Lavender Body Butter


I love whipping up a batch of this to share for gifting this time of year! The creamy texture and delicious scent keep my skin happy and healthy during the drying season of winter! 


  1. In a double boiler combine
    • ½ cup Shea Butter / Mango Butter
    • ½ cup Cocoa Butter
    • ½ cup Coconut Oil (Solid)
    • ½ cup Almond/ Jojoba/ Grapeseed Oil
    • Optional - add a tbsp of beeswax to make a firmer texture

2. Melt until combined well
3. Refrigerate for an hour then add 10 drops each of Lavender, Lemongrass, and Frankincense Essential oils and then whip with a hand blender.


Mix up the scent as you wish: 

Some well-loved skin care oils: Northern Lights Black Spruce, Geranium, Clary Sage, Ylang Ylang, Gentle Baby or Copaiba! 

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My Favourite DIY Perfume Blend

Many perfumes and candles cause me to have headaches and an asthma reaction. So I love using beautiful natural scents from essential oils to make my own personal scent that also offers some stress relief! 

DIY VANILLA MINT PERFUME
I love vanilla and mint scents! They are calming and fresh, and remind me of peppermint patties and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Wearing some stress-relieving self-care as you get ready for your day can be such a wonderful way to set the tone and move into healthy spaces! 

This DIY Vanilla Mint perfume is the perfect spring perfume and it is so simple!

DIY VANILLA MINT PERFUME
10-15 drops of Lavender 
10 drops Stress Away 
3 drops of Peppermint 
Add to a roller bottle and top with your favourite carrier oil.
OR
Add to a 30 ml Pretty Spray Bottle and add a splash of witch hazel to spritz it on! It can be a great linen spray, too! 


And BONUS: Lavender and Peppermint are great seasonal supports too, so as you're smelling delicious you're also fighting off the spring sniffles!

My favourite roller bottles can be found at this link:


Find some fancy bottles for gifting or pick up a few vintage perfume spray bottles. I like these but you can use half the number of essential oil drops for this size.: 

Morning Routine to Stay at my Best

I don't know how my guys can walk out the door without breakfast. I have a morning routine that I will wake early to make time for! 

Part of that routine is a morning reflection, protein smoothie, supplements and oils. With an autoimmune disorder, I have to think about health and wellness every day. But I do think it is smart as a preventative care measure for anyone. 

I'll break it down for those who are curious. The links will have more information for those who want to know more! 

Morning Reflection: 
I often choose the Lectio 365 app to fuel prayer and reflection. 
Protein Smoothie Recipe: 
I often double this to hand a smoothie to Lance before he heads to work. 
1/4 Frozen Avocado (I like how frozen are always the perfect ripeness) 
1 tbsp Coconut Milk (Cha's or Goodness Me have only water added- I like that!!)
1/2 cup strawberries
Water to top up to 2 cups. 

A Variety of Options for Different Flavours: 
Berries (Fresh or Frozen)
Banana (I like to peel and freeze mine in chunks or halves)
Stevia if you want to sweeten it a little.
Peppermint Essential Oil (1 drop with a Chocolate shake is awesome)
Cinnamon Essential Oil (1 drop can work well with berry vanilla combinations with lots of benefits) 

Supplements: 
I went to a naturopath to set up my supplement routine but if you want an easy button, there is an awesome multivitamin called Master Formula for adults with whole food ingredients that cover all the bases for mineral and vitamin support. I use it when I travel since it is organized in sachets for daily use. https://m.lfstps.com/xm51W/fwQ

When I don't use Master Formula I take: 
+Magnesium Citrate (Bisglycinate works better for some people)
+Super Cal - Calcium supplement for bone health infused with essential oils for increased absorption - important for me since I had kidney stones years ago and don't want a repeat!) https://m.lfstps.com/3Iz/fwQ
+Super B - B complex supplement that is great for maintaining healthy energy levels, supporting mood and cardiovascular and cognitive function. https://m.lfstps.com/XwS/fwQ
+Sulfurzyme- for hair, skin, gut, joint, and immune health https://m.lfstps.com/lv213/fwQ
+Vitamin D & K - For bone, and immune health. I love this one from Goodness Me https://goodnessme.ca/products/vitamin-d3-k2-1...
and a dose of Carlson's Cod Liver Oil - the lemon version makes it go down easily! Or there are capsules. 

