When the Bee Stings....

Just used Lavender Essential Oil on my Son's very first bee sting ever, and the pain dissipated VERY quickly. He came in, hopping and weeping, to explain what had happened. I pulled out my roller bottle of Lavender and rolled it over the bite a couple times. THAT IS ALL (except of course, for love and snuggles)!!!

My 15ml roller bottle was purchased from Aromatools. It contains 15 drops Lavender mixed with Fractionated Coconut Oil (however much it takes to fill the remainder of the bottle).

Little man is now running around barefoot, and not worried by bees at all.

Thanks to Lavender, my children have zero respect for bees, or stinging nettles.

How are you using Lavender Essential Oil this summer?

Cats! (experience from another)

I received the following picture from a friend, with this description:

"Yesterday the entire length of this cat scratch was red, hot, swollen, and painful. I applied Melaleuca about 6 times yesterday and once so far today and it feels and looks so much better! Just a little pain and less than 1/3 the redness and swelling today. I love my oils!"

Melaleuca Essential Oil is a fabulous go-to oil not only because of its painkilling abilities, but also for its powerful antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties.

It also topically attacks MRSA. 

How do you use Melaleuca? 

The Depths of Despair (for Muscles and Tendons)

My handsome man works out. Regularly. He enjoys it! He hikes, run, and lifts weights.This is why he has the body of a roman statue...I have the body of one of those statues as well, but only because those wonderful Italians preferred their women with a bit of meat on them....I digress.

Occasionally, the physical nature of his work and recreation come crashing down around him and he pulls something. Recently, his inner elbow got strained pretty seriously. He had to take a hiatus from certain types of lifting! He wondered if I had something to help.

I chose Deep Blue. We actually layered Marjoram, Deep Blue Oil Blend, and the Deep Blue Rub.

We decided to add Marjoram after noticing that it was frequently mentioned as a help under almost any sort of malady related to muscle or tendon issues.

Deep Blue is a proprietary blend of several oils that alleviate pain and soreness, and reduce inflammation. He would drop 3-4 drops onto the sore area and rub it in. He followed the same protocol with the marjoram essential oil. He would also apply the lotion directly onto the area affected.


Within a few weeks of daily application, he noticed a huge improvement in his tendon pain. He gradually returned to his normal lifting, and believes that the oils helped.

Deep Blue is awesome, but because of the wintergreen in it, I would avoid using it during pregnancy.

How do you use Deep Blue?

On the Line

Now that we are getting some lovely sunny days, I like to put the laundry out on the line. This saves electricity, and for some odd reason, is therapeutic for me. It also seems so clean and natural.

Confession time: I love the way dryer sheets make my laundry smell. Even knowing that there are probably terrible chemicals in them (I enjoy my denial so much that I refuse to even research it...Despite having those textured balls that I can throw in the dryer), I still blissfully toss one in with every load.

When you line dry your laundry, they don't smell like that, so I decided to put 2 -3 drops of Purify
Essential Oil Blend in my wash load with the soap. The initial smell - due to the Pine and Lemon essential oils present in the blend - reminds me of PineSol, which I hate, but these oils do their odor cleansing work on the laundry, leaving only a fresh clean smell when it dries. Purify kills odor causing bacteria so well, that my husband has started requesting that I use it on the clothes he hikes in!

About Purify: This proprietary blend contains many oils that disinfect and remove harmful microorganisms. It can be used for cleansing, bug bites, infected burns, stings, and to repel mice!

However: It is not neat when applied topically, and should be diluted with a carrier oil.

A Few of my Favorite things....

Tea is arguably one of the greatest discoveries of all time....right up there with coffee. I love both- hot, or iced.

The wonderful thing about tea is that its desirable qualities exponentially increase with the addition of sugar. I use pure cane sugar, and plenty of it! In the summer, I make simple syrup to add to my iced tea.

This is accomplished by heating up water with equal to twice as much sugar on the stove until all the sugar is dissolved and it is clear...Because I use cane sugar, my syrup ends up being slightly amber.

Yesterday, on a crazy whim, I added three drops of lavender essential oil to my 2 1/2 cups of syrup.

Today I sweetened my black iced tea with it. I buy my tea from Harney and Sons, make it per normal instructions, and put it over ice...or let it cool in the refrigerator until I am ready for it.

It is DELICIOUS! Three drops is just right.


I may never go back to normal simple syrup...or I may get really carried away and add Wild Orange or Lemon next time.

About Lavender Essential Oil: Taking lavender internally can help with depression, allergies, blood pressure, bronchitis, and heart irregularities, among many other maladies, so I am doing myself a favor as I sip away.

Do you drink your oils?

Headaches

Experience from Another:

My sister in law suffers from migraines, and the only thing that has helped her is Peppermint Oil! 

She puts a couple drops of peppermint onto the back of her neck and rubs it in (I  would think to rub it on my temples, which didn't work very well with my last headache). This quickly makes her pain disappear.

I am looking forward to trying this tip...actually I am hoping I don't need to! 

How do you use Peppermint Essential Oil?

