I am a mom of 4 kids who have never had to take one single dose of antibiotics or other pharmaceutical meds for sicknesses, EVER! My kids range in age from 19 down to 11. They were born at home and I had begun to learn about natural health long before they were born. I trusted in nature's remedies! My husband is the son of a doctor who grew up on antibiotics and I helped him stop relying on them at all! When we first got married, he'd get so sick for a month at a time, and I showed him how to heal his body and strengthen his immune system with herbs. I only really learned about the power of essential oils a couple of years ago and I have been blown away by what I've experienced! We have such confidence in their ability to help us avoid a cold or the flu. I've seen them stop food poisoning and digestive pain. I've watched them ease emotional as well as physical pain, help people sleep and so many more things.... These are powerful medicinals that we can easily access!

My medicine cabinet literally consists of an aloe plant, some drawing salve, colloidal silver, vitamins and minerals, elderberry syrup and essential oils. It's that simple!! (I used to use herbal cough syrup but that is no longer necessary!)

Essential oils have been getting a lot of attention in today’s search for better health and better ways to take care of our families.

People often ask me for more information about essential oils, so I decided to write an article to satisfy your curiosity!
Here are a few things I have found about essential oils (and a quick science lesson review):

• Plants have been used medicinally for thousands of years. Essential oils have played a prominent role in everyday life throughout history. They are said to have been used in Biblical times for annointing and healing the sick. They are currently used for emotional and physical health, massage, inhalation, nutritional support, non-toxic household solutions, etc...They are considered man's first medicine. 
• Essential oils are made up of volatile aromatic compounds (chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants and transition to gas at low temperatures – in other words, they evaporate quickly). They are highly concentrated and just a little bit goes a long way.
• Some essential oil constituents are so small in molecular size that they can quickly penetrate the tissues of the skin.  This makes them excellent ingredients in personal care items intended to boost, soften, and nourish. However, they do not accumulate in the body over time. They offer their supportive properties and pass on through.
• Essential oils are lipid soluble (or fat-soluble) and are capable of penetrating cell walls, even if the cell walls have hardened due to an oxygen deficiency. Substances that are lipid soluble can pass right through the cell membrane, while those that are water-soluble have a tougher time. Essential oils can affect every cell of the body within 20 minutes and are then metabolized like other nutrients.
• Essential oils are wholly natural and cannot be patented (which means that you’ll never see an essential oil in a pharmaceutical drug).
• Enormous amounts of plants are needed to produce essential oil. Producing the purest of oils can be very costly because it may require several hundred pounds, or even several thousand pounds of plant material to extract one pound of pure essential oil.
• Essential oils are not all created equally. For an oil to be labeled as pure, it must contain only 5% pure essential oil. Only use therapeutic grade oils. If the label says, "only for external use," or "only for inhalation," it is NOT safe or pure! Even if an essential oil may is pure, if the right species or part of a plant has not been used, or if the plant has not been grown in the right environment, harvested at the right time, or distilled under the right conditions, the natural chemical makeup of the extraction will not provide as predictable and powerful a benefit.
• Essential oils are not really oils. They come from all parts of the plant. They are the immune system of the plant and contain the same disease fighting properties that keep the plants healthy. 
• Essential Oils must be pure. It’s very important to use essential oils that do not include added fillers and synthetics. Even though an essential oil may be pure, if the right species or part of a plant has not been used, or if the plant has not been grown in the right environment, harvested at the right time, or distilled under the right conditions, the natural chemical makeup of the extraction will not provide as predictable and powerful a benefit.
• How are oils are used. Oils can be used topically, internally, and for inhalation. Remember, not all oils are created equally so don't just put them on yourself or take them internally unless you know they are safe!!

So how do you find the right essential oil? There are many essential oil companies to choose from; and there are many opinions floating around out there. After reading, researching, and trying essential oils on ourselves, our children, and in our home we have found the best fit for our family.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not “approve” dietary supplements or foods. They give approval for prescription and over the counter drugs. They do approve a list of ingredients called GRAS (generally recognized as safe) that are approved for use as food additives, preservatives, and cosmetics.
Many essential oils are listed on the GRAS list; however, there are many uses of essential oils outside of these parameters. Because there are no governmental bodies or organizations that approve or certify essential oil quality, it is important to find a company that provides therapeutic grade 100% pure essential oils.

