Spring Time Essential Oil Recipes

It has been a while since I have posted any essential oils recipes. These can either be made to be put into your diffuser or you can increase by doubling or tripling (depends on bottle size) to make into roller bottles. 

This is a favorite one of mine. I love lime in just about anything! Then add lemon and I am in heaven. One of my favorite drinks if I am going to flavor my water is to combine lemon and lime in it. They just smell so fresh and taste amazing. Now when you have your windows open. You have the fresh pollen coming into your home and sometimes, you need to combate it with something helpful. This is a great fresh smelling blend that has additional benefits other than just smelling like spring! Seasonal sinus crude is a real thing. This blend helps.

I for one would love to be able to head out into a spring meadow. That isn’t a really good option for someone who has the seasonal sinus issues. One of the best ways to bring a spring meadow into the house without having the complications of the sniffles and sneezes, put these oils into a diffuser or make a roller bottle and put it on as a perfume. It is a favorite alternative to going and sitting in the middle of a meadow full of flowers!

Spring gets here and I often lose my mind! You see, the warm weather, the fresh smells, the green grass, the birds chirping and the smell of rain. I could just sit in the sun on my porch for hours on end. This is one of my favorite times of the year. The snow has melted, the worms are wiggling around, the birds are laying eggs and I get lost in my own head. I get absorbed in being so thankful for all of the amazing life that you see and hear. I get absorbed in being thankful for all of the things that are coming out of hibernation and blooming in one way or another. That means, I often need to pull my head back into the game and bring it into focus so I have a level head. This is a great one to diffuse when your children are doing school work and would rather be outside playing or when you are working on bills and your mind starts to wonder! 

When you get to the end of the day, you can be wound up and unable to relax. This is a great way to calm your mind down and lull yourself into calming dreams. It is a fabulous way to end your day. Put it in the diffuser while your family is sitting in the family room to start the calm down process. Then have the diffuser going while you are putting yourself and/or your sweet babies to sleep. It is such a relaxing blend to release the tensions from the day.

Do you have any blends you love for the spring time? Anything that you love to put in your diffuser or even make into a roller bottle so you can wear it during the day? I would love to hear them!

Keeping Your Schedule When School Is Out

I decided to use our spring break to try a few different things for our summer schedule. So far nothing seems to be working. For whatever reason my kiddos seem to think they can do what they want. They can say no as often as they want. They don’t have to do their chores. They can sit on tablets or in front of the TV all day. They have another thing coming.

So far we have all been off our schedule and I do not want that for our summer. We need to be able to be consistent. We need to have specific times laid out for what we are doing. Even if each day varies, we need to know what we are doing on which day of the week.

Being a work from home parent and a stay at home parent, there are certain things that need to be accomplished daily. So far this spring break has shown me that we will not be able to accomplish it if we continue on our current method of winging it! Last summer wasn’t as much working as letting it go. Which is fine but we are trying to get further in life, which requires a little more work this summer.  

Tomorrow is a new day. I got this amazing planner about a week ago (post coming on how amazing it is) and it is time to put it into play. We are going to sit down and work on our hourly schedule as a family. I will be making mine based upon what I was doing prior to this vacation time. Then we will sit and work on the kids based upon what I am doing. 

Currently my days are not filled with anything constructive. I have not been doing my Bible study time. I have not been doing my reading. I have not been doing my typical reaching out for business. I have not been doing my chores. I have not been cooking as much as I was. I have not been playing my music during the day. 

I am off. I am not my happy self. My bright aura is missing and dull. I need to get back on track because I feel like I am losing what I had set in place over the past few months. Even when I went through all the surgeries, I still did my best to keep the schedule I had going. Then as soon as I was better, I was right back to it. So to be feeling so off and not have anything wrong other than children being home, frustration!

I am hoping that with us sitting down together, things will get better. It is really hard to sit and do this lack of everything. I am more exhausted dealing with the lack of stuff to do than I am when I have a full day. Don’t get me wrong, I am exhausted when I climb into bed at the end of each day. Yet when I am accomplishing things with my day, other than dealing with two children who just want their way, it is a different feeling. 

I realize how much of an introvert I am when I deal with them all day, every day. Being a mom is a huge blessing. There are times when it is hard but I would not trade it for anything. And yet, I still need my me time I am finding. I am not getting my me time, I am finding. When I look at last summer and how I was getting my me time, it was my Bible study time. They would do their reading and I would do mine. Even if we were in the same room, they were quiet and I made it through the days much better. 

