Beat Sugar Cravings Naturally
Toxin-Free Mascara
Toxin-Free Mascara DIY
Ingredients
1-2 capsules of activated charcoal or cocoa (1/2 tsp)
2 drops Cedarwood, 2 drops Lavender, and 1 drop Ylang Ylang essential oils
1.) Melt coconut oil and beeswax in a double boiler (or in a glass over a saucepan).
2.) Add aloe vera gel and activated charcoal or cocoa (charcoal for black/cocoa for brown).
3.) Add essential oils. These will keep your lashes healthy, promote growth, and best of all, keep your mascara fresh!
4.) Pour into empty mascara tubes.
That’s it!
Essential Rewards
Essential Rewards, an optional program offered to Young Living members is simple, but to make this decision even easier, here are the basics. Continue reading “Essential Rewards“
How to Utilize the Young Living Referral Program
Big Thank You!
Young Living loves when you share their products, but they make sure to thank you in a big way!
Continue reading “How to Utilize the Young Living Referral Program“
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)
Super B Supplement Review
Personal Testimonial
I didn’t expect to feel the effects of a supplement this fast, but Super B proved faithful!
Essential Oil Hacks: Resources
DIY is totally achievable…if you have the right resources.
Essential Oil Hacks: Rollerbottles
Get more bang for your buck making rollerballs with the use of rollerbottles!
Let’s dig into some of my favorite recipes!
Young Living: Save a Ton!
Young Living: Save a Ton!
I wondered if I would ever take advantage of the Essential Rewards program until I realized with Young Living I could save a ton!
First Thing’s First
(If you haven’t gotten your start to a toxin-free lifestyle yet, click here: Young Living Starter Kit )
After the second month using oils and learning there’s literally an oil to support everything, my husband and I took a look at my ever-growing list of products, oils, and oil blends and knew we needed Essential Rewards.
Why?
1. Give Me ALL the Oils
My budget-watching husband disagreed. No, Andrea. You cannot trade food and shelter for oils.
$50 per month. Now, THAT we can do!
2. Free Product Thank Yous
I’m budgeting oils into our life AND you’re giving me some of the money back to use like cash on other oils on my list? UM…OKAY!
And you’re going to send me a free oil at 3,6,9, and 12 months? Alrighty!
And you’ll offer me more free product up to over $200 retail value each month on promotional items? Yesss….
And you’ll discount certain products, like our beloved Ningxia Red, in exclusive ER bundles? Ah!
Love like this should not be passed on, friends!
Our family has been given thousands and thousands of dollars worth of free product!
We’ve got one squeaky, toxin-free homestead over here, y’all, and we didn’t even have to pay for all of it!
I love free things just as much as the next momma bear. But I love this even more. Our boys, including one spunky cancer survivor, are only breathing in and wearing goodness!
Loyalty
You can choose Essential Rewards.
The Wholesale Discount Premium Starter Kit with 12 oils, a diffuser, and a 24% discount will pop up, and you simply click the loyalty box.
Add in the Essential Rewards, and you’re looking at 49% back in your pocket just for making your home full of the most trusted non-toxic products on the planet, and save tons!
>>NEXT: Hacks You Need NOW! Part 7>>
The Breathing Word
There’s this thing that happens.
Fearless in Times of Suffering
Fearless
If there’s any time I need God’s grace, it’s when I am mustering up faith in Him to become fearless.
When I don’t know how things will work out.
Don’t have control over the situation.
Just can’t make things go the way I want them to.
When I just. Don’t. Know.
Today was one of those days.
Hospital Scare
I was at the hospital for a routine checkup with Hudson.
Our oncologist was saying how the disease he once had, Neuroblastoma, usually ends up okay for kids like him.
One who has favorable genetics, but he wanted to let me know that there could still be some cancer left over in my child.
What do you mean, left over cancer? You said it was out.
Long story short, he was speaking of calcified and dead cancer and also in generalities.
He ended the conversation by saying Hudson is okay and will most likely have a totally normal life expectancy.
I should be fine, right?
I was.
I am.
But the devil totally saw his opportunity to mess with my head.
What if?
Get OUT
Get out, Satan. Not today. Not ever!
My God is greater. My God is stronger. My God is higher than you and your lies.
I know the Truth.
I know God is the ultimate healer, and my son is clean from this disease.
I know that even if something does happen, that the Lord will see us through just like He did three years ago.
But most of all, I know that I don’t have to fear anything because I am not a slave to your fear, Satan.
Who I Am
I am a child of God.
I don’t have to wallow in the piercing fear that immediately gripped me when Dr. Dole began talking about Neuroblastoma.
I don’t have to let myself get caught up in the past trauma of how it feels to be a mother of a very sick child.
I don’t have to camp out there, because my identity is not traumatized mother.
My identity is daughter of God– Heavenly Creator and Healer.
He > I
He has done a perfect job of being Him. Walking me through all the pain, all the joys, triumphs, and all the fears.
God’s grace goes far beyond what I could ever be capable of doing myself.
If it weren’t for grace, He would’ve been angry that I could second-guess what I know in my heart to be true, and He would’ve washed His hands of me completely.
But that’s just not our God.
He loves so abundantly and so grand– bigger than we can comprehend.
So, instead of kicking me to the curb, He drew me nearer to Him.
I felt myself being drawn up into His arms and comforted.
I know what is true: I can trust You, Lord.
Grateful
Thank You Lord, for being a merciful Father.
Who sees my fears and disbelief and triggers of past pain and uses it to pray, connect, and delve deeper in my relationship with You.
Thank You for being a God whose number one mission is to care for His children.
