More Esential Oil Pondering

While life isn't perfect with our 11 yo, it is SO much better than three months ago, or even two.  Here are a few examples of change.  Keep in mind this is ongoing improvement.  

First example, I spoke at a MOPS meeting today and left all 6 kids at home.   It is amazing that I came home and no one was screaming and yelling and 11 yo was not setting.   He wasn't happy and hadn't done what he was suppose to but, he wasn't raging or even sulled up like a blow up bear.  I was pleased.

I then started to discuss his choices with him.  He was yelling and I was calm.  When life was rough I struggled to be calm.  With him calm so much more it is easier for me to deal.  I talked, he yelled, I kept asking him why he was yelling, he finally calmed enough to talk.   Calming enough to talk is amazing.  Usually he is down for the count when he looses it.  He didn't loose it to the rage level even.   He is now doing school. 

Last night he got busted for again holding cats.  He isn't being mean on purpose but in part it is control, he holds and won't let go, making them dance or just be held.   He isn't suppose to.  So I told him 100 times, "I will not hold cats anymore."   Amazing he didn't blow up.  He wasn't happy.  That was an appropriate response.  He was mad.   Dad told him to get ready for bed.  He instead decided to whip out some of his sentences.  I think he got to 18 or so before was again told to get ready for bed.  He took his pad upstairs and wrote, getting busted by girls for writing in the dark even.  That was again amazing.  He came down proud of what he had done.  He was over 50.  He worked and was almost done before I left to speak.   No rage, not procrastination, just did it, with a joyful spirit!   Such a blessing! 

The chattering has lessened.  He still processes and thinks out loud.  It either isn't as bad as it was the first week or so after I saw attitude improvement.   He still likes to hear the sound of his voice.  He still seems to think out loud a lot.  He is getting better with even his outside thinking being less random and scattered.  

Here is what we are doing morning and night:  Balance, Serenity and Lavender on the back of his neck.  One drop each in that little dip when they bend over.   I let him rub it in.   I then give him his choice of oil to 'smell'.  Usually he picks citrus.  The WildOrange is his favorite, but we are out, so he goes with Lemon most of the time.  He did try Peppermint, but found it to strong straight.  I dropped the last drop of Lavender this morning.  I have a tiny bottle I can use out of, but will do without and see if it changes attitude.   I will have some ordered next week.  I also have the diffuser in the school room and try to run it when he is doing school.   I may look into getting one for the living room also since new one does school in here.   I use a drop or two of Balance, Serenity and Lemon.  Smells wonderful!   If you are check out the links about and reading you see even the Lemon and Wild Orange are mood enhancers and stress relievers.  I find it interesting that he loves to eat grapefruit and oranges. 

I really have such a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that these Essential Oils help.  How can something so simple and natural does such great things?    I don't know, don't understand, I just see the difference and am grateful!    I was willing to try them because nothing else had worked, but didn't really feel I would see much difference.  Any improvement would be welcome though!  

I really would love to share and talk essential oils as I am so learning and so excited to share.  Yes, I am selling them, well I'm a distributor and if you want I will order for you.  It may seem like I am pushing them, I'm not, I'm just excited at what I am seeing and what I am learning and hearing from others.   Join me and discuss it I would love to hear your story good and bad.  What can you teach me?   What web sites are good?  

 

Puppy Setting

My son and DIL have a new puppy.  Problem is that DIL and grands are visiting family in AR and OH.   Puppy is very very personal and lonely.   She seems to have found the way to our house.  We took her home and stopped up hole the first few times.  She would get out when kids were playing out side.  Then she showed up on our front porch.  She got out of their yard, and into our yard.   At that point I gave up.  She can stay here until they get home.   Then maybe she will go home.  She IS making herself comfortable and at home. 

 

Our Catahoula tends to sleep in strange positions.  This one seems to be made of the same material.

 

Anyone say mud?   Just to give you and idea of size the white paw in the picture is Grizzly.  

