Change of Name {Nature's Toolbox}!!

Welcome, welcome!! Thank you for stopping by to check out this new adventure that God has taken me on and the blog that will document this journey and the things I learn along the way! I am passionate about sharing with you all the natural ways that we have been given to help our minds and bodies to heal. So many gifts all around us :) As the subtitle states, the focus of this blog is to talk about "helping our bodies heal one truth, one drop and one meal at a time". So I'll be sharing about the truth of God's Word and how this effects our everyday lives and the gifts of essential oils and nutrition and how they can impact our minds and bodies for good - a lot of good not just a little bit of good :)

How did I start using essential oils?
I began using oils in the spring of 2013 when I began holding a weekend women's workout group. At the end of the class we would all do a little yoga together to cool down and to stretch out our tired muscles. I remember taking yoga classes back in 2009 when I was pregnant with little one #1 and I loved the idea of sending the ladies off with that special relaxing smell that essential oils brings - specifically Lavender. Around the same time my friend Samantha Huddleston (we spent a good part of our pregnancies together with our first children doing yoga, drinking Chick-Fil-A and talking about new mama things - she is a great friend :) ) started to hold yoga classes at her home and had begun incorporating essential oils into her classes. I thought this was such an awesome way to show love to the ladies and care for their emotions as well as their bodies that I was ready to start looking into it. I talked with Sam on the phone before that class began. I wasn't quite ready to jump in head first so I did not enroll at the time and just went with a small bottle I found at a store nearby. I LOVED getting to use it at the end of the women's workout group, they all seemed to appreciate it and you could see them relaxing as they breathed it in - as women we all need that deep breath relaxation right? It was awesome to see! Those classes ended, I continued to use the Lavender I had at night time on my pillow or sometimes on my wrists and neck if I felt stressed or anxious. I slowed down using in 2014 until we moved back to Fayetteville. Once back in Fayetteville our dog Marley began scratching a lot and we started noticing fleas on her... they are interesting little creatures and fast! The kiddos also began getting a lot of mosquito bites this past summer as well. Dan and I started looking into natural ways to treat the fleas and mosquito situations. Alot of what we found when searching pointed us in the direction of essential oils. I was intrigued and excited at the thought that this could actually work... and it was natural... and it was good for us! So much better than having to layer the chemicals on Marley and the kiddos if we didn't have to. So Dan bought a few bottles for us online of Tea Tree Oil, Lavender, Cedarwood and Orange. They all smelled so good, Cedarwood was a really special one for me right away with it's woodsy smell. Just taking a sniff of the bottle seemed to just settle me down mentally and physically. So we used the oils mixed with Dr. Bronner's soap on Marley and it worked WONDEFULLY! As we scrubbed her with the soap the fleas would start to just pop to the top of her fur or fall off. It was such a great feeling to be able to help her with things that I could trust are good for her. The next episode that we looked to essential oils to help with was a mold problem that we had in our house in August - September of this past year. I began having a cough, runny nose, etc. I doctors thought it was a virus, I thought that could be it too. But then it just hung in there. And then I noticed that it would get worse at certain times of the day when I was in certain parts of the house. Then I was thinking "ok... something is up". Dan and I one night just started looking around in our kitchen and we noticed patches on the walls we hadn't noticed before. Then we realized the stuff we were looking at wasn't dust but mold. I was surprised and ready to get after cleaning it up so that this sinus/chest congestion would hopefully go away (not to mention not wanting the kiddos breathing it in either). So again, we searched online and a lot of what we read about treating mold naturally pointed us to vinegar and some to Tea Tree Oil. I was excited! Again, another thing that we can treat naturally! So again I bought a small bottle of Tea Tree Oil from a store nearby. Since we didn't have a diffuser at the time I put it into a metal spray bottle I had left over and mixed the Tea Tree Oil with water. I made it strong in the hopes that it would knock this mold out and it DID :) :) I sprayed it directly onto the patches that were all over the kitchen walls and also in the air throughout the house in the hopes of killing any stray spores that might have been floating around. Within days I was feeling almost completely better!! This was huge for me because this congestion had lasted almost 2 months. Huge relief, huge gift! I would use them here or there but was still generally not using them topically unless it was Lavendar on myself. Then at the beginning of this year I felt like God brought to mind using the essential oils to potentially help our son Caleb with the things that go along with having ASD {Autism Spectrum Disroder. He has had A LOT of improvement with changes in nutrition and also speech therapy at Sandhill Therapy Solutions but I was curious about what else we could try to see if it might help him. After looking it up it seemed like quite a few people have had great outcomes with using essential oils with children on the spectrum, so we just started with what we had on hand that others said had helped them. We started with Lavender, Orange and Cedarwood. This began only about a month ago and not long after that I contacted my friend Sam about becoming a Wellness Advocate for DoTERRA :) I was excited to do this not only because of the needs that our family has but also because of the quality of the product that DoTERRA sells. I think it's so awesome that they have taken this gift {Gift of The Earth as they call it - which is the meaning of the name DoTERRA}and they are taking great care to give each person the very best product that they possibly can so that they can receive the maximum amount of benefits from each oil. I also love that this fits in SO well with everything that I love to do :) This job as a wellness advocate truly has been a gift from God for me - even though I only have been at it for two weeks :) I love getting to share with you all natural ways to help your bodies to heal and not only that but DoTERRA offers great incentives to their customers who order through them - I also love a good deal :) So this journey continues and I am SO excited to share with you as we go the things that you can try in your own home, on yourselves and with your families. So much good stuff to come, this is exciting and I hope you will join me on this adventure of healing physically, mentally and spiritually!

Much love to you all and THANK YOU again for stopping by

p.s. If you ever have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or to message me directly using the box over on this --------> side of the screen :)