Saturday, March 30, 2013

Through Sickness

There is nothing like a bout of sickness to test your strength.  Sicknesses come in many forms these days and test like nothing has ever tested us before.  Of late we aren't facing anything all that tough or scary, the stomach bug is no fun but it is manageable.  Tuesday evening middle child couldn't keep supper down and we spent twelve hours making dealing with the upset tummy.  Finally come Friday evening he was returning to "normal" and this morning he was doing great. This morning numbers four and five aren't feeling so hot though.  One has made a couple trips to the bathroom and soaked in the tub a few times while the other has pretty much sat dazed and the couch.  I have a feeling it could be much worse but I am thankful that things are manageable.
So many around us are facing major health issues.  Things that not only brought their world to a screeching halt but turned it upside down as well.  While I am tired from doing laundry and disinfecting things I am thankful that it is only the stomach bug.  I am thankful that I can pray for my friends that are walking through their sicknesses and trying times.  I am thankful that God blesses us in small humbling ways that remind us we are weak.
We are weak.  This is not a horrible thing it is just something that reminds us to lean on Him.  Through the good and the bad, through the days we feel strong and powerful or the days that we feel weak and lost.
When we marry we vow, through sickness and health.  When we begin a family we silently vow, through sickness and health.  When our friends become family and that family needs us, we vow, through sickness and health.  When God created us in His image He vowed, through sickness and health.  He is there for us through it all.  Remember that.  He is there for you, through it all.  You are never alone, that is His truest promise.

DV-NMV

Thursday, March 21, 2013

What Next?

There are days that I seriously wonder what's going to be deemed "bad for you" next.  Now, mind you I am as weary of anything I buy in the store these days as most anyone else these days, but I am also tired of the internet being full of stories of how this or that product is poisoning my family.
What brought on this post today?  Well, sit back and let me tell you.
Part 1 - I am a Melaleuca Mom.  I proudly have switched my home from store bought and home made cleaners and personal care products to those which I can get through my Melaleuca store.  Never (seriously NEVER) has our health been better than what we have been experiencing in the three years since this transition. My hormone imbalance is managed, our allergies are in check, the eczema is gone, the psoriasis is gone, the run-ins with sinus infections and viruses are rare, it is such a blessing for us.  Shopping with Melaleuca also introduced me to melaleuca alternifolia oil, also known as tea tree oil. This has been our go-to treatment for cuts, burns, canker sores and so much more.  I carry it in my purse because, as a mom, a first aid need can happen at any moment.
Part 2 - I am a Young Living Mom.  Just recently I have introduced my family to the complete world of essential oils.  Peace & Calming and Lavender to help with relaxation and sleeping, Peppermint to help with the occasional stuffy nose, upset stomach and snoring and Valor to help with inner balance.
Now the problem.  I came home from school today and received a text from a friend concerned about tea tree oil and lavender oil use being linked to premature puberty in children.  I was quickly horrified at the thought of that because my five children are regularly exposed to one if not both of these oils on any given day.  After "bing searching" this is what I came up with:
 The "Study"
     http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/jan2007/niehs-31.htm
     http://www.bioidenticalprogesterone.info/lavender.html
One Point of View
     http://safemama.com/2009/09/09/do-lavender-tea-tree-oils-mimic-hormones/
And Another
     http://community.babycenter.com/post/a26399043/hormones_affected_by_lavender_and_tea_tree_oil
I also called both Melaleuca and Young Living's customer service lines to see what they could tell me about this information that I was turning up.  Neither company had any experience, concern or cause to believe that the true essential tea tree and lavender oils would cause these issues.  In fact both asked me for more information (yes,I will be emailing these links to them) about what these concerns were.
In reading as many message boards, articles and posts as I could find I would definitely agree with what the safemama.com post above says.  Here's my thoughts. Nowhere in the "study" or any other story where a child has been affected did it point to a specific product.  Here's what I mean by that.  In all cases they affected person has been using a shampoo, lotion, gel or other product that caused the problem.  Is it Aveeno, Johnson&Johnson's, Melaleuca's, Young Living's or yet another one?  Are there any other ingredients in common like parabens or other chemical compound that is a "filler" in so many shampoos, lotions, gels and such.  Yes it concerns me that the obvious link in these cases is tea tree or lavender oil but what I want confirmed is the pureness of the oil in these cases.  Is it true, high quality essential oil as an ingredient in the shampoo or it is a chemically modified version to add "some" of the benefits of lavender to the shampoo without adding the high cost of it.  For example J&J Bedtime Bath has lavender in it, but is it true essential oil?  Think about this one.  The label on the "Restless Nights" bubble bath I bought this winter describes "Essential oils of Lavender, Chamomile and Passion Flower to soothe and comfort your body." The ingredients list these "flower extracts" as well as several hard to pronounce words like polyquaternum-10 and methylisothiazolinone.  Now you see my issue with the "study"?  I feel for these children and the parents that are facing these side effects but what bothers me is I'm not quite sure that they are truly questioning what deserves to be questioned in these cases.  Is it the essential oil or one of these unknown but constantly consumed "extras" in the ingredient list causing these health problems.  Possibly a combination of both in all reality.  If lavender is so unsafe and such a threat to our health then it should absolutely not be in baby bath, no questions asked.  If tea tree oil is a threat to our health then having it accessible in shampoos that children could use should be clearly and obviously marked.
Seriously what will the doctors say is harmful to our health next?  If essential oils like lavender and tea tree are not safe for common use then what is?  Please, people, please be aware of what you are consuming.  Know that our world is full of things that have potential to make us sick.  Yes, even, good things like essential oils need to be used wisely and with a mind to keep an eye out for reactions.  Too much of a good thing shouldn't be a bad thing but I am sure there are times that it can be.  Know this, I LOVE dark chocolate but to sit down and eat a whole bag of mini dark chocolate candy bars would likely be a very bad thing.
Passionate much?  Well, yeah, because I just spent three hours poring over the internet and making phone calls and that's the least you deserve.  Your family and my family deserves to be healthy and the only way any of us can ensure that is to be fully aware of what we are consuming in every aspect of our life.

