Family Happenings in February

To be such a short month, February has certainly been full!!  We started out the month visiting Opa for his birthday........his special day is actually in January, but they were out of town.  So, we just extended the celebrating!! 

February also brought a new twist to our homeschooling.....we added art classes.  Both of my girls love to create, so we decided it would be a good time to really nurture that.  I am almost as excited about this as they are. These first two pictures were taken from their very first art class.  They studied gradients and each made their own gradient piece.  I know I'm a bit partial but I think they did an excellent job. The next picture is from their most recent class when they made Picasso faces. So far art class is a big hit!!! 

My girls are at such precious ages.  Ava is 8 and it is already evident that she is going to be a very special young lady.  She's growing up way faster than I'd like for her to, but I am so proud of her. And Miss Aubrey, who is 5, has been the very best completion for our family harmony.  I love watching her discover things & try to do what big sister does.   I didn't know it, but she had a conversation with Gammy about a trinket box & a keepsake box.  After discussing what these are for she told Gammy that she really wanted one of her own.  So, you know what's coming, right?  Gammy got Ava & Aubrey their own keepsake box.  To make it even more special, she wrote inside the lid of each one.  Now the girls each have their own special place to keep their treasures!!

Right after the middle of the month it is time for another birthday celebration.  We went to visit Mawmaw & wish her a happy birthday. Allie & her family were there too.

February has been a very cold month.  The last couple of weeks of the month we were hit with some big weather makers.  First we had a freezing rain & ice storm.  It did change over to snow so the girls enjoyed trying to catch snowflakes to taste and "ice skating" on our concrete.  Doesn't take much to get us excited around here!!! 

We ended the month by celebrating Pawpaw's 70th birthday with a surprise party!!!  

I have to say, February has been a great month for our family!  Until next time!

So, I Got My Starter Kit..........NOW WHAT????

So, you've been researching essential oils and which ones to buy and how to get started.  If you're like me, you've chosen Young Living because they truly are set apart from ALL other oil companies out there!!!  In the months before I bought my kit, I did a lot of research.  I found that I loved lots of things about Young Living.  But what separates them from the competition is this......

 Young Living's exclusive seed to seal process consists of  five steps.  Young Living owns their owns their own farms.  We also work Co-op farms......our experts go & work with these farms to make sure that they are also operating to our standards.  

So, after researching & learning about various companies, you purchased your Premium Starter kit!!!  I remember distinctly the day I purchased mine!  I was giddy with excitement.........could not contain myself.  When my kit arrived I had a varied array of emotions.........excitement, intimidation, nervousness, excitment again!!  I immediately tore into my box & started opening stuff.  But I know several people who are intimidated & overwhelmed.  I've even known a few who let the box set unopened for a few days/weeks.  AND THAT'S OKAY!!!  My point with this post is to hopefully make everyone feel more at ease about what to do WHEN your kit arrives.  It doesn't have to be super scary!!         

So, when your kit & you open the box, the most important thing is to read your labels.  Everything you need to know about your essential oils is on the bottle.  These oils can be used aromatically, topically, and some can even be used internally. (***By the way, I ONLY recommend using Young Living's essential oils internally.***)  Some oils can be used "neat" which means straight out of the bottle with no carrier oil necessary, while others need to be diluted for use. For your topical use there are three most popular points for application:  behind your ears, wrists, and the bottom of your feet.  These are pulse points and vitaflex points.   Moving on to using them aromatically, the diffuser that comes with your kit is perfect for using your oils aromatically.  Aromatic use very beneficial and fast acting.  The molecules of the essential oils are so tiny that they penetrate quickly.  Inhalation can trigger numerous healing responses & can also heighten your senses!!  Finally you can ingest these oils.  PLEASE just make sure that you read your labels...........not all of the Young Living Essential Oils are ingestable.  There are several options as to how to take the oils internally.  You can add them to a shot of milk or water.  You can put them in a capsule.  You can put them in a spoon of honey.  You can put them directly under your tongue.  And you can cook/bake with them.  The possibilities are endless!!!    I'm hoping to eventually get  a post about the individual oils in the Premium Starter Kit.  So be on the look out for that!!!

