Tag Archives: family wellness

On my summer hacks for health

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Throughout the many trials of the last couple of months, I know that one of the only reasons I stayed strong through it all was a constant connection with my own body and commitment to my own wellness. Whether it was exercise, using oils daily, or my new commitment to Intermittent fasting, my body was well enough to support the emotional toll going on internally.

Here are a few items you might be interested in if you’re renewing a commitment to your own health and wellness this summer!!

5 more days to snag this kit and join our team with continuous education and personal coaching from yours truly. Need more info? We have a workshop Saturday and Tuesday if you want to listen in on zoom!
Summer products have a ton of toxins hiding in them – start switching some of your must-haves with thees non-toxic alternatives and feel better about caring for your littles day in and day out of summer fun!
I was skeptical of the impact of IF at first but now, I definitely feel more energy and more stabilization using the 16/8 method. The hunger pangs go away after about a week and I’m feeling really good about this new habit.

Want more natural product and essential oil information? Follow me on Instagram!

Want some samples first so you can experiment before you commit? Totally get it. Click here and I’ll get those sent to you ASAP!

Ready to dive in? Click here to snag the kit listed above and your FREE bottle of Immortelle!!

On the “trend” that is Essential Oils….

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My Journey
I became super interested in essential oils as I began researching recipes to create my own non-toxic cleaners for our house in the Spring of 2014. After being disturbed by loving a documentary one of my bestie’s worked on called The Human Experiment, I knew I wanted to eliminate these toxic chemicals from our home. When almost every recipe I found included essential oils, I decided to invest in a starter kit.What I didn’t know at that time was that the oils I received were not only going to help make the cleaners, they were going to explode in usage for emotions and multiple other ailments and struggles within our newly formed family of 4! I would have saved a whole lot of money in that first investment if I would have splurged for a bigger kit now that I know how much I ended up using and buying later for more money. You live you learn right…….What’s all the fuss about Essential Oils?
Did you know that the first prescription ever recorded was for frankincense oil? The second was for peppermint oil. There is so much natural medicine at our disposal, we just have to know where to look. Some of the mostly widely used medications today were originally sourced from plants. By using essential oils we are simply remembering the things many people and cultures have used for thousands of years. Returning to ancient solutions where caretakers used the pure essential part of plants, trees and vegetation to help with stomach ailments to sleep apnea and everything in between… solutions that don’t have a long list of side effects or warning labels.

Essential oils don’t just mask symptoms. They bring change to the body at a cellular level, dealing with the root issue and supporting your system as a whole. Because of legalities, I can’t tell you that oils will “cure, treat or prevent” issues you may be facing, but I can give you testimonies (many from me and my family) about how oils have been life-changing.  I want to help mamas like me, and others, create a healthy home life for their families in a modern way using sources that have been around for ages.

I also think the oils are an incredibly powerful tool in helping all members of your family navigate emotional highs and lows. In our culture, anxiety is not a disorder that some people have…..I believe that most people are on a spectrum of emotional wellness and that we all struggle with anxiety/depression/fears. Sharing the oils has helped reduce stigma with my immediate circle of friends and family but also to women and mamas that I newly get to meet…..strong emotions are normal in you and your children!!! And when they strike…..some of the oils and blends are here to help ground and support you as you cope (plus I get to talk about Inside Out – and you all know how much I love that movie).

What ARE the side effects???
I can tell you that I HAVE experienced some side effects from using the oils……like an amazing and growing circle of passionate women and people that love to help others AND some extra spending money just by hosting classes and educating others on how the oils might help them too. My family chooses to save and use this extra money on family memory-making vacations like our Spring break “traincation” two years ago and most recently, it helped pay for half of our very merry Disney Cruise-mas. This side gig has helped me live out my “why” in ways that go beyond my school counseling and coaching professions and has expanded into influencing my social circle and supports as well. So grateful…..

Want to know more or ask me some questions??? Fill out this quick form and we’ll go from there!