For Oils: 
I make up rollers or put a roller top on the bottle for easy application!
Hormone Rollers:
+Progessence Phyto Plus - to support healthy progesterone and estrogen balance as I age. I apply a swipe under each arm or inner thigh. https://m.lfstps.com/pUJE/fwQ
+Endoflex - over the thyroid. https://m.lfstps.com/OjT5f/fwQ
+Nutmeg/Rosemary/Clove in coconut oil - Adrenal Care over adrenals. https://m.lfstps.com/obC/fwQ
+EnRGee - on feet each morning before I put on my socks to signal my body to get moving. https://m.lfstps.com/9WWB/fwQ
+Clary Sage - with Coconut oil on my ankle before I put on my socks to support healthy estrogen balance. https://m.lfstps.com/0uwv/fwQ

Immune Rollers: 
With autoimmune, it is important to help my body with real challenges to train my immune system to focus on the right things. 
+Thieves - on the bottom of the feet before I put on my socks.
+Raindrop Roller on spine 
+Digize/Peppermint Roller over the abdomen for gut support

Emotional Support: 
+Valor on wrists like a perfume - deep breaths as I say the day's affirmation. https://m.lfstps.com/wSCMG/fwQ
+Joy/ Frankincense/ Orange over heart as I think about joy bringing strength for the day. https://m.lfstps.com/wTG7/fwQ
+ White Angelica - across the shoulders to help me not wear other people's stress and negative emotions. https://m.lfstps.com/WjSd/fwQ

Ningxia Red Superfood Drink: I take this to my workspace in a large glass of water with a drop of citrus oil to enhance the flavour and benefits. It helps my energy and focus as it works at a cellular level to repair damage and help my body stay in healing mode. If I'm heading out the door, I put this in my stainless steel or glass water bottle. 


This looks like a lot when I write it out, but I just keep four rollers in my bedroom and apply them while I'm getting dressed. Supplements go down with my morning protein smoothie and are pre-organized in a pill box for each day. And the morning rollers are pre-made and ready to roll on - it takes me a minute unless I want to linger with the emotional support stage for five minutes. 

Ningxia is just part of my water drinking habit but with amazing benefits to keep my body handling stress well and providing the nourishment to keep all body systems repairing and working well. 

This routine supports my wellness goals and keeps me feeling well for the challenges of the day to be flexible, love well, be fully present to people, and focus on tasks and priorities. I really notice when I miss my oils or supplements. I also really feel scattered when I don't take time to be still for a few minutes to reflect and pray.

Dental Experiences with Essential Oils

December 2018: Peg's Gum Graft Surgery
The gum graft surgery was a little nasty, but I wanted to continue to take a natural approach to heal. So, I took a risk and decided to avoid buying the antibiotic mouth rinse since antibiotics are so hard on my sensitive system. He warned me that using the antibiotic mouth rinse would turn my gums white. I had bought an extra bottle of essential oil Thieves blend mouthwash to experiment with first. I could always pick up the prescription if I found tissues were sore or irritated and it wasn't healing well.
 
I've been impressed with my experience. I have had very little pain, and my gums are healing super fast. They look pink and healthy and the only irritation came from the threads from the stitches poking into my lip and on the roof of my mouth. My surgeon mentioned that the threads could be clipped shorter if I found them irritating. So today I called his office and asked if he could ease the poking with a trim, so I could enjoy Christmas with less irritation when I talk and eat. He invited me to just come to the office today and he would fit me in.
 
Then I got nervous. Would he feel like I had disregarded normal protocols? Were things healing as well as they seemed? Would the gums adhere well to the teeth when I was using a different approach?
 
It was time to find out.

 
I was called into the inner room and sat in a dental chair. When I opened my mouth, he quickly surveyed the gum tissue and asked me when the surgery was performed. I told him that this was day five since the gum graft. He said the stitches on the roof of the mouth could come out because the tissues had healed together and looked healthy and pink. He pulled an assistant over to show her how healthy the gums and tissues looked on day five. He asked me again what I had been doing. I had cleared using essential oils with him on the day of the surgery, and he said he was fine with experimenting, but he was impressed with the results. He said it seemed too early to take out the stitches on the site where the new gum was grafted, but the tissues were healthy, pink and almost better. He made me much more comfortable by shortening the bits of thread so they no longer poke my lip.
 
