Did you miss me? Tell me no lies. My little bit of crazy makes you feel more normal. Come on, admit it! Because you missed me so much, even if you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, you get doubly blessed this post by me ranting and raving about not one, but two days of using essential oils and all the other amazing things that have happened to us in the past two days. Have I mentioned that this God I love and serve is pretty awesome?
I decided to take the day off of posting on Sunday. If God rested on the 7th day, then I guess I can make myself do so too. Notice I said "make". Yeah, even after the whole cancer thing laid me on my butt I still haven't gotten the whole "rest" thing as well as I should. It's this little thing called guilt. It's tiny, and starts out as this little wormy thing wriggling around in the pit of your stomach, and the next thing you know this tiny thing has taken over and is a big ol' whopping weight on your shoulders, holding you down and holding you back. Pesky! Almost as a bad as a bratty younger sister. Never had one of those myself, but I'm told I was really great at being one. I know I tried!
Ok, so Sunday. Church. Can I just say awesome! I might be a little biased, since it is my church after all, and I must like it at least somewhat to be going there, but yeah, it was great. Especially considering our senior pastor was out of town and someone else was preaching. You know that moment I'm talking about! When the pastor you love and listen to raptly announces someone is filling in for him, and you get that sinking oh feeling in the pit of your stomach (along with that wriggling worm of worry that's probably hanging out down there, too) and you quickly make plans to be anywhere else but at church listening to someone who bores your socks off. So didn't have that moment Sunday! Pastor Jerome' did a great job, not only with leading our great music team (as always!), but also in preaching. He spoke about how we are God's treasure and He loves us just for us (cue JJ Heller song!). He also gave us this great big world to enjoy and use and be a part of. Everyone is given this chance, this opportunity, this enjoyment. However, not all of us let our light shine in the midst of the darkness, even though light always, always, always overtakes the darkness. To prove his point, we each lit votives off of one flame, and soon the whole place seemed to be filled with light, beautiful, glowing light.
I've still been dealing with allergies. Sunday, it was due to dust more than anything. Isn't it awful how quickly that stuff can build up?! I mean, I don't have dust bunnies eating all my carrots or anything, but still! Before we went to church, I swiped the inside of my cheek with a dab of Lavender essential oil from Young Living essential oils (the only one I know about that is safe to ingest). This put the EO almost straight into my system to quiet down those little histamines trying to cause a ruckus in my face. Then I drank some of my coffee with mocha creamer. Not so smart. I ended up with Lavender flavored, mocha flavored coffee. Just plain weird. Got rid of my allergies, but still weird.
I feel like all I talk about sometimes is God, homeschooling, essential oils and hand crafts. So if you've never met me and you end up someday having a conversation with me, I apologize in advance. I don't tend to run out of words, either. Could you tell? My pages long blog posts didn't give you a clue? Let's just say I am articulate. Or someone in my family could tell you of the time in kindergarten where I played an American Indian (I am a card carrying Cherokee, btw) named Babbling Brook. Which they threatened to give me as my "Indian" name when I became part of the tribe.
I answered questions about the essential oils at church, because apparently someone out there actually reads what I write! (Lord bless them!) I feel like I did my first year homeschooling Mercy when it comes to the essential oils: I have no clue what I'm doing! What do you do when you don't know what you're doing? You ask someone who does know what they're doing! And that is where my new-found, some old-found, friends at the lemon drop lounge (www.thelemondroplounge.com) come in. There is all kind of information over there. I even have a pdf file on my tablet that tells me 101 uses for the oils in the starter kit(there is actually more, but still). My friend Josie (whose crazy fun husband did the service Sunday at church) is the one who got me hooked up with the lemon droppers and now I am one! I should find a badge to pin here to my blog, that is if I can remember how to do that. I'm not exactly tech savvy. I have two cousins and another friend for that.
When we got home from church I guzzled down a glass or two of water with Lemon essential oil added to it. It is like drinking fresh, summer sunshine. Ahhh!