P.S. I love to send free samples – tell me what and where and they’ll at your door to try from the safety of your own home within days!

on my “why”….

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I’ve had a few people ask me lately about all of the different things I do and how busy/hard-working I must be….so I thought I would share a little bit about my very intentional purposes in CHOOSING (because I don’t like the term “too busy”) what I engage in and the amazing people I get to engage WITH along the way.

As a counselor, I am in love with the concept and reality of each person having a story. Stories that involve relationships, ups and downs, milestones and miseries, and everything in between. And the more I learned about and experienced these stories first hand or through my profession, I became obsessed intrigued by the stigma around all things “hard” in those stories. We, as Americans, have a really hard time talking about our struggles…..as if those struggles = failure. The stigma around mental health in particular is one that I am passionate about. Both in my field of counseling, but also in my newer passion of natural wellness through essential oils – I am driven to break down these walls and invite people to openly share struggles with ALL steps of their journey. We are usually fairly open about physical ailments, but the relational, mental, and emotional struggles have an entire set of different “social norms” that hurt us by keeping them hidden.

Mamas, in particular, have a hard time sharing struggles. It is all too easy to compare ourselves to the perfect Instagram Mamas and Pinterest inspiration and feel like we’re never doing enough. Along with that comes anxiety, depression and insecurities about our everyday lives. But by sharing those struggles with others, it opens up the opportunity to welcome and receive SUPPORT and help for those very struggles. And the ripple effect is that others feel open and honest in sharing their struggles too (the biggest way to combat social stigma is by sharing about your own – easier said than done of course).

So this is why I do what I do….bringing stories out of the dark and into the light, stepping out of my comfort zone to involve myself in others’ struggles to hopefully be helpful (or sometimes just to be available, no action needed), and every once in a while, empowering kids and parents with tools they might need to relieve even just a fraction of a struggle…..victory and miracle achieved.Feel free to follow along on my RootedWELL Instagram page – right now there’s a super cute video of WonderBOY filling up his oils keychain for school (melt my heart). All things family wellness posted there…..

Giveaway time!!!

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These two products have been monumental in some of my personal development and growth towards contentment and peace with the daily chaos of our lives. I would love to share them with my readers as I really appreciate you tagging along on this journey with me and all of the supportive comments and love you have blessed me with throughout this past year. Please see the end of this post for details on how to enter.The Fringe Hours by Jessica Turner (and accompanying journal) will help you transform your thinking from “I don’t have time for that!!!” into “I can use my time more wisely” with amazing insights and challenging questions. It’s my favorite gift to give to all the hard-working mamas in my life and I hope you will appreciate it as well!

Most of you know how much essential oils have transformed our families’ lives in the past year (sorry for all the oil posts and pictures). Not only with giving me the ability to create our own cleaning products, but also to impact our emotional health and well-being. These emotional aromatherapy oils are my favorite to put into rollerballs (as you see here) and to add to our home diffusers for boosts throughout the day. I am excited to give this set away to a lucky reader who could also benefit from using them!

To enter, please follow my new IG account called ROOTEDWELL (click link, then “follow”) for nuggets of knowledge and inspiration on building your own family’s wellness. Then leave a comment either on the blog post or on Facebook suggesting a topic you would like to read about on the blog sometime in the next few months OR what’s been your fave post so far.  Any and ALL suggestions and feedback welcome. This Friday, Aug. 19th, my little Wonders will pick out names and I will send you your goodies ASAP!

Again, thank you for reading throughout this past year….although your feedback is not the primary reason I am keeping up the blog, I do appreciate the support and engagement that it has brought about in our family’s rollercoaster of a journey.

Intentional Summer 2k16

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We are heading into summer #3 with our wonders this year and after a lot of trial and error with what worked for our family and our children, we are excited to put some different things in place this year to set us ALL up for success and restoration. My wonders feel very threatened by unpredictability…..one of the many reasons that they both feel safe and secure during structured and predictable school days. During the summer, all I want to do is NOT have a schedule so that I can repair my soul and build my energy back up before the Fall. And therein lies the dilemma we have hit in the past.

