Essential Oils

     Oh, hey guys! Remember me, the person who hasn't blogged since summer break started? So I've been busy playing with legos, setting up sprinklers to play in, working in my garden, and grocery shopping. The boys have slowed down their eating a little, so hopefully they're coming out of the growth spurt. Seriously, last month's grocery bill was outrageous! We are really trying hard to find ways to cut that. And sometimes that means I go to 10 different grocery stores 37 times a week to get what's on sale. But we're working on stocking up our freezer with organic meats when they go on sale. And Cory is even thinking about going hunting with my dad's friend this fall.
 
      In attempt to clean up our health in other ways, for the past few months, I've been using and testing out Young Living's Essential oils. I actually discovered them back in February when I did a sale for my clothing shop, For Beautiful Baby, which is out fundraiser for our adoption. I had a terrible cold, and was coughing my lungs out. Like, coughing until I was gagging. My table was placed next to a table with Young Living representatives. They started suggesting I try some of their oils. Let me just tell you, I put some on, and within 5 minutes, my cough went away, and that night I slept so good! So I ordered a kit. I've been trying them for several different things because I know it's hard to believe that you can rub some "snake oils" (as Cory called them) on yourself, and they really work.

      Some things I've tried and it has worked amazing! Some made a difference, but it didn't completely fix it, and some made little or no difference. Panaway gets rid on my tension headaches within minutes. RC gets rid of a cough. Cory has a touch of insomnia, and he uses Valor to help him relax and fall asleep. My sister has been using Digize for stomach issues, and even gave some to a co-worker, who fell in love with it, and wants some of her own. I made a pain cream, and it definitely helps with muscle aches. And Cory had two moles removed, and I've been putting lavender and frankincense on his cuts, and in just two days, the difference is huge! Lavender works really well on cuts, scrapes, and burns. I would much rather use an oil for things than take medicine. I also have a book where I can look up hundreds of things, and see what oils might work for them. You might find an oil that works great for you on one ailment, but not work as well for someone else. Everyone is different and it's a lot of trial and error to find out what works for you, but after using them for a few months, I can tell you with certainty that they work, and I'm a believer. So, lo and behold, here is my medicine cabinet make-over.

     In other news, you should be proud of me. We ate zucchini fresh out of our garden this week. I was starting to get discouraged because my mom was talking about things starting to come in in their garden, and my garden was just...sitting there. But when I went out to put some nice, organic fertilizer on it, I saw two big 'ole zucchinis, and I picked those things and sauteed them for dinner. And they were the best I've ever had. I also have two little tomatoes growing. I have tons of flowers on my plants, but so far, that's the only veggies growing. Most of my plants are in my planter garden on the deck, and I'll be honest, they aren't growing very fast. I have cucumbers in my raised bed and in a pot, and the ones in the beds are 20 times bigger and flowering, and they were planted at the same time.

    So it's been about 5 weeks since we changed our diet lifestyle. It's starting to become second nature to us.  It's always so overwhelming at first, because you can't eat a lot of the things that you used to eat, and you have no idea what you can eat, or how to fix the things you can eat so that there's a lot of flavor and variety. But I promise, give it a little time, and you wont even miss what you can't have. Chase and Ryland have pretty much stopped complaining about "the diet". It was hard at first, especially being around people that were eating cookies. But lately, I've discovered muffins, and we've made several of those recipes. I make them in mini cupcake pans, and reduce the cooking time to about 15 minutes. The mini pans make about 36 two-bite snacks. Our two favorite recipes so far are from PaleOMG.com, and they're  Banana Nut Chocolate Chip Muffins and Apple Fritters, which were more like apple cinnamon muffins, and they were so amazing! So there you go. Try those two recipes, and see what you won't be missing out on.

    As far as what we've been eating for dinner...I can't even remember. I think I've focused more on desserts and snacks that we can have. We did make Chicken Bacon Alfredo. I used to make homemade chicken alfredo, a favorite recipe I got from a friend, and this tasted a lot like it. The main difference was the fact that the spaghetti squash made it sweeter. But it's always nice to find a recipe that's a good alternative for a favorite dish. I also broke down and made pancakes. If you know us, you know before this diet, we used to have pancakes at least twice a month for dinner. I seriously don't know how we would have survived without this recipe blog.