Another huge thing I am seeing is that I am not going to prayer like I have been doing. I am just so frustrated, so short tempered and so irritated. Instead of me stopping, praying and deep breathing then dealing with things, I am just flying off the handle. At things I would not normally be upset over. I am seeing how being off schedule for even just a little bit of time, is not my friend.

So how am I going to stay on track? How are we going to start our school free time with a schedule? 

We are going to do like we talked about above. We are going to have a schedule. We are going to sit down a good week before school gets out for the summer and come up with our schedule. We are going to work together because when you involve your children (or spouse) you are going to have a much easier time getting them to stick to it. You are not dictating what will be done, because you came up with the plan together. 

There may be times when it is hard to keep our schedule due to weather. There may be times when it is hard to keep our schedule because we decide to throw caution to the wind and do something extra special. Yet we will have this schedule. We will talk about what the day looks like each morning before we begin. We will talk about what the next night looks like each night before we go to bed. 

Another huge key to keeping on schedule is going to be bed time and wake up time! Yes I will probably extend it a couple hours verse their school schedule because of when Jack gets home from work. It will give us some time as a family to be able to eat dinner, go for a walk and have some family time. At the same time, my youngest two children are very much so like me. They need their sleep! If they do not get the correct amount of sleep (because they always wake up at the same time every morning), everyone who is around them (this includes themselves) is miserable! 

So how are we going to keep our schedule when there is no school. We are going to create a schedule together. We are going to talk about it twice a day (and maybe more). We are going to have plenty of fun times mixed in with work times. We are going to work as a family to make this work. 

How do you keep your life on schedule and sane when you have vacations from school? It isn’t always an easy thing to do but I would love to hear how your family does it!

I’m sorry if this post seems off and fragmented.  If you come across this post, please pray. Tonight I am struggling to focus on this post. A friend I went to high school with, her 5 month pregnant daughter is missing. She dropped her off on Friday the 31st of March to eat and be with her boyfriend. She heard from her that she was heading home soon and hasn’t heard from her or her boyfriend since. Their phones have been off since she tried reaching them Saturday morning. A couple people reached out letting them know they saw her and her boyfriend in an altercation about 5:30 at the transit station. There was an OB appointment to find out the sex of the baby today and neither of them showed up. She has been known to take off before when angry but she was okay. She was so excited for this appointment, so even if she had taken off, she would have made this appointment. I am in tears for this family. I am praying she is fine. I am praying that she just got angry about something and took off. Still as a mother who has had to sit and wonder, I know her heart is breaking. Now as a mother, I know the pain and heartache I put my parents through and for that I am sorry. My prayers are with this family as they try and find some answers. 

Outside Annoyances Come With Spring

Today is the first day of spring break for my children. I was really hoping we would be able to get outside and get the yard all cleaned up from the fall and winter. We did get out there for a little bit today but by the time we really got anything going the sprinkles started and then quickly it turned into a downpour.

Even though we can’t start using these awesome sprays yet, we will need them soon enough. When the weather starts to warm up, the outside annoyances come out. While moving wood into the fire pit today, flies were moving! I know they were only flies but my goodness, if they are moving all of those other things are not far behind.

We love to spend time outside. We live on a smaller piece of property and we are in the city. But we are off where we are not house on top of house. That has given us the opportunity to create a fire pit that isn’t close to our house, our neighbors house and we can still reach it with a hose for safety reasons.

We also have some hills on our property that don’t really get taken care of. What I mean by that is maybe once a year we mow down all the weeds and call it good. So that leaves a great location for creepy, crawly, flying, critters, better known as outside annoyances.

Now I have never been a huge fan of bug sprays they sell. They stink, they leave you feeling tacky, they have some toxic chemicals in them I am not really fond of, and anytime you use them I feel as if I have to shower before going to bed. Not that showers are a bad thing, but when you are camping and you hit your tired point, you just want to climb into bed and not have to haul all of your shower things down to the bathroom to get cleaned off.

Growing up my mom used to sell S.O.S. and we used that a lot. My grandpa used it on his farm, on his animals and we used it when we went fishing, in the woods for a walk and just played outside around the farm. Now that stuff wasn’t that bad but it was an oil that didn’t really absorb into the skin, so again that left the option of a shower before going to bed.

