Keeping Your Cool in the Toughest Mothering Situations.

Well, it has happened again.  Last night, I realized I have not taken care of the task of preparing for the holiday weekend.  Our three children are old enough to know that the Easter Bunny is supported almost solely by their parents, so it may not seem like a big deal to skip a year this time around to save everybody (meaning, me) a bit of trouble.  However, our children have opted into playing what we call "The Game".  This game is the silent understanding and agreement that the Easter Bunny is essentially me and that as long as they play The Game and expect a basket full of colored grass, candy and something new and (hopefully) cool,  the "Easter Bunny" will provide. The Game came about as result of our two oldest children being told by our youngest and most practical child that all holiday icons (Santa Claus,  Easter Bunny, etc.) are, indeed, my husband and I. So, a family discussion of the facts-of-holidays followed and the gig was up.  We all decided that holidays are fun and part of the fun, aside from the vacation from school and family time, is the tradition that each holiday holds. Thus, the The Game was created, agreed upon and commenced and it has been played ever since. . . But, I have digressed.

The point of this blog is that early this morning, after dropping everyone at school or the bus, I made a last minute dash to my old get-it-done-quick standby. . .Target.  This morning the place was packed! I guess I am not the only one that the holiday sprung up and surprised this year.  So, I am making my way through the seasonal section, when I hear a child crying on the other aisle and the mother's response was tense with anger and frustration when she said "Get back in the cart and stay there!" My first response when I hear anger from a parent toward a small child is always the same: a sick feeling in my stomach.  This sick feeling is not created by anger at the parent or fear for the child's safety, which, arguably, it may well ought be.  The sick feeling comes from the last lingerings of a memory of losing my cool in a similar situation with one or all of our children when they were young.  Yuck! I don't like revisiting that memory. Yet, I know, I am not alone.

Mothering is a full time job and can be stressful at times. Then add in the necessities and responsibilities of living an adult life and it seems as if it is impossible to relax and stay calm when our children knowingly or unknowing push our "hot" buttons. And just to say what I imagine some of you are out there thinking: they always seem to push the "hot" buttons when the pressure is at a peak level.  It often feels as if they know it is the very worst time to "act up", which only escalates the possibility of losing our mothering cool.  Well, I am here to tell you their is a reason those peak pressure times are the hardest times to maintain our cool. It is all in our biology.  It is part of how are bodies are made to function.

We have a normal physiological response to events that make us feel threaten or upset our balance in some way.  This is called the stress response (aka fight-or-flight response) and it is our body's way of protecting us and in an emergency, can save your life or your child's life by giving you extra strength and energy.  The problem is that when a person senses danger or a feeling of imbalance, the body does not know the difference between real or imagined danger. So, you could be feeling out of balance, i. e. nervous or anxious about a report at work that is due the next day, then, that night your child is awake most of the night with an upset stomach.  Now, it is today, the day report is due, and you are lacking a good night's sleep.  Not one of the above circumstances is life threatening, but the body perceives the out-of-balance effect and says: this is a time to start the physiological chain of events to help protect you from danger. The result is the stress response, which is meant to make us react quickly, without thinking what we are doing or saying--not the best frame of mind to be in when keeping our mothering cool is necessary.  So, how do you manage life and biology to keep the stress response on deck, and only on deck, for times of real danger?  First, check out this website for ways to manage stress. Next, know that it is important to know what triggers a stress response in you. Once you know what your triggers are use methods that reverse the stress response and liberally.

The method I use and that works, for me, is aromatherapy.  In a matter of 22 seconds, a moment of incredible tension and stress can be relieved, allowing me to a pause and respond with intention rather than tension. The example I give others when I talk about how fast and effective aromatherapy can be is the day I was driving with our "tweenage" daughter. It had been a particularly stressful day and during our talk, a sensitive topic came up and next thing I knew she had unleashed a stream of tears and insults.  Thank goodness for the stoplight that road delivered!  I reached in my purse and pulled out StressAway blend, applied it to my wrists and neck and took a deep breath.  As the light turned green, I knew I could handle anything.  About 30 seconds later, my daughter, who had been crying, took a deep breath and started laughing! She then said she didn't know what was wrong with her and made a joke about crazy hormones.  We both started laughing at her joke.  I pulled over and gave her a hug!  Can you guess which oil I make room for in my purse to have on hand now that I have two teenagers and a "tweenager"? That's right StressAway!

