Six months

Here are some pics of my sweet six month old! Her new trick as of Sunday is waving. It is super cute!

Beeswax, essential oils, candle-making, and what you need to know

Wow! I just read the most interesting think about essential oils today. Did you know that when you heat essential oils that you can actually change their chemical make-up? I sure didn't. Let me explain.

I've been reading lately a lot about the benefits of beeswax candles. Basically if you use pure beeswax candles you can actually purify the air in your home by burning them. I'm not a huge science fan so I will try and dumb this down to a level that I can understand :-) When you burn beeswax it acts as a fuel that produces negative ions (but this is actually a positive thing...haha, science pun). Many of the particles in the air (that are bad for you) are positively charged. Things like allergens: pollen (my big issue), dust, bacteria and even viruses are all positively charged. When you burn a beeswax candle, the negative ions that are released attach to the not so great air particles in your home causing them to become heavier and fall to the ground. This allows you to clean them up when you vacuum, dust, and sweep instead of leaving them floating around in the air for you to breathe. Source

So what does this have to do with essential oils? Well I am a big DIY fan, so when I read about this I thought it would be fun to make my own beeswax candles. Why not, I thought, combine my love of essential oils with this wonderful beeswax to make them even more beneficial, right? Wrong. As I read on about candle-making, it turns out that heating essential oils (like when you mix This keeps them pure and non-toxic. To maintain the integrity of the oils you should not heat the oils and jeopardize their health benefits.  Source

 

Well that's all well and good but what about adding oils to your bath? Think about it...the process to make candles involves heating wax over a double-boiler to the point of melting. Hopefully you are not taking baths this hot, and if you are...may I suggest that you stop?

So that is my big news. It will take further research on my part but I think this is why a cold-process method is encouraged for soap-making as so many soaps are made with essential oils. I would also suggest doing your own research into not only this but as to how traditional candles are made. It isn't a pretty process. Do yourself a favor and read up on where paraffin, which is in traditional was candles, comes from. It's not from sweet little honey-bees. It is a bit gross when you read up on it.

6 months!!!

I will post pics tomorrow but I just have to say that I can't believe our girl is 6 months!!!

What a blessed six months it has been :)

A little vacation, a little knowledge

The hubs, AB and I are enjoying a much needed family beach vacation. Our first as a family of three. BTW the after sun spray from my last post is coming in quite handy for my husband who always tends to miss spots with spray sunscreen. Our first day in the sun he was super red on parts of his arms but I sprayed him down with the after sun and the next day the red had faded to a lovely tan. 

Our daughter has done okay in the sun as you can see....

Thank goodness for sun hats on fair-skinned babes. However the heat has caused her to develop a vicious diaper rash. Luckily I have my travel oils and lavender and melaleuca (tea tree) diluted are working wonders where her normal drug store diaper rash cream did not. 

I will post more on this when we are back from vacation but in the meantime I wanted to share some great info that sums up why you need to be careful about where you buy your oils from. Not all brands are created equal. Do your research as knowledge is power but keep this in mind: When you go to buy essential oils from certain places (sometimes even health stores) they can sometimes have stuff in them that can be potentially toxic called extenders. What is sad is that the laws around labeling allow manufacturers to use up to 50% of these potentially toxic chemical extenders and they are still allowed to say that they are 100% pure. 

So that is a little food for thought on why you should consider doTERRA or another quality brand over your drug store brands.

The right way to run for weight loss...finally!

I don't know about you but I have a love/hate relationship with running. On the one hand I love it! It gives me such a sense of accomplishment to say "oh yeah, I just ran a 'couple' miles this morning" to folks, or to race across the finish line of a 5k or half marathon and collect my medal or t-shirt. On the other hand, it's tough! I hate it! Some days go by and my treadmill is my biggest enemy. I look down after what seems like hours to find I've only run for 10 minutes and have barely been a mile.

 

The other thing that makes me hate running is that no matter how much I run, I don't tend to see the weight loss that I notice from other exercise. Sure I feel more toned but as far as pounds/fat loss, I don't always notice it.

For years I have run anyway, again 5k=free t-shirt, but I really struggled with what I perceived to be the lack of benefits. That is until I ran (get it?) across this article from Women's Running. It talks about the good, the bad, and the ugly of running. Lots of great info about the right way to run for weight and fat loss.

One of the things that I am so glad the article mentioned is the fact that running makes you hungry for good reasons: to avoid injury and fatigue. I believe in listening to my body so the fact that I was hungry more while running meant that I was eating more but had misgivings about since I was trying to run to get more fit.