I expected for the kids to still be somewhat upset about the whole Lilly episode on Saturday (see previous post), but both of them have been calm and mentioned her like she was a well-loved deceased family member to reminisce about. Kids are just astounding! I'm so proud of the way they have handled this. If it had been me going through that at their age, there would've been lots more crying and tantrums, I assure you. It is by God's grace that they are this way, because I know it's not through me. If it were, they would be two rather screwed up little kids. Considering everything, I think they're doing pretty well.
Our nightly oils on Sunday were the same as normal, but I'll mention them at the bottom of this post(its not the never-ending post, I promise) for Monday night.
On to Monday. I liked Monday. I'm glad it came by, for it was fairly rewarding for me. Except the part where no actual schoolwork was done by either child. There is that wormy guilt again, folks! Anyway, back to Monday. I woke up before 9am (its a miracle!) with the help of Peppermint essential oil, which wakes me up like a good kick of caffeine when rubbed behind my ears (it tingles, too!) and it helps my sinuses not clog up if those annoying chain effect sneezes happen or my allergies kick me harder than the caffeine effect of the Peppermint. I also used some Lavender on my neck and (diluted in evoo) on the bottom eye bones while I watched Perry Mason. This helps keep the allergy monster at bay. And in case you were wondering Perry Mason won his case and Paul Drake still said "Hello, Beautiful," to Della Street.
Tim and his mom had to go do errands, including an appointment for Grandma at the dentist (so glad it wasn't me!) and on her off day, no less. I ended up spending almost all of Sunday afternoon on Pinterest, reorganizing my boards and finding lots and lots of new pins. Can you say obsessed?! The interior designer in me came out roaring with enthusiasm a few times (so did the sewing extraordinaire) with new ideas spurring me on. The Valor and Peace and Calming must have worked especially well Sunday night, because I managed to fall asleep well before midnight, even with all those ideas going through my head. By Monday morning, I had the whole kitchen redone in my head, using only reclaimed and recycled materials. Yep. Scary Good.
Even though I planned to tackle the kitchen with some of my new ideas, I somehow ended up starting in my bedroom. I blame it on the Peppermint. That thing ingested me with a turbo engine or something, cause I went around like the Energizer bunny for most of the day! First I took another idae from a Pinterest pin and combined four drops of Lavender essential oil, three drops Thieves essential oil, and about two cups of baking soda (by this baby in bulk; it is such a handy thing to have around!) into a glass jar with a metal lid and shook up the mixture until it was blended. Putting the oil in the bottom makes the baking soda stick to the jar, so I layered the b.k. in, then a few drops of EO, then more b.k., etc. While my sheets were washing in the washer (with a drop of Thieves diluted in white vinegar in the fabric softener spot) I sprinkled my baking soda mixture over my mattress topper and mattress using a sieve. I set my timer for an hour, at which point I came back with my vacuum and hose attachment, sucking all that white powder up. John didn't pay attention when his mommy told him not to get on her bed or mattress topper because of the white stuff taking all the yucky out of it, and he ended up getting a mouthful of it when he plopped down face first on the mattress. I was too busy laughing to be able to stop him when he ran out of the room and preceded to wipe his mouth on the carpet. Yes, on the floor. Silly boy hasn't quite grasped the use of hand towels yet. But there is time yet.
After I vacuumed the mattresses I sprinkled more stuff on the carpet and on the dog's bed (which she wasn't too sure about, bless her heart). I dusted, I wiped down doors and blinds, vents and counters. I put a drop of Lavender essential oil on each blade of my ceiling fan to circulate the smell through the air. I fluffed pillows, put clean sheets on the bed, did three loads of clothes, put them all up plus two more loads I had somehow not gotten around to (gasp!). I moved furniture from our room, and furniture to our room. I vacuumed (don't tell my doctor). I hung a canopy our daughter isn't using at the moment (but promised she would want back soon) above our bed and gave our room an overall french/shabby chic look. It worked together well, considering not one piece in our room (except the mattress) did we buy. They were all inherited or given to us, including the tv! The Lord, from whom all blessings flow!
