Why LRP?

I get this question A LOT!

Why do I do loyalty rewards?

Because, I need to order every month.  Things that are on either every month or every few months but are constantly in need . . .

1) LLV- The Lifelong Vitality Pack.  I need these to keep me moving. I know when I have slacked on taking them and even my social interactions suffer because of it.  I am naturally an introvert and if my depression, body aches or anything that LLV cures comes back I am back to being a shut in.

2) A2Z chewables- Yup my kids need vitamins too!

3) Laundry detergent - I'd rather order it than make it ;)

4) Shampoo and Conditioner - If you haven't had Wild Orange and Lime sensation and yummy smells in the shower you are missing out and your hair is too! If I revert to the store bought stuff my hair tells an awful story.

5) DDR Prime- I don't know about you but I know a few people with, have, had cancer. That dirty disease that rips apart your whole self.  If I can protect my body now I am going too!

With just this list alone with LRP I can qualify for the free Product of the Month.  There is a new one every month this month its a 5 ml bottle of Balance.  Oh wait look at my list . . . Did I mention any oils? What? An essential oil company whose must have products don't even start with the oils? YES! I could never give up any of the blends I try to have an extra of each of those on hand because we use them ALL.

Once I add in my oils for the month that I am running out of then they have every 3/4 months a promo special. With a 200 point order you get something awesome. Let me change that AWESOME!!! This month is a promo month with a 200 point order I got the product of the month for ordering 125 points but since I wanted the promo I ordered 200 points and I got OnGuard and Breathe for FREE!

If that's not enough every month I order I earn points.

With my 200 point order next month I will get 60 free points to order whatever I want. 

This is everything I got FREE this month! Cool HUH!!! Getting a box where I got $175 worth of free product in is like Christmas! 

So why shouldn't you do LRP?

Fun in the Sun

I have 3 kids and they get me going everyday and they are the reason why I know oils will never leave my home.  A year ago we got a diagnosis for my youngest who was 3 at the time that she had allergies but she was allergic to scents, fragrances, man-made smells.  That really narrows your choices when in the summer you are outside everyday.  So I had to do my research to find options for her and for us to reduce the toxic load of sunscreen.  The modern essentials book had a recipe with Helichrysum. You added 3 drops of Helichrysum to 2 oz of water.  This is a wonderful recipe. I love things that are simple and require few ingredients.  This is not waterproof so it didn't solve all our problems but for the normal everyday it is amazing.  We still use it. Even though their are many more sunscreen recipes but I love this because I can squirt my kids in the face with it and not hurt their eyes at all.

Our next problem was after sun.  The Helichrysum spray helped when we had accidental exposure.  We've also used lavender (to soothe), peppermint (to take away the heat) but recently doTERRA did a blog post on an aftersun spray that I wanted to try.  I have a fair skinned daughter that came home from her dads with a red bum.  He had failed to spray the back of her legs while she was swimming and she was miserable.

So while she was soaking in an epsom salt bath my son and I were putting together this spray. The next morning she had a tan.  It wasn't red it didn't hurt she was fine even though hours before she was a lobster.  We love it.  After my kids shower after a long day outside they like to put it on because its cooling and it helps their skin.  And as always I don't worry about them using it because it doesn't have any adverse ingredients!

Allergies

You may not know our struggle with allergies, or you may but just don't get it.  Well its been a journey for our family because let's face it we don't have the normal everyday allergies.

When Taylor was born I knew she had something. We nick-named her snot nosed baby. Shows you somethings wrong right?  Doctors don't do anything until they are 3 and have experienced all the seasons and their bodies can adjust. I applaud this because I'm sure we would have so many more wrongly diagnosed allergies. When she turned 3 the doctor said just give her over the counter chewable allergy pills she'll be fine.  Well that's not me.  Never has, never will. If you can't tell me exactly why I am doing something and the side effects are less then desirable as any good mother will attest I'm going to fight.  For kicks and giggles I went to the Mayo Clinic website to see what would happen if I gave this to my baby.

Oral antihistamines: are more likely to cause drowsiness and slow your reaction time. These sedating antihistamines shouldn't be taken when driving or doing other potentially dangerous activities.

Oral decongestants can cause a number of side effects, including irritability, fast or irregular heartbeat, dizziness, insomnia, headaches, anxiety, tremors, and increased blood pressure.