Again, I am not against showers! Still after a long day, sometimes I just want to crawl into bed and sleep and not have to take the time to shower before doing it.

So when our family discovered our essential oils we were very excited to see if we could find a combination of things that worked for our outdoor annoyances. It was one of the very first things I did mix up on my own. Really it was me who was excited to see if I could come up with something.

I didn’t have to look far for ideas. There are a lot of recipes that friends had used in our online group. I played around with a lot of them. We now have four that we mix up on a regular basis. All of them work fabulous for our family and where we live. They even work where we go camping in the summer. It really just depends upon the mood I am in when I am mixing one up.

We use them from the time it warms up all the way into fall. We use them when we are working in the yard. We use them when we are going for a walk or a bike ride. We use them when we are going swimming. We use them when we are going to sit and enjoy an evening outside. We use them for a walk in the woods to a fishing on the lake.

I do need to make one huge disclaimer for parents who have more than one child! It is important that your children understand that they can not spray their others siblings to make that annoyance go away when they are outside! My daughter sprayed her brother trying to make him go away because he was outdoor with her and he was annoying her! It did not work!

He is still here both inside and outside. They still annoy each other. They still annoy me from time to time. They have an amazing love hate relationship. Just a day or so ago I found myself posting on Facebook offering them to people!

Free to first taker: two children who do nothing but scream, argue, torment, cry, with each other but can’t stand to be apart and refuse to be in different rooms. #WelcomeToSpringBreak

They are so sweet though to each other. Jack David is such a caretaker and is always willing to share. Bella well she has hit preteen years, that is for sure! Still even when they would like to get rid of each other, they can’t tear themselves apart.

So back to the whole outdoor annoyance spray – it is not meant for children to use on their siblings (or parents for that matter). While it will allow the parents to send the children outside and not be eaten alive by the annoyances out there, they always return back to the house to annoy you!

It is a good thing I love my kiddos the way I do! We do use our calming spray a lot though when they are cranky! It really helps to mellow them out and then they are not such an annoyance to themselves, to their siblings and to you!

Heck I even use it on myself when I am feeling anxious, irritated or just in a darn right awful mood. It just has something about it that mellows you out!

So are you getting ready for the warmer weather season? Are you excited to get outside and enjoy the sun and have some fun? How do you plan on defending yourself and your family against the outdoor annoyances that exist in your area? Maybe one of these recipes will be your new go-to? Maybe you already have one! I would love to hear what you use!

DIY Essential Oil Perfume

One of the ways that my Bella and I like to use our essential oils daily is with our DIY perfume. I personally have never been a very floral oriented person. Even when I was younger and did purchase (toxic) perfumes from the stores I didn’t go with florals. I always looked for the vanilla scents (does Victoria Secrets still make their vanilla perfume?). 

I still am not a floral person and I avoid walking through malls and department stores as much as I can. Smelling all of the perfumes and scents that are floating around in there, instant headache. I am sure I am not alone when it comes to that problem. There is no way to know what toxic chemicals you are actually breathing in. When you rid your home of your body of toxic things as much as possible, you start to react to those things much faster.

So Bella and I now make our own non-toxic, essential oil perfumes. She can make hers as florally as she wants and guess what? Even though I am still not 100 perfect a fan, it doesn’t give me an instant headache. It doesn’t make me want to through it out the window. It doesn’t make me freak out and tell them to get rid of it. She is quiet pleased with making her own perfumes, naming her own perfumes and using her own perfumes. 

I am sure when you think of making your own perfume you probably think how in the world do you know what to do, what to use, how much, is there a trick, tip or do I just wing it? In the beginning we just winged it. I do not suggest that you do that, unless you are an aromatherapy scent expert and you have a pretty good idea what would smell good together and why it would smell good together. 

We have a lot of extra bottles in our home. We have talked about one of our favorite things to do with them in the past (scented Epsom salts for the bath). This is now ranking up there, if not surpassing our joy of making bath salts! We use our empty 5 ml bottles to make the essential oil perfumes. 

Now back to what makes a good perfume if you are going to make them yourself. Essential oils all have notes; also known as scent characteristics. There are top, middle and base notes. Basic explanation goes like this: first you will smell the quick-evaporating top notes, then the heart of the perfume, which are the middle notes and finally you will smell the base notes which complement the top and middle notes.