Are you wondering what happen to the child and mother at Target this morning? Well, I'll tell you.  I grabbed my StressAway blend, applied it generously, scooted to the next aisle where the mother and child were and slowly, very slowly passed them so as to allow a little "guerrilla aromatherapy" to occur.  By the time I was in the next aisle, child and mother were quietly talking about the Easter items on the shelves.

Enjoy :)

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#Mothering Solution: It Helps To Use Your Inner Child

Hello and welcome!! Thank you for checking out my blog! I am so grateful to be able to share with you solutions to the everyday challenges that face mothers and the "tools" I use for keeping my family healthy and happy.

As I can imagine many mothers are able to attest, the gifts and trials of mothering are constantly being placed in front of us by our children.  Because mothering is a 24/7 commitment, whether one works outside the home full-time, part-time or is in full-immersion mode, we are constantly being put to the test of learning and growing along the way.  There is a huge subject to be covered if I chose to concentrate on either the gifts or the trials category, so today I will focus on gifts and only one of them: seeing the world through the eyes of a child.  The desire to discuss this topic came to me because of an situation that occurred with one of my children recently.  Due to my child's desire to put the situation into the past, I will say only that it involved the innocent desire to be accepted among friends and a visit to the principal's office.  Suffice to say no great harm was done and yet there was such a gift in the ability to see the world and the situation from the point of view our 10 year old child.

The candor with which our child shared with me the thoughts and emotions that influenced the "incident" reminded me of one of the joys I used to revel in as a mother of very small children.  On spring days, when the weather was fine, I would bundle up the kids and head out to our fenced-in yard and watch the the kids explore.  All three of them would fan out across the grass, tromp around the ivy and pick up random items and present them to me as "gifts". These gifts would consist of anything from a clot of dirt to a fully bloomed daffodil. One of my favorite moments was when one or all three of our children would run over excitedly yelling: 

"Mommy, Mommy! Look what I found!" I would then be ushered over to see the first crocus of the season.  

Of the array of gifts I would accumulate, the ones that sparked a warm glow deep inside me and an appreciation of each of our children's loving personalities were the gifts that ran along the lines of the clot of dirt. The gratitude I developed for the unsung virtue of the clot of dirt was the response that came from the child when I offered them the opportunity share with me what they loved about the gift they were giving. The answers would vary from:

"See, Mommy, if you look real close in the sunlight, it sparkles." To:

"It looks like a heart."  

As our children have grown, I have started to miss the gift of the world being revealed to me through the untarnished perspective of one or all three our children. As they have grown they still provide me with a fresh perspective and yet, they are slowly being transformed by the responsibilities that come with moving through school, interactions with peers, sports and other activities, in other words--Life.  Sometimes there is not even time for them to stop and see the first blooming crocus or stand and gaze in awe at the power of crashing waves. Sound familiar? 

This change from a child's view to a more adult world view happens when we see our children start to grow and mature into their responsibilities. With these responsibilities comes a problem. The problem, as I see it, is that within this adult world view there is a shift of attitude from "a sense of wonder" to an attitude of "what needs to be done next and by when?" This shift seems to rob them and us of joy. A joy that comes from a feeling of wonder the world offers us in the natural beauty and simplicity of its laws.  So, how does one get the sense of wonder back and maintain the responsibilities that are required of us in the world in which we live?

I have spent much time and effort towards answering the above question because I believe, for me, it is one of the keys to living a happy life. The basic answer is balancing both responsibilities and the enjoyment opportunities of life. How to put this into practice?

Here are my tricks. They are simple and few: 

1. Turn off the news. The news very rarely reflects anything happening that will directly effect you or your family.  If the news does, I guarantee you will already know about it before it airs publicly or you will hear about it sooner rather than later.  If you must pay attention to the news, minimize your exposure and the form of sensory input: listening to the news by the radio only requires one of the five senses so it will not likely impact your attitude as much as TV news which uses three or reading it in the newspaper which requires two.

2. Spend time in the natural world, with nature, with animals or small children as much as possible.  The rules of the natural world are so simple and animals and small children naturally attune to these laws providing a much needed reminder of the beauty of simplicity that still exists in an ever more complex world.   

3. Play everyday! Do something everyday that provides you an opportunity to have fun and enjoy your life. Even if it is as simple as taking a walk listening to your favorite music on your headphones. Fun, in my opinion, is attitude based rather than activity based. 

4. Learn to say "no" kindly and respectfully, not just to people asking you to take on more than you are willing and able, but more importantly, learn to say it to your children.  By saying it to others you model it for your children and by saying "no" kindly to your children, their activities will not overwhelm their lives or YOUR life.  

