Essential Oils ..... who knew?

Day 3 and I'm still here.

     Before I address essential oils, I'd like to respond to a post from Melissa. She posted on the blog about "Comfort Food" and indicated that people often don't understand why she'd make her own bread.

     In today's economy, with the financial downturn and so many people watching their pennies and out of work. Making your own bread is, not only, more healthy for you, but it's a great way to save money. The lowest prices I've seen on bread is $1.50 a loaf and can increase to over $4.00 a loaf, or the more, for more healthy bread. If you have a family of 4, you're probably going through 1-2 loaves of bread a week. Let's average the loaf of bread at $2.00 and assume that you're using 1 loaf a week. That's $104.00 a year that you're paying for bread. Do the math for your family, I think you'll be surprised at what your bread costs are.

     You can make a loaf of bread for about $.50 a loaf and that's if you add eggs and milk, otherwise the cost drops to about $.30 or less. Do you get the picture? If you'd like to cut back on your expenses, add a little money to your savings account or have your family eat more healthy, you might want to start making your own bread. Besides, there's nothing more satisfying than seeing a beautiful loaf of bread cooling on your kitchen counter.

     Now, let's talk about essential oils. My cutie girl niece, Alyssa, started working for a Utah based company, doTERRA, that supplies essential oils. We've probably all heard about oils, but never really known what to do with them. There is a HUGE following for essential oils. Did you know that?

     I've used oils for quite a while in my baking and cooking. You can achieve a much more intense flavor with just a drop of oil in a recipe, but I'd never considered using them for anything other than that. Mostly because I didn't know anything about it.

     My cute friend Mandi dropped by last week and I happened to have a sample box of doTERRA oils sitting on my desk, lemon oil, peppermint oil and lavendar oil. She commented that she'd started using doTERRA's oils for health reasons and had achieved amazing results. She's had asthma since she was a child and started using an oil called "Breath". Just a drop of oil, rubbed into her chest, every morning and she said that this is the first time in her life that she feels like she can take a full breath. Well.....I happen to have a cute sister-in-law, Tami, who's also suffered with asthma since childhood, and I know how she's struggled. I ordered a bottle, had it shipped directly to her, gave her the same instructions that Mandi told me and guess what? She said exactly the same thing that Mandi said, this is the first time she's ever been able to take a complete breath.

     Mandi mentioned that she uses lavendar oil to aid in her sleeping. She's been one of those sleepers that has trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep. Guess what? I have 3 of those in my family, so I gave a bottle of lavendar oil to Danny with instructions to place a drop on the tip of his finger, rub his fingers together, then rub the oil into his temples. Mandi said that she could feel her body start to relax so she could fall asleep and stay asleep.

     Of course, the next day, I jumped on Danny to see how successful the lavendar oil was and he said, it was O.K.. Not exactly what I'd been expecting. Two days later he told me that it was amazing. He puts the lavendar oil on, feels himself relax and goes to sleep. He sleeps deeply and soundly, but not drugged. He can still hear his 4 month old when he cries, can get up for potty breaks or the baby and go straight back to sleep. He said he gets a great nights sleep and never feels drugged or sluggish in the morning.

     Well, Mandi told me more about other oils, but we don't have the time or space. I'd just suggest that this is something you might want to look into. Give it a little study and see what you find out. The results I've seen are good, better than good. I love the idea of getting a good result with something natural and drug free. I would never suggest that you use oils in place of doctor prescribed medications. Mandi and Tami keep their inhalers, as they should, but there may be a place for natural oils in your life and family.

     Feeling a little sluggish? Use a drop of pepperment oil rubbed into the back of your neck. Mandi swears by it. Who couldn't use an energy boost mid day?

     Well, that's it for today. I'm going to get a couple more bottles of lavendar oil for my other 2 insomniacs. I'll let you know how it goes.......

Tomorrow's post will be about grilling and cooking with herbs. I have this "crazy good" herb marinated beef. I'm LOVING it!