backpack Essentials 5!
Below are the some great ideas to help kids take charge of their own wellness and to know they are having a toxin-free experience at school.
Backpack Essentials: Teacher Gifts
As a former teacher, I can speak for all educators when I say that teachers work hard for your children, so one of the biggest backpack essentials is teacher gifts!
I can also say that when teachers feel appreciated and cared for after pouring their hearts out to your children, it is refreshing.
This post is full of toxin-free gifts any teacher would be thankful to receive!
(If you haven’t gotten your 24% discount on all oils and oil-infused products, click here: Young Living Starter Kit)
Lavender Mint Shampoo
My hair’s description: straight, kinky-curly, wavy, frizzy, super-thick, so finding a shampoo is tough.Read more
Toxin-Free Travel: Must Haves
Must Have Toxin-Free Products For Traveling
After three years of trial and error, these are toxin-free travel must haves.
This makes our time that much more enjoyable, and we find much less stressful as well.
Why Oils?
This Will Impact Your Life Forever
A proactive lifestyle just will.Â
Our family will never be the same–praise God!
We had no idea what we were doing to our bodies in this generation or the next, and I’m willing to bet that neither do you.Â
Safe MultiPurpose Cleaner
Lets tackle something that will cover lots of your toxin-free bases: Multi-Purpose Cleaner.
Essential Oil Hacks: Getting Started
These essential oil hacks help with the basics of the toxin-free transition.
Essential Oil Hacks: Resources
DIY is totally achievable…if you have the right resources.
Essential Oil Basics
Essential Oil Basics
Learn some essential oil basics to make your life easier.
You’ll want to know some of these basics to be able to get the most out of your Premium Starter Kit/ Wholesale 24% Discount.
(If you haven’t gotten your 24% discount on toxin-free living yet, click here: Young Living Starter Kit )
Hopefully you’ll have been invited by your sponsor to a 101 Basics Oils Class for your Premium Starter Kit, but if you haven’t, here are the top five basics to get you started.
1. Oil Safety
There is a mini-lesson video that goes into more of this in the Files section of my educational group, but here’s the skinny:
-Only ingest Young Living Oils {www.seedtoseal.com}.
-Don’t stick oils in your eyes, ears, or mucous membranes.
-If you do accidentally do the last one, use a carrier oil to flush it out–not water.
-Don’t put citrus oils on in places where the sun will hit it {i.e. your face} before exposing yourself to the sun. They will make you burn easier.
-Dilute hot oils with a carrier oil
2. Carrier Oils
A carrier oil is a fatty oil that basically lessens the heat of “hot” oils or dilutes them for babies, small children, and the elderly.
3. Dilution Ratios
Boy is this a confusing topic! Pinterest, personal preference, and sharing between friends has lead to some big misunderstanding when it comes to dilution ratios, so let’s go to a source we trust no matter what: Young Living.
Dilute for babies and young children. Follow these guidelines:
Dilute when using a “hot oil.” You will also want to patch-test a small amount if you are new to oils. We will be using the directions of Young Living’s own carrier oils as a reference:
1-8 teaspoons is a big difference, isn’t it? Here are the questions you need to ask yourself:
- How far do you want this oil to go?
- Will it be a massage oil, or are you just trying to apply to one smaller area of your body?
- Is this for a child or the elderly?
Once you know the answer to those questions, adjust accordingly.
For our family, it took some trial/error until we got down exactly how much carrier we needed for which occasion. It may be handy for you to jot down any winning amounts for further reference.
4. How to Apply Oils
Topically:
-The soles of your feet have the largest pores. You may also be interested in Vita Flex points for this application.
-Along the spine where nerves are connected.
-Along the furthest outer layer of your ear. There are other Vita Flex points there.
-Directly on the area where you need the most support.
Aromatically:
-Diffuse 6 drops total as needed
-Directly inhale from the bottle, from your cupped hands with one drop them, or a DIY inhaler
Internally:
I cannot stress this enough: Do NOT ingest oils unless they are from the Young Living Vitality line!