5. Take time everyday to be alone with yourself.  I start my day, everyday, with this practice and if it is skipped for some reason, I truly miss it. During this time alone with myself, is when I use the aroma of essential oils to enhance my focus and experience. One of my favorite oils for reconnecting to a sense of wonder is: Inner Child.  I drop it onto my hands, rub them together and cup my hands over my nose and mouth and deeply inhale for 20 seconds.  I then say the following affirmation aloud: "I am so happy and grateful for the creativity that is me. I embrace, revere and protect the child within." 

Once I started practicing the above 5 steps in my life consistently, I started to feel space open around me again. The world began to feel much more expansive and the opportunities for learning, curiosity and wonder started reappearing in my life. And low and behold, now, it is me exclaiming excitedly; "Look what I found!" and ushering our children to see the first crocuses of spring.

Enjoy :)



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#Recipe for a Busy Mother a la Mothering Solutions

Hello and welcome!! Thank you for checking out my blog! I am so grateful to be able to share with you solutions to the everyday challenges that face mothers and the "tools" I use for keeping my family healthy and happy.

Mothering is a challenge enough without adding the task of figuring out how to feed a family of five a nutritious and taste bud satisfying meal every night.  It feels especially challenging in our family because we have many different kinds of eaters.  My husband, thank goodness, is easy. He eats a standard diet that could most easily be called a Mediterranean diet.  He is thrilled with any healthy cut of meat, a vegetable and a bean dish or whole grain bread with a salad as a meal option.  Our son, like his father, loves meat and certain vegetables and fruits, and grains. The major categories to stay away from when considering our son’s dietary needs are eggs, and leafy greens.  His dislike of eggs is a result of a 7year allergy to them and the leafy greens? He says they feel like tissues on his tongue.  Now, these seem like surmountable issues, except when you throw in the “female-eating-factor”: Our two daughters and I are vegetarians who prefer no dairy and eat eggs. Let me restate that: we don't just eat eggs, we LOVE eggs! And since we have chickens, our eggs are fresh, delicious and plentiful! What a lovely, quick and easy meal a vegetable frittata and salad make for us vegetarian egg lovers! This simple solution becomes more complicated with the addition of our son in the kitchen "scrounging"** for his dinner.  As you may guess, finding recipes that everyone enjoys in this family is always greatly appreciated and this one meets the test!  The following recipe is adapted from a recipe I found on epicurious.com. It is a simple, delicious recipe that has quickly hit the top of the request list by all members of our family.


 Enjoy :) 


** "Scrounging" is the term we use in our family when what has been prepared for a meal is considered unacceptable by a family member, so they are put in charge of preparing their own meal. In other words, it is a fend-for-yourself situation.

Vegetarian Slow Cooker Black Bean Chili:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups chopped onions

1 2/3 cups coarsely chopped red bell peppers

(about 2 medium)

1 cup coarsely chopped green bell pepper

(about 1 medium)

6 garlic cloves, chopped

4 tablespoons chili powder

4 teaspoons dried oregano

2 1/2 teaspoons roasted, ground cumin

1/2  teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 cups mild salsa ( I uses Herdez, it does not

have added sugar :)

28 oz chopped, unsalted canned tomatoes with

the juice (I use Pomi diced tomatoes)

2 cans chopped mild, green chilies

4 cups Not Chick'n Broth

1 pound dried black beans, soaked overnight

rinsed and drained

2-4 tablespoons chopped cilantro

salt and pepper to taste

Toppings:

Sour cream

Chopped fresh cilantro


Chopped green onions

Grated Monterey Jack cheese

Preparation:

Heat oil in heavy, large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, bell peppers, and garlic; sauté until onions soften, about 10 minutes. Mix in chili powder, oregano, cumin, and cayenne; stir 2 minutes. Add the sautéed ingredients to a slow cooker. Add the rest of the ingredients on the list to the cooker and set on high for 6 hours.  Stir occasionally and add water throughout and/or toward the end of the cooking time to reach a desired consistency. 

Ladle chili into bowls. Pass chopped cilantro, sour cream, grated cheese, and green onions separately.

Enjoy!



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Let's Talk About Hormones and Mothering

Hello and welcome!! Thank you for checking out my blog! I am so grateful to be able to share with you solutions to the everyday challenges that face mothers and the "tools" I use for keeping my family healthy and happy.

