Is Cold Season Over Yet?

Today I wanted to share the oils that I used to support my body and my immune system during my recent cold.  I know a lot of people don't necessarily know how to use their oils and so they aren't as beneficial to them as they could be when they are actually needed.  I used to be that person.  I find that colds have gotten so much worse as I get older, is that just me?  They used to not bother me, but now that I'm older, I'm not sure if it's the age or the fact that I still have to function, but I find them so draining.  I utilized oils when I started to feel myself getting sick and during my actual illness.  By no means am I saying that oils can cure a cold.  However, I was amazed by how I felt they supported my body and immune system during the cold.  

One thing I've noticed since using oils is that I'm so much more aware of what's going on with my body.  I have felt more energized and just felt better physically lately, and so when I start to feel tired and run down, and get a little scratch in my throat, I know that I'm getting sick.  So that's when the cold protocol starts!

Ideally I would use an immunity blend on a daily basis, and maybe I would fight off sickness better.  But I'm terrible at actually doing this.  So when my throat starts to hurt, I roll on my immunity roller a few times a day.  With a sore throat I put it directly on my neck, but you could put it on your chest, the bottoms of your feet or down your spine.  My immunity roller is in a 10mL roller bottle and contains 7 drops each of Frankincense, On Guard, Tea Tree and Lemon oil.  If you are missing any of those though, you can do it without.  And really, just on guard would be fine too!

I started making sure I was drinking a lot of water with a drop of lemon in it to soothe my throat.

I diffuse On Guard in the house as well to kill germs.  The best oil to diffuse when you have a cold though is Easy Air or Breathe.  It's a respiratory blend and so it clears you up.  It was amazing, I put about 4 drops of Easy Air and 2 drops of Lavender in my diffuser before bed and it cleared me right up.  I had no trouble sleeping.  A drop of Easy Air in the shower so that it steams up is also amazing.

You can make a congestion roller as well with Easy Air, but what I did was put a drop of ZenGest (or DigestZen) on the tip of my nose.  Guys.  Seriously.  It was amazing.  It cleared up so much congestion! 

The key with oils is frequent use.  You can't run a diffuser once with Easy Air or use ZenGest once and expect your cold to disappear.  But every few hours I would reapply/diffuse and it would help.  Your body metabolizes oils quickly, so you can use less oils more frequently. 

To be honest, my cold never got that bad, I think because I was doing all of these things and because I started fighting it off from the beginning.  So next time you get a cold, give a few of these things a try.  (These oils are all in the starter kit, so if you have that you are seriously prepared!)

Those Family Pictures

Disclaimer: I received this product for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.

Back in October, we had my brother-in-law take some family pictures of us.  I had this great plan to get them done once both boys were old enough to look like themselves and then I was going to put the picture over our fireplace in the basement.  It was a great idea, we got the pictures done, and then I just wasn't getting around to ordering the actual print.  

Well I finally did it. Yay! Photowall has all these amazing wall murals and wallpaper options, but they also do canvas prints.  So I sent in our family picture and had a 16x20 canvas print made.  I was kind of curious how it would turn out because the company is actually shipping from Europe.  

First of all, it was fast!  I got the print in less than a week!  The canvas came rolled up with all of the wooden pieces to put it together.  This is a bit overwhelming for me because I'm a spaz and am always afraid I will screw things up.  So I had Ryan help me put it together, but it was honestly so easy I think I could of done it myself.  I was worried the canvas wouldn't end up tight but it turned out perfect!  I honestly don't think you could really screw it up!

The completed frame is actually the sturdiest canvas wrapped print that I have ever seen.  I'm so impressed with this product, it's quality and just the whole process!  

So if you are looking for a canvas print, or a wall mural, check out Photo Wall.  They have amazing options, you can make your own picture on canvas or they also have so many image options on there if you are just looking for some beautiful artwork. 

Photowall is offering my readers 20% off with the code TheOsbottSpotCampaign2018  This code will be available for the next 30 days!

Beating the Winter Blues

Is anyone else's kids going a bit stir crazy?  All this cold weather is getting to Parker I think.  He doesn't get outside much, and I know I should take him out more but I hate the snow and the cold! But when he is inside, he just wants to watch Paw Patrol all the time, which I hate!  So here are a few things that I do to try to keep Parker occupied.

Change Location
He often plays upstairs, so just by saying let's play downstairs, it sometimes gets him excited to play with different toys. 

Put Toys Out of Reach
Certain toys I put away and only get out when he needs a suggestion for an activity.  I do this with puzzles, games and his Melissa & Doug fishing set.  Then, he doesn't lose all of the pieces amongst his other toys and he's excited to play with it when I do get them out.

Get Creative
I like to get Parker's paint set out or a colouring book when he's bored.  To be honest it's not a long activity usually, but it gives him something different to do.  And because it's not something he does a lot he really enjoys it.  As he gets older we will likely start doing more specific creative activities and crafts!