Goop Gets in Your (Baby's) Eyes

I had a Baby! Once again, I declined the erythromycin gel (it is routinely applied to newborns) because neither my husband nor I have any of the diseases it primarily guards against.

Around five days into this new world, my darling newborn's right eye started leaking some yellow goop. This happened with my last baby as well. Apparently newborns get this all the time and it is usually a blocked tear duct.

Typically the midwife will recommend breast milk directly on the eye multiple times. This didn't work last time, so I asked them to put the gel on her eyes at our two week check up. They did. That cleared it right up!

For two days.

Then it was back again, crusty as ever.

So I checked my pregnancy book (the one by Fritz) and pulled out Lavender Essential oil!

I used a diluted 10 ml roller bottle -10-15 drops of Lavender, and the rest Fractionated Coconut oil - just under 2 tablespoons.

I rolled it around her eye. Twice a day for a couple days. NOT IN HER EYE. Right along the bone above and on the side of the eye.

The roller bottle allows this precise application.

Her beautiful blue eye cleared right up!

I continued applying the Lavender for another day, because the first time I tried this, I only applied the Lavender dilution a couple times, and it only worked for the first day. I heard that you want to continue any effective treatment for a day or two after the symptoms are gone (just like antibiotics, right?), and that worked.

At 34 days old, she has stayed clear-eyed and alert! (And we all stay relaxed)!!

About Lavender: Because Lavender is so gentle while retaining a powerhouse of antibacterial properties, it can be used Neat (undiluted) even on children. I really only diluted it to give it more staying power. Lavender is becoming my "go to" oil for almost every situation.

How do you use Lavender Essential Oil?

Fight! Fight! Fight! (that nasty cold)!!

The week before I gave birth, we were attacked. By the crud of death. Cough, sore throat, feverish, sinus plugging death. It started with one child...then a husband. When I gave birth, my nose was plugged. On one side. My other children succumbed, as did my sister, mother and niece, and all my in-laws. Yuck.

Typically, I have a terrible immune system. I knew it was coming for me...so I jumped on the preventative ship! I took my pre-natals faithfully, and started out by putting OnGuard essential oil into my quart of water, then followed up with Lemon essential oil.

Why? Well, for a cold, the Modern Essentials book said to ingest OnGuard, so I put three drops into a quart of water and drank it. I normally drink 3-5 quarts of water a day.

I followed up by pouring three drops of Lemon into my drinking water, almost every quart.

My little man even knew to add Lemon when he refilled my jar for me! So far, I continue to avoid the crud, and have stayed relatively energized even with a minimal amount of sleep (we are ten days into the new baby stage).

About Lemon: it is antibacterial and antiviral, so it is killing any crud inside or outside the cells in my system. It is also energizing, and tastes great!

Warning: Citrus oils may only be used in GLASS containers....they tend to eat away the toxins in plastic. I use a Mason jar. Also there is increased photosensitivity, which means I need to avoid direct exposure to the sun for a few hours after ingesting.

Fever!

My sweet two year old is teething.

Just reflecting upon that sentence brings a myriad of emotions. Sadness, sympathy, frustration, concern, exhaustion, etc...

Two nights ago, she had a killer fever. When it reached 103.5, I decided to pull out my oil box. The Modern Essentials book recommended Lavender or Peppermint. I have used Peppermint in the past, but this time I went for Lavender, which was the primary recommendation in the child specific section.

I put 2 drops of Lavender Essential Oil into a Tablespoon of fractionated coconut oil and massaged her feet, neck and torso with it. Within thirty minutes, it was down to 102.2.

By that point it was past her bed time, and since I am 39 weeks pregnant and exhausted, I wasn't going to stay up all night monitoring her, so I did end up giving her children's Tylenol to really cut it for the night.

Would the Lavender have brought down the fever all the way? I don't know. I do know it has been helping with her night terrors...

How do you use Lavender?

About Lavender: It has pain relieving properties, and is generally good for everything. It also does not need to be diluted.

Oh, Spaghetti!

I make spaghetti sauce from scratch. Eating my version of this meal convinced my Handsome Man to marry me eight years ago. Maybe.

Years and years ago, a lovely Italian grandma told my mother that the secret ingredient in a good sauce was Oregano. I tucked this piece of advice away, and have faithfully followed it in all my best red sauces (don't forget the power of red wine and molasses either...):-).

One recent evening during my dinner preparations (we have this particular pasta dish weekly) I realized that I was out of dried oregano. I could not serve spaghetti to my family without it! The sauce was already begun, and it was too late for a menu change!

I had seen various pins around about cooking with essential oils and decided to add Oregano Essential Oil. I put 5-7 drops into a sauce that consisted of two pounds of ground beef and two cans of tomato sauce (plus all the other seasonings that I normally use). It was DELICIOUS.

So delicious that I later subbed it for the dry ingredient in my meatloaf recipe, which also turned out delectably! I will definitely be doing this again, and am already on the hunt for something I can add Rosemary Essential Oil to!

How do you cook with essential oils?


About Oregano: It has antiviral and antibacterial properties, and is known to stimulate the immune system. It may also help with digestive issues, perhaps helping offset the acidity of a tomato based sauce.