OK, let's get down to brass tacks, here. If you are a woman, mother or not, I imagine you can agree with me that hormones are a big part of our daily lives.  We can not escape their daily influence on our bodily functions, our desires and cravings, our skin health and our emotions. To put it lightly, a woman's understanding of hormones and whether or not they are functioning properly, improperly or at all in our bodies is pretty darn important because they affect pretty much every aspect of our quality of life.  Now, I do not claim to be any expert or even a novice when it comes to understanding hormones, their regulation and/or their proper function in the female body. I will say this, though, something has changed in the last 30 or so years of our lives that is effecting many people's ability to live healthy and harmonious lives. That something has been highlighted by some as hormone dysfunction and the cause of this dysfunction is being attributed to hormone disruptors that some have called a perfect storm for creating an imbalance of hormones in the human body from infants to the elderly.

Some have pegged the culprit of the dysfunction as the food supply, an example being processed food canned and packaged in plastic that has the known hormone disruptor BPA in them.  Some call the culprit the mass of under-regulated chemicals, such as dioxins, being spewed into our environment by incinerators and certain manufacturing processes. Another source of exposure is atrizine, a chemical used in some of the most common herbicides (think weedkillers). The truly scary fact is that most of theses chemicals are loosely regulated or not regulated at all!

For women, this lax or lack of regulation is of special concern because one of the most common, and unsuspecting sources of chemicals that mess with our hormones are in skin care or personal care products.

"Right now, cosmetics companies can put almost any ingredient they want into personal care products without having to prove that it's safe. EWG's [Environmental Working Group] research has found everything from hormone disruptors to carcinogens in products we use every day, such as shampoos and moisturizers."

Scary, huh? (If you want to read more on this topic, click here)  Now, what if I were to tell you that the largest organ of the body is the skin? Many of you might say: "Yeah, I learned that in 10th grade biology." Well, this being the case, it seems logical to me that I want to treat my skin with the same kind of care that I would give my heart, brain, and/or lungs. In other words,  I would not knowingly expose these organs to chemicals that could potentially cause significant problems. Why would I treat my skin, the largest organ of my body, any differently? Thus, my new motto, for me and my family, has become "If I am not willing to eat it, I will not put it on my skin." I can imagine some of you may have gone to the image of a mother slathering herself and three children with olive oil instead of using chemical-laden body lotion. Nope, I have found a more practical, and less messy, mothering solution.

Enter Young Living's personal care products. This is the solution.  I have tried so many "natural" products to replace the panthenyl-based shampoo and conditioner I used prior to learning the above information.  None of the all-natural products provided me with the results I had with the old shampoo and conditioner.  This was discouraging and even tempted me back a couple of times.  Then I discovered the personal care products from Young Living. I am so grateful because, now, I get the results I used to get from the old, unregulated shampoos and conditioners with none of the harmful possibilities.  For those of you that read my previous blog: An Acne Protocol That Works! (Just ask my 13 year-old), you will notice that all the skin care products mentioned by our daughter are made by Young Living.  That is because they are safe, non-toxic and they work! Now, our whole family can have our proverbial cake and eat it, too!


P.S. Oh, and there is also a wonderful line of personal products for kids. All three of our children have graduated from the kid's products, however, I know one person who still uses the kid's toothpaste because she likes it's flavor the best!

Enjoy :)

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When the Stomach Flu Abounds, Mothering Solutions Knows How to Rebound!

Hello and welcome!! Thank you for checking out my blog! I am so grateful to be able to share with you solutions to the everyday challenges that face mothers and the "tools" I use for keeping my family healthy and happy.  

Well, as careful as I am and I encourage my family to be, it has happened--the stomach flu that has been passed from school children to executives has found its way into our family circle. 

Three nights ago, my husband complained to our teenage daughter that his stomach was feeling "gurgly".  As a mother of three, I have learned that anytime someone complains of their stomach feeling  "gurgly", "burpy" or "crampy",  it is time to take notice!
 
The stomach flu often has a sneaky onset.  It usually doesn't appear as a full-on storm, but as a slow progression of non-exact digestive symptoms. It is at this point that it is time to take action! Unfortunately, my husband, did not make his symptoms know to me that night before bed. Let it suffice to say, that he stayed home from work the next day. 

You may be wondering what kind of action you can take against a stomach bug. You, like me a few years ago, may think the stomach flu is one of those unavoidable realities of life and that you and your family are lucky to miss it when it shows up in your child's school or at your work. Well, I am here to tell you, you can do something to dodge the stomach flu or significantly lessen its effects on you and your family! 