Our bedroom has now been cleaned thoroughly for until after my next surgery. I'll just have to do maintenance until then, something that helps me rest easier knowing I won't be trapped in a messy room.
Even after all of these things, I had enough energy to fix supper. We had baked ziti. It was delicious! If I mentioned here that it had tofu in it, my husband won't be too happy, but he didn't care for it anyway and he didn't (for once) ask what it had in it. I'm not denying it, but I'm not admitting it either. Love you all kind of special, honey!
I also have had some mouth pain that has gotten worse here of late. I also figured out why. I had a tooth extracted in November when I was getting radiation, and it wasn't removed well. Now that area sends shooting pain through that whole side of my mouth. So I tried this thing called "pulling" (don't ask me, I'm new here remember). I used a teaspoon of coconut oil with a drop of Thieves (it has cloves in it which deadens gum pain I know that from The Murder on the Orient Express when Poirot knows a suspect used it for "de mouth pain") and swished it around and around in my mouth for as long as I could stand it (about ten minutes) before spitting it out and rinsing. It helped some, but I need to do it more often from what I've read, until this pain is gone. I do not, do not, do not want to go back to a dentist anytime soon. The enamel on my crazy crooked teeth has been worn down horribly from the effects of chemo and maybe even radiation. My gums are super sore, too. Hopefully the Thieves will help all that and I can keep on ignoring the dentist for a while longer. One can hope!!!!
Also, an update on the Thieves we used in the white vinegar on the water spots on our ceiling. Yeah, we can't tell a difference. I'm sure it has helped with the whole killing bacteria thing, but the discoloration is there. Tim plans to spray bleach on it one day when I'm gone, since it makes me try to hack up my lungs for some reason, not that bleach is exactly user friendly anyway.
My Monday ran out of steam at precisely 8:30pm and I went to bed, complete with oils. I haven't gone to bed that early since I don't know when! I'm a natural night owl (which can be annoying when your husband is an early bird, but neither of us wish to change our ways) so going to bed early is weird for me. My kids were watching something in my room, so I just curled up next to them and was out. Later I was inadvertently awoken by my husband and thought it would probably take forever for me to go back to sleep, since it normally does (he goes to sleep in like 3 seconds, mean old man!). However, in less than thirty minutes I had gone back to sleep and slept all night, without waking several times which has been known to happen on a regular basis (that is pre-essential oils).
Maybe we should stop calling these the "snake oils" (my husband's term) and "voodoo oils" (once again, my husband's christening) and start calling them the wonder oils. I'm amazed at how much energy I've had lately without giving out. Don't get me wrong, I still have to rest and rest a lot, but nothing like in January or February or March. I can't wait for my order to get here that has more vegetable capsules in it, so we can get back to taking the essential oils internally besides just the Lemon and Peppermint in our water and tea. Grandma has even started putting a drop of Peppermint on her tongue to prevent heartburn and to promote energy during the day.
Our nightly oils were:
kids-Valor on the feet to promote sleep, courage, and bravery. Peace and Calming on the shoulders to induce relaxation and promote peace. Lavender on the neck to promote sleep and reduce allergies.
Grandma-Valor on the feet to relieve sleep apnea and arthritis. Peace and Calming on the shoulders to induce relaxation. Purification on the chest to help her breathe better. Lavender on the neck and temples to promote sleep and relieve allergies.
Tim-Valor on the feet to relieve sleep apnea and arthritis.
Silly Me-Valor on the feet for relief of bursitis and arthritis and on the jaw for TMJ and teeth grinding. Peace and Calming on the shoulders to induce calm. Thieves on the chest to prevent bacteria and cause I like its smell! Lavender on the neck and temples to relieve stress, promote sleep, and prevent allergies and migraines.
I wish there was a prize for whoever makes it to the bottom of this post! That I haven't bored you to tears is so endearing. My heart just went pitter-patter...
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