God bless!!
DV-NMV

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Privilege to Choose

We are blessed to live in a society that gives us the right to choose about every aspect of our lives. This is such a blessing and at times even a curse.  We are surrounded by marketing and promotions that bombard us with a hundred options of any given thing.
Here's the problem with that. We have no idea what to actually use. Say you face ADHD, eczema, autism, psoriasis, stress, adrenal fatigue, hormonal fatigue, depression, diabetes or any other health issue in the face. What do you do? Talk to your doctor. What do they do? Write a prescription or ignore you. (I was ignored.) Here's my problem with that, that's not getting to the root of the plight. It's not figuring out the cause of the situation.
You have real options, I had real options. I had to research them and keep going when no one believed I had hit perimenopause in my 20s but simple truth was I had. The birth control I was on only caused more problems and likely an abortion or two but I was never warned of that either. I was frustrated to my eyeballs because I knew something was wrong but no one would help me figure out what. When my child is covered in eczema, raging in misery and the other one is battling round upon round of staph infection what did the doc tell me about what was going on and how to clear these problems out of my home? Some people are just prone to this stuff. You can clean and disinfect with bleach but it's likely that you'll just be facing this for life.
WRONG!!!!!!!!
Once I finally took my health into my own hands and started my Vitality vitamins my body started to return to normal. Since I had switched stores to buy vitamins I started cleaning house of my cleaners and personal care products. Swapped out the kid's shampoo and laundry detergent and buh-bye eczema and psoriasis. Amazingly I clean with these cleaners instead of bleach and we no longer battle staph infections. Our allergies? Practically nil, very rare does anything get at us, our bodies are too strong now. The slight asthma tendencies I showed? Not anymore.
I took a kiddo to the ER on a Saturday about a month ago with what was the onset of an ear infection. Result? There's a little fluid in his ears. Here's a prescription to fill, if it gets worse and we were sent on our way. I used my 'tug on the ear' trick all weekend and Monday I took him to our AWESOME chiropractor to get him a quick adjustment. All better. I took littlest brother battling a sinus infection something or other for nearly a week to the chiro and within two days everything was cleared out and gone. Why chiro? He won't take any antibiotic I'd get him anyway, so let's actually FIX the issue instead of band-aiding over it.
Yes choose other options. We're so careful about diet and what we are eating lets be equally mindful about all the other stuff we're consuming. Instead of reaching for a pill do some research on essential oils. This is a field I'm only just stepping into but WOW can I tell you, what an amazing field of health resources we have available. My blood sugar is awful. Pre-diabetic? Probably. With simply 24 hours of using essential oils I feel some freedom from the sugar highs and lows that have been plaguing me as of late. Absolutely serious here.
You have the privilege to choose how to regulate your health. Please, please choose wisely. I will happily walk this road with you. I am very passionate about this because I have seen the affects this is having in my own life, my family's life. You deserve the same!
God has blessed me with this and I will happily bless you with it too! The least we can do with this life He has given us is to use it to care for His other children. I thank Him every day for sending me stumbling into this world that I am now happily striding through.

