I’ve been talking a lot about my hermit problem, and I want you all to know that things are getting so much better around here. The boys are finally opening up a little more at tutoring. I had to practically drag them away from there today! Even John David doesn’t cry when I drop him off for the tutoring childcare! We have all met plenty of people that we truly like, and the fact is that I haven’t met one single person here that I can’t find something to like about.

I’m starting to remember. Oh yeah! I do like people!

Transitions are just hard, aren’t they? John David and I seem to have the hardest time with them. Every time I see him pitching a fit over some great new change in his life, I just remind myself, “This child is me.”

Moving across country and beginning home school all at one time was a huge transition. We’re over the hump. We still have rough days. I still make regrettable parenting errors, but I’m feeling hopeful.

That’s why I could never name my blog “Biblical Homemaking” or something like that. Can you imagine the pressure!? Ha!

All it would take was one time for a neighbor to overhear me losing my patience with my family, and I would be completely discredited. Nope. Not trying to act like something I’m not. We’re just a family, trying to do what is best. We listen to God. We make mistakes. We get back up again. 🙂

I have some really great news for you. John David has successfully made the transition to toddler bed!

Oh! Do you see those black out curtains? I’ve been storing those for 3 moves, and they finally came in handy! John David slept until 8 am for three mornings in a row.

I know! I hope you’re okay. Didn’t mean to make anyone choke on their coffee here. I was shocked too…

Happy JD. Happy parents. Sometimes he still wakes up at 1 am for cuddles though. yep. cuddles. I know. You hard-core folks would never put up with such, but hard-core we are not.

I was sitting in his recliner yesterday, and I chuckled at his neediness, “Oh, JD, you are so spoiled,” and as soon as I said it, I felt so sad! This child is not spoiled. This is the FOURTH baby. He rarely gets Mommy to himself. He gets a fraction of the amount of time with me that Joshua, or even Caleb or Daniel, got. With Daniel, I sent the big boys to school, and I was his all day long. JD doesn’t get that, so let the world shake their heads. If my baby needs some 1 am cuddles, then that’s just what he will get.

….And that’s why I have a strict policy about going to bed at 10pm now. It has changed my life! Over Christmas, I did all of that relaxing and sleeping, and I came home feeling like a new person. I decided then and there that I will never kill myself with sleep deprivation, stress, and unrealistic expectations again.

Do you remember my psoriatic arthritis theory and this thumb nail?

Well, it got a whole lot worse than that by Christmas, but guess what. You won’t believe it. My thumb nail is now completely NORMAL.  It’s all GONE!

So is my shoulder pain! You cannot convince me that the two are not related. I am quite sure that stress and sleep made a difference. I don’t want to end up with those nails, popping Advil 800, ever again.

In other news….Apparently, sleep is important to Alan too.

Caleb came home from the Spongebob movie Saturday and said, “Hey, Mom, just to tell you, at Spongebob Squarepants, Dad fell asleep through a lot of it.”

haaaaaaaa I asked Alan about that. He looked a little ashamed. hehehe

Alan and the boys have a few things in common, when it comes to deciding what is interesting and what is not. The other night, they were taking too long to eat their dinner, so I whipped out a magazine article on glaciers and started reading it to Joshua, Caleb, and Alan. Alan protested and started digging around for the Childcraft book on great battles for freedom.

I thought the glacier article was fascinating. Halfway through, I stopped and quizzed them all, “Wow, so what animal lives in this glacier?”

Three blank stares.

Alan said, “No idea. That was boring. Can I read my story now?”

humph!  Caleb said, “Polar bears?”

“No! Didn’t y’all hear me say the part about the little black worms that feed on the invisible algae!!???”

They all sort of giggled and started making worm jokes. I still made them listen to the rest, though. The boys said they liked it, so at least we know they’ve learned to try to make their momma happy!

I wonder if they liked Alan’s story about the Battle of Tours better.

It’s 9:45, so I’d better get to sleep. Guess who is coming to visit this week!!  We are all so excited!!!

As Joshua said, “Aunt Jennings is coming!!  You remember, Caleb, she has the glasses. Don’t you remember? She gave us the Hank the Cowdog books!”

The Hank the Cowdog books are a hit. I even enjoy them!

Hope you all have a great week!   We’ll be having a ball showing Jennings our favorite California spots!

The post Making Transitions and Solving Sleep Problems appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Like many of you, essential oils are a brand new concept to me. They first began to show up in my Facebook news feed the last year or so. At first I thought, “What in the world are they talkin’ about?” But the friends mentioning the oils were all people I thought a lot of, so I was intrigued.

Then the move happened. All of the main characters in the days of our lives changed completely, and we landed square in the middle of this foreign land called California…….Ha! No, I’m just kidding. It is different, yes, but it is certainly not foreign. The plant life kind of is though:

So we quickly found a new church, and the pastor’s wife, Jennifer, at my new church happens to be a Young Living Oil distributor. She has introduced me into the vast world of essential oils. Our Heavenly Father never ceases to amaze me in how he puts just the right people and things in my life, just when I need them–before I even know I will need them.

