A Day to Remember

Last weekend I got a call from my husband who was at work, and I an hour away on my way to see his nephew who has just turned 3 (one of the birthday parties in this busy busy week). He was calling as he usually does when he gets a break from work, but this time he had someone on the work phone while he on his cell phone. “Do you know So and So?” he asks, “she knows your name your kids and even me!!”

As it turns out So and So was a good friend of mine about 8 years ago we lost touch. Then got together about 3 ½ years ago for a month or so then she married and moved away. In the short time that has passed she had gone through some hard times. Her grandfather and father died and shortly after she got a divorce, finding out her husband, who was favored by the family because of his good standing with the church was not keeping to his vows.

She was calling me to get back in touch for good this time saying how hard it is to find true people in the world. She was also calling to tell me she was getting married again, to man she had known for 12 years now. Twelve years of secretly loving someone because of family’s expectations of who she should be had gotten in the way of who she wanted to be, and who she wanted to be with.

Disowned because her lack of faith in her families religious standing she now has her uncle and a few friends to share her life with. Thirteen of us set out to a town with a beautiful waterfall to backdrop this small and intimate wedding. I was honored to perform their wedding ceremony for them. In their vows they included my family as their family. The evening moved along with a quick dip in the ice cold water, dinner and drinks alongside the clear pool of water and a quiet thoughtful drive home.

You may not have had a big wedding but I am almost certain that the family and friends that were in attendance gave you more support and love for your special day than a thousand people could have given.

May you always search for joy and happiness in each other.

Makeover Your Medicine Cabinet

Makeover Your Medicine Cabinet

http://www.doterraeveryday.com/makeover-2/

Easier said than done right?! I have been working on this makeover for a couple of months. I tend to stay away from most over the counter drugs and none in my family has prescriptions. Our medicine cabinet consists of Tylenol (children’s and adults), Advil (children’s and adults), half boxes and bottles of allergy and cold medicines of a variety as some didn’t have the effect they claimed to, and expired gas/stomach relief caplets. Does your cabinet look similar? Well, I use Tylenol as a very last resort. I go through my check list 1. Do I need water? 2. Am I hungry? 3. Am I tired? The kids don’t get anything unless they are truly sick with a fever. Their headaches can be fixed just like I go through my check list for me… most of the time they just need water. Their simple bellyaches call for a second thought about going potty, and then a hot water bottle. My husband uses the allergy medicine more than I do. I have about a month and a half of bad allergies in late December early January; he continues to have allergies off and on throughout the year.

So, my first step of cleaning out my medicine cabinet was to start with the kids. My 3 and 1 year olds had fevers a month and a half ago, and I used peppermint with coconut oil as carrier oil. I used 1 drop essential oil in a tablespoon of coconut oil and rubbed it on their backs and the back of their necks. It worked instantly! No more fevered baby, at least for about 4 hours then I reapplied.

Second step. My husband took his new OTC allergy medicine for the 4th or 5^th day in a row. By then his body had, I guess become use to it and his eyes started watering and itching two hours into the day. I handed him my little doTerra key chain of oils and told him to pull out lavender, lemon and peppermint. We had nothing for him to mix it with so he simply dabbed a drop of each on his finger and applied it under his tongue. Next time he mixed it with an ounce of water.

Three, continue changing up to essential oils.

Why I want to make the switch to pure essential oils instead of chemicals that simulate the natural stuff that comes from the earth...

Check out this article. http://worldtruth.tv/studies-prove-that-these-drugs-make-your-brain-stop-working/

Every year there are lists of new and wonderful cures for symptoms, only to have some report that comes out later that says they cause more issues then what they help! Why do this to ourselves and our children?!  

Take a look at this video; it is much more positive then the article above. http://www.mydoterra.com/adelyser/companyVideo.html

Saving Seeds

Working this week on the well-manicured two acres I realized that I could be saving seeds from some of the hundreds of flowers I clip every week. So I set out to save seeds with ordinary envelopes and a pen… and my clippers.

I could get fancy with printing out seed labels and packets to hold all the seeds, but that will have to wait until a less crazy week to do it the right way and not have it rushed.

Seeds I saved this week: Daisies, Blanket flower, Jethro Tull or Tickseed, a red Columbine, and one I don’t know (if anyone can help me out with the name I would love it!), so I described it as purple flower with long string/ hair like leaves grows 2 feet tall.

Jethro Tull or Tickseed

Here we go. Saving seeds is easy and much cheaper than buying them.

