All Natural Bug Repellent

Spending time out doors is great.  Getting eaten alive by millions of blood sucking mosquitos, not so great.  And though we don't suffer from them here where we live, I would imagine that being attacked by black flies and other vicious insects in not enjoyable either.  But unfortunately Deet is not so great either, so must of us have reservations about slathering our kids in it.

Once again, essential oils come to the rescue.  After a lot of searching and some trial and error, I have found the following blend to be effective.  I did use quite a few different oils in it, but if you don't happen to have all of them on hand, you can probably eliminate one or two of the oils without too much impact on its effectiveness. 

Continue Reading ...

Sore Throat Tea

I work really hard to keep our family healthy, but living in the real world means that sometimes we get sick.  I am grateful that this year we have so far managed to avoid any kind of serious illness, but we have still managed to catch a few colds.  I hate colds so much and I think that they are made all the more miserable by the fact that it's really "just a cold' and doesn't seem like justification to lay in bed sick all day.  I mean, for a mom you have to pretty much have a missing limb, or an open bleeding wound the size of your face, to be able to take a break anyway, so a sore throat and runny nose probably won't even get you any sympathy.  Unless it is your husband with the sore throat and runny nose, in which case we know it is a life threatening illness and should be handled with the utmost sympathy and care.  But I digress...

Anyway, regardless of who is suffering, I have found that a lovely cup of hot tea can ease a multitue of pains, and adding a few drops of Young Living essential oils can actuallygive your immune system a boost and speed up your recovery, so it's a win-win. 

Continue Reading ...

Relaxing Bubble Bath

 Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Continue Reading ...

Thieves Foaming Hand Soap

We are big fans of the Young Living Thieves foaming hand soap in both of our homes.  The kids love the bubbles and yummy smell so much that they actually like washing their hands, and sometimes even do it without being reminded.

Anti-bacterial hand soaps seem like a great idea in theory, I mean, who doesn't want to get rid of germs and bacteria?  Unfortunately most anti-bacterial hand soaps rely on chemicals such as triclosan to achieve their intended effect.  According to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep data base, triclosan has a toxicity rating of 7, and the chemical has actually been banned for use in cosmetics in a number of countries.  The primary concern with triclosan is endocrine disruption and bioaccumulation, so its is not something that I want my kids putting on their skin (and possibly in thier mouths) on a regular basis.

Thieves oil has some amazing qualities and an interesting history, and we are really excited about doing an indepth post about it a little bit later on. There is a reason that Young Living has built a whole line of personal and home care products featuring Thieves oil.   Not only is Thieves oil purifying and cleansing, but it also supports the immune system! The Thieves foaming handsoap is a wonderful product and we highly

recommend it.

And if you are on a budget, or just like to DIY, we've come up with an easy recipe for making your own foaming hand soap.  The recipe card is formatted to 4x6, so feel free to print it off.

Continue Reading ...