 

 This is one of the two porch chairs that double as dog beds.  She has made herself at home as you can see.

 

 Then this morning there was this picture?  Kids call her the astronaut dog.  She had managed to get this jar over her head.   :)

 Yes, we did rescue her.  After pictures of course!

Since I have no grand kids around to spoil and send home to parents I am doing the next best thing.... grand dogs!  

I Got Brave....

I went back to the owl blind.  I took the ranger and the ladder again, without dogs.   I first climbed up using the ladder.  I found two babies....

 

 Getting pics from that position  was hard so I backed the ranger up put the ladder in the back and climbed on it.  I then used the flash on my camera and got these pics:    The "hat" on the top owl is some of the old carpet that at one time lined the whole deer blind. 

 Aren't they cool!   I was amazed and awed.  :) 

I must admit I was sorta bummed I didn't see any adult owls.  I was worried they had left them.  I felt better as I was driving off one of the adults flew up from a tree near by. 

After that I made a circle on around. I found a pair of quail.  I am thrilled to see them.  We use to have a lot but drought took a horrible toll on them.   I saw a single on the front side also so maybe we will have some raise this year. 

 As I was coming back to the house the sun was playing hide and seek in the clouds.  I thought it was pretty. 

Walking and Essencial Oils

I am working at again working on walking.  It is an area I struggle with.  I know in part besides not enjoying it as there are things I need/want to do here, like chat.   I have struggled with leaving my kids while I walk as 11 yo always caused issues and I would come home to them wanting to duct tape him to the ceiling fan or windmill wheel or other strange places.  Seriously he could push buttons faster than most people type.   If I was ever out of focus or contact he had one to 5 siblings mad and screaming at him.  Makes it hard to focus on exercise when you are dealing with attitude.  It is also draining.  

One of the things I am doing on my walk is take a picture of something that I find that is beautiful, or at least eye catching. 

This is what I saw yesterday. 

Then today I saw this catclaw in bloom.  I thought it was pretty.

In other news I got some grape vine cuttings a little over a month ago.  We dipped them in root hormone then stuck them in one of my garden beds.  I have kept them watered.  Many are leaving out!   I hope we have enough to share with several people.   I am excited to see a touch of green showing on my thumb.  :)  

 More on the essential oil journey.   I am still amazed at the changes I see in my 11 yo.  In part his changes are the reason I can go on a walk and come home without the issues.  He is caught up in school, passing everything.  He still isn't reading his lessons.   He has a test tomorrow so we will see how that goes.  Those usually send him spiriling out of control.   He isn't dry every morning, but is more days than not.   It is hard to capture the change in him in words.  It is like an onion that layers have been peeled off.  The layers of oppositional defiance seem to have been peeled away.  What I see now is impulse control issues.  We are working on them.  He likes to hear his voice. He thinks out loud.  We are working on taking every thought captive.  Learning to think inside his head not externally.   Today he wanted to walk with me.  I use my walk as time to meditate and talk to God.  I told him he could if he was quiet.   I figured if he chatted I would send him home, he knew the way.  He maybe said 10 words on our walk.  I was shocked.  It was a happy shocked but shocked.  

I made 11 yo a roller ball container of the blend with fractionated coconut oil.  I really thought if it lasted a week he would be doing good.  Surprisingly the roller container I made me for my hands is much closer to gone than his.    I made my new one a roller ball also.  Hers for focus but mostly for boo-boos as she needs comfort on every tiny ouch.  This way she can roll on her own special blend of healing and calming. I put lots of lavender in hers.   Today I made one for 12 yo.  She wanted it for bug bites and well because others had one.  I want to wait until next month to order more oils to play with.  They are $$$$  so I have to choose careful and only get a few.  I will order for anyone that wants some.  Or share a tiny bottle if you wan to experiment.  I am finding that longer  we use them the more results I see. 