 Besides reading the labels, the other most important piece of advice I'll give you is to go slow when you firsts receive your kit.  I'm speaking from experience here.  :)  When my kit arrived I went nuts & tried to use every oil within a few days.  If essential oils are new to you, you'll want to take it slow & try maybe one or two oils per day for the first week or so.  After your body has acclimated, you'll be good to go.  I lose count of how many oils I use each day now!!!  To start out, I'd recommend getting the diffuser out & start using it first.  My personal opinion & preference would be to start with Thieves or Purification.  But that is your call!!!  So, what are you waiting for..........go open your kit & prepare to be amazed!!!! 

Thr!ve 2015

Thrive!!!!  What does that mean to you? To me it means to grow abundantly.....whether in our personal life or in our business life or in our spiritual life.  The dictionary definition for thrive is "to grow or develop successfully : to flourish or succeed".  I think we all understand this concept.  And I believe we all want to thrive & that God made us to thrive. 

A year ago when I signed up to get my YL starter kit, I had no intentions of starting a business......little did I know that a different path was before me as soon I started sharing what we were using.  As I started seeing improvement in some areas of our life, I started telling people about it.  Before long I had several friends & family wanting to sign up as well.  And so my little team was born.  I'm so blessed to have Elizabeth as my upline on this journey.  She has been a wealth of information & has had endless patience with me.    Being on her team has allowed me to have invaluable resources at my fingertips.  One of those resources being Elizabeth's upline, Monique.  This lady has a huge heart & has had huge success with Young Living.  Her ultimate goal?  To help others find the oils & to help other business builders have the tools they need to build their businesses.  Part of her vision came to fruition at the beginning of this month & I'm so thankful that I got to go & participate in it!!

The Thr!ve Conference was held in Nashville, Tennessee at the Opryland Hotel.  What an experience!!!!  So many people there to share their wisdom & perspective.  We got to set through sessions on business growth & sessions about YL products!!  My head was truly about to explode from all the information!!!

Besides all the information from the conference itself, I was also able to spend time with Elizabeth.  Since she is not local to me, this was a huge treat!!  Just getting to talk with her helps inspire me!!  We were able to talk about products & business strategies & even just about life in general. 

I was thrilled to be able to meet Monique in person.  I have been her facebook friend from the beginning of my YL journey & I've followed her posts & feel like I "know" her.  So, it was great to actually be able to meet her & talk face to face. 

I prefer to stay behind the camera.  But for Thrive I made an exception.  Elizabeth took our pictures with the rank signs that I had outside of the conference area.  My current rank with YL is Executive!!  I am so thankful for these oils & the journey that they've put me on!!  I'm ready the THRIVE in 2015!!!!  Who's with me??