Here is a more detailed description of the different notes: 

• Top Notes: Essential oils that are classified as top notes normally evaporate very fast and typically have anti-viral properties. They tend to be light, fresh and uplifting in nature and are usually inexpensive. Top notes are highly volatile, fast acting, and give the first impression of the blend. However, they are not very long lasting.
• Middle Notes: The bulk of essential oils are considered middle notes and normally give body to the blend and have a balancing effect. The aroma of middle notes are not always immediately evident and may take a couple of minutes to establish their scent. They are normally warm and soft fragrances.
• Base Notes: Essential oils that are classified as base notes are normally very heavy and their fragrance is very solid. It will be present for a long time and slows down the evaporation of the other oils. These fragrances are normally intense and heady. They are normally rich and relaxing in nature and are typically the most expensive of all oils.

So now that you have a general idea of what each essential oil does when it comes to a DIY perfume let’s talk about what you will actually need. There isn’t a lot really. I suggest making sure you have a selection of each kind of essential oil. I also suggest if you haven’t smelled them before, take some time and get to know them and their scent. I know that when you mix them it changes how they smell. Plus when you add them to your body it changes it as well, however if you are putting a custom scent on yourself, you want to like all of the smells.

You also are going to need a 5 ml empty essential oil bottle. You are going to want a carrier oil (any would work but I would pick one that you like, are not allergic to and that is not heavy). If you want to be able to roll it on easily then a roller cover and cap would be ideal. Then you can shake, open and put on your wrists, neck, behind the ears and any place else you would like your custom perfume smell to be. You are also going to want labels and some clear tape. That way you can name your perfume, put it on your bottle and prevent it from smearing off or falling off. After you have put the label on your bottle put the tape over and around the label! We used to do that for the old labels but thankfully don’t need to do that anymore. However if you are struggling for a visual you can head over here to see what we are talking about!

Now this is not a complete list of the top, middle and base notes but it is some of mine and Bella’s favorite to mix and make our own perfumes. If you do not see anything on there you think you would like, if you do a little research there are a lot of lists out there. We have not made any new perfumes in a while now. Bella goes crazy when we pull everything out do make these. She usually makes enough to last a couple months. We are about to the point where we will be making new ones!

Have you taken the time to make your own perfumes with essential oils? What are some of your favorite combinations? Did it smell how you had hoped or do you need to do a little tweaking to it still? Would love to hear from you!

Spring Is In The Air

We are spring cleaning the house and along with the cleaning of the house comes new essential oils in the diffuser.

We take time to get the stale, winter air out of the house.

We take the time to get the stale thoughts and cobwebs out of our mind.

We take time to smell and enjoy a forest just waking up from the winter snow.

We take the time to smell the flowers before they have actually peaked out of the cold, frozen ground.

We clear the cobwebs from the corners of the rooms in the house. We start to clean out the garage to get all the fun toys out for the spring and summer. Warm weather means outdoor play! We are very excited about that this year. We start to pull out the warm weather clothes and start putting away the bulky winter clothes.

I know it is only the second official day of spring. I know that where I live, the likelihood that snow will still visit us is high. I know that I can’t sit out on my porch with coffee in hand in the mornings yet unless i want to be bundled up.

Still we are starting to pull out our spring time diffuser recipe blends. They wake you up. They make you feel like you can already open your windows and enjoy the fabulous spring air.

It isn’t to early to get started with enjoying spring. Maybe one of these recipes will motivate you and get you just as excited for the warm weather as we are in this house!

Do you have a favorite spring time essential oil recipe for your diffuser? Would love to hear about it in the comments below!

Stress Away Roller Giveaway

Monday come back for the start of our March Giveaway!

Come back on the 13th to get entered!

Free daily entry from March 13th-19th!

See you soon!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary

It has been a while since I have really done a face update. What better time to do it than the 1 year anniversary of being on the whole food based nutrtion. Better know as the fruit, veggies and berry capsules around here. Plus 13 months of using the natural face cleanser from Young Living! The past year has changed my face and the life of this family!

WOW is the first thing that comes to mind as I see this image. I look at my face before I started and I see so much sadness. I was in so much pain. My face was not only red, it was swollen. It was painful. I had pustules. I hated being around people. I hated going grocery shopping. I hated going to appointments. I hated going to the kiddos sporting events. I hated going to church. I hated going any place that kids and old people were (for some reason kids have zero fear and love to point out how you look and old people tend to go back to a kids mentality). I hated even going to family and friends.

