Happy New Year from my family to yours!

   I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year. I have some things in the works I am excited about. The first is my new blog. I want to keep this one more about my family and the happenings of raising many children so I am making a new blog focused on health and wellness. Here is the link. http://healthierfamiliesforus.wordpress.com/

   I will be doing a post soon about what I hope for the New Year for my family and my goals. 2013 was a very blessed year for us, we welcomed our 10th child but it was also quite challenging as I have had some health problems, my husband had surgery, and a few other things but in all of it God was so good to us and we are so undeserving.

  I hope you have a blessed New Year and hope to see you around my blog as well as my other one. ~Blessings to you and yours!!!!

  

Great deal on coconut oil!!!!

Spend $12.99 and get a quart free!!!! Awesome deal.
http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/virgin_coconut_oil.htm

A New Blog

Coming soon!!!! I have decided to separate my healthy living blog from my family one. Stay tuned - coming soon. :)

A Large Family Christmas

    Having a large family does not have to break the bank for Christmas. Many dread Christmas and getting that perfect gift ,etc. What they do not realize is there is no perfect gift. The perfect gift has already been given!
    I have heard several times this year , "Wow, Christmas must be insane at your house with all those kids". Well, many think it is insane everyday since we have 10 kids, with 6 being 6 and under. Actually, for those that know us know that we like things orderly. We are actually blessed and I love Christmas and all it represents. I was scared that with all the gift giving and such that my kids did not understand the true meaning of Christmas so this year instead of doing just our traditional countdown to Christmas chain we did a countdown chain with names of Jesus on them. This is usually the highlight of the kids days. We pull a chain off, read off the name of Jesus, I have them repeat to me the name, and then we read the bible verse with the name in it. Then we go over all the names we have learned so far. This has given us great opportunity to talk about Christ and since doing this I realize my kids have it together. They understand and know way more than I thought they did!! For that I am grateful to the Lord. The kids are looking forward to Christmas but because we will be celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior. Yes, they are excited about the presents. Who wouldn't be? BUT they do understand what the day is about. This year we did not go wild and stress about the presents. Our kids got a couple of gifts a piece. Really this year they didn't ask but for a few things. My mom and I were talking about this a few days ago that these kids appreciate what they have and are not spoiled.
  So ,yes, having a large family you have to be creative sometimes. For a few extra people we wanted to give gifts to this year to just let them know how much they mean to us we made them things like bath salts with essential oils and those kinds of things. Made some sugar cookies with the kids and decorated them and took them to our neighbor who is a widow. That is also a good time to spend as a family as well! :)
  A large family Christmas is a blessed Christmas. For the past several years for Christmas there has been a extra child or one on the way. That is a true blessing. It is so fun to teach these kids WHY we celebrate, WHY we have Christmas , and WHAT it is all about . I hope we are raising up arrows to go out into the world and spread the gospel. Christ was born TO DIE! When I think of that and how Mary must of felt I am overcome with awe and amazement. God did NOT have to give his ONLY son but He did. Christmas is about love and the redeeming love of God. So this year enjoy your family, enjoy His blessings upon you and your family and don't stress over the gifts so much because the perfect gift has already been given. I look forward to sharing with my family the gift of Christmas and what it represents as my family will only I imagine get larger if not with more children but when my kids get married and have families of their own. So Merry Christmas from our family to yours !
     

Another fun essential oils giveaway

Here is another fun giveaway on my facebook page ! https://www.facebook.com/younglivinghartwellgroup/posts/663395323682989

Freshing Your Home Without Unhealthy Chemicals

Here is what we use. This is also money saving at it's best. The oranges and cinnamon sticks came from Apple Cider we made , then I just cut pieces from our Christmas tree, added splash of vanilla and added some Rosemary from our herb garden and it smells heavenly. We have just been adding water to this for a couple of days. 

 Here is my Young Living diffuser! IT is awesome. It not only makes my house smell nice but I am also purifying the air in my home and my kids are actually boosting their immune systems when I use things like Thieves and Purification in it. Right now it has Christmas Spirit in it just because it smells wonderful. Next , we will be using Thieves again since we went to town today and the kids went in several stores with me.

Blessing your husband this Christmas

 With having 10 children sometimes I am so focused on other things my husband gets pushed to the side. So while getting things together for the kids to have a special week I also started thinking of things to do for my husband. I came across some ideas on pinterest and one I really liked. The 12 days of Christmas. I chose to give Billy something everyday day starting 12 days from Christmas, some do it Christmas day until 12 days after Christmas. Anyway, I had some catching up to do because I could not get started until yesterday. This is what I have done so far!

One the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a $12 fleece. ( Old Navy was having a awesome sale yesterday so I got a nice fleece in his favorite Gator colors).

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me a $11 dollar razor.(Gave him a nice razor I had because what man doesn't like to use a new razor)

On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave me to me a $10 box of chocolate.

On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 9 hersey kisses. :) (Also gave him 9 real kisses)

So this is the point we are at right now. I cannot tell anymore because he might read this. I will update a few days from now. You can make this simple and as cheap as you would like. We as keepers of the home really do need to make our men feel special. I hope mine does. Share with me what you do to make your man feel special and keep the spark alive. :)

Pure , Therapeutic Essential oils

   Many think there is no difference in oils but there are sadly wrong. I know from experience there is a difference and also from research. I have used oils before with not much success. That was until a friend as me to go to a class with her. I really respect her and so I went. I am so thankful the Lord used her to help me learn about these treasures he left us.
   Here is a great blog post about the difference and what it means to be therapeutic grade. http://yoursacredcalling.com/commonscentsmom/what-is-therapeutic-grade/
   Right now for the first person to sign up under me I am giving away some gifts. Please contact me if you are interested. Leave me a message with your email addy and I will contact you. :)

Purification and Lavender Testimony!!!