Don’t worry about 15mL or 5mL-it’s the same oil, but do please only use from the vitality line!
Rather have them grouped in graphics? Here you go!
5. Knowing Which Oil to Use
You’ll want to be in direct contact with your sponsor, but there comes a point where we teach you to fish, so to speak.
Here’s a way to make it super easy: get a great reference guide book! I love sharing this one
However, I must proclaim and shout it from the rooftops: this guide is just that-a guide. It is never in any way meant to replace the trusted advice and direction of a medical doctor! We focus on wellness with oils, but we ourselves are not doctors!
>>NEXT: Hacks You Need NOW! Part 10>>
Top 2 Safest Dish Soaps
Top 2 Safest Dish Soaps
The soap you use on your dishes matters, so we have found the top 2 safest dish soaps for your health.
Simple Answers
Your hands are covered in the soap you choose.
The food you eat sits on the dishes meaning your family ingests all the chemicals store soaps leave behind.
Thankfully, you have options!
(If you haven’t gotten your toxin-free wellness kit yet, click here: Young Living Starter Kit)
Option 1: Trusted Source
My all-time favorite trusted source for all things non-toxic is Young Living.
Their Thieves Dish Soap is strong but safe.
The best part is that it is super concentrated, so it lasts a good while.
You’ll love how it attacks grease and leaves your dishes a true clean.
Option 2: My Favorite DIY
This recipe is fast to make, and it works so well that I love having the ingredients on hand for any time I run out of Thieves Dish Soap!
INGREDIENTS
- 2/3 C liquid castile soap
- 1.5 tsp washing soda
- 1.5 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vegetable glycerine
- 20 drops Thieves essential oil blend
- 10 drops Lemon essential oil
- 16 oz canning jar
DIRECTIONS
- Add all ingredients and fill the rest with water.
- Add a foam top to your canning jar to stretch this.
Final Thoughts
It’s a great feeling.
Watching our boys drink from water bottles cleaned in safe soap, eating their meals from dishes I know are truly clean, but I shudder at what I’ve put into our bodies over the years.
I’m so grateful for so many safe options, especially with how well the Young Living and DIY work!
I hope this has helped you create toxin-free dishes stress free!
It Rained Until it Shined
SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 2014
The snow day Monday, Steve stayed home from work and couldn’t play with the kids at all or come near me because he was feeling so bad. This was a bummer, but boy oh boy did we have quite a week in store for us. This was truly the calm before the storm.
Tuesday was another snow day, and I did have such a great morning with Cohen, but then it was off to the hospital with Hudson for an I.V. and an injection.
This radioactive substance attached to the Neuroblastoma in his body and let us know, head-to-toe, where everything was for sure.
We finally made it home and Steve was feeling sick still. He went on a run to get some medicine, but never made it there because there was a pipe burst in our rental property.
A pipe burst near the water heater causing it to dump its entire contents and everything it was trying to refill onto the ceiling causing it to cave in.
All flooring on the first floor, the entire ceiling on the first floor, counters and cabinets in the kitchen must be replaced.
While I was on the phone with the insurance, I had Hudson screaming wanting to nurse, Cohen grabbing my hand to play, and Hattie dropping a ball on my lap to throw. All in all quite a stressful evening, I must say.
Oh yes, and earlier that day I realized Hudson is losing his hair.
Chemo will do that, and we totally expected it. So, I took some pictures before it started falling out to celebrate and remember the hair he was born with.
We also did a little at-home hair cut the day I found the first of it in his bed and some that came out in my hands.
After crying for quite a while, I called my sister, who had these simple yet all too true words of wisdom, “He may be losing his hair, but if you didn’t have this treatment you’d lose Hudson.”
Talk about perspective.
So, I gathered myself up after mourning the beautiful hair I was so (foolishly) proud of and decided to celebrate it instead.
Though I feel good about everything, I will admit I even shed tears writing this and looking at the pictures, still. I don’t know why this one little thing is so hard for me.
