Hi I’m Leah and the younger half of this team. I am a full time working mom with two young kids at home and have been married to my wonderful and tolerant husband for over 10 years. I am always busy taking my kids to sports and volunteering at my church when I'm not at work. I love to cook and find new food treasures when I have the time.
My committed journey to long term health is a newer one. My mom and grandma have always been proponents of healthy living but over the years I decided to brush much of their advice aside and do whatever I liked believing I was invincible.
Well, when I was pregnant with my second child, my daughter, in my 37th week I came down with cholestasis. Yea, I know, a random medical term so here is a brief description. Cholestasis is your body not processing bile acid correctly and it builds up in your system. It can occur in late pregnancy and triggers intense itching, usually on the hands and feet but let’s be real, it was my entire body. I itched like I wanted to scratch off every bit of my skin. It usually poses no long-term risk to mother but for a developing baby, it can cause still birth (for many babies after week 37). Not enough studies have been done to know what causes it to happen or at what point it is dangerous for your baby. SCARY RIGHT? I was petrified, given some ant-itch meds, some fetal stress tests and sent home. I couldn't stand the unknown. Within a week I had requested to be induced and had my baby girl in my arms. Sadly I know of other moms who weren't so lucky and my heart goes out to each of them.
At 2 weeks old my daughter started getting thrush (which I now suspect was related to the medication I took for the itching). I tried all the suggestions my pediatrician gave but it just kept coming back. Finally, a genius I know (my mom) mentioned something to her naturopathic Doctor. His theory was a problem with gut flora. This was my first intro to gut flora. I put my daughter on a probiotic and within weeks the thrush was gone. I can’t say I did much immediately after that but I was intrigued. I started casually reading more on gut flora, toxic loads, detoxing etc. and came across the term essential oils many times. I’m not ashamed to say I had to Google the them. Also, I’m a busy mom with way to many 'extra curricular activities' as my hubby calls them. I started by slowly changing my way of thinking.
Then my son started having problems in first grade with focusing and being a distraction to other children in his class. My husband is on the big Pharma wagon and wanted to get my son tested and put on a med. I just couldn't. I talked my hubby into letting me try some other methods first. I had my son allergy tested, and also did a test to identify if he had a MTHFR genetic mutation. MTHFR is an inability to process folic acid into vitamin B correctly. We found out he has the mutation and is intolerant of Egg, Dairy, and Cane Sugar….heavy sigh. I decided right there to help my son so we cut these foods out of his diet and started giving him a vitamin B complex and Magnesium.
I would love to tell you that this fixed everything; sadly it didn't made a huge impact. So I kept looking for other alternatives and again stumbled into essential oils. I decided to give them a try and asked for them on my birthday. My mom who had found the benefits of essential oils before me was ecstatic to enable and gave me my first oils as a gift.
I started playing with my new oils on myself first. I had been using coconut oil on my face as moisturizer for over a year and decided to add them there first to help with hormone acne and healing. I had an amazing and unexpected result on my eyelid. Please see my individual post about it for the details.
Now I’m using oils to speed healing of bruises on my kids, calm myself at work, treat muscle aches, make my own toothpaste and so much more.
As I continue working through the challenges with my son and try my oils in new ways I am going to share my experiences with you and hopefully you will benefit from my long and bumpy road to healthy living for myself and family.
I am the mother part of this mother/daughter Essential Oil team. I'm a mother of three, grandmother of 5 and married to my awesome hubby, Ray, for over 42 years!! I'm a child of the Lord God and know that I am fearfully and wonderfully made by Him! My interests fill my life! Car clubs, Rhododendron Society, gardening, keyboard for Praise Band, rubber stamping, painting and loving my beautiful family who all live close.
As a teen in the 60's I was almost proud that I didn't "go hippy". All their nature stuff and especially drug use was not my style. The closest I came was to eliminate fragrances from everything when I knew they bothered my mother.
Then, the nature stuff started to creep back in but not in that 'hippy' way! About 8 years ago, the doctor recommended that I delete wheat, gluten and dairy from my diet. I was committed to doing so and noticed many health benefits after I had been on the diet. My seasonal allergies were almost gone, blue shiners under my eyes were gone, arthritis problems, stomach issues and more....all gone.
As I started to look at a healthier way to live I started to look at the borage of chemicals that assault our bodies on a daily basis. My first move was to a Pure Wash add-on so I didn't have to use laundry soap. Then I deleted the astringent, lotion and makeup remover from my daily facial routine by using Coconut oil instead! Then I deleted my shampoo/conditioner and use only Baking Soda/Vinegar. BTW.....I just love the way my hair feels now. Then entered Essential Oils (EO). Just a few here and there from lots of different companies. It seemed strange to me after being fragrance free for sooooo many years to be adding fragrance back in. Make sure you check out my post about Questionable Decisions!
Then I happened on a post from a sweet gal I knew from a craft group. Her testimony about Young Living essential oils made me rethink the purity of the oils I had.
Fast forward to now........I want to share my enthusiasm with you about EO! I don’t pretend to know everything about EO but I have a huge support system that CAN answer questions when I can’t. My daughter and I are committed to provide you with the best of the best! I hope that you join us in enjoying some of the most pure oils around!
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