My pain had been almost gone for months. Then boom. Flare up. Now I can barely manage to sit through a church service, because of the pain in my joints. I’m going to tell you how these oils have helped me.

But first, if you are new to the oils, you may have many of the same questions that I had.

“What are essential oils? Where do they come from?”

“What can they do? What do you DO with these things? Pour them on your body? Use them in the bath tub?”

So first let me give you very basic answers:

1. Essential oils are defined by Google as natural oils typically obtained by distillation and having the characteristic fragrance of the plant or other source from which it is extracted.

2. They come from all different plants. You already know that different plants have different properties that can be used medicinally, such as aloe for burns. Therefore, it isn’t unheard of that other plants could also have beneficial properties.

3. What can they do? Well, there’s an endless list of things you can do with them. There are oils that have cleansing properties, such as lavender, or thieves, which is actually a blend of oils. There are oils that can help with inflammation, such as Panaway and copiaba. There are oils that can help with skin problems, anxiety, and you name it, there’s probably an oil for that.

4. HOW do you use them? There are several different ways to use them.

I have friends that use the lemon oil in their water to get the health benefits of lemon, but without the acid. (Yes, many Young Living oils are edible.)

A whole slew of them can be rubbed right onto the problem area of your body. However, many of them need to be diluted by an oil, like olive oil, first. There are a couple of these pain-relieving oils that I have been just slathering right on. (Panaway and Relieveit) You would never do that for a child, though. For children, you must dilute, and I hear that some oils are stronger and should be diluted before rubbing on, even for adults.

Then there’s also diffusing.

This is my boys’ favorite. “Mom, will you put in some of that nose medicine in the air?”

My knowledge is barely touching the tip of the iceberg. I am so new to this. However, what I have learned, I will share with you. Then I will point you to where you need to go to learn a whole lot more.

So here’s how I use these oils:

1. My very favorite: Extreme Relief Pain Cream

Don’t worry too much about me when you read this, but I actually use this every single night lately..I know. It’s the arthritis. I can feel fine all day long, but the moment I lay down to go to sleep, I ache too badly to go to sleep. This provides instant relief–instant–from the pinching pain. It’s probably not long lasting. I still wake up aching, but THANKFULLY, this little cream allows me to pass out in sweet, sweet, pain-free bliss.

It was a little embarrassing to try to explain this to my doctor the other day. I am pretty sure they think I’m the “crazy hippyish lady that thinks she has arthritis.” My doctor seemed to think I’m just feeling the effects of a heavy, clingy baby and a vitamin deficiency. I’m hoping the blood tests will give us more answers. I don’t think this chronic battle I’ve been fighting should be shrugged off any longer.

But I digress…

I made this jar o’ goodness at an Oil Class, hosted by my distributor, Jennifer. She provided the recipe and the ingredients. She is awesome. Any time I have a question, she pulls all her resources to try to find an oil that will help me. Thank you, Jennifer!

Here’s what is in it:

Extreme Pain Creme

approx. 2 table spoons of coconut oil

15 drops each of:

Valor

Peppermint

Panaway

Copiaba

Lemongrass

Stir it all together, and done.

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2. Daniel’s favorite: Bug Repellent.  Daniel is our self-proclaimed house bug-killer, and he goes all over the house spraying for bugs with this spray–until I confiscate it and say, “That’s enough, Daniel.”

Bug Repellent

Distilled water

Witch Hazel

even amounts of the following oils:

Thieves

Purification

Peppermint

2-4 drops Lavender

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3. Joshua and Caleb’s favorite: Peppermint

They love to smell the bottle, to open up their sinuses. These two boys LIVE with sinus problems. Poor things. So yes, I have my boys sniffing things….don’t worry,they only do it once every other day or so, and they say it helps them.

For their congestion, I diffuse:

around 7 drops each of thieves, peppermint, and lavender (in water)

OR

around 7 drops each of lavender, peppermint, and lemon.

The lavender, peppermint, and lemon combination has also made for a wonderful air freshener. I have gotten many compliments.

**********

The great thing about these oils is that the scents are more hypoallergenic than the synthetic scents that you find at places like Bath & Body Works.

4. For my joint pain, I have had success in applying Panaway and in using Relieveit–separately. My favorite, though, is the Extreme Pain Cream.

Most all of these oils I mentioned come in the starter kit that you get when you join Young Living. Some of you may have more great tips for us. Please share in the comments!

Want more information?

-To order, or learn more about ordering, contact JenniferKLemonDropper@gmail.com!

-To get more oil ideas, you can also try this website:http://www.naturallyhis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/100PLUS-uses.pdf

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