On our adoption front we are waiting on lawyers and a court date to be done.  We are all excited!   Her placement has been the hardest not from her actions but from strange things that popped up.  She has been and still is a very each child.  She has an amazing sweet spirit.  I see her as a mixture of Pollyanna and the unsinkable Molly Brown.  Yes, I know I have another friend much like that.   :)   She sees and wants to believe the best in everyone. When she gets hurt she shrugs her shoulders and goes on.  When she gets angry she is over it in a few minutes.  If she was in the wrong usually saying she was sorry and wanting a hug.  Such an amazingly sweet spirit!

Essencial Oils

My 11 yo is difficult.   Many know that, some see him as cute.  Day in day out it is a battle to get school done.  To get chores done.  He yells and stomps and for a while was throwing his glasses across the room.   I know some of you are struggling to see this behaviour in him.  :)  I have videos.  

About a month ago a friend ask if I had thought of using essential oils.  I had never even knew that oils might help emotional out burst or other issues like ADHD.   I was willing to try.   I would have seriously considered trying anything at that point in life. :)   She gave me a tiny vial of oil.   Told me to try it on his shirt, pillow just a drop.  I used it for a few days and really felt that it was impacting.  Not a huge change but maybe a little.  Enough that I was willing to order a couple of different blends.  

Those that know me know I spend hours reading and researching anything.  I spent the time I was using the oils reading and researching.   So I had decided what oils I wanted to order.  The company that my friend had oils from was doTERRA.  I ordered Serenity and Balance.  I discovered you can buy baking clay at the hobby shop and make pendents.  So I bought some.  We made some.  Kids loved making.  Then we add a drop of oil or a drop of several oils to them.  The kids love doing it.  I started seeing improvement in others.  Or think I am seeing improvement :)   Sixteen yo boy is getting school done earlier in the day.   Today he said he was having trouble focusing.  I know he didn't oil his pendent this morning.  I suggested he try that.  He went and did it.   Seventeen yo is passing more stuff on the first try, including test!   Which is just amazing.   She is also getting done faster. 

A week rocked by, my friend invited me to a class to tell you about them let you smell and hope you will join.  :)  I spent that week researching oil companies and products and quality and lots of other things along those lines.   I liked most of what I read.  I don't like that it is a MLM company, but such is life.   I do like the reviews I found for the oils.  Dh and I talked it over and decided to join.  In joining I went ahead and got a bigger kit and a diffuser. 

Kit came in late last week.  I have shared a lot of little bottles of oil with friends.  I continue to oil 11 yo daily, morning and night.  Funny thing he likes it.  He doesn't fight me on it.  He has a pendent he made, it is a :) which I thought was an interesting choice from my angry young man.   Changes I see are a less intense anger, glasses haven't flown since we started this.  He has been dry 6 out of 7 nights. which is a new record, and an added blessing.  He still wasn't doing his school and it was a battle.  Yesterday I finally decided to see how the diffuser worked.  I put it in the school room near his desk.   I used a mixture of the two blends I have been using on him.   He had LOTS of behind school to do from not doing it last week.  If he doesn't do it he doesn't play.  I was sniffing oils to stay calm and just let him decided how he wanted to work it.  Play or sit until he is 18.  His choice!   For what ever reason, oils maybe, he decided to work.  He did about 5 days school yesterday and this morning and is swimming with the other kids right now.   I wish I could say I know it was the oils.  I don't.  I just know that today he is a joy to be around.   That is not something I get to say very often. 

I do believe oils help.  I have used a blend much like what another company calls Thieves Oil with great success.  That is just buying the cheaper grade oils.   I didn't realize that oils may be cut with other things and not labeled to make them more inexpensive.   If you read the fine print on many blends they are added to olive or coconut oil.   All stuff I didn't know before I started researching.  Some of my kids are really embracing this and reading about oils also.  Some seem to want to run when they see my little wooden box.  