18 Years............feels like yesterday!!!!

 Time flies when you're having fun, right!!!  Well, that couldn't be more true.  In many ways it feels like it was just yesterday that Jim & I got married.  In other ways, it feels as though we've always been together!!  In January we celebrated 18 years as husband & wife.  What a blessing it has been!!  I look back at our wedding pictures & we look like babies!!  But we took on the world & have never looked back.  When we first started out I was finishing my teaching degree & Jim was a brick mason.  He was ready to launch his own brick business.  During this time he decided that he wanted to finish a degree.  And his love for biology & vet medicine flourished.  Before I knew it we he was applying to Auburn Veterinary School.  That brought about lots of changes for us........the move alone was huge!!  I had never lived anywhere but Athens. We spent 4 years in Auburn while Jim went to vet school.  I also went back to cosmetology school.  Then I finished out my time in Auburn working in a hair salon.  He graduated & we moved to Prospect, Tennessee.  He worked at a vet clinic in Pulaski & I worked at a hair salon right next door.  It was so great..........we got to ride to work together almost everyday!!!  In 2005 we discovered that we were expecting Ava.  I say all the time, if we had known how much fun kids were going to be, we wouldn't have waited so long to get started!!  We were so excited to be having a sweet baby girl!! Shortly after Ava was born we decided to sell our house in Prospect & build a house in Elkmont.  While we were building we moved back into the house we lived in when we first married!!!  We rented it while building our new house.  Then in 2009 we were expected our second little bundle.  That was also a very joyous day when we found out it was another girl!!!  PINK PINK PINK!!!  During these early baby years, Jim started working at a clinic in Athens & decided we needed to live in Athens.  With 2 young kids it would be so much more convenient for me to be close to town for running errands & such.  It would also allow Jim to be on the road & away from us less. Then the time came for Jim to build & open his own clinic.  Eastside Animal Hospital opened in the fall of 2010.  We've been blessed by Jim's work & it has made it so that I get to stay home with our girls.  After a few years of city life Jim decided he had had enough........he needed animals & he needed to be able to stretch his legs some.  So we bought a some land in Ardmore, Tennessee.  For the past two years we've been getting our little farm the way we want it.  And LIFE IS GREAT...........wouldn't change a thing!!!  

Here are just a few pictures of our family date for our 18th anniversary!!  We laughed when the girls asked if they could go on a date with us.......but then we decided that we'd like nothing better than to have our girls with us to celebrate!!!  We had supper at PF Chang's.  This is a family favorite!!!  Of course, that is where we got some pictures.........while waiting for our table!!

The girls always pose with the horse!!!  It is tradition!!   

These 3 are my world............my greatest blessings!!! 

Then each of the girls wanted to take a picture with me in it...........

Little did we know that Daddy had a big surprise for us girls..........he had made reservations for us to have dessert at The Melting Pot.  This was a first for the girls & I think they loved it!!!  

I don't remember the name, but we got some kind of s'mores pot & some kind of turtle pot..........DELISH!!!!  

This should be against the law!!!!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm..............

This is the BEST life ever for us!!!  Thank you so much for taking a peek at our 18 years!!! 

How Do Essential Oils Work?

Hello again, everyone!!!  Well, some of you are probably considering trying essential oils, but I'll bet you're asking yourself, "how do they work?"  I'm gonna try to answer that for you today.  I started using essential oils one year ago.  And before I finally purchased my starter kit I did months and months and months of research.  I wanted to make sure that I was getting the very best offered.  I wanted to make sure the product was pure and unadulterated.  What's funny is that for my whole life (like most of you, I'm sure), I had taken Tylenol and Motrin and prescriptions for various things and it never occured to me to research that.  I think this is true for most people.  When we're looing for a natural alternative, we pour ourselves into researching every detail of something and yet we fill ourselves with chemicals and garbage in our diets on a daily basis.  It is kind of silly and messed up, but C'est la vie!! 

So, back to our essential oils.  To understand how they work, we must know what they are.  Essential oils are the vital fluids (or life blood) of plants. They are called "essential" because they are just that..........essential for the plant to live! These oils are made up of tiny molecules.....so small that they can make their way into every cell of the body and can therefore administer therapy at the most fundamental, cellular levels in our bodies.

Essential oils are completely different than our cooking oils. Our cooking oils are fatty oils and their molecules are just fat. They cannot get through and into the cells.  But these essential oils are designed to do just that.  

And did you realize that people have always used essential oils.  There are many oils referenced in the Bible.  Frankincense and Myrrh were two of the gifts brought to the baby Jesus.  And think about the creation.  God put Adam and Eve in an aromatic garden.  These oils are used aromatically, topically, and internally.  

Now for some more science.  Are you ready?  Remember that I said that essential oils are made of TINY molecules?  Well, because of that they are very concentrated.  One drop of essential oil contains trillions of molecules.  We have tons of cells in our body, but one drop of essential oil is enough to cover every cell in our body.  It's amazing, isn't it!?! Okay, do you have your thinking cap on?  It's about to get a little more complicated.  Molecules are made up of compounds.......I'm going to share with you three compounds found in essential oils.  Ready?