My family has chosen a company that owns it's own farms around the world and is committed to a seed to seal process. This ensures that you receive the highest quality products available. This unmatched process controls every aspect of every drop of oil produced! No other company can say this. Our premium botanicals are cultivated on our own sustainable farms around the world and through very carefully chosen partner farms who employ our proprietary distilling methods and extensive testing to ensure purity, quality and properties for healing. 

I have been amazed over and over again with our experiences with essential oils and if you would like more information about the oils I use, please fill out the contact form below.  I will be happy to send you some more information via email.
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I hope this information is helpful in your search for better ways to care for yourself and your family. We never stop learning.

First, I’m a rebel. I don’t see things the way they are seen by mainstream anything. And it’s no different today. I sit here realizing I have put exactly zero thought into Lent. It’s Easter Eve and I am just now considering the Resurrection that many have been considering for the last forty days.

Why the apathy? Why my indifference to such a significant event? Well, because when I did spend more time celebrating and considering, it didn’t transform me on a soul level. It filled me up, temporarily, but on some level, it kept me needy. It kept me focused outside of myself. It reminded me of the theology I was believing that told me that I was a mere worm, that there was nothing what-so-ever, good in me. It left me manic depressed and desperately searching for answers that seemed nowhere to be found by those that I counted on to know.

And so today, for the first time in some years, at the Costco gas station, while filling my tank, I considered for a moment… what does the resurrection of Christ mean to me? And suddenly, something very meaningful came to me and I will make an attempt to put those mind pictures into words, for myself and for anyone who may have been down a similar path or has no path or who is searching for their path, and has come to today, having spent the last forty days doing anything but thinking about Easter, like me.

I’ve learned much more about Christ outside the church than I did inside. Wait, um…. That’s not exactly true. Mostly what I did inside the church was learn, fill my head with knowledge and have weekly experiences that felt good, wonderful, actually. So, to be more specific, my experience outside the church has transformed me more than the learning I did while inside of it. It has made me whole again.

You see, one day, back ten years ago, I don’t recall the year b/c what happened, came and stole my mind like a stranger wearing a black mask, breaking silently and then violently, into my house, in the middle of a moonless night. I am still working to recover my memory from the day my ground was torn from beneath my wobbly feet, sending me into a darkness where up, down, sideways ... any sense of direction, what-so-ever, was utterly undetectable and at the same time, was the catalyst for me to find the path that would lead me home, that would bring me to the path I had been searching for all along.

It all began that cold and rainy, gray December day when I got the call. My father-in-law had had a massive heart attack, and he didn’t make it. Six short weeks later, in the middle of the night, my cell phone rang, and as my mind reassured me that “Thank God, it can’t be anything bad," because God would never let anything bad happen, right now, while I’m still completely raw from the sudden death of one who had been a source of stability for me. On the other end, my sister, “Maria, wake up, it’s Dad. He might not make it.” My body began to quake uncontrollably, as this incomprehensible reality began to sink into my being. My dad might die. I just saw him six short weeks ago, sobbing over my father-in-law’s casket, trusting him with a knowing, a deep inner knowing, that he had my back and he’d be there for me. He has never been able to live on his own or speak an intelligible sentence again.

Two years later, we lost our home and went bankrupt. The utter chaos within me and my husband that followed was worthy of an admittance to a mental ward. Somehow we were left trying to make sense of a life that was unrecognizable, that had no stability, consistency, or friends left in it. No one could seem to understand how to hold space for these struggling humans. It was as though the human race was at a loss for what to do with two able-bodied grown humans that just couldn’t get it together on our own. We were two Humpty Dumpties and it seemed as though there was no putting us back together again. We were torn apart, at our bottom and we needed help!

I remember the day I went out into the woods and ripped a nasty one to God. I cussed him out in a big way. I told him that one of us was going to end up dead and where the hell was He? Well, I could say he listened, but honestly, what the heck do I know?

Miraculously, soon after that cuss session with God, one Sunday morning a friend called. If you knew us at that time, you’d know what a miracle that was. NO ONE EVER CALLED US ON SUNDAY MORNING!! We were at church, always!

But, she did, and I answered, and I was a mess. I never had really opened up to anyone about the reality of our life. But, as God, or the Universe, or …. Would have it, I told her we were in trouble. She happened to know of a therapist that had helped her immensely (thank you, Garth!!).

I’ll spare you the details and get back to the resurrection thoughts from Costco. As I have walked this journey, of healing and learning to put myself back together again, I have changed my experience of the message of Christ.