I used to think hate was a really strong word. I wasn’t a fan of it. I always got after my children when they would use it. I still do actually. Yet as I think back to how I felt and who I was just over a year ago, I hated myself, how I looked and what my life had really become. Plus each time I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, wash my face or wash my hands I was reminded just how awful I looked to others in this world.

Add to all of that, my reflection from my face didn’t even begin to express the physical pain I was dealing with on a daily basis. I was not the person I had hoped to be when I was growing up. I was not the mom I wanted to be. I was not the wife I wanted to be. I was not even the friend I wanted to be. I was at a breaking point a year ago. I was on the verge of having a break down because I could not deal with all of it anymore.

After years and years and years of being in pain and no one being able to physically see it, you get worn down. I couldn’t take pain medications from the doctor or over the counter. We tried different types of things to help and thankfully some did. Most of the time though I ended up having a reaction and needed to stop. I had been using essential oils for three years at this point. They helped, a lot but there were not fully taking care of everything.

I knew I needed more health and wellness in my life, in my families lives. After breaking down, reaching out to my friend Dana, speaking with Jack, it was decided that we were going to be adding the capsules to our lives! Here we are now a year into our change.

Twelve months later: Most of the redness is gone from my face. All of the swelling is gone from my face. I could not give you an actual date of the last time I had pustules from it. My daily pain level has gone from a 10+ down to a 4-6. Our family dynamics have really changed.

We all take time to encourage each other to make healthier choices when it comes to food and drinks. We get outside in the spring, summer, fall and play with each other which is providing us with exercise. We are laughing more and enjoying each other more. We do have a ways to go still but when I look bad to one year ago, we are not the same. We have energy, we have life, we have love and we are using all of it.

We have been very blessed. We have changed our life, our health. We still deal with illness like most people have been but ours has not been nearly as long or as drawn out (thank you God).

Are you at your breaking point? Are you looking for an answer to help change you and what you are dealing with? Take just a couple minutes to watch this quick video where I talk about the changes over the past 12 months! Maybe this is the answer you are looking for. I would love to talk with you!

April The Giraffe

So almost a week ago I saw all the hype about April the giraffe who was in labor and about to give birth. I thought people were nuts for sitting there watching this. Then on Friday the 24th of February I opened it up to see this mama while I was sitting at lunch with Jack. Oh my gosh, I fell in love with this girl and with GiraffeMoji. 

I have my two youngest who ask many times during the day how April and Oliver are doing. We pull the video up of them many times a day, if it isn’t currently streaming on my phone. Since Friday I have pretty much been attached to an outlet or plug so that my phone won’t die. I sleep with her on my phone looking at me. I wake up so many times each night and check on her. I have freaked myself out a few times because my eyes go where I last saw her and when she isn’t there, I panic. I have lost my mind over this girl.

I am putting a warning out, there are a lot of fake sites right now. People streaming from their site and not from Animal Adventure Park’s camera. People are also out there asking for donations to support April and Oliver and their soon to be calf. If you are NOT getting there from giraffemoji or their site, April The Giraffe, be warned that you could possible be donating money to fraudulent sites and not actually supporting April, Oliver and baby. 

If you are wanting to watch April, purchase clothing, support them, get the emojis or learn about any of them April The Giraffe is the site to go to! Anything and everything you want to know about them you can and will find there!

I love that we are using April with the kids. I love that they ask about her and how she is doing. I love that they ask how Oliver is doing. I am thankful that Animal Adventure Park has been able to allow this. It has been amazing and exciting. It has been educational and it has been opening up discussions with the youngest two.

Jack David has said a couple times now, “First we go to John Ball and then we go visit April and Oliver” I have then had to explain to him that April isn’t near us, she is in another state. He then proceeded to explain to me, “I don’t care. I am up for the drive to see April and Oliver.” Well good to know my little man! 

As crazy as it is these things are why we have really started to focus on our health and our business. I have not been in good health. I have not been able to get into a car, plane, train, or bus and just go. We have to make a lot of stops and travel takes a lot longer than it would for most people. I could not just sit because I would be in to much pain and discomfort to do it. 

Our business has changed our health. Our business has changed our life. Our business is what keeps me going. It has given me health. It has made it so my pain and discomfort isn’t like it used to be. I still have bad days but my good days outweighs my bad days! 

