Day 3 of Living With Essential Oils-Stinky Dog Relief

It has taken me a long time to get this post written today, partly because I had a brain funk and couldn't remember much of yesterday morning. Once again, a perk of having 3 kinds of chemo and a whole bunch of radiation in the past year! The other part was because it is Sunday, and I had entertained the idea of not even posting and taking a break for the Lord's day, but then I decided we are no longer bound by the law prohibiting activities on Sundays and I'm trying to tell the world about the amazing, potent life He has put in plants just for our use to promote an overall well-being. (Please do not post any comments about how wrong I am for posting on my blog on a Sunday! You and I both have better things to do!)

I started out the morning on Saturday with a dab of Lavender behind each ear to help with allergies. I have a severe allergy to oak pollen and this time of year is usually very difficult for me, with the use of so much tissue that we buy Puffs in bulk at Costco. My goal for the day had been to spend time sewing to finish up projects I had started in the past, oh, five years and never finished. However, we discovered our dog, a ten year old Rhodesian Ridgeback/Alaskan Husky mix, had peed on a rug in our bathroom. So our whole bedroom and bathroom smelled like gross urine. Therefore my goal became cleaning the bathroom. Thieves to the rescue!!!!! I love Thieves!

The story is, for those of you who don't know(skip this paragraph if you do), in some long ago time during some long ago plague some thieves were robbing the homes of people who had died of the plague. Yet, these thieves were not getting sick themselves, unlike every one else in the population. Finally, some of these thieves were caught and, um, encouraged shall we say, under the influence of most persuasive torture to reveal the secret to the prevention of their demise. What was revealed was a combination of essential oils they rubbed over their bodies before entering the homes and what we now know as germs could not penetrate the essential oils. This blend became know as Thieves.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming-So to combat the toxic fumes wafting from my bathroom, I grab my handy dandy superhero arsenal, otherwise known as a mop and bathroom cleaner. Ah, but this is not any normal cleaner, it is a product of White House Label, therefore it is made from secret ingredients I can't divulge, but assure you are probably all located within your home. The point is, I knew (since I'm the one who creates the products) that the ingredients in my cleaner were not about to explode when I added the Thieves. For the rest of you, do not try this at home to any random cleaner. I added three drops of Thieves to my 3/4 full bottle of cleaner and set about cleaning every surface. When that was done, I poured some on the floor and mopped away. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Thieves blend also lends one energy, because normally I would've been prostrate on the bed after wiping down the bathroom surfaces, before I ever even got to the floor. Another words, please don't look at my floors whenever you come over to my house for your own peace of mind. I am ashamed to say the vacuum my floors see most often is my dog.

So, I mop away and take special care over the areas where there was dog pee. The main area was right in front of our bathroom cabinets where we normally stand to get ready, brush our teeth, etc. Suddenly, I noticed a color change to the linoleum that is supposed to look like tile-but-isn't-really-tile-its-just-as-cold-as-tile-in-the-wee-hours-of-the-morning. This required closer inspection; to my knees I went. Scrubbing a little more, I discovered the "tile" was changing color. Hhmm. Getting a cleaning brush, I scrubbed harder and noticed that the space between the "tiles" that is supposed to look like "grout" was becoming white again! I didn't even know it wasn't white! This makes me question what else is grimy nasty and I'm not noticing. However, as a friend loves to tell about me, I clean nooks and crannies and baseboards and did so even with a toothbrush while 7 months pregnant. So my "not notice" and your "not notice" could be different. Either that, or I just scared you off from ever coming to my house for fear of what grime may lurk, haha!

I was so impressed I even had Tim come look. I think he was impressed. That, or he was indulging me so he could go back outside to finish cutting the grass. I choose to think the first and not the latter. Meanwhile, Tim's mother, Grandma, was washing dishes in the sink with a drop of Thieves in the soapy water. Lots of good smells were beginning to permeate our house which of course made me feel accomplished and satisfied. That is, until I walked back in our room and smelled something positively nasty! I'm thinking, surely this is not still the blasted floor smelling like that! But the smell is not coming from the bathroom, it is coming from the pet bed near the bathroom door with one beautiful, gorgeously large, horribly stinking dog laying on it. It smelled like fish had landed in our bedroom and died, like, oh, three months ago and rotted there. I have no idea why she smelled like this. We've noticed this smell only once before and it wasn't as bad. Now, Belle and her bed stink, which is even covering up the smell of my nice, clean bathroom three steps away.

Tim offers to give the dog a bath if I cook dinner, but by now I'm worn out and know I can't lift a pan full of ground beef. I was getting the better end of the deal, I admit, because I've given that dog maybe three baths in her ten years and I am not going to do it again. She is slightly shorter than a Great Dane with a breastbone Ridgebacks used in Africa to ram into lions for hunting with their master. Plus she has paws that are bigger than my five year old's palm. So Tim goes to cook dinner while I try to figure out how to get this dog smelling less like dead fish meets dog and more like something we can stand to be in the same room with.

Thieves to the rescue! It took three drops by the time we went to bed, but the smell is gone and she doesn't make us gag just to be near her. Maybe in the near future the dog will actually get a bath, but that, I'm sure, is for another post.

Bedtime routine consisted of Grandma putting Valor diluted with olive oil on her feet for sleep apnea and Lavender behind her ears for sleep. She might have put something else on, I'm not certain. Then Mercy came to me with a bottle and showed me she could put the Lavender on herself. A few seconds later, I realized it was Purification she had put on not Lavender so I called her back over for her to do that. I don't remember if John ever did come get his Lavender. Another brain funk.

I was so tired by this point, I could hardly think. Plus my whole back hurt. I have spinal stenosis and arthritis in my back, so it is common for my back to spasm and ache and cause twinges in other places. This is where my hero came dashing in to the story to play the part of Prince Charming. Oddly, he looked a lot like my husband. Whoever this not-masked man was, I was humbly lay before him and let him rub Valor diluted with olive oil all down my spine and across my shoulders. I might or might not have flirted with him, but that is no tale for you to be told. Within five minutes my back was soothingly warm, not uncomfortably so, and my pain had eased considerably. Both Tim and I used the Valor on the bottoms of our feet, and I noticed that my feet were softer, too. Tim did his own feet this time (God has infinite grace and mercy for his humble servants!) so I don't know if his were still softer or not. I also put Valor along my jaw for the TMJ I have, with Lavender behind my ears for sleep and relaxation. The Valor is supposed to help with sleep, mainly sleep apnea, but it is to help me with the arthritis and joint pain I have from being a survivor of bacterial spinal meningitis.

According to the morning census: Tim did not snore, but he did do this snuffling sound a couple of times. Not what I would call snoring, though. I slept well and even woke up before 9am which is far earlier than the common 11am during the week. If your body has been through what mine has, then you will understand. If you haven't don't judge, because I promise my judgement of myself is far harsher than yours. And let's both be thankful God's grace covers everything. The kids once again slept in the Grandma's room, but Mercy had trouble going to sleep and finally went back to her bed at 3am and slept till 9am. She has trouble going to sleep quite often, but the past two nights with Lavender have helped so I don't know if the Purification had that effect or if she had consumed too much sugar or watched too much tv; we may never know. John slept "fine" according to him. He hasn't developed the use of too many adjectives or adverbs yet, but he is only five. Grandma says she didn't sleep well at all, and the kids said she snored some. She didn't know why, though.

Just goes to show this isn't magic: poof! wave an essential oil under your nose and all will be well! No, it is more than that. And we are still learning. It is only Day 3 after all, but thank goodness Day 4 will not have a stinky dog in it!