Learning Activities
I love getting out the paint set or some other learning activity for him to occupy his time. Education.com is a great website to find a variety of worksheets that will keep your kids occupied while they are learning something!  They have so many worksheets, games, colouring pages.  I find that if I give Parker something productive to do he is entertained and so much happier.  I think some of their items might be too tricky for Parker yet, but there were also a ton of preschool worksheets that could get him started with tracing shapes, colouring and writing letters.  

Education.com has provided my readers with a free word search that you can get my clicking the link below.  The answer key is there too in case you can't figure it out!  You can find more resources that help with specific things such as spelling here.  I was a huge nerd in school and I think I would of loved if my mom had of printed out worksheets like this.  There are still kids out there like me, right?

Word Search 

Answer Key

Do you have any other ideas for fun ways to keep kids occupied when it's cold outside?

The Products We Use

I spent an evening entering the products in my house into the Think Dirty app on my phone.  Guys, it was terrifying.

I hate that we read stuff and are scared.  The flu is freaking me out right now.  But the flu shot also freaks me out.  And as parents, and just human beings, it's scary and confusing, and what is the right answer?

But the truth of the matter is, that we can only ignore the facts and what we are exposing our bodies to for so long.  When we know better, I feel like we have a responsibility to do better.  However, it's definitely a progress vs perfection situation.  I'm trying to rid my home of toxins, but it's definitely hard to do it all at once.  So it's a process.  I've eliminated a lot of chemicals that were used for cleaning.  But now I've looked at our personal care products, and although I know that I need to get rid of all of the things with fragrance, it's hard when couponer Kaileigh has stocked up on this stuff....

OK so basically I put a bunch of the products in my house into this app.  They rate products from 0-10, 0 being the healthiest.  The kid's Live Clean soap was pretty good, so that's a relief.  But that's where it stopped.  My body wash, terrible.  My shampoo, terrible.  Who knew.... Even my high quality hair products aren't great.  A lot of these products are known carcinogens or cause reproductive and developmental issues.  A ton of them have allergens, and although we aren't dealing with any major allergies, I do have skin issues that are likely caused by some sort of allergy that I've just never figured out.  Is this why so many people get cancer or have trouble getting pregnant?  Are we doing this to ourselves and just choosing to ignore the damage that we are doing?

Let's be honest, I'm never going to eliminate all of these products from our home. (Well maybe I will, but I'm not going to go throw everything out immediately.)  But I can reduce them.  I have plans to make my own soaps and lotions.  (Actually really easy if you buy the ingredients.  You can also obviously purchase better products, but if you know me you know I like to save money.  I got most of the products we have for next to nothing, so that's a lot of the reason why this is so hard for me.)  

I'm trying to be real and authentic and sharing my journey with wellness and essential oils.  Because I know there are a ton of people out there who say you can't be healthy and do this and this and if you do you are basically a bad person.  But the fact of the matter is, change is hard.  It's a process.  Not everybody is ready for it.  But you can take small steps and every little bit counts.  

I really love this lotion...

1st Ever Pong n Plop

Have you heard about the Plunger Plop?  Maybe you recall some old posts about it, like this one, or this one, or there is also this one.  Well this year the official Plunger Plop was cancelled.  Which was fairly devastating, until we decided to just hold our own!

What started as a beer pong tournament (that this rare drinker had basically zero interest in), turned into a plunger plop with a few games of beer pong.  It was a fantastic day, like Plunger Plop but better because everyone we were playing with were basically friends!

We shipped the kids off for the day and I was even able to have a few (like maybe 5...) beers.  The winners of the event were a couple of guys who play in the plop every year, which was really great.  This might just have to be something that we do again next year!

It's Olympic Time!

We had a bit more snow during the last Olympics

I love love love the Winter Olympics!  I seriously should of planned my babies better so that I was on mat leave while they were on.  That's how much I love them...that I think of this frequently. 

I remember the 2010 Olympics, I was still in University.  Right at the beginning of the Olympics, I think it was a Friday night, and my sister was visiting.  We turned on the TV and moguls was on.  I had never watched moguls before, but it was thrilling!  I had no idea that we had strong competitors in moguls.  To be honest, prior to that I think I had only paid attention to figure skating and hockey.  All of a sudden, Alexandre Bilodeau had won and his brother with cerebral palsy was celebrating with him and so excited.  It was just this great moment to be Canadian.  I think moguls are now my favourite thing to watch!

The 2010 Vancouver Olympics were monumental for Canadians.  Not only were they on home soil, but we did amazingly well.  We had the top gold medal count.  And it was just a great time to be Canadian and finally be able to celebrate that we actually do have amazing athletes.

And so basically I'm pumped for the Olympics.  We have so many medal hopefuls and I find the winter Olympics so interesting because there are so many neat sports!  I love watching speed skating, snowboard cross, and things like luge and skeleton! 

What are you most excited for?