Almost Ready

Ready

Daisy

 1. Find flowers/ plants you like

2. Ask permission before clipping if they are not yours

3. Wait for the perfect moment

4. Clip

5. Dry

6. Label and store

Almost ready

Ready

Columbine

Ready

Almost ready

Blanket Flower

Almost Ready

Ready

Mystery Flower

Almost Ready

Ready

Busy, Busy Week

Busy, busy week we have had. Birthday parties, pool parties, sleepovers, Bunco, piano lessons, work, planning my doTerra essential oil party, planning a canning class, blackberry picking, day camps, a children’s festival we attended, and a wedding ceremony performed. Each night I would sit down and try to relax and write a little something without falling asleep and that just didn’t happen, so would it be wrong for me to sum it all up in one post or should I do a few different ones?? I think I should do a few different ones…

Here is summary in photos of this week’s events: 

The beginning of the week 

Childrens festival face painting

Fire Breathing Dragon

Day Camp

Tadpoles at day camp

Wedding backdrop

Blackberry Picking

Work: Saving seeds

Woodworking

Pool party

Makin’ good use of those pesky blackberry brambles

Blackberries seem to pop up out of nowhere. They grow fast, they’re pokey, prickly and they provide almost endless amounts of delicious fruit, for FREE!! Well except maybe the cost of a good portion of the yard.

Our neighbor a few years ago had a perfect wall of blackberries, ten feet high and about thirty feet long. That was the easiest picking I have ever had. We picked six gallons in about 2 hours. The week following we picked more, and the following week too. Sadly our neighbor cut down all the blackberries before he moved out. So, we have been on the search for the next perfect spot to pick, and just last year we found it. Not the perfect wall, but close enough.

See the blackberries just to right winding up around the corner?!

It’s a short walk from Grandma’s house and in the evening or on cooler days, every week we go out for a half hour or so and pick. One reason blackberries are great is they have a fantastic harvesting cycle. At first you can see a few here and there turn and you pick them excited for the summer’s bounty to follow. The following week your first round of berries comes in, then the following week you pick again, and then the next week. There is no questioning the ripeness, and you can almost pin point the next weeks harvest day by the red berries that hang on the vine lonesome after picking their full ripe friend.

With all of the blackberries we pick I would be almost overwhelmed with the thought of canning it all right away. “What recipe could I use for these three gallons?! and those four gallons?!” I did can it all within days of picking it. It would be a hot steamy kitchen for weeks but the house always smelled delicious! Then late last year it struck me, Light bulb! I could freeze what we pick and then pull out what I needed as I needed (and could actually work with, without getting overwhelmed).

This actually worked out perfectly to put in milk shakes, smoothies, cereals, as a replacement of ice in drinks

Simple, water with mint and blackberries

(my husband’s favorite mint leaves in any drink with frozen fruit), and a quick healthy snack for the kids. My all-time favorite way to use the blackberries would be pickled!

Pickled blackberries are nice on chicken, ham and cheese. We like it best on cold cucumbers and carrots; this has been a great snack to take to the river with us and to little get togethers. You can use it as a salad dressing, a marinade; try it with olive oil as a dip for warm bread. It’s a perfect gift for any occasion.

BLACKBERRY PICKLE

(picture tutorial to come but it is fairly easy)

Ok, here’s the time frame:                          12 hours to sit

                                                                  35-45 minutes to cook.

This recipe makes about 4 16oz jars

8 Cups blackberries, 2 pounds

4 cups sugar

2 tablespoons ground allspice

2 tablespoons ground ginger

2 cups white vinegar

                What you gotta do:

1.       Place berries in a heavy kettle with sugar and spice. Cover and let stand 12 hours or overnight.

2.       Heat vinegar to boiling, and pour over berries.

3.       Heat berries to boiling, stirring often.

4.       Simmer for 30 min.

5.       Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool.

6.       Spoon into hot sterilized jars, and seal.

Process times in boiling water bath vary depending on elevation. I’m at roughly 2,500 feet and time at 15 min for pints.

  

This is my super easy recipe that we love. If you have any recipes for blackberries that are different from the ordinary jams and jellies I would love to hear some and if you try my recipe I would love to hear how you liked it, loved it, hated it, gifted it and or created delicious meals with it.

Blackberry thief 

My doterra!!

Excitement today as my order of essential oils came in! Sitting there getting samples ready for some friends of mine I was enjoying the smells of each oil. The spicy sweet smells of On-Guard with the wild orange essential oil, combined with clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary. Mmm.. I just wanna eat it up or put it in my tea to add a little kick to it. On-Guard helps to support the immune system. You can take it internally (so I CAN put it in my tea!!), use it topically, diffuse it in the air and use it to clean surface areas that can become contaminated by germs the kids bring home from school.

