So, the oils...

I have this new found obsession for oils. The kind of oils that heal. I had seen a post from a friend of mine about how she was glad she carried her oils with everywhere because someone was stung by a wasp and immediately the pain and sting was gone. Seeing that my boys seem to find any nest your house may have, I was curious. But, of course, I forgot and months later I ask about them. She started telling me about all this stuff she had learned. She had also seen great things happen for her family. I was hooked right there. I have been searching for better ways to help my family without filling our bodies with more garbage with some of these meds we have been on. I myself am SUPER sensitive to most meds and dont want my children to have to suffer like that. I also have to be really careful what I put into my own body since I am still high risk of recurrence with Lymphoma. 

Since then, my family has had countless situations where they have healed us. I struggle with panic and anxiety. I have been on xanax for some time. I have since starting these oils come off completely.

Rosington struggles with his adenoids and has problems often.

One day he has a fever of 102, coughing like crazy and congestion. Within 5 hours of using these oils, he had none of these anymore. I went to bed a couple of weeks ago feeling like garbage. Came out of nowhere. Head hurt, neck hurt, my throat was on fire! I rubbed oils where I needed them and went to bed. I woke up and still felt rough looked at my throat and had white spots all over (pretty sure it was strep), but spent the day using the oils and that afternoon, I was fine.

Boston was hit by a baseball pretty bad during the season. He could barely walk that night. When we got home I rubbed some oils on his leg and he went to bed. When he woke up he was 100% fine, not even a single bruise. 

I carry my stress and tension on my neck and in my back. I will rub oils on those places and instantly feel fine. It's amazing. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE to get massages, but these help me so much. Getting a massage as much as I need is too pricy. 

I could go on and on and on... and on and on and on... 

I never intended to sell them, but once I saw all the amazing things they do, I can't help but share them with others. There are blogs I have read and pages that detail these oils and how they help with LUPUS! ARTHRITIS! CANCER! Why fill yourself with crap when there is a better, healthier alternative??

There are all kinds you can get. Some you find are really cheap, but when you find those, you need to ask yourself why are these so cheap and not the others? The reason is simple. Cheaper ones are filled with other things like oil (coconut oil, grape seed oil etc) Which is fine for some oils but many of these are not as affective if they are not neat (straight oil) Each oil that I use (DoTerra) has several different healing properties. These oils are only from the best crops and from all over the world. 

You should check it out. They do sell more than oils, but we can get into all that later. PLEASE if you are interested ask me anything! There is so much you can learn about these. I am more than willing to help you figure out what you want. 

my site if you want to check DoTerra out or make a purchase 

www.mydoterra.com/stephanielowrey

 

Adventure in homeschooling

When we started having kids I thought people who homeschool were crazy. Clearly not. In my kids early years we were blessed by a school that Levi and many of his family members attended. My boys loved it (still do) they were good, strong, and sweet ladies. But as they got older (Boston in-particular) we were more hesitant on sending them. Our main reasons at the time was Levi being gone so much. He would barely see them. The one year Boston did attended public school, he was so 'busy' with extra work after being in school all day, eating supper and playing a sport, he maybe spent an accumulative 1 hour a week with Levi. Their schedules were opposite. Boston was off weekends and Levi was off weekdays. It was a mess.

I have now been doing this for 2 1/2 years. We started with K12 which was recommended to me by Amie Powell. It was really what we needed at the time. It has great structure, teachers, plus it was free. They sent it all to me. The first year we maybe did work for 4 hours a day. (Mind you, I was going through chemo too) Then last year it jumped to about 5 to 6 hours of work a day. This year however it jumped 10 notches at least. Boston was doing great, but the work would take him 12 hours at least, sometimes more if he was having a hard time with something. They were literally on one subject for 2 days and then moved on. It was more about drilling instead of the joy of learning. I could see him deteriorating. Emotionally it was draining him. He would cry and be so sad. We would spend so much time arguing because he was 'taking so long' but there was just so much to do. Plus he's 9! His attention span for that and being a boy, I was asking too much of him. It was ridiculous. Mentally he was tearing himself down and I was feeling like a failure too. We spent all that time daily as were still behind in school and in home since I was so busy with that. Something had to change. I was worried someone would come after me... For what, I wasn't sure since he was my kid and frankly I can do what I want. But still, I was nervous.

