How I use EOs

After I mentioned Essential Oils yesterday, I was thinking of ways to share them and how I use them. I think that sometimes people assume the EO use is on the hippie/crunchy side of life. And for a lot of users that would be in line with their thinking. I don't really see myself that way. We are just run of the mill average family. We eat pizza and McDonald's (on occasion) and we have fruit snacks in the snack drawer. I drink wine, we have soda in the house. I've never eaten a chia seed. Or had a desire to try kombucha. But EOs fit in my fit-ish lifestyle.

Yesterday evening, I started to get a sore throat. Then I noticed an bit of a body ache and slight headache. A couple years ago I would have immediately run to the medicine cabinet and popped some ibuprofen followed a couple hours later by some acetaminophen. Now though, instead of  a medicine cabinet, I have an EO shelf. I was worried that this was more than just a simple sore throat, it felt like I was coming down with something more than that. So, I made a capsule of Rosemary, Oregano, and Frankincense. I put Lemon, Lavendar, Peppermint, and Cedarwood in the diffuser and I topically applied OnGuard to my feet and throat. I woke up this morning completely symptom free.

I didn't start off using them so liberally, or being so willing to rely on EOs solely. I maybe would have used some OnGuard or Peppermint and probably would have still taken an ibuprofen to be on the safe side.

To make sure that nothing will rear up again, I will have another capsule today, and will apply OnGuard to the feet. I won't have to just treat symptoms. I can actually help my body to perform at an optimal level to eliminate the attack. I can make myself better.

I think over the next few days I will post more ways that I use essential oils and how we use them when we are well as part of a daily routine too.

Small bites of life and a recipe

Did a bit a of calendar and planning session this morning and realized that we are going to be home in our own beds less days in July than we are going to be other places. I am so thankful that I have the summer off to be home with the kids and that we are able to give them new experiences. But I freaked out a bit too.

When I freak out I make lists. Packing lists, menu lists, shopping lists, to do lists. It gets a bit out of hand, really. And I used to let the freak-out and panic take control and I ended up freezing and not getting anything done. However since I added essential oils to our lives, I can use their support to clear the fog and focus on accomplishing the things on the list (s).

So, I rolled on my stress relief and focus oil blends, made my lists and realized that I don't need to eat the whole elephant today. Instead, I looked at the next three days, reorganized my thoughts and focused on what I can do, rather than what I can't.

One of the goals I have for myself over the next few months is to remember that I have tools to cope with a great many things. I have changed so many things in our lives because of essential oils and I want to keep making those small changes and keep relying on them as important tools in our lives.

Anyway, I am sure that I will be talking about my oils journey in the space again. They are practically a member of the family at this point.

So, back to the plan for the next few days. I LOVE the Independence Day holiday. Everyone is outside, relaxing, hanging out. No one makes anyone else feel guilty for how they celebrate. We all put on a bit of an air of pride at our patriotism and we celebrate. It helps that I also happen to really like fireworks too. We're not going to do anything fancy or special. We are going to relax. Then when the weekend is over, I'll focus on the next little piece of July.

When we get really busy, I try to have healthy and easy snacks on hand. My kids are definitely meat eaters, so I often make beef jerky for them. I have a batch on the dehydrator now, so I wanted to share our recipe. I prefer eye of round and have it sliced thin at the meat counter of our locally owned grocery store.

Beef Jerky
1 pound, boneless, thinly sliced beef
1/4 Cup soy sauce
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Dash of liquid smoke

Combine all ingredients and soak meat overnight.

So simple and delicious.

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend filled with relaxation!

Defining my Circles

I recently had the chance to watch an amazing Periscope that really gave me some inspiration to be a better version of myself. And while the point of the 'scope wasn't about this at all, a moment in it spoke to me. It was about defining your circles of priority.

I go through most days with the whole world, and all of the hustle, and all of the noise, and I treat all of that input as having the same value. And that creates a constant sense of panic for me, because I try to respond to all of it. So, I sat down and wrote down who and what is in varying circles of priority.

In my primary circle, it is my husband, my children, our home and our families. That's it.
In my secondary circle, it is my close friends, and my work commitments.
In my tertiary circle, is everything else. Email, texts, social media, TV, acquaintances, and everything else.

But here is the challenge. Until the primary circle has been taken care of, you don't give time and energy to the other things. So, no email, no texts, to TV, no noise and input from anywhere other than my family, until they have been taken care of. Once they are all ready for their day and I have gotten our course set, then I can look towards my work commitments for the day, or reach out to a friend. Then once work is over, and I am back home with my primary circle, and I have carefully committed to them, I can look toward those least meaningful things.

I started to look at tangible ways to do this. Because it isn't easy. It turns out that I am capable of taking a cute picture of the kids, and not posting it to social media immediately. I can get up and take my shower and cook breakfast and plan dinner without looking at my email first. I can let text messages wait until I am not with my primary people.

This is all about forming new habits for myself so that I can feel more present and more calm.

I know that there are a lot of people who are great at keeping themselves focused and centered and present in a moment. I am not. I am determined to feel less like I am living my life like a squirrel, darting about from thing to thing and thought to thought.

How do you turn off the noise in your life? What are your circles of priority?

Revitalization

So, obviously, it has been a long time since I have written anything here. I kind of had a wake up call this week. I realized that when I am at my best and most energetic, I am doing the things that I enjoy and not just trudging. And writing is one of the things that I enjoy.

I have been and done a lot of things in my life. And this blog has been a lot of things.

Now, it is going to be my outlet. My positive push into the world.

I am going to really focus on picking up on the good things around me.

I am going to share the heck out of the things that are making me happy.

And I am going to revitalize.