 

Got a unbelievable story that just happened to us. One of my 16 yr old twin sons cut himself badly yesterday when he was outside. As soon as he came in and came to me I put Purification and Lavender on it and we applied Lavender a couple of more times. Here is what it looked like yesterday and then I took a picture of it awhile ago to show how much it already has improved. I was shocked!!! I just knew he needed stiches

 

 

 

 

Teaching Our Kids What's Important

  While I know this is a touchy subject I think it is one that should be addressed. While looking around me I see all kinds of sad things. I see kids not knowing what is important. How did they get this way?Well, it is from the greed they see around them.                                                                                      
  I don't know why people question why evil is in the world because we are not teaching what is important. We are not teaching first and foremost God should be the central part of our lives. That He is the beginning and the end. He is the reason we are here, the reason we have what we have, the reason for everything. This year I watched some videos of black Friday or whatever it was this year since it started on Thursday the day we should be thanking the Lord for what we have but instead many were out killing each other for more junk. Don't get me wrong I love junk but I love God so much more. It was so sad some of the videos I saw. We do not value human life anymore but why should we . Daily we go about killing babies without a second thought and justify it by saying oh it isn't really a human yet.
  Why should our children value anything. Parents are killing themselves trying to buy the next video game or now the next best cell phone for their kids. I am guilty of buying too much for my kid and letting them play a video game too long some times but by no means do we have the newest video system.  And when those attitudes creep in you better bet no more game time. Our children know how to play with each other. Yes, they have their arguments and yes like any parent I try to teach them we are to love our brothers and sisters. That is what we should be teaching the whole world, we should love each other. In the end that is what is important! Love God, loving others, and then ourselves!
   God has done such a work in me that a blog post could not hold all the love and thankfulness I have for him. He has brought me from the pits of despair to a joyful and blessed place. I am thankful daily for His goodness and want to teach my kids what is truly important. This season is especially a great time for that. While my children will get present it will not be many. While we will go to family gathers we will still try to remind our children why we are doing this. And that reason is many years ago a baby was born and he was born so he could die. So he could stand in place for our sins. So we could have eternal life. Now , THAT is what is most important!

Raising a Healthier Family

The past few years I have really poured a lot of time, energy ,research ,etc. into learning how to have a healthier family. Since having a health issue myself over a year ago I have been researching even more because I do not want to fail my family. As I strive to be a Proverbs 31 lady ( something I will never measure up to but strive to be) I see more and more how our families health plays a part in that as well. For the past few years around this time of year we have always gotten a horrible stomach bug and with 10 kids it takes forever to get over it!!!! We have missed so much because of it, several family get togethers and just not feeling well during the holidays!!!
     Well skip ahead to this year! We have felt so much better and the kids have been the healthiest they have ever been!! While they HAVE gotten sick or a virus has tried to creep in I have been able to knock it out. I was asked to go to an essential oils class by a trusted friend and while I was like been there done that I went. I have used essential oils before but without much success. I learned a lot in those classes though and decided to try them. I learned that Young Living essential oils were not to be compared with the cheaper oils and even any other oil for that matter. So I became a distributor. When I got my kit and diffuser I was a bit overwhelmed but once I started using them and using my desk reference I was more comfortable. We are slowly changing the way we eat  and trying to stay away from chemicals. I firmly believe that the tons of chemicals around us are a big part of what is making us sick. I think since starting on this journey someone in this house has used an essential oil every day. We have knocked out the tummy flu, colds, a really bad yeast infection, headaches , muscle pains, used it for stress reduction, and SO MUCH MORE!!! I am thankful to the Lord for leaving us these precious gifts to take care of our family with.
           While I do realize sometimes we do have to go to doctors. I just went and saw a endocrinologist for my thyroid/hormone imbalance but we will be taking a more natural approach to healing whatever needs to be healed with me. Also wanted to mention I had a knot in my neck and started rubbing Frankincense on it and by the time I went to the endo it is gone!!!! When I mentioned it to her she said that when our thyroid is off that around it can become inflamed and cause all sorts of issue, she said Frankincense was a good choice. :) So , as you can see the oils have so many uses and really we have only used them for a short time compared with many and we already have tons of stories to share. Young Living essential oils is over 20 years old.
        I am so happy that we are on the road to a healthier family and I am thanking the Lord for the knowledge he is blessing me with. I am excited to learn more and am thankful he left things here on earth to make this possible. If you would like more information email me at tbllrd@gmail.com or leave a message on this post with your email. Have a very blessed and healthy day!

Young Living Starter Kits explained

 When you begin with Young Living you sign up as a distributor and pick which kit you would like to start with. I started with the Premium Kit just because I wanted the everyday oils collection and because it is a awesome value. Here is a video that explains the kits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h3Z_7oFjK8

Young Living Most Needed Winter Oils!!!

These do work very well. We were introduced not long ago to Young Living oils and am so thankful. Usually every year we are so sick at this time and miss get togethers because we are battling some nasty virus. Not this year. So far I have been able to knock everything out very quickly!!! These have worked quickly and effectively. Email me if you would like more information at tbllrd@gmail.com or like my page on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/younglivinghartwellgroup