Oral corticosteroids (pills and liquids) are used to treat severe symptoms caused by all types of allergic reactions. Examples include prednisone (Prednisone Intensol) and prednisolone (Prelone, others). Because they can cause numerous short- and long-term side effects, oral corticosteroids are usually prescribed for short periods of time. Long-term use can cause cataracts, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, stomach ulcers and delayed growth in children

As a mother I am supposed to make this choice for my child because she doesn't know what that means yet. How was I supposed to explain to her when she was an adult with these side effects . . . 

Taylor: Mom, why do I have to have cataract surgery? Why do I have to take tums with every meal to control my ulcers, I wish I can run but my body is so weak.

Me:  Oh honey I just couldn't carry tissues around when you were little before you even complained about allergies so I started giving you allergy pills.  Then when you became immune to those but knew the benefits we had to step it up.  You had to start doing monthly shots to stabilize you. . . 

That's how my brain works. How was I supposed to help my childs quality of life? Without impairing her future quality of life? I had to become knowledgeable. I know Lily and I are allergic to tobacco and smoke so I figured those were in her make up but she was different it was so much worse.  So I took her in for the allergy test.  

Of course, we wake up the day of her test and she's fine. No runny nose anything.  It had been even a few days since she had even had noticeable issues. As a mom you then smack yourself . . .I'm over reacting, I'm submitting her to this and its going to be a wasted 3 hours. But alas, we walked into the office and her noses starts like a faucet. 

This is an allergy test if you have never seen one or know what they do. They take scratch sticks in groups of eight and scratch it with different common environmental allergens and you also state anything outside of the norm you are surrounded by. Then you wait for 15, 30, 60 minutes so they can see the severity of the allergy. I took this picture 30 seconds after they applied them. Fourth one in on the top row, tobacco. We knew that one walking in. That is considered a stage 3 reaction (out of 4). They measure the time it takes to react and the reaction size.  

Nothing else changed. Can I get a seriously!!!! That what I said to the doctor.  I went all mom with him (can you imagine it? If not let me help you . . . 

HOW THE HECK IS SHE NOT ALLERGIC TO ANYTHING LOOK AT HER THE MOMENT WE WALKED INTO YOUR OFFICE I MIGHT AS WELL HAVE SHOVED A KLEENEX BOX UP HER NOSE! AND HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE A SAFE HAVEN FOR PEOPLE WITH ALLERGIES WITH THESE CARDBOARD TISSUES! BY THE WAY WE'VE USED A BOX OF THEM SINCE WE WERE HERE! SHE WAS FINE AT HOME THEN WE GET HERE AND LOOK (I  grabbed the garbage can and showed him the amount of tissues we had used in 2 hours while sitting there watching VHS tapes) 

That my friends is when I saw the light bulb go off in this nice old mans head that I had completely lost my mind with.  And that's when he told me snot-nosed babies problem.  She had hyper active mucus membranes.  Her nose saw/smelled every chemical as a threat so his nice allergen free office that was bleached to keep it clean was causing her nose to go into over drive. 

This is when our journey really began and how do you test it? Life, that's how you test that sucker!  Our home had already become a safe haven for her which is why I was so confused. She would be fine, go to her dads come back as a snot factory the next day be fine . . . rinse repeat.  With doTERRA I had already changed our cleaning supplies I either made them or used the OnGuard cleaner.

My AH-HA moment came when we passed a skunk on the way to a craft store.  Owen and Lily were freaking out oh mom I'm going to die do you smell that oh my gosh MOM!!!! This whole time Taylor is just sitting there and then we get to Joanns and they have some scented display of pinecones or flowers and Taylor starts wigging out mom it smells!!!! And BAM look down and her nose is running.  

That is when I decided to try doTERRAs allergy blend with her. There's different methods to it and you have to find the one that works for you.

Equal parts Lemon, Lavender and Peppermint

1) Putting them on an inhaler and breathing them in

2) Putting them on the sinus reflex areas of your hands and feet 

3) Putting them in a shot glass of juice and swishing it around then swallow

Because of the snot issue breathing it in wasn't working so I decided to try them in a shot glass of juice. We all tried it with her so that it wasn't a big deal.  Ever tasted lavender? Tastes like you are licking a flower.  After trying it I thought she's never going to want to do this again.  But her nose cleared up.  The next morning her nose was running and she came to me and said mom can I have my allergy stuff? I was shocked.  Because she's so young and hasn't had issues for a long period of time she did it daily for 3-4 months and now she's immensely better.  We only do it occasionally and she asks for it when she needs it.  It usually fall on Sunday because everyone smells pretty. Thank heavens for doTERRA! 