The article gives a great 8-week guide for running in order to lose weight. The 3 keys for running for weight loss are these:

1. Runs that burn fat
2. Sprints
3. Strength-training

This article does a great job of laying out facts and an easy to use plan that is not too difficult to stick to whether on the road or a treadmill. One final thought from the article is that Women's Running is honest in saying that running is not the most effective method for weight loss. So if running isn't your thing and (like my husband) crossing the finish line doesn't give you a buzz that lasts all week through those tough miles, than you may want to research and find some different ways to lose those pounds and tone up. But as for me, I think I'll stick to that fantastic sense of accomplishment I feel when I cross the finish. Even if I have to work a little harder on the weight-loss end of things.

After Sun Spray

We have our first vacation as a family of 3 coming up soon and I am so excited to spend a lot of fun in the sun. My hubs and I do okay when it comes to tanning v. burning but with this being AB's first true foray into the sun I want to be sure that I have what she needs in case of overexposure to the sun. I have an all natural sunscreen for her but I wanted something in case of too much sun as well. I don't exactly want to travel with an aloe plant with me on every family vacation so I decided to mix something up with essential oils.

This is a quick and adjustable recipe (you may find you like different ratios better)for an after sun spray. It's got everything you need to get over a burn or just to rehydrate your skin a bit after a day in the sun.

After sun spray:

• 1 glass spray bottle
• 1/4 cup aloe vera
• (aloe vera juice can be found in most drug stores or online, feel free to use aloe vera if you prefer but just make sure your spray bottle can handle it)
• 1 tablespoon of fractionated coconut oil
• 1/4 teaspoon of vitamin E oil (available at drug store or online)
• 2 drops of Lavender essential oil
• 2 drops of Melaleuca essential oil
• 2 drops of Roman Chamomile essential oil

Combine ingredients, shake well and use as needed.

Clearly the best thing to do is not to get burned or overexposed in the first place, however, if you do get burned you should use something like this after sun spray to take care of your skin after the fact.

 

Allergy Fixer-Upper

 

I don't know about you but my allergies this spring have hit me hard. This happens every year...I look forward to spring all winter and once it is here I get allergies and second guess my joy at spring finally being here. I recently started using essential oils and this is one of my favorite mixes. It's like a little allergy shot or as I like to call it my allergy fixer upper.

 

2 drops each of lavender, peppermint and lemon. You can take it a couple ways 1) Gargle and spit it out (swallowing oils is not recommended) 2)Apply it to the bottom of your feet. I only ever take it the first way. Warning: This is strong stuff! However, it clears me up so much that I get over the strength (I think from the peppermint) pretty quickly because I am so thankful to be able to breathe again. Warning: Read up on each oil before you use them to make sure you don't have a condition that will react poorly with the oils. 

 

You can use any brand of oils that you want, but I am partial to doTERRA because of the purity of their oils. To me if you are making a switch to all-natural, home remedies like essential oils, you want to make sure that what you are using is good stuff and doTERRA is good stuff. Not to say that there are not cheaper oils out there, but I feel comfortable with the purity of doTERRA oils for use with my family.

 

There are multiple ways to get these oils, one is by placing a one time order through my website. Another is by signing up through my website as a wellness advocate or preferred member which allows you some perks that just ordering off the website doesn't allow. You can also research and find other oils that you might like to use, but I can only tell you about my experience using doTERRA oils which has been great! As with anything, do you own research, consult a physician, etc. when trying something new like this. This is what works for me and my family and may not necessarily work for you.

Hi there!

Hi there!

I'm Jolie. I've been a blogger for awhile but wanted a fresh start as I have started a new chapter of my life recently as a stay-at-home mom. My husband and I adopted our beautiful daughter Annabelle back in November and decided that after years of trying to be parents it would be nice for me to stay at home and spend my time with AB (as we call her).

After working full-time for over ten years, it has been a nice but strange adjustment for me. I decided to hold myself a little more accountable I would start a (new) blog to keep myself more accountable. So here are some of the things I want to blog about:

• Stay-at-home-momming
• adoption (highs and lows)
• keeping on top of housework
• entertaining my sweet daughter
• healthy living (working out, essential oils, trying to stay in shape)
• Running
• Crafting/DIY (on occasion, not as much time for this stuff lately)

I'll do my best to post several times a month and this will keep me on top of my game. I can't promise I'll always be able to do this, but if it works out maybe I can get a regular blog schedule going.

I hope you enjoy it!