I believe he came to show us how to walk the journey. I’m not going to quote Scripture, but I’d like to share, for myself, mostly, but for you too, if you might be encouraged. You see, I had to die a painful death, like Jesus, who said, “Follow me.” Before this death, I trusted in the church, my Pastor, our dads, our sense of security and satisfaction in life. My belief in my salvation. I trusted in our savings account. I trusted in knowing there would be food on our table. I trusted in our community. I trusted in the kid's school and education. I had un-learned how listen to my inner knowing because I was taught that nothing good existed inside of me. I trusted in all things outside of myself.

When every single thing in my life, that I trusted in, went away, there was nothing left. I couldn’t find the ground on which to place my feet. I had nothing left to trust in. I couldn’t even trust myself not to fall apart at the most unpredictable moment. I couldn’t trust that I could tell anyone how I really was because what I found was that, my mom and my pastor were the only humans that might stick around to talk to me again. I was chaos incarnated. And I don’t blame anyone who couldn’t hold space for me.

As I began to find answers, and heal my deep shame, through an angel named John, and my therapist, I began to have new eyes. Through all of this loss, and never knowing if I could feed the kids, not being able to take them to the dentist or doctor for years, being terrified when they needed a pair of shoes…through it all, I began to find out who I was. I met “God” in my darkness and I learned to just be there, in it, and still be ok.
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I learned that we can only ascend as far as we have descended and that the descent is immensely purposeful. I began to see the perfection in the pain. I learned that all suffering is necessary to move beyond the suffering. I learned that death is necessary for and always precedes Life. I began to know that I came to live, not to merely exist and that this death, and this descent were a necessary preemption to my resurrection and I began to thank Jesus for showing this to us. I forgave myself for having seen it in a way that was so destructive for me.

And now. I have found my purpose through all of my pain. I sit in an office every day, with people in their own pain, trying to make sense of it all. And I can sit with them. I can create a safe place for them to release their deepest, darkest secrets, and heal their pain, their shame, move beyond their fears and I am thankful every day for my death, and my descent and my resurrection. Thank you Jesus, for being the way shower for me, for us, for humanity! We are here to die to our illusions, to the ways we trick and deceive ourselves, to the belief in our own victim-hood, our powerlessness, our worthlessness, our unlovable-ness. None of it is real. We are each an expression of the image of Creator that no other human ever has or ever will express in the same way again! Our lives are purposeful and our pain has a way of waking us up to who we truly are!

​And in order to come home to the truth of who we are, the expression of Life that we are, we must die, and descend, and resurrect in newness of belief, release all those beliefs that don’t serve our highest good. As Richard Rohr says, "Death is a fearsome thing. It means letting go, giving up security and safety, saying goodbye to the familiar." Jesus showed us how. Now we are called to the courage to do the work!! This is what he meant when he said, “Deny yourself, and take up your cross and follow me.” Let it all go, surrender to what’s real. Today is a good day to die. Remember to look ahead, you are resurrecting into a new experience of You, of Life!! The Light is beckoning you into It.

As Leonard Cohen says, “Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the Light gets in.”

I recently moved into a new office. In my old office, there was nowhere to stand and I'd end up feeling sore at the end of the day from sitting so much. So, I began to research how I could stand up more often in my office. Enter...the stand up desk.

When I first started my search, these specimens seemed so expensive. They have to be adjustable because not everyone stands at the same height. What I found out is that the desk should be elbow height or a bit lower. So, I measured my elbow height, 42 inches... That's the height of the bar in my kitchen, where I often stand and work.

It just so happens that bistro tables come in many heights. And they are much less expensive than adjustable stand-up desks! You can also get a bar stool so the desk can double as a sit down desk.

I know, you're reading this to find out about the part of life expanding. In a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, it was found that the less time a person spends sitting, the longer their chance of living. They also looked at the amount that individuals exercised and although this does correlate to better health, it doesn't have as much of an impact on life span as standing does. Apparently, standing helps keep our genetic coding from wear and tear! What an easy fix. There are many stand up desks to fit every budget and space. If you find a bistro table that isn't exactly the right height, you can always stand on a book or stool to adjust the height. I am currently typing while standing on a rolled up yoga mat just because it seems to be comfy:) Find what suits you, and stand up more!!

P.S. I ordered my desk from www.overstock.com, but you can just google "bistro table" or "standing desk" to find many options.