Along with the kit came some other products they carry. One is called Deep Blue for sore muscles.   My 15 yo decided to start running again the other day and her calves were protesting the next day.  I suggested she try it.  She decided to hobble around instead.   Next day she was still hobbling.  Again I suggested, since she likes the smell she tried it.  She assured me it didn't help.  She also used it again that afternoon.  DH is trying their vitamins.  He started Sat. I think.  He doesn't see a difference yet.  I am thinking he may be a little less tired at night.   They have one for headaches that I want my DIL to try.  She lives with a migraine most of the time.   If I remember I will share tomorrow with her. 

I have a list of oils I want to try.  :)   I want to blend some of the oils in a roller ball for 11 yo to roll on as he struggles with issues using the Fractionated Coconut Oil.  Maybe before they blow up.   Even some of the others may want to try the roller ball.  Kids just like the smell of some and so choose to wear them.   The peppermint is very minty.  I read it will keep spiders away.   I know  it will keep rodents away.   I have a child that likes it and wears it on her pendent.   Eleven yo likes the wild orange smell.  It is also a calming scent so when we are oiling up of a morning I give him a drop of it. 

So if anyone wants to try any of the oils I have I will share a tiny bottle.  If you want to buy some I will figure out how to order them.  :)  I have a list going of the oils I want to buy and try as I can afford too.  I want to try some of the oils for cooking.   They say they are wonderful that way also.  

Thoughts? Input? Ideas?   I have enjoyed what I have learned.  I know nothing is a cure all but I also know that every positive thing brings us closer.  I am willing to walk outside the box of "normal".  I am seeing positive from this. 

Owls

I had the most amazing experience.  I had been told there might be baby owls in an old deer blind.  OK, kids had managed to look in and knew there were.  They are braver  dumber than me.  I walked down there realized no way I could get in there so back to the house for a ladder.   I drove the ranger down there and got my ladder out.   I could hear this pop pop sound but couldn't figure out what it was.   Got my ladder all ready to go up.  An owl flew within 20 feet, landing on the ground.  

That served as a distraction!  I had to get pictures of her dance on the ground. 

 I was so caught up in the moment I didn't think of the video part of my camera or phone.  I did think later. 

 It was amazing!  Owls are beautiful!   I still want pictures of the babies but..... not sure how to do it. 

I tried and tried to load the video no luck.   I would love for everyone to hear their beaks popping.  

 

Pictures of Life

Life in pictures.  I can't seem to find time to blog very often.  I just take pictures and take and they get loaded on the camera or a few get posted to fb off my phone.  So I am taking this nice cool morning to recap life.   This is just a few of the life shots going on. 

 

Spring is in the air!  That means fowl nesting.  We have two or three geese nesting.  I can't get anyone to come pet either goose.

I seem to have LOTS of pictures of little girls!   I will share a few.  

DIL took this one of her getting a toy out of the range of the sprinkler.   She wasn't playing in it. :)

 Another pretty girl who LOVES critters.   She and Grizzly are buddies.  She gets a "ride" and he gets petted. 

 This little girl wasn't so sure of the moisture falling on her.  

 Like all my grands this one LOVES BBQ ribs! 

 I thought this mouse was cute.  I turned over an I beam and there it was.  So I took pictures.  Since it was a long ways from the house I just let it be.  

 

Almost 14 yo D is my fix it man.  He keeps bikes running, and many other things.   Some times he has lots of really good help.  Some times the help isn't so good.

 

 

Park days can be fun!  Kids of all ages enjoy fellowship. 

 

 

Thought this was an amazing sunset.

 This is the handsome prince.  He use to be D13 soon to be 14, but he goes by the title of Handsome Prince now.  It all started with him listening to a Hank the Cowdog book.    Now he goes around all time asking what the Handsome Prince can do for you, and other Handsome Prince statements. 

Boxes are fun!!!  Yes there is a cat in the box with her. 

Dress for success!  He is Mr. Worker.  

Life at hour house.  Music, family and kids sitting!   Life hums!