I'm so relieved and happy that the essential oil routine I made up has made the surgery so much less invasive and uncomfortable. And I am so grateful for a surgeon who was so helpful, open and capable. Thanks, Young Living for training me to feel more confident in natural approaches to my health and providing oils I can trust for injuries, recovery from surgery and winter colds and flu bugs. My health just keeps getting better rather than having to rebuild from the side effects of other approaches. 


ORAL CARE: Wisdom Teeth Removal
Andrew is my third son to need to have wisdom teeth removed and I am getting wiser about aftercare and have more tools that I am confident in using to help with recovery! This has been the smoothest recovery yet!

Helichrysum is great for helping the body deal with injury while soothing tissues. So I keep Helichrysum in a roller version and a dropper version in case I want to just apply a drop without touching the wound. I like Fractionated Coconut oil as a carrier because it has some anti-viral properties to help with wound care.

BEFORE SURGERY:
With Andrew, I applied a Helichrysum roller to his jawline and cheekbone preventatively. He couldn't ingest anything pre-op, so rollers were a great way to keep his stomach empty while offering some support.
For emotions, I chose topical rollers of Valor and Frankincensefor calming and relaxing his mind and body.

AFTER SURGERY:
When we arrived home at 11:30 am, Andrew was still a little unsteady as the anesthesia and freezing wore off. My focus was on getting the bleeding to stop and getting pain management in place before the freezing was gone to keep him as comfortable as possible.

I used one drop of my diluted dropper of Helichrysum on his jawline touching as little as necessary. Orally I gave 1 drop of Dietary Frankincense and 1 drop of Copaiba Vitality in his mouth to calm the bleeding and help with inflammation. Then I used a roller of PanAway/ Copaiba/ Peppermint gently applied along the jaw and cheekbone to help with pain and swelling.

I put Ningxia in a glass of water to take one extra-strength Ibuprofen, two Sulfurzyme capsules and one Agilease once the bleeding stopped and he could swallow around 12:35 pm. This gave him inflammation and pain support from three different sources and worked so well that he was talking and feeling very normal.

We set him up to watch a show with more gauze nearby in case he needed it, but the bleeding had stopped by then. I also asked him to keep applying the Helichrysum and PanAway rollers along the jawline and cheekbone every hour.

After an hour or so, I had him swallow an Inner Defense with a protein shake. Inner Defense is a wonderful combination of Oregano, Thyme and other effective oils blended to keep the immune system working top notch. It is available to Canadian members on the US site.

I didn't want to use an antibiotic preventatively, so I took the script in case we needed it for any signs of infection. We have never needed it with our three other oral surgeries and prefer not to create side effects in the digestive system if it isn't necessary. Instead, I've been keeping the area clean by adding a drop of Lemon and Peppermint Essential Oils to the water he sips at. Today he can gently rinse with salt water as well. I used the syringe provided to squirt salt water at the back of the gums after he ate a bowl of oatmeal this morning.

By tonight, I will also have him use the Thieves Mouthwash since it is so gentle on tissues while doing a wonderful job of cleaning the mouth before bed.

For nourishment, he has been taking Ningxia, Ester-C powder drink or oils each time we refill his glass of water.

We opted not to get Tylenol 3s since Nathan found out after his surgery that he was allergic to Codeine. After this extremely uncomfortable reaction, we found effective pain management for him without them and so opted not to introduce a new drug in Andrew's aftercare. Sulfurzyme and Agilease work well instead as a morning and night supplement to help with pain and inflammation as they contain Tumeric, Boswelia, Piperine, MSM and sulfur which are great for tissue regeneration. We just used Tylenol and Ibuprofen as needed for the first day or so. 

Andrew is just over 24 hours post-surgery and he is acting normally. He only has the chipmunk cheeks that keep him from opening his mouth too wide. The swelling is going down on one side already, but the right had an extra molar trapped under the bone next to the wisdom tooth that they had to remove. So that side is more tender. All the wisdom teeth were impacted. I can't believe he is not more uncomfortable.

Yay for ways to help the body heal without creating gut imbalance and putting an extra burden on the cleansing systems of the body. I love saving antibiotics for when we really need them and keeping the lowest doses of painkillers while still keeping my guys comfortable and healing well! Andrew was totally better by day four with pink healthy tissue at the extraction site. Copaiba and Sulfurzyme helped the chipmunk cheeks come down. 