Most babies don’t have this much hair anyway, and it will grow back, but for some reason it strikes such a spot in my heart and makes me ache every time I think about it or more hair is left behind on his sheets, carseat, or my shirt.
That was the hair he came into this world with. It was such a wonderful day, and his hair was quite the topic of conversation as I was delivering him. I just remember how beautiful my baby was upon entering this world almost four short months ago, and I guess I’m selfishly not quite ready to give that up. Stupid, I know, but it’s the (ugly) truth.
Hudson came out of the scan and nursed like a champ. That night at home, however he was not able to get milk from me.
This was so upsetting. My mom went to make a bottle of my frozen milk for him, and I had to leave the room because he will refuse a bottle if he can see, hear, or smell me at all.
I went into my room, laid on my bed, and sobbed. I was just so drained emotionally from the day, from what was to come Thursday with chemo, and I just fell down on the bed and let it all out.
I think I needed to. Doing all of this by myself at the hospital, I have to hold everything together, and I’m glad in a way that I finally had something that made me release those emotions.
Then, I got to thinking about what I had eaten that day with all the stress and being at the hospital had brought. About 500 calories.For the entire day.
I wiped my tears away, ran downstairs and started grabbing the best foods I could to replenish my supply. I pumped that night around 10 so my body knew I still needed to produce milk, and by morning we were back in business.
Thank goodness this happened with my second baby, so I knew how to process what was happening, and I didn’t think I was just drying up! Thank you, Lord!
Thursday morning we were back in the clinic for a full day of chemotherapy. This was Hudson’s second round, and this day made everything else we had been through (and would go through in the next couple days) totally worth it.
 Dr. Dole told us the following news: Hudson’s tumor has gotten considerably smaller, his genetic testing all came back favorable and low-risk, and Hudson will have a normal life expectancy! Tears of joy!
 Thank you, thank you thank you, LORD!!!
Such a beautiful Thursday, but we would quickly realize, tough times were not quite finished in the Marshall house.
Friday, Steve took both he and Cohen to the doctor. The night before, while in the middle of hourly diaper changes, Steve told me he was just so cold. His temperature read 101.7. I grabbed Tylenol and a half hour later it read 103!
Got the Motrin, but fifteen minutes later it read 105.1! I was so scared. He was shaking and shaking, Hudson needed me, and Cohen was coughing so hard in the next room, I just knew he had something, too.
With help from a sweet friend, who is a nurse, we chugged some Rehydrate and brought his temperature down to where he could finally sleep. The doctor says it’s an infection possibly sinus or bronchitis.
Our babysitter has a sinus infection, and Cohen tested positive for the flu after waking with his own 102 temperature.
Hudson and I took to the nursery with the air purifier and camped out in there for a few days. The hardest part is seeing Cohen (with a mask on and changing my shirt every time I come in contact with him, which isn’t that often) and not being able to help my baby at all.
And all of it…no matter how stressful, how tough, how emotional; all of it I’d do all over again for moments like this.
Thank you, Lord that we will raise these brothers together as it should be. We praise You for this beautiful gift!!
PRAISES:
-Wonderful genetic testing!!!
-Tumor shrinking!!!!!
-Loss of more nodules!!
-Growing and gaining weight!
-Family and friends who leave food on our doorstep and in our infusion room, call with concern, text with love, and rejoice along with us!
-Wonderful jobs for Steve and myself that are so good helping us still through this
-Amazing doctors who go above and beyond. Dr. Kim Kohsla and Dr. Dole are a Godsend.
-Sweet Anna, who we prayed for last week, is home safe and recovering…thank you, LORD!!
PRAYER REQUSTS:
-Chemo. last Thursday will knock the tumor down even more!
-Wonderful bloodwork this Thursday
-Steve, Cohen, and Ruthanne (our babysitter) get healthy enough to be around Hudson by the doctor’s Wednesday estimate
-Me going back to work (still nervous a little!) Tuesday
-Hudson and I do NOT catch any of this sickness!
Thank you for sharing our journey with us.
Andrea 🙂