After attending a workshop hosted by my friend Elizabeth McKinley, inspiring many families to not let summer pass us by, we got to draft what our INTENTIONAL summers will look like on these great posters. The kiddos and I enjoyed drafting out 2.5 months of fun adventures on the big calendar and getting excited about all that we get to do in our time off together.To help with our dilemma of structure vs. free-time, I decided to come up with a daily schedule for the days where we are at home for a majority of the day with nothing on the big calendar. We drafted time slots for different tasks we want done each day. This includes time for our modified home-summer school time and independent time (both wonders need practice at entertaining themselves and playing alone without adult direction). And then we leave the afternoons for getting out of the house for different activities. Free bowling, Trampoline Zone memberships, and the great parks around our county will be filling up our weeks and I know the kids will be excited no matter which option we choose!The nice part about this schedule for ME is that I know which times of our days I will have for my own restorative needs like reading, scrapbooking, or blogging and can plan accordingly while the kids are fulfilling their scheduled duties. I can also plan meet ups with friends and family around this schedule in my beloved new planner.

If your kiddos have a hard time with unstructured days….this scheduling system might be a good experiment to try! As a small sidenote, I am a firm believer to not structure my wonders’ PLAY (what we call independent time)….we tell them often that “boredom is a choice” and I want them to problem solve and be creative on their own. But that doesn’t mean I can’t provide predictability in the times when they will get to make those free choices and the times when we will adventure out as a family unit.

If you are interested in more inspirational content around keeping your family healthy and happy inside and out, please consider following me on Instagram under the username ROOTEDWELL.

The choice of “busy”

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I love this quote and all that it implies. I get asked the question of “how do have time for ALL of that?” often. And while I don’t mind answering it, I find it funny that I don’t actually FEEL all that busy at all. Or at least I don’t feel busy in a negative way – I feel FULL because my family and I are blessed to have so many things to participate in on a daily or weekly basis. I strongly that I am in control of my time, including that of my family and my children. I get to choose what I do with my downtime and I also get to choose how many activities and extra-curriculars my kiddos participate in which severely impacts our nightly and weekend routines. I also believe that some of my “busy” activities are pieces of my self-care like this very blog, scrapbooking, essential oil madness, and extra coaching duties. My “bucket of energy” truly gets filled back up when I partake in these things and thus I can put my whole self into my work and my roles as mother and wife. Even right now, I am writing this post, catching up on the Bachelorette, and texting a few friends about some ailments that oils might help with and I don’t feel busy – I just love fitting all of this into my life when I CHOOSE to.

What I know for sure is that weekends is a time for restoration and downtime for us all. I try not to over-commit to events and I always make sure we are home in between events so that we can participate in a team nap OR just release the energy that being out in public entails for my little wonders. This sometimes means I say no or I don’t plan as many social events but the pay-off mentally and emotionally is so worth it. I also know that when I do make invites to social events or classes, they are extended with the same grace and intentions I hope others extend to me. Come if you can….absolutely no judgement or hard feelings if you can’t!

My other trick to staying engaged and choosing my time is to always keep my cell phone on silent. By doing so, I get to choose when I engage with text messages from others and/or social media, versus getting constant dings and rings when notifications pop up. And although this makes some people frustrated when I can’t text back right away (my Mom thinks she’s sneaky when she asks “if I got her last text” just to shame me from not texting her back….I’m on to you Mom).

I think that our culture can “glorify” this busy-ness with many parents responding with “we’re so busy” as a badge or pride and accomplishment which can then pressure others into filling up every free hour with activities to measure up. And while that might be great and wonderful for their family, it doesn’t work for me or my kiddos and thus I have CHOSEN a different schedule. And that means being particular about what we let our wonders commit to AND inserting passion projects and hobby time into the schedule for my husband and I to keep us fresh as well.

If you’re interested in some reading around this topic for some management inspiration, I would highly recommend the following reads:
The Fringe Hours by Jessica Turner
Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less by Marc Lesser