Sitting here in my motherhood fears, You love me so tenderly that I am able to feel calm and peace in my heart.
To be overwhelmed with Your love through grace, to rest in the fact that You are good.
You are God.
You are Truth.
When I Fail
Is it always my first fleshly reaction to trust?
Unfortunately, no.
I wish I could say that every single time I’m met with adversity I was fearless, but fear does get a hold of me–especially when it comes to my children.
However I never have to live in that fear because I have my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Even More
Because of this, I can enjoy my motherhood. I can enjoy my family. I can enjoy this precious gift of life the Lord has given me. I can be fearless.
Best of all, I can share His grace with you with the hope that you, too can open your heart to it as well.
Never would I ever want to hold all this to myself. It’s too big not to share.
It’s too amazing.
It’s the only thing in this world worth calling perfect: God’s love.
The One Thing That Won’t Fit on Your To-Do List
The One Thing That Won’t Fit on Your To-Do List
Let’s take a different look at the to-do list.
It’s so weird, isn’t it?
How we call a “change of heart” something that refers to a sudden act.
Why did she end up going to the event?
She had a change of heart.
Why didn’t you choose to accept the position?
Change of heart.
Just like that.
One minute you think one way and then, with the snap of a finger, you’ve had this total heart change, and you’re thinking in a completely different way.
If only it were that simple.
Truth
As Christians we have come to know heart changes as some of the biggest transformations of our lives. And rightly so.
All God wants is our heart.
However, changing the way one’s heart feels changes our actions, our speech, our mental thought process.
This, unfortunately does not fit into the world’s description of a “change of heart.”
A Big Christian Struggle
One of the biggest struggles in Christianity is the waiting.
Oh, the waiting. Then the learning. Then the waiting some more.
Because God doesn’t work on our time clock or our will.
Thy will be done.
Not Andrea’s.
My Flesh Has a To-Do List
See, my flesh doesn’t like this so much.
Why?
I’m a planner. A checklist-er.
I have an end goal, and I either meet that end goal, or I will tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next week.
Whenever and however it happens, I know that it will all fit together. Nice and neat. Tied up in a little bow. Checked off my list with an immediate gratification.
Groceries-check!
Dishes-check!
Lesson planning-check!
Trust the Lord in all things——–
Trust the LORD
That’s a bit different. Let’s think: I know when I want it to happen: today, obviously. Okay, okay…maybe by the end of the week to give myself some grace. I do have a lot on my plate. Maybe I won’t get to all-out trusting by midnight tonight.
I know how I plan on making this happen: Bible study, prayer, accountability partner.
I set forth. Bible open. Journaling pens poised. Hands folded and head bowed.
I feel great about the work I’ve done during quiet time on day one. Maybe I’ll meet that midnight goal after all. God, thank You for working in my heart! I love you!
Two hours later, I’m at work, and I get a call about making Hudson’s next ultrasound appointment. My heart drops but only for a second. That familiar feeling of “what if”.
I start thinking about the day I can take off that works with my schedule.
I think about how he’ll react to going NPO (not eating until the ultrasound is over).
My mind wanders over to how that first ultrasound looked when we confirmed our baby had cancer. What did it look like again? It’s hard to remember now three years out. Best to try to remember though, so I can watch the screen.
My heart flutters that familiar way it does every six months when I have to schedule the blood draw. The x-ray. Should I go for the x-ray? I hate the extra radiation exposure, but who am I to say I know more than Dr. Dole?
So much for that midnight deadline.
God, Help!
“God, help!”
I take a deep breath. My heart settles. I lean on Him again.
My heart hasn’t changed! But I felt so great about my time with God this morning!
What gives?
Why can’t I just check this off my list and move on? Even though I really want it with all my heart?
Because God’s not done working on me just yet.
Patience
He has lots of lessons. Lots of “Oh, I see…” moments just waiting for me.
To be perfectly honest, I both love and really really dislike this about walking the walk, friends.
I love it because I’ve been on the other side of a true heart change, and it’s huge.
Huger than huge.
It’s game-changing big and God reveals Himself in ways that knock me over.
I know what’s coming from Him is not just good but the absolute definition of awesome.
BUT.
Not Me But Him
I don’t know when. I don’t know how. I don’t know what I’ll have to endure to learn the lessons He knows are best for me.
I don’t have control over this situation, and just like that the belief floats away in the breeze, and I’m left bare, raw, and insecure.
The only way to overcome this is calling on Jesus. My Savior. My Redeemer. My King.
And then I realize something.
Instead of rolling through the list of how this is so unfair, and can’t God just see I have good intentions?
Can’t He give me what I went for that morning during my quiet time with a pure desire to be better for His kingdom?
Can’t He just follow my timetable?
I realize that…simply put… it’s not about me.
And all about Him.
When I check off my to-do list, I’m the head of my life and my heart.
When I’m empty without Him and can do all things with Him, then and only then has He truly got my heart.
I Am Weak. He is Strong.
In my weakness He is strong.
So, no. The life-altering heart changes won’t fit on that to-do list of ours, but it’s okay.
It’s more than okay. It’s the way it’s supposed to be.
To draw us nearer to God in our inability to take on His role. To bring us clarity in only ways He can do. To forever change our earthly life so we can better serve His kingdom in our forever home.
It takes surrender. It takes love. And it takes us on the journey whether we like it or not.
To learn the ultimate lesson: only when we stop grasping for what’s in our short sightedness and pray for eyes to see His path can we be changed.
Every hour. Every minute. Every second. I need You.
Praise God, how I need You!
AMEN!!