After my husband was laid up for the day, I started to feel that "not right" feeling in my stomach. At the first moment of feeling "not quite right", I went to the medicine cabinet and filled an empty capsule with 7 drops Young Living's Digize blend and swallowed it. In about a half an hour, I started to feel better. "Whew," I thought "dodged that bullet!"  I felt good for about another two hours and then I felt the "yucky" feeling again. Back to the medicine cabinet I went and filled another capsule with 7 more drops of Digize, swallowed the capsule and went back to what I had been doing. This time I felt good all the way until I went to bed! Now, I have learned that with any relief I feel from taking, applying or inhaling essential oils, it is necessary to keep using the oil that is working a couple "doses" past the time I feel the symptoms are relieved. So, before bed, back to the medicine cabinet, yet again,  I went and filled another capsule with 7 drops of Digize, swallowed it and went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up feeling great!! No sign of any "gurgly, burby, or yucky" feeling from the stomach--success!! Once again I have rebounded from the stomach flu!! I am so grateful that there is a product out there that can stand up to the stomach flu! I am also so grateful to the friend that told me about these wonderful oils! (Thanks, again, Mary Beth!) Now,  I am delighted to be able to share them with you! 

Enjoy!

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An Acne Protocol That Works! (Just ask my 13 year old)

Hello and welcome!! Thank you for checking out my blog! I am so grateful to be able to share with you solutions to the everyday challenges that face mothers and the "tools" I use for keeping my family healthy and happy.  

When each of our children was born, my husband and I would share the night shift.  I would nurse the baby and since my husband could not perform that particular task, he took diaper duty. (I know, I have an amazing husband!)  Because these breaks in our regular sleep pattern often made us a bit punchy, we would play a game where we would picture the new baby in its teen years.  Being proud of our progeny, we, of course, pictured each of them in their future lives as being as physically beautiful as we saw them at that moment.  This was always fun until one of us would remind the other that if they were as handsome or beautiful in their teen years as they were at that moment, we would have a problem on our hands--dating! Whoa-too much reality presented! That reality would have one of us making a wish. This wish was innocent and always couched in the joke of the "horror" we felt upon the realization that the innocent babe in front of us would one day be awash in hormones and in the desire for the attentions of the opposite sex.  The wish we so innocently asked for was that each of our children would have glasses, braces, and/or a small flush of acne during their teen years, not for long, just long enough for one or all three of these common teenage afflictions to push back the dating years to a time when it seemed more palatable to us as parents. 

 Well, all I can say is: Be careful what you wish for.  Our two oldest children are in their teen years and both have had our innocent, joking wish come true for them. Both of our oldest children have had braces, glasses and acne.  The braces and the glasses are temporary- braces are only on for two years, in most cases, and contacts solve the glasses problem. Acne, on the other hand, has been a persistent companion to both of our teens, that is, until we discovered the personal care products offered by Young Living. Here's what my 13 year old has to say about her experience with clearing up her acne:      

I was skeptical. I'll admit it. I had horrible acne, and I was afraid to make it worse if I abandoned the slew of creams and chemicals I was using. A simple, chemical-free, all natural approach scared me. But at this point, I was desperate. I agreed to test the protocol for a month, but I really expected no results.  Literally a week after starting to use the protocol, I was stunned. My face was ten times better than before! I stuck to it religiously, and a month later, I had near-perfect skin, with the occasional minor breakout here and there. I would recommend this to anyone, even those with sensitive skin, (although if this is the case, I would not use a heavy hand with the Melrose.)

MY ACNE PROTOCOL

AM: Wash face with YL Orange Blossom Facial Wash, mix with Sandalwood moisturizer if you have problems with dryness. Spot apply Melrose. Mix 2-5 drops of  Beauty Serum for Acne with Sandalwood Moisturizer.

Supplements AM: 2 Hers, 2 Comfortone, 2-5 Detoxzymes, Essentialzymes-4, Balance Complete AM.

Supplements Noon: Essentialzymes-4, Balance Complete Noon.

PM: Wash face with YL Orange Blossom Facial Wash, mix with Sandalwood moisturizer if you have problems with dryness. Spot apply Melrose. Mix 2-5 drops of Beauty Serum for Acne with Sandalwood Moisturizer.

Supplements PM: 2 Hers, 2 Comfortone, 2-5 Detoxzymes, Essentialzymes-4, Balance Complete PM

2-5 times/week: Exfoliate with Satin Mint Facial Scrub, ART Creme Masque

3-4 times/week: ART Beauty Masque.