Ditch & Switch for Hormone Health

Ditch & Switch for Hormone Health

I am convinced that we can’t have good mental, physical health without balanced hormones!

I've been learning about avoiding xeno-estrogens in our everyday personal care and household products.  We can protect our hormone health from Xeno estrogens that are hidden under labels like parabens, phthalates, fragrances. These are synthetic and not biodegradable, but because the molecular shape mimics estrogen, they can get stuck on our estrogen receptor sights. They give our body unbalanced messages and our bodies don't know how to process them. They don’t break down. Our best move is to do what we can to avoid them. Here are our top five ditch and switch product swaps for hormone health. I talk through these swaps and a basic primer here: https://youtu.be/uTWRJw9_ZJU

STOP: 

  1. Laundry Soap - it sits against our skin all day long and chemicals get absorbed through the skin, By choosing a natural plant based formula, we cause less stress on our bodies and protect our hormones from messages that create imbalance. Young Living Thieves Laundry Soap has become our healthy choice. 

  2. Dryer Sheets - the fragrance is damaging to our respiratory system and the chemicals are harmful to our environment and our bodies, Using dryer balls allows us to pick our own essential oil scent to leave our clothes smelling fresh and clean. Young Living has Seedlings Lavender scented wipes that make an awesome biodegradable dryer sheet. 

  3. Deodorant - we want to avoid aluminum and chemical fragrance over our lymph nodes. Young Living has a great line of deodorants and their Aromabright or Dentarome toothpaste also make a gentle creamy deodorant/ antiperspirant with a minty spicy scent that controls odor really well, 

  4. Toothpaste - a child age 4 was already getting breast buds when her doctor recognized that she must be exposed to a synthetic estrogen product in her routine. It was brand name kids toothpaste that she used a little more than pea sized amount and may have swallowed some. The early onset puberty was reversed when they ditched the toothpaste. 

  5. Foaming Hand Soap - We was hands so regularly. It is so important to make sure what we are putting on our body supports our body's natural ability to heal and balance. We must get rid of chemical fragrances. Our favourite hand soap is Young Living's Thieves or Lushious Lemon. 

How do we cleanse the xeno-estrogens out of our body? 

DROP & ROLL:

Progessence Phyto Plus - just a few drops a day can help pull the xeno estrogens out of the receptor sites and allow healthy natural hormones to enter the cell. Progessence Phyto Plus was made by a doctor and encourages our bodies to make progesterone. It also locks onto healthy estrogen that is on the hormone receptor to help it enter the body. Spent hormones are then carried to the liver where bile is made to help carry them out of our body. Progessence is the cleanser for xeno-estrogen to pull them out to be filtered by the liver and flushed out of the body. 

To use it for this purpose, gradually increase the number of drops you apply morning and night on the inner arm or thigh or abdomen until symptoms resolve. Then gradually decrease until you can be symptom free with just one or two drops a day.  Your chemical exposure and how fast your body can effectively clear things out will determine the length of time needed to cleanse and restore balance. 

Spotlight on Progessence Phyto Plus: https://m.lfstps.com/pUJE/fwQ

Support digestion - meal in, meal out regularity. Our Cleansing Trio is really effective at restoring proper function. Essentialzyme helps move hormones and toxins out of the body so they don’t sit and cycle through again creating symptoms. Details here: https://m.lfstps.com/0o2e/fwQ

Support Liver - Lemon Oil in our water. We also have products designed to support the liver. Juvatone and Juvapower assist the body to help carry spent hormones from the body in bile. We have a Functional Nutritionist on our team who does a great class about these products. The video quality is poor but the information is really helpful. https://m.lfstps.com/Al3J/fwQ


Dietary Suggestions: to support the liver as it detoxes healthy normal hormones. Eat lots of cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower...) - 2 servings a day. These help the body's elimination process of moving  estrogens from your liver to clear them out of the body.  

NIngxia Red - is a wonderful support for this clean-up process and it nourishes the rebuilding at a cellular level. Details here: https://m.lfstps.com/ZHHye/fwQ

Sulfurzyme - natural sulfur is needed for detox. This is amazing support. Details here: https://m.lfstps.com/lv213/fwQ

Let's support our body to do what is does best! We really can find a whole new awesome normal! 

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