I spoke with several friends and acquaintances  coming with the conclusion we could leave anytime we wanted and start something new. 

I had heard about many great programs. I still needed something that had great structure because I am already overwhelmed with so much, finding every day work was just something I couldn't add to my plate.

I looked into CC- Classical Conversations. My sisters use that as well as some friends. But again, I don't have time to expand the way it needs to be done. But I was quickly introduced to Easy Peasy, All-in-one homeschooling. 

I pulled him out and he took a few days off and now is following this. 

The first day, he was upbeat and smiling. He took 2 1/2 hours for the day-Math, Reading, Writing, Vocab, Science, Social Studies and History. Plus I think he did Music that day too. One of the cool things that it also has a bible study built into the studies. When he was done he was able to tell me how the heart functions. The HEART people!!! Do you think he loves it? Yeah, he does. 

I have also added a some more math called, Life of Fred. It's a book about a kid who 'teaches' at a University and goes through math problems. Very cool book. Boston loves that too, so far. It goes from Elementary - College. 

I can't take all this credit, because without my friend Erin who is an endless 

source of knowledge, I may not have found these recent discoveries.

I may add a bit more writing but he knows a good bit. I may just have him continue a daily journal or do a daily gram? Who knows. I will revisit.

Since Rosington will just be 5 in a couple of weeks, I still have to decide if this is the way to go with him seeing that each child is so different and mine are night and day from one another. But I recommend these so far. 

Now, while homeschooling, we are free to travel with Levi on occasion. Last month we went to Charleston for the Southern Ground Music and Food Festival (I only teach M-Th) and then Nashville. By the way, downtown Nashville has an amazingly beautiful library off Church Street. We spent the day there doing work and exploring their books and meeting new friends. 

I love all the time I have with my little pip squeaks. We have a good time.

Wow, the time has gone by...

I got a wild hair tonight and decided, after many people asking for me to do so, to start writing... at least a blog for now. I may take notes and write a book later. I had thought to create an alter ego name, like Stella (which my brother named me for when we drank) but I thought it best to stick to who I am on most days, since that is what I will mainly write about anyway, our daily bits of chaos. My mind is like a 10,000 piece puzzle, there is always a piece I need to put together before I can move onto the next or I am a mess. Though its usually not that simple.

My life has moments of being really awesome, but for the most part, our lives don't get too far from everyone else's 'normal'. We are normal people with stress, anxiety, fears and the path of life.  I mean, look at the last time I wrote my blog. I wrote July 2011, just a couple of days before my brothers horrible accident with his best friend. An accident that would change everyones lives forever. After that, things got crazy for a couple of months, being there for our family and then that October I was diagnosed randomly with Hodgkins Lymphoma. CRAZY! Now fast forward two years later, my brother is doing well (still praying for Ron daily) and I am officially cancer free for one year! Say what?! Amazing right? Now, Im a healthy conscience, (as much as can be) into oils for healing and still homeschooling my kids (which I didn't even think I was capable of doing in the first place) Im always baking or finding a new recipe, because I have issues with making the same dinner meals twice in a month. You see, Im pretty sure I bring on a lot of my own stress is because of standards I place on myself that "others" of course think. I am sure you will see right through my 'Ive got it togetherness' and see my crazy ways, but I will do well to hide it the best I can :)

Enough for now, I have a baby shower in the morning I am helping with and have been gone all day. Plus I need to get this zombie video game Levi has been playing out of my head. All I need is to sleep walk tonight, thinking there are zombies attacking my house. xo