Dv-NMV

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Passion

It's been a good while since I've stopped in to write. We have been crazy around here with snow days (YAY!!) and school activities. Our undraiser supper raised $20,000 for our school, God is so good to the Peoria Christian family!!
I love my outlet here, capturing my thoughts and letting my cup overflow here. In posting an "about me" tidbit on a facebook group I rambled on quite a while and after "entering" it and going back I realized just how overdue I was for coming here.
My cup truly is overflowing with passion. I have so much to be thankful for, my blessings to count are innumerable but I'm realizing that I'm holding most of this passion in. Sure I post pictures all over instagram of cute things my kids are doing and I happily share cute stories on facebook regularly but it really is just a miniscule tip of the iceberg.
If you've been here before you may have seen a post or two about the things we consume. Three years ago I stepped onto a path that has changed the way I look at things. My hormonal fatigue was a huge hurdle, my family was battling allergies, eczema, psoriasis, staph infections, gingivitis and doctors kept telling me things like 'it's normal', 'some people are prone to this', 'I can get you a prescription that should help' and 'there's no way to "fix" it'. Better yet was when I would take a child to the doctor and their response was 'if it gets worse come back' or the vague reference that surgery could be necessary.
What no one ever told me was that the detergent, cleaners, shampoos and lotions I was using on my family were full of toxins and the real problem. Yeah, right, if it was poisonous or a harm to my health there's no way it would be on the shelf. Right? That's what I used to believe.
Then I learned different. Then I was introduced to a team that shares info about a company that makes it a priority to provide safe and healthy products to their customers. Over the course of three years I have transitioned my home to have only these products. Joining the Finding Freedom Team in this adventure is improving my family's health, adding some income to our little world and I couldn't be happier. How can I prove that the impact on out health is true? Got a quick one for you, for months my little three have not been sleeping well. So I thought I'd just pick up some lavendar bubble bath (only a "natural" one - from WalMart since I don't have many options), add it to the routine and we'll be golden. Right? WRONG. They didn't sleep any better and within a week of adding it to their bath water I had kiddos covered in eczema break outs. Ridiculously frustrating!!
So, now what? Well, I've been introduced to the awesomeness of tea tree oil through this company. I use it on every and any first aid type of thing I may have be it cuts, burns or canker sores. Works wonders! So after seeing the benefit of this it makes me wonder about other essential oils. Would lavendar help my wee ones sleep better? So after researching that I have decided to take that leap into the Young Living Essential Oil world. My "kit" doesn't get here until Friday (longest week EVER) but I am so anxious to get them and add them to my routines.
This is what I am passionate about. My health, my family's health, we only get one chance at this life and we have to care for it wisely. God has been laying this upon my heart. I am passionate about many things and this happens to be another in the arsenal. My neighbors, friends and anyone else I know deserves to live a full and blessed life. Don't you? What ailments are getting you down - adrenal fatigue, arthritis, psoriasis, eczema, dry skin, acne, bad joints, high cholesterol, diabetes? Do you want to feel better? Do you want your life back?
Let me help you. I have it on my heart that you deserve to feel good every day. I want to see you smiling and laughing again. What do you have to lose? Honestly...your life. When God puts it on your heart, you'll know to come here and contact me, I'm here and ready to hold your hand on this journey, it will be a blessed privilege.

LuvNHugz - SupportNPrayerz
DV-NMV