Jeff is maturing right before our eyes and it is a wonder to behold. His hormonal angst and testosterone surges are gradually mellowing into a more even keeled rock of quiet and stability.
Jeff playing at the WOW Childrens Museum
I think it is terrible to stereotype and box our children in with identifying characteristics that pidgeonhole them into a noxious mix of negative classifications.
I hate that all of the identifying terms that Psychiatry uses to catagorize and pathologize childhood behaviors are negative.
And I also reject the notion that a pill for all those catagories of behavior will “fix”and “cure” said behaviors.
All of us have experienced traumas that contribute to certain personality traits and it is when we begin to dig below the surface of such traits that we can learn to understand and accept each other as human beings.
The love I feel for my 17 year old son is multiplied because of his quirks of behavior.
I have often thought as I have watched him negotiate the tempestuous waters of modern life that if a professional were to have access to him and his siblings as they matriculated through childhood exhibiting normal reactions to a variety of life events, that they could easily have been diagnosed as mentally ill during periods of adolescent angst and childhood development.
My heart has been broken observing the large numbers of children in our day to day life whose parents have bent to the pressure to dose children with toxic psychiatric meds believing the answers for “normal” childhood behavior was to be found in a pill.
If nothing else, I am grateful for my early exposure to the tortured world of Psychiatry if only because of the first hand education I received by interfacing with it for a time and then spending so many years researching and learning how to be well. While I personally have benefitted from the education and up front view, my children have also been able to enjoy health freedom because I was never tempted to go looking for an answer in a pill. I can understand the seduction to medicate though.
At times as certain children have slowly worked through various hurts and traumas we were not sure we could stand living with them. Jeffrey has been our little fireball of fury and angst from the moment he was born. A high need baby and about as a demanding personality type as you will ever meet, at times Paul and I wanted to run away because of various frustrating episodes with this son o mine.
But as we gradually worked through each issue as it presented, we found the patience and the strength to lovingly muster through every storm that presented. And now, as he prepares to leave, I find myself looking back and remembering, so many sweet and spiritual moments with him.
Please mamas, don’t give in to the temptation to medicate normal childhood behaviors. You may think you have “helped” your child by drugging them into obedience or quiet. But often this medicating simply kicks the problem down the road, and so many unexpected side effects from the drugs show up that you can’t see the forrest for the trees.
We have so many tools at our disposal to help that don’t contain toxic ingredients. Essential oils have been our tool of choice to calm, heal, and comfort when life overwhelmed and one of the children melted down in tears and rage. Prayer and priesthood blessings have also been powerful, specific means to help our children when they were troubled by life.
It is my prayer this day that all families will be able to understand the long term consequences of using drugs to raise our children.
For the past few years I have been planning to purchase soap making materials to experiment with our own Laundry and Hand Soap.
Paul found a recipe online for Laundry Soap and made a few batches of it during the summer. Only one batch exploded in our basement when he added in too much washing soda. The soap did not get our clothes as clean as our regular laundry soap, so we tucked the ingredients away and plan to use it on an “as needed” basis.
I purchased a hand soap kit from Hobby Lobby last summer and promptly lost it. Paul found it a few weeks ago when he cleaned the basement storage room.
I made up a batch of soap and videotaped it. (And yes, you don’t see me in the video because I was wearing my Pajamas) Blogging Moms are notorious for doing our internet work in underwear and PJ’s.
The kit made twenty small bars of soap. Then I purchased two more kits and made some Rose Oil soap and included the petals from a dozen red roses.
My daughters will be heading back to school in a few days and it was so fun to have Shelly come ask me if she could take some of my soap back with her. I happily handed her half a dozen bars.
This was a fun project. And except for the dishwasher exploding with an overwhelm of bubbles when I tossed my double boiler in without scraping the hardened soap, relatively painles, and a new way to create lucious soap for just a few dollars.
I am a Distributor for doTERRA Essential Oils. This month the company is offering a free 15 ml bottle of Frankincense Essential Oil for all orders over 200 PV.
Frankincense Essential Oil (Retail Price is $93.00) Boswellia frereana
Perhaps the most precious of the ancient oils, frankincense is highly sought after by modern consumers for its many uses, including relaxation, immune support, and mood enhancement. For aromatic, topical or dietary use.
When I joined as a Distributor for doTERRA I first purchased the Family Physician Kit to obtain a nice variety of oils to use around our home. Fill out the form below to schedule your FREE 15 minute phone or email Consultation with Oils Enthusiast Jenny Hatch!
The Family Physician® Kit is a collection of ten nurturing essential oils, including six single oils and four blends. The stunning box includes tips for using the oils, as well as an audio CD featuring dōTERRA®’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. David K. Hill. In this audio presentation, Dr. Hill teaches listeners how to care for their family’s everyday health needs with simple and safe methods using the ten essential oils included in this kit. Includes 5 ml bottles of Lavender, Lemon, Peppermint, Melaleuca, Oregano, Frankincense, Deep Blue®, Breathe, DigestZen®, and On Guard™ to help families address a multitude of health issues.
I taught my class last saturday here in our home. It was extremely stressful attempting to incorporate the multimedia webinar stream on the web, and so I was grateful that the only person who attended was my friend Helen. If I had had a houseful of strangers show up to be taught the fundamentals of Food Storage my head might have exploded. Ben had a meltdown just before class started and was refusing to leave with his Father, who had been asked to keep the nine year old and the dog busy for two hours while I taped, needless to say I was a frazzled mess when the class started, but I gave it my best shot.