The last month of my life has been hard on us as a family. In the last 30 days I have had 3 surgeries. I have had to be in the hospital. Things have not gone as we planned. We thought it was going to be a few days down and back to normal until the next surgery. Instead I had one surgery, an extended hospital stay with an unexpected emergency surgery and then a final planned surgery. 

In the last week I have had some pretty amazing prayer warriors praying for me. Praying that this last surgery would be different. That I would have less pain, less complications and that I would be able to feel their prayers. Guess what? I have felt all of them. God has blessed me this past week, and yet I still feel as if I have lost the last month of my life. 

However even with losing the last month, I have had time to be with my children. I have had time to watch April the Giraffe. I have had time to not work the businesses but the time needed to heal and be miserable. The best thing though is that during this time, when Jack has had to take time off work without pay, we are still getting paid from our businesses and it is bridging the gap which we were missing.

I am truly thankful that I took the time to look at a video of April. It has brought my focus back to what matters in this life. It has brought my focus back to what is important to this family. We are not perfect. We are not rich. We are moody. We are human. We are silly. We are fun. We are building a life of health and education for our whole family. We are truly blessed and if you are in need of a blessing, talk to us! We can pray for you, we can talk to you. We can help educate you about giraffes and capsules and oils and prayer and its power. 

Hopefully you will take a moment, click on a link and watch a few moments of April. She is beautiful.

Young Living Cedarwood Essential Oil

What do you know about Young Living Cedarwood Essential Oil?

For us it was one of the first essential oils we had in the house after our Premium Wholesale Kit. We use it for focus. We use it for relaxing the brain at night for sleep.

Cedarwood (Cedrus atlantica) has a warm, woodsy aroma that creates a comforting, uplifting experience. Use Cedarwood oil to add its invigorating scent to your life through aromatic and topical uses.

Young Living Cedarwood essential oil is a great way to enhance your favorite beauty products. You’ll want to use it for its fresh, earthy aroma, in addition to its ability to smooth the look of skin and shine hair. You can also create a calming yet powerful environment when you diffuse this oil or add it to massage oil blends.

You can find Cedarwood in Young Living products such as Grounding™, Highest Potential™, and Brain Power™ essential oil blends and Cel-Lite Magic™ massage oil.

Cedarwood Essential Oil Uses:
Smooth skin by adding Cedarwood to your favorite lotions and skin care products.

Place a few drops in your shampoo and conditioner for shinier-looking hair.

Pamper yourself with an at-home scalp massage. Warm a few drops between your hands and rub into your scalp for healthy-looking hair.

Create custom scents featuring Cedarwood on its own or as a base for your own signature scent. Try combining it with essential oils such as Tea Tree, Neroli, or Bergamot.

Enjoy the outdoors annoyance free with Cedarwood blended with oils such as Citronella, Rosemary, Tea Tree, Myrtle, Clove, or Lemongrass.

EarthKosher Certified EarthKosher Certified

How to Use
Topical: Apply 2–4 drops directly to desired area. Dilution not required, except for the most sensitive skin. Use as needed.
Aromatic: Diffuse up to 1 hour 3 times daily.

Caution: Keep out of reach of children. For external use only. Keep away from eyes and mucous membranes. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult a health professional prior to use. Avoid direct sunlight or UV rays for up to 12 hours after applying product.
Storage: Keep in a cool, dark place.

Ingredients

Cedrus atlantica† (Cedarwood) bark oil
†100% pure, therapeutic-grade essential oil

Information from Young Living Site

Have you ever used Cedarwood? Before the youngest two head off to school in the morning we put Cedarwood on the ball of the big toe. That is directly linked with the brain and it helps with their focus. 

Before they head to bed at night we put Cedarwood over the whole foot. The reason for this is because it is then helping to relax their whole body. We also do two drops of both Cedarwood and lavender in the diffuser before they go to bed. 

Cedarwood is also mentioned in the Bible. You can find it in 1 & 2 Kings, Job, Psalm, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Leviticus, Numbers, 2 Samuel, Song of Songs, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Jeremiah, Hosea, Zechariah, Ezra and Zephaniah. 

A tid-bit I learned about pencils. They used to make pencils out of real Cedarwood. The reason was to help people focus when they were doing work! How neat is that. They knew that Cedarwood helped people with their mental focus and used that. Too bad they still don’t do that for all pencils out there.

What is your favorite use of Cedarwood? Do you use it daily? Occasionally? I would love to hear from you!