Miracles of Owie Spray

Having kids is hard sometimes . . . all the time . . . depends on the day ;) As I'm writing this I am adoring a glow stick flower, discussing the coolness of Ninjago Legos, and trying to get someone to hold still so I can take the last picture required to finish this post.  Ahh Motherhood!

I can never stop praising owie spray. It costs $5.05 to make it and it is seriously the best neosporin out there. I understand though I can tell you that it clears road rash in a day, that most scrapes are healed in a couple of days but I have never gotten any pictures until now!

Taylor had a rough couple of weeks. Last day of school she runs into a kid at the park and gets a black eye. I get that looking better and she slips of the trampoline and gives herself a goose-egg off the side of her face that was gone in a couple of hours with 2 drops of Frankincense.

 I think wow we've got all our summer injuries over and school has only been out 3 days.  I was wrong. I should have knocked on wood. I should have said Heavenly Father I take that back don't give us worse really we're good. But, I didn't . . .

I had to drop something off to the kids at their dads and they come running to see me and I am horrified.  Taylors smiling but she looks like 2-face.  One whole side of her face is scraped from her forehead to her lip.  I drive home, grab the owie spray and explain to her dad, you use this when you drop her off at my house tomorrow the red will be gone. I will know if you used it or not. Of course at that moment I didn't pull out my cell phone and take a picture. Like every other awesome oil story I miss the first one :)

June 6th 5 pm She wouldn't be alone in the picture because she didn't want anyone seeing her face.  But this is amazingly better then the day before. Within 24 hours she can open her eye more and the sections in between the 2 big scrapes have cleared. 

June 8th 10 am 

 Same day an hour later. The whole cheek scab feel off about a minute after we applied the oil.  It just lifted and feel off in one piece.

June 9th 7 pm

 June 13th. I am amazed at how well she healed.  Especially since she is so expressive with her face.  The wonderful thing about using the oils is they help protect so I didn't have to use any bandaids or even think about using any.  Really how would I have kept her eye covered? 

Flu

Did you have the flu? We did. Thankfully Batman and OnGuard protected us. Owen and Lily only had fevers for 12 hours or less and were back to crazy life in no time at all.

Secret Weapon

Every mom needs a secret weapon. Today I had to use mine. Mito2Max! Can I just say AMAZING!!! I got about 3 hours of interrupted sleep last night and frankly I am not as peppy as I used to be. I have a bedtime. I NEED sleep. When my alarm went off and I had been awake for 3 hours already I knew today I was done for. I threw together breakfast got Owen off to school and crashed again. An hour later I woke up again got another kid up and fed and still felt like I had been run over by a tanker.

There was no time for anymore naps I had to be Alert Momma. I took 2 Mito2Max and played with my youngest, got some laundry done, did some cross stitch, drove the school bus and got home and was ready to go for homework and everything else. I didn't even notice I was up and ready to go until I remember I didn't sleep last night! I love this feeling, I'm not jittery, I didn't have a crash of energy. I've been steadily going all day long instead of curled up on the couch hoping to sneak a nap in between episodes of Dora.

Ouchie Spray

Do you know what has saved me hundreds on Band-aids? 

A .33 cent spray top that fits on one of my old empty oil bottles. If you don't have any empty bottles yet you can get and bottle and a spray top for $4.50.

AromaTools  

This website is an oil users best resource for any convince item. But back to the band-aids! My kids are active and fall and scrape and cut themselves open regularly  I've come to accept that but I got to the point where I was buying a box of band-aids a week and it couldn't just be the plain ones it had to be a character. I have 3 kids, 3 characters, at $3 a box is to much. 

My little spray bottle has. . . 

Melaleuca is anti-bacterial so it kills any little bug that just got in there. Lavender soothes and heals. In a spray bottle if it hurts I don't have to touch it we just spray it and leave it.  That's all my kids wanted from the band-aid my attention and love for a second and now I don't have to scrape off band-aid gunk.