A Passenger Collecting Memories

Well, I think it's safe to say, winter has fallen here in the Deep Dark Interior.  I was worried how I would handle our second winter.  You may think that's odd, but I'm really good at living through things for the first time because I'm excellent at not having expectations if I truly don't have an prior experience.  Bug- first kid - I consider her a breeze, Miles - second kid- is nothing like her and drives me batty.  Alaskan winter #1, wasn't that bad at all in my opinion, but I'm going in to winter #2 knowing what a full beautiful summer of 5Ks and 21hours of sunlight and grilling on my 400sq ft deck feels like and also knowing what -45 feels like.  But- I'm also armed with two new things that couldn't have me more excited.  My YOGA and my EOs! 

There is a small part of me that is actually excited...(believe it or not) to get into the meat of this winter.  I'm not worried about the buttoned up house, I have an even more air-tight home than last winter (thanks Interior Weatherization!) but I'm not worried about re-breathing germs, I have the coolest oil blend - Purify.  It cleans the air, it's amazing.  I keep a paper towel taped to the top of the door frame of the room where the cat's litter box is, every couple days I put a drop of Purify oil on the paper towel and I don't smell his litter box.  I don't smell anything!  Which is why I love this oil, I don't cover up the stink like febreeze or some other kind of spray, these little oil molecules are actually breaking up the "gunk" floating around in the air.

I work in a child care program once a week (sometimes twice) where my kids (and myself) are exposed to 11-16 other kids (little kids who put everything and everyone in their mouth at every opportunity) and I don't cringe anymore when someone licks my toddler.  I know I have this arsenal to fight germs with now and I can instead enjoy the amusement on his face from being licked by another kid!  Caitlin is the same way, she had a few kids in her school diagnosed with hand and foot, she came out without an issue-and she is my social butterfly who helps everyone with their work and probably touches every item in the classroom that isn't nailed down... I feel like I was getting in a one month on, one month off pattern with colds and it was exhausting, I couldn't find any routine, I felt like the Alaskan Air was not clear and fresh, it was full of germs and it made me throw up all the time!  We're all going on 3 months ish without anything more than the sniffles.  It's empowering and freeing.  I feel like I can reach out and add activities to our schedule, everyone is sleeping well, so our days are fighting-free (between Bug and I at least, Miles hasn't caught on yet) things. are. great.

They say diets should be life style changes, not just changes to your food choices, and that's really hard for some people.  EOs have fit so very easily into my life in just the three short months I've been using them, it's kinda cool.  The kitchen is the heart of our house, outside of a good long sleep, the kitchen is the next room I spend the most time in, I work at the dining room table, I cook, I eat, I sweep 3 times a day in that room, it's the room we enter and leave the house from...my oils have their very own spot in the kitchen, so that means they aren't going anywhere :)

I try not to be a control freak (I feel like I've started many paragraphs with that phrase...) but feeling like I'm not reacting to outside events, always on the defensive going through life, is pretty sweet.  I don't need to have control of where I'm going and what we're doing, but to be a passenger without any worries provides an incredible view and makes for easy memories of the most beautiful things in my life!

Journey Naturally

I suppose it's time to come out of the closet with my new possible business venture. I say possible because I still can't wrap my mind around the possibility that I could ever 'own' a business. I'm not even sure where to start to explain how this little idea began and how it's grown this big. My husband may not even be aware of how much I've committed to this idea! I'll start with the ideas that I'm falling in love with...

YOGA. In my eyes 10 years ago, yoga was this concept that was for crunchy hippies that had enough money to go to class. I was a wanna-be, naive, crunchy, financially strapped, hippie that had no idea what the world actually was. 4 years later I took my first yoga class in college during my most stressful semester, specifically to work a guaranteed break into my schedule. I got to keep my yoga mat (to this day it's held up and is the one I use regularly) and the priceless lesson on how to BREATHE. In a world that is so fast paced and callus and mean and uncaring, I truly believe the secret to life is remembering to breathe. Whether you depend on a god or God or your own inner strength to get up every morning, you won't ever get to that point if you don't remember to slow down, and breathe. I don't care if you can't stretch your arm over your head, or touch your toes, I strive every time I walk into a yoga class to remind my students to stretch your rib cage when you breathe, fill your belly, satisfy your muscles and your mind with the one free, absolutely necessary component this Earth provides for us. So yea, I like yoga. If you give it a chance, you will too.

dōTERRA Essential Oils. A few years ago, at a Women's Conference in Louisiana, I was introduced to essential oils. I feel in love with the idea of no chemicals, using the things nature gives us, it seemed so perfect and easy, and in my opinion natural is always better - no matter which way you shake it. Well, I was jumping into the world (an expensive one-mind you) on my own with only my own personal research to guide me. I'm a research fiend, but I was struggling with this one. Essential oils are expensive because it takes a lot of plant and time and effort to squeeze out that pure oil and fill a small bottle with it. The beauty of essential oils is they can be used for just about anything and everything under the sun. Well, I got overwhelmed and worried I was wasting my money because I didn't know how to use each oil in it's most efficient manner. Since I didn't have a source of income and a brand new baby, I set essential oils in the back of the linen closet hoping to come back to them some day. That day was about 2 months ago. A friend invited me to a class put on through the company dōTERRA. I was hooked, and slightly appalled I didn't know this company existed, apparently I had missed the whole boat and was floating around in a tiny dingy paddling in circles when this huge glorious cruise liner was only a mile off (yup, the cruise liner is ironic since they aren't very eco friendly-don't take my analogy that literal, I didn't jump on a pollution bandwagon!)

The quick history of dōTERRA: they broke off of another company that has been around for 20+ years due to corporate decision differences. People just wanted to run their business differently, so they did.

Why dōTERRA? They have created an industry standard where there wasn't one. Yes, they created it for their purpose and they regulate themselves, but no one else in the oil business has created such a standard. dōTERRA does not own the farms they get the plants from, they leave the growing to the experts that know how to grow the plants, they only collect plants from their indigenous locations (obviously a happy plant will produce the most oil, us humans do our best when we are in our most happy place, right?), once harvested and bottled they use 3^rd party labs to test the oils. These processes are all transparent and available for the common lay person to see. Most other oil companies only need to meet “Therapeutic Grade” or “Food Grade” by FDA standards and that means only 3% of the bottle needs to be essential oil, meaning 97% of the reaming liquid could be anything short of arsenic...it could simply by water or olive oil, allowing their product to be cheaper, and therefore much less effective and depending on what is diluting the oil incredibly harmful for your body. 

Now that's all on the table, the combination of dōTERRA EOs and YOGA (and this blog of making life an enjoyable 'Journey') has snowballed itself into the collective term: 

Journey Naturally

There is a business card and an expansion of two more yoga classes, and a steady income between teaching and sharing EOs.  It's all really crazy in my eyes, almost too good to be true.  I'm treading lightly and trying my best to make sure all my bases are covered, between taking care of my family (always and forever my 1st priority), going to Mass on Sundays, and not getting into legal trouble of any kind :)  So keep a look out for a Facebook page and webpage farther down the line!  

If you ever have any questions, there's nothing I can't find answers to when it comes to supplementing your own Journey with yoga or EOs :)  Feel free to browse my dōTERRA site to see what they have to offer:

Journey Naturally The doTERRA Way 

Namaste & God Bless!