Firsts we'll talk about Phenols.  Phenols clean the cell receptor sites.  Why is this important?  If your receptor sites aren't clean, the cell can't communicate.  If cells can't communication, malfunction occurs.  Nobody wants that.  So the phenols come in and create an atmosphere on the receptor sites where unfriendly agents cannot live.  Which essential oils contain phenols?  Anise (90%), Clove (80%), Basil (70%), Oregano (70%), Thyme (48%), Calamus (30%), Cinnamon (25%), and Cassia (8%).

Now we'll talk about Monoterpenes.   These are found in most essential oils. Monoterpenes can reprogram miswritten information in our cellular memory.  What happens if we have improper cellular coding?  Cells malfunction and sickness results.  So, we want our cells to be healthy and properly coded, right?  So, here is a list of essential oils that contain monoterpenes:  Grapefruit (92%), Angelica (80%), Frankincense (77%), Cypress (77%), Galbanum (75%), Pine (60%), Rose of Sharon (54%), Juniper (54%), Spruce (50%), Peppermint (11%).  

Finally, we will talk about Sesquiterpenes.  These deliver oxygen molecules to the cells.........(just like hemoglobin does in the blood) and  they erase miswritten codes in cellular memory.  So sesquiterpenes are like a double whammy to harmful agents that invade the body.  One part disables and the other parts stops growth!!  It is crazy amazing!!!  Here are some essential oils containing sesquiterpenes:  Cedarwood (98%), Vetiver (96%), Sandalwood (95%), Patchouli (85%), Ginger (70%), Myrrh (60%), Spikenard (50%), and Black Pepper (47%).

So what is the bottom line?  Essential oils simply restore the body back to its natural state of health and balance.  

I will end this post by thanking Monique McLean.  She is in my upline with Young Living.  I have learned so much by following her.  The information in this post came from my learnings from Monique.  The factual information came from Healing Oils of The Bibe by David Steward, Ph.D.  

Thanks so much for reading!!  I hope I've helped you understand a little better how these oils work.  As always, please comment here with any questions or you can email me (ericalovell@att.net) or find me on Facebook & send me a message!  Have a great day!!

It's My Oily Birthday!!!!!

Who likes to celebrate??  I DO!!!  Well, boy do I have something to celebrate this month!!!  It was 1 year ago on February 8th that I ordered my Young Living Premium Starter Kit!!!  And what a year it has been!!  This has definitely been a change for the better for my family.  We use these oils daily & for EVERYTHING!!  Seriously.........remember a few years ago when the smart phones & apps were becoming so popular, there was a commercial "there's an app for that."  Well, the same can be said for oils. It seems that every time I hear someone talking about something bothering them or something they're dealing with, I find myself wanting to help by saying, "There's an OIL for that!!!!"  

When my kit arrived, I was like a kid at Christmas. It was a very exciting day!!  I couldn't wait for someone to sniffle or cough or have something to hurt just so I could pull my oils out!!  Seriously!!  

 

If you're interested, you can go here to ready My Essential Oil Story.  I wrote this a couple of months ago.  The thing is, as I'm on this journey, I could keep adding to this story everyday!!!  

 

I still LOVE to be able to use these oils to help others.  I keep some in my purse & listen for opportunities to pull them out & use on friends & family!!  My mom says that she can tell when I'm talking about these oils........my face lights up!! And I truly feel that way......it is such a bright spot for me to feel confident in sharing a wonderful & natural way with others!!  

 

Well, let's get back to the celebration..............If you have been hearing all the great things about these amazing & life changing oils & are interested in starting your own oily journey, I'd love to help you do that!!!

Through the 28th of February I have some very special gifts to offer to anyone who chooses to get their Premium Starter Kit through me!!  I promise you it will be a decision you will not regret!!  My only regret with these oils is that I didn't find them SOONER!!!  

Below are some Premium Starter Kit options that are available!!  Please comment on this post or email me at ericalovell@att.net or find me on Facebook & message me there!!!