Self Reliance Enthusiast Jenny Hatch lectures for 90 minutes the Basics of Short and Long Term Food Storage.
Topics Covered Include:
1. Whole Grains and Beans
2. Flax Seeds for fresh oils
3. Sprouting
4. Canning vs. Freeze Dried Foods
5. Rotation and Inventory
To view and listen to the previous webinars, click HERE and HERE
The Next Class will be on December 17th at 9 AM
December 17th 2011: 72 Hour Kits
*Most Emergencies require a three day window of self-reliance before outside help arrives. This class will cover the ins and outs of survival at home or in a shelter
Yesterday it was my joy to spend a couple hours with two homeschooling Moms who introduced me to doTERRA Essential Oils. My friend Heidi knew of my love for oils and took the risk to call me up and ask if she could share and spend some time in my home. I suggested we head over to the park so the children could play while we talked. With eleven homeschooled little ones ripping around my small house, I did not think we would be able to visit.
So despite the cold we headed over and spent an hour sniffing oil bottles. I have been a Young Living Essential Oilsdistributor for the past fifteen years, and have used a variety of brands since I bought my first bottle of Lavender at a health food store when I was a teen back in the 80’s. I had informed Heidi that I would only give her an hour of my time as I was skeptical that any oil could be better than my beloved Young Living brand. Frankly, I was more interested in spending time with other Moms who share similar interests than I was in learning about this brand of oils.
But I opened the bottles and started sniffing and used a few drops of Peppermint, Lavender, and the balancing oil blend on my skin. I immediately knew that these were an excellent addition to my arsenal of natural family living products and was thrilled to learn of the Family Physician Kit of oils that they have put together for parents to use around the home. I have long believed and taught on this blog that Mothers hold the key to wellness for their children. And with powerful therapeutic oils on hand to aid in wellness, I understand that any company that takes the time and energy to create quality products deserves to have a chance.
This morning I spent an hour clicking around the web to see what sort of garbage was being said about doTERRA and Young Living as competitors and was not surprised to see that a variety of blog posts and controversies were blasting around the web for all to see. As I told my friends yesterday, there is enough room in our world for a couple hundred essential oils companies, and I look forward to the day when that is the case.
If a group of people decide they want to add products to the marketplace and provide some healthy competition for those who are selling similar products, that is what the American Free Enterprise System is all about.
Now does my choice to become a doTERRA distributor mean that I am going to start dumping on my beloved Young Living and never again use their products? No. I look on this choice as simply learning more, enjoying more, engaging more, and widening my circle of friends and colleagues. I intend to make the steps to become a distributor next month for doTERRA.
I have long believed that parents are groomed to ask the wrong questions.
When a child is sick the question should not be, “Pink Antibiotic or White Antibiotic?” It should be Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, or Thyme?
When a child is being born the question should not be, “C Section or Walking Epidural?” It should be What type of birth would be ideal for this baby and this mother?
I organized the second Husband/Wife Homebirth Conference back in 2001 and as we closed down the Conference an interesting thing occurred. As Jeannine and Rico were giving the closing keynote address, a blast of lighting hit right as they said the words “Medical Profession”, and the lights in the room went out. It took several minutes for the pandemonium that ensued to quiet down and as the final portion of the conference closed down…It left all of us feeling quite jumpy. In the above video I referred to the incident as the conference was ended. Then I followed by saying that an inclusiveness is what is called for when considering the debates between Allopathic (drugs and surgery birth) and the other forms of childbirth.
I believe this inclusiveness is also important when considering the questions of how best to heal our children when they are ill.
I don’t care if others vaccinate, but millions of dollars have been invested in educating the public that I as a non vaccinating mother am a menace to society and a threat to my children.
I don’t care if doctors and midwives don’t approve of my choice to give birth at home alone, but some of them seem to be extremely upset by the supposed threat that Homebirth, Lotus Birth, and Empowered Natural Mothering is to their profit streams.
I don’t think it is just the money that is tied to birth that upsets the profession, I believe it is also the questioning that takes place when those doctors and midwives who have been carefully indoctrinated in the birthing status quo at school engage in when they are confronted with the reality that a group of parents do not want to purchase what they have to sell.
The doctors and midwives have literally piled up hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt betting on the status quo of a 99% monopoly over birth when they set up Obstetric and Midwifery practices, and the idea that the vast majority of parents could potentially birth children alone is simply noxious to their world view and plans for a prosperous professional life.
And it is this reality of a Birth Monopoly and a fixed income stream from hospital birth that is extremely threatened by anything new or different.
I believe an inclusive approach to healing and wellness is what will save humanity from the foibles and folly of current medical insanity around birth and healing.
As doctors and midwives begin to explore the wonderful world of essential oils for healing and open their hearts to the reality that home birth is a viable and safe option for many families, hopefully they will come to learn that trusting Mothers and consumers to make wise choices for the health of their families will ensure a bright and healthy future for all of us.
Doctors and Midwives may not make the buckets of money currently tied to medical birth and drug and surgery healing, but we will all benefit from a more holistic approach to life and health.
Jenny Hatch
UPDATE: Since the time this post was written in November I have closed down my Young Living business and am working doTERRA, they have a better marketing plan, more generous compensation, and a very dynamic group of leaders.