I recently had the opportunity to use On-Guard  ok, well I didn’t use it my husband did. I forced it on him after hearing 3 days of complaints about his tooth hurting. After taking ibuprofen and Tylenol, rinsing with Listerine every few hours he finally gave in to my simple request. “Brush with this”, I said handing him a bottle. How quickly it relieved the pain

That night I had him do an oil pulling. Oil pulling is when you swish, push and pull oil through your teeth for 20 minutes. By 15 minutes he was ready I could tell, he kept looking at the clock. He made it the whole 20 minutes, and hasn’t had a problem yet. It’s been a little over a month!  By the way if you try oil pulling check out http://eeoils.me/Hints/_HintsIndex.html . This website has great tips.

The next essential oil that I had requests for is one my mom and I really love. It is called Whisper. It has a blend of rose, jasmine, bergamot, cinnamon, cistus, vetiver, ylang ylang, cocoa, vanilla, sandalwood, and patchouli. Not only does it smell great it helps to balance your emotions. Ups and downs of PMS, or just the general everyday ups and downs of life (Stress from work, cranky kids, and even chaotic trips to the grocery store).

I’m in love with it right now more than ever because I have 3 girls. Two are at the preteen stage and are very emotional. I was at a friend’s house for a play date, when my 10 year old got very emotional.  She didn’t want to play with the “babies.” She was getting angry then wanted to cry and back and forth she went, crying, mad, crying, and mad. She had a pretty good lunch and was well rested so I ruled out those things. She eventually went to our van to sit and take a break from everything. Five minutes later she was sitting with me and my friend smiling and conversing like a normal 10 year old... and she smelled great too! While she was in the van she had found my travel bottle of Whisper and dabbed a little on her wrists (I had shown her to do this previously). I’m getting her a bottle to take with her where ever she goes!!

Ok, enough I could go on for days. I’m going to go enjoy the day, and evening with my Terra Shield. Safe non-toxic insect repellant that smells great!

7th of July

Today is a day of celebration.  July 7^th marks the day that chocolate was introduced in 1550, according to historyorb.com. It is also the day in 1928 that sliced bread was sold for the first time. 1967 the Beatles released “Respect”, and Doors “Light My Fire” hits #1. Also, in 2012 I performed a wedding ceremony for the first time, joining together my ex-husband, the father of my first 2 children and his bright and inspiring fiancé.

It has been a long road to get to this point. For all of us, my husband, children, ex-husband and all involved in our lives. We all know that blended families can be difficult, at a distance and right in the middle of it all. You struggle with the idea that life will never be that perfect picture you set out with in the very beginning. None of us wanted to let go of that picture, tattered and torn almost to shreds we held on. Six years of ups and downs we are finally at the perfect picture. A perfect blended picture.

Meeting ones soon to be in laws is a big step, I could not imagine the feeling of meeting ones ex-wife for the first time. Especially, being the ex-wife who was gardening in Mrs.’ soon to be back yard (yes, I garden a ¼ of an acre or so of great veggies in my ex-husbands backyard… I am sure I will post about it many times, referring to it as the “Farm”). This meeting was brief, but profound enough for them to ask me to perform their wedding ceremony for them.

The incorporation of Mrs. in our lives has been a great joy to our family. We get together for game nights, birthday parties, update each other frequently on the children and over all enjoy the variety of personalities in our family. With seven kids between the two families it is a gift we give our children and ourselves to have respect, and appreciation for each other… for our sanity if nothing else and to hold on to a picture that we know can work.

I wish them a happy 1 year wedding anniversary, and many more years to come.

Hello World

This is Aubrie Speaks!

Me speaking my thoughts on life. Short and simple. I'm not a words kinda person, but it is my goal to improve this through this blog. Title a post... oh how terrifying a thing for me. Follow that up with a beggining, middle, and end.

Here it goes. I'm jumping into this.

Intro to my life:

My four children and my husband all work together at keeping me sane and crazy at the same time. You know the feeling. When you walk into your childrens' room and ask them to clean up a little. Five minutes later the room is clean but all of their clean clothes are in the dirty laundry basket. When your husband can tackle the washing and drying of the laundry but has not the capacity to fold it and put it away.

Up until a month or so ago we lived off of one income, my husband who is a great cook. The past five years or so I have done small jobs here and there, crafting and selling at a local store, detailing vehicles, babysitting, selling my canned goods and just about whatever I could think of. Oppertunities came knocking and I am now selling essential oils through www.mydoterra.com/adelyser and gardening for a family who has an amazing landscaped 2 acres.

When we aren't driving each other crazy with our chores or hard at work making ends meet, we spend time with friends and family, at the local rivers and once in a great while we take a camping trip or two.