Over the edge (but it just might save my sanity)

It's funny, because if you had asked me to select three words to describe myself as a mother, the words "crunchy," "hippie" and "natural" would have appeared exactly nowhere among them.  Still, somehow I've gone down that rabbit hole.  Maybe it's because I went to college in Boulder... somehow, those granola-loving hippies got their hooks in me way back when and it's still catching up.

It may have hit me as we were working toward finishing the school year.  Which, by the way, is every ounce as hard when you're homeschooling one child as it is when you're finishing out the year with 140 8th graders.  Just for the record, my burn out is somewhere along the lines of this.  As in, three worksheets + I meant to do it but we watched TV instead Wednesday + did I brush my teeth yesterday? + same sight words for two weeks + how many days till my husband gets home?  It's been ugly.  (For anyone keeping track, Casey was gone 27 out of 32 days.  FIVE DAYS AT HOME out of 32 - non-consecutive, because that seems overly relevant.)  Momma needs some sort of illegal concoction definitely not approved for pregnant ladies invented by a shady bartender who learned to mix cocktails while working for a covert foreign government agency like the KGB.  But here's the genius of homeschool that doesn't happen when you're a paid teacher... wait for it... I declared it SUMMER BREAK!  Because I can do that!  I'm drunk on power!

But I digress...

Beyond the bread making, homeschooling, cloth diapering, pillow and curtain and baby-food making (oh my!) I am now also swearing off western medicine.

Okay, so "swearing off" is overstating things a bit.  It's just that we have been so unbelievably and continually sick this season that I'm pretty well broken down and ready to try something new.  There has got to be something better out there than being sick more days than not between November and April and wracking up a $5000 hospital bill because my almost-four-year-old couldn't breathe.  Yes, that's a real number.  Be afraid.

Enter: DoTerra oils.

I know, I get it.  It sounds completely hokey.  I thought it did, too.

A friend gave me some samples, which I was attempting to use to treat the kids in the middle of the double-ear-infection fiasco of 2014.  Aaaaand, as predicted, they weren't working very well.  (Turns out, you can't start using essential oils right smack dab in the middle of an illness that requires antibiotics and expect a miracle.  Shocker.)  I was totally ready to throw in the towel, until I tried this:

It was recommended for sciatic pain, which is something I suffer pretty severely from for the duration of each of my pregnancies.  I've tried a number of homeopathic remedies since I don't take medication, but nothing has ever had any effect.  Without expecting much, I put a couple of drops directly on my back at the site of the pain.  To my extreme surprise?  The pain was gone.  Almost completely gone.  Easily as good as Tylenol, except that even me and my pregnant self can take it!

And so I took the plunge.  I bought a few starter oils and a diffuser (a handy little device that takes all the benefits of oil and makes it airborne).  I didn't know what to expect, nor did I have very high hopes that this craziness would really be effective.  But here's the thing: I got the oils on Sunday and had my first chance to try them out, since Logan came down with a cold Monday morning.  What the heck?  Why not give it a shot?

So here's what I've done: 

• Onguard and Melaleuca on the feet 4 times a day for immune support
• Blend of coconut oil and Peppermint on chest, back and down the spine to help with congestion and cough
• Homemade cough syrup: 1 TBSP honey mixed with 1 drop each: peppermint, OnGuard, Melaleuca and Lemon
• Small drop Lemon on sides of nose to help with congestion
• Diffuse OnGuard and Melaleuca once a day

We've been sick a ton this winter, and here's our typical pattern: As soon as one person gets sick, everybody else goes down within 48 hours.  3-5 sleepless nights per kid as they cough their heads off.  Several days of couch sitting with two littles who don't have enough energy to do much else. Illnesses typically take 10 days to clear up, or get worse after that point.  

On our oil regimen, here are our results: Logan was already sick when we started this, but he is currently the cheese who stands alone.  (WIN!)  There has only been one sleepless night, and we're now on day five with significant improvement.  As in, he's through the worst of it and back to his happy, playful self, even if he still has a bit of a runny nose.  On day five!!!

I'll admit to being pretty impressed.  Obviously, there's no way for me to know whether this is a direct result of the oils; all I can do is continue using them to see if we have any long-term success.  In the mean time, my world has been sufficiently rocked.  The simple addition of coconut oil and its awesome health benefits is worth the price of admission in my book.  