*Replace all shampoos, conditioners, deodorants, body lotions and soaps with YL products. I use the Lavender Mint Shampoo, Copiaba Vanilla Conditioner, and Lavender Hand and Body Lotion.*

*Mothering solutions note: This switch is important because there are a rare, very few personal care products on the market that do not contain compounds that are known endocrine disruptors.  These are compounds that can disrupt or imbalance the hormones that can contribute to an acne problem, as well as other more serious problems.  I will be addressing this topic in more detail in a separate blog post. :) 

So, now you have heard it from the mouth of our younger teenager and you may be wondering about our oldest teenager's results.  The funny thing is that our oldest teen developed most of the above protocol by accident!  She was suffering from an unrelated skin problem and after doing a bit of research, she learned that many skin problems, including acne, are result of digestive issues.  So, she decided to start taking the items above that related to digestive health.  After about a month of using the supplements, she noticed that along with the other skin condition, the acne on her face had almost cleared completely.  Our younger teen decided to try the specific oils and facial care products in addition to the supplements her older sibling discovered to be so effective.  Now we have an acne protocol that is better than any we could have wished for and I am so grateful to be able to share it with all of you! 

Enjoy :) 

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How to stop a bloody nose FAST!

STAT ANSWER: A drop of Young Living's Idaho Balsam Fir oil across the bridge of the nose while staving off the bleeding with a tissue.

Ok, whew! Now that you have dealt with the situation at hand, you may be wondering how I figured this mothering solution out, considering that the most common solution offered for  stopping a nose bleed is to apply ice and pinch the nose until the bleeding stops (which can take up to 15 mins).

Without getting into it too deeply, I had just returned from a subtropical vacation where my body had been used to temperatures ranging from the high 70's to the low 100's with the humidity in the 80% range. Upon our return, the Mid-Atlantic Region of the US was blasted with a very dry and very cold front.  The dryness and cold was more that my poor nose could take and I awoke to what the medical community refers to as epistaxis and our family calls a "gusher." As Murphy's Law would have it, I was on a tight schedule that morning and needed to shower and ready myself for an important meeting.  I knew that the heat of a shower would be the last thing to stop the bleeding, so in time-conscious desperation, I opened my medicine cabinet hoping to find a quick fix and my eye caught the Idaho Balsam Fir bottle. Just then a memory came to me: Idaho Balsam Fir was what a friend had used to stop the bleeding she experienced as result of a kitchen knife accident.

"Just two drops on the cut had stopped the bleeding almost instantaneously!" She had said.

. . . it worked! I put a drop on my finger,  brushed my oiled finger across the bridge of my nose and could feel the blood stop trickling. I cautiously removed the tissue to check and the bleeding had stopped! I tentatively got in the shower expecting a possible relapse, and none occurred! I finished the shower, dressed and left for the meeting arriving on time a half an hour later.  I was so impressed by these results, I had to share this simple solution with the rest of you, especially those mothers out there who, like me, have a child (or in my case, have 2 children) who get nose bleeds all the time.

Aside from the the mess and the inconvenience of a nose bleed, in this day of awareness over blood-borne illnesses, schools, camps and athletics programs have become even more concerned to have a child in their care with frequent, profuse nose bleeds.  I have always felt it was right to let the people caring for my children in these situations know what to expect and how to handle it. So, historically, my answer on school, athletic and camp medical forms to the question; "Are there any medical conditions we should know about?" was always the same: "My child has frequent, unexplained and profuse nosebleeds; he does NOT have a bleeding disorder.  He is accustomed to handling the bleeding, just make sure you always have plenty of tissues or paper towels on hand." Now,  I also send them to school, camp or an activity with a bottle of Idaho Balsam Fir oil and some tissues. They are able to stop the nose bleed almost immediately! I have also added a bottle of the oil to each of the first aid kits our family has at home and uses for travel.  It is a great addition!!

PS. Another great addition to your family's first aid kit is Young Living's Geranium oil (pictured above with Idaho Balsam Fir). It is wonderful for reducing bruising immediately after impact and for fading an already existing bruise fast.


Hello and welcome!! Thank you for checking out my blog! I am so grateful to be able to share with you solutions to the everyday challenges that face mothers and the "tools" I use for keeping my family healthy and happy.  Would you like a simple mothering solution offered to you? Leave a comment and let me know what you need :)