Struggle Is Real

I tend to share a lot of what goes on in our personal life here. I can’t help it. This is who I am. I am really starting to love the person who I was created to be. Part of that person, shares and is open and real.

In Bible study we are reading the book FerVent by Priscilla Shirer.

Hi Ladies,

Last week was strategy 2: your focus.

I just got done watching church from home. This is the fourth week I have missed church, 2nd week I have watched it. First two weeks I didn’t even think about it, my focus was distracted.

Since my surgery on the 30th and then again on the 6th I have allowed myself to get sidetracked. I have stopped being fervent in prayer. I still pray, but I haven’t been writing them down and praying The Word the way I was. Why? I can’t even tell you! I have just lost my focus, allowed life to get in the way and take over and I haven’t been doing what I had created as my habit in the mornings.

I wasn’t even making excuses for what was going on because I didn’t see what was going on. That is until this mornings sermon. I have been dealing with demonic disturbances and I have not even seen it, but I can say I have been feeling it.
Here are a few of the things that have been going on since the 6th: kicking child out of the house for stealing, finding out he stole much more than I thought and has once again put our financial life in jeopardy, the lies going on in my head that I should have known and kept things safer with him in the house (mind you our door has a lock on it, everything valuable was always locked in our room even while we were home; he would have needed to break into our room to get any of it and did – our window lock had to be replaced), one illness after another, feeling as if I am not following Gods leading for Friday nights and I am over my head and I don’t fit in and shouldn’t be there, and this is just some of it.

I have been a very easy target in the last couple of weeks. Last night at 2:55 AM I was up reading, “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1. Then it really hit me ~ the devil can not hear my thoughts, reading focuses on God but doesn’t shoo the demons out of my home. So today I am speaking verses out loud and getting the devil out of my home.

My 3D glasses are on. I know who my Enemy is. I know who has been shifting my focus. I know who is going to help fill me and bring me back to The Word daily. I know I am going to be praying The Word with the Holy Spirit.

Even reading strategy 2 and knowing all of this the Enemy came in and had a stronghold over my home! Even knowing the demons shift our focus and can manipulate and blur of vision. It really makes me mad that I fell into this trap, this manipulation, this lie and I am now fighting with the Power that is within me!

Ladies, I am praying for each of you! Praying that life’s busyness, that the Enemy hasn’t weaseled the way into your life over this past week. The Enemy is always right there waiting for a way to sneak in, especially when we are pushing so hard back against him.

Get into The Word. Pray with the Power of the Holy Spirit within you! Claim it – Believe it!

We are talking about strategy 3 next week and I am ready! My Passion is back, My Focus is back and I can’t wait to get into who I AM in Him!
Amy

Today is Wednesday and today I should have been at Bible study. I was not. Yesterday was Valentines Day and Jack and I got the flu. Jack David had it over the weekend. We thought we were in the clear and we were wrong. Started for Jack early in the morning Tuesday and for me about 10 AM. It was the best Valentine’s Day ever (can you hear the sarcasm). Thankfully for me, it wasn’t the full flu. I had the aches and pains (still do) and some other problems but I didn’t throw up. 

When you have an autoimmune diagnosis, recovery from any sickness is rough. It takes longer than most other people. You are worn out longer. You just feel it and live it for about three times as long. I am starting to feel better from the flu but I am still dealing with the pain from the stints. I attribute my quick healing to our capsules! The last time I had the flu I was stuck in the bathroom and bed for over a week. Everyone said oh it is a quick one, well quick for them, not for me!

I banished the devil from my home again today. I am done with him being involved with things in my life. I am a child of God and He rules my home! No more negative. No more disappointment. No more blurry vision. I know that the Enemy wants us focused on anything other than Christ.  

You see the every day things can get in our way and that is what the Enemy wants from us. Focus on all of the things not of Christ. Focus on things you can’t control. Focus on the illness, the injury, the unexpected pregnancy, the money, the way to keep up with your neighbor, the bills, the job, the friends, the night out, any problems that keep you from focusing on the Lord.

A friend at Bible study made a point that makes so much sense. It does comes up in the Bible, especially in Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God.”

Life is full of struggles. The question you have to ask yourself is are you going to worry, are you going to let the Enemy win and distract you from what you are called to do or are you going to pray, go to God and focus on Him?

Where are you at right now? I would love to hear about it!