So, there you have it.  I'll keep you posted on the results once I get a little further through the rabbit hole.  See?  I told you.  That crunchy sound would be coming from this girl. 

Yeesh.  Better go gas up the Subaru...

Confessions of a weary Christmas slacker

Anybody else find the whole calendar situation extra maddening this year?  I know, there's something about Thanksgiving always being on the fourth Thursday of November because of the blah-I-wasn't-listening-when-History-Channel-covered-that-yadda Christmas shopping season.  But, people, three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas... what's up with that?

Okay, I hear you.  It's possible that I'm just trying to easy my less than enthusiastic guilt over being kinda sorta totally ready for the holiday season to be over.

I was diggin' it at Halloween.  It was just too much fun.

There were pumpkins and spider webs and creepy lawns.  We tricked and treated and did the monster mash.

I think it was sometime in November that I fell off the holiday bandwagon.  All those burlap fumes got to my head.

Confession #1:  I took the equivalent of zero photos in December.  Let's just take a little looksy at the old photo totals, shall we?

Winter 2011: 327 photos
Winter 2012: 451 photos
Winter 2013: 174 photos

Maybe there's a lesson here about quality over quantity?  That's probably the moral of this tale.  It's not really about being an unmotivated slacker.

Did you hear the trumpets singing that sad song?  Like a game show contestant who gets the wrong answer... wah wah wah waaaaahhh.

I might add that this is the entire total of photos taken so far this season, not the ones I've carefully sorted through and can't live without.  Yes, it is probably sad that I can't live without 451 photos from last year, but let's be honest, it's costing me nothing besides computer space.  Someday someone will love those seemingly ordinary moments of our kids' lives, even if it's just me from the nursing home, okay?  Don't be such a Judgey Judgerson, let's focus on the suckitude that is my current situation.

Confession #2: We only did the essentials.

We saw Santa.  We baked cookies.  We looked for Ellie all over the house.  The Christmas cards made it to the mailboxes of loved ones.  We drove around in our jammies, hopped up on hot cocoa to look at Christmas lights.  Presents were wrapped the night before.  We hosted Christmas dinner which I procrastinated and very nearly didn't finish in time.

I had good intentions, and that all counts for something.  The execution of all those intentions just didn't quite come together the way they have in years past.  It was a wonderful season, and we are so, so beyond lucky.  And also?  I'm exhausted.

Confession #3: None of that really mattered when push came to shove.

It took us three hours to open presents, decked out in our messy bed-head hair with Santa jammies.  The kids opened a present, insisted on playing with it for 20 minutes before finally consenting to opening another present and lather, rinse, repeat.  It was awesome.

The Christmas music was cranked up and Casey and I both drank multiple cups of coffee from my fancy, brand-new Keurig (BEST!PRESENT!EVER!) before we finally sat down for breakfast, only to come back to another round of merry toy-playing in our messy, wrapping-covered living room.

Being a slacker meant nothing at the end of the day.

Casey enjoyed his leaf blower.  Leah enjoyed her princess castle, on which Santa delivered as requested.  Both kids loved the new train table that is currently replacing our coffee table in the living room.  {It's an experiment in social deviance and mom's patience... we'll see if I last until Valentine's day.}

And, best of all... we got another little Christmas surprise, though this one didn't ever make it under the Christmas tree.  I'll let the cookies do the talking.

Artwork credit: Casey.  I'm not taking the blame for that one...

The only thing that could make the Keurig come in second in my eyes.  And, FYI: if you send this picture electronically to your mom in an attempt to tell her your really big news, she will compliment you halfheartedly and ask why you made such a fuss about sending her pictures of cookies without realizing their importance.  So just in case you fall into that category, too, beloved reader, let me close instead with this image:

As my sister would say, we have some very grateful uteruses in our family.  :)

Hoping your holiday was every ounce as joyful as ours - though, perhaps, full of fewer surprises!

{And, if you please, we're not ready to announce the news on Facebook, though I *think* we're largely out of the miscarriage woods.  We'd love to hear from you and appreciate all well-wishes, but not for the world to see... yet!}