Week Eight: Essential Oils & Herbs VS. Antidepressants

This week was one of the worst yet.  I broke down balling my eyes out at the post office because my label wasn't scanning right.  Seriously, what the heck?  The ladies at the post probably think I'm a lunatic.  I told Kevin I wanted to quit the business and go to work at somewhere like walmart because I can't handle it anymore. I cried more in the last 7 days than in the last 7 months.  The only reason I can think would cause it to be so horrible was my period.  Hormones suck sometimes.  I feel so bad for my poor husband.  It so happened that this week Kevin was at home because he had surgery last week.  He is seriously the best husband on the planet.  When I melted down and tried to give up, he was patient with me and just loved on me.  Once I was calm and feeling better, he told me that if I quit the business it would be a huge waste of talent.  God has given me this wonderful gift of creativity and the ability to have my own business.  I need to be a good steward of this gift, not abandon it when things get rough.  I'm so thankful to have a man that knows how to ground me.  He's been such a rock in my life since the first day I met him over 4 years ago.  He is just the most amazing thing.  I fall more in love with him daily.  

I have been VERY undisciplined with my oils this week.  

I have just been so stressed and constantly having to remember to reapply them is stressful.  I have 9 orders ready to ship on monday though, so next week should be a lot more relaxed.  

Our lease ends in a couple weeks and we have been searching for months for a place to live, whether another rental or buying a home.  We are signing a lease on Monday; praise God!  It is a HOUSE in a good location.  Yay!  I'm so excited to live in a house after three years of apartments!  It's three bedrooms, so we have plenty of room for my growing business.  

I've been majorly neglecting Jesus lately.  I'm so thankful that His grace isn't contingent on my obedience.  I need to just stop everyday and remember Him.  I was telling a friend today about the meaning of the tattoo on my wrist.  She asked if it really does help me to reflect on Jesus and I said yes, but to be totally honest, it should affect me much more than it does.  I got the hebrew word "zakar" tattooed on my wrist to be a constant reminder of Christ, of the gospel, of who I am in Him, of what He has done, of who His is. I mean, yeah, when I glance at it, I do think of Jesus most of the time, but it's more just a part of my body.  I want to live my days constantly shouting out a broken hallelujah.  

Weeks Six & Seven: Essential Oils & Herbs VS. Antidepressants

I had been super excited because bergamot had cleared up the acne on my chest where I put elevation.  Then two days later, I had a rash on that entire side of my chest.  It doesn't hurt, but it is very discolored.  I stopped using both on my chest to wait for it to heal, however it's been almost two weeks and it's still red and spotty.  

I restocked my supply of Mood Elevator, Concentrated, from Natures Sunshine.  It really does help.  I also started taking NS probiotics today.  We'll see if I notice it affecting my body at all.  

My mood has been pretty good lately.  My period is super late (which is normal for me) and that makes me a bit cranky, but other than that, I've been good.  I took a few hours off this week and had some "me time."  I didn't realize how much I needed it until afterwards.  My self esteem has been pretty low lately, so I went to forever 21 and tried on pretty dresses to make myself feel pretty.  It was really fun and much needed.  

Kevin had hernia surgery yesterday.  He's in a lot of pain, but doing well.  His best friend from Lynchburg came to help him get up the stairs and is hanging out for a few days.  This surgery made us realized how amazing our new church family is!  A friend from community group brought us dinner last night so I wouldn't have to worry about cooking while taking care of Kev and a bunch of community group friends are planning on coming over tomorrow night to check on Kevin and spend some time with us.  We are so very blessed.  It took many many months to find a church home and it was so worth the wait!

Easter is tomorrow, which means reminders of redemption and grace upon grace.  I feel so soaked in Christ's love during this time.  I hope that all of you can know the beauty of His resurrection.  Peace & grace to you.

Week Five: Essential Oils & Herbs VS. Antidepressants

It's hard to believe it has been 5 weeks since I started using essential oils.  I had planned on making these weekly posts super informational so that I could hopefully help other people dealing with this in the future (because I personally have read a TON of blogs about people doing similar things to help me decide to do it), but my writing has been more like a personal journal..  Maybe once I finally find my happy combination of oils and herbs and feel like this journey is a success, I can write a long blog post about all the pros and cons and ups and downs and ins and outs, but for now, I hope y'all don't mind that I'm going to continue writing like a journal with some EO informational items.  We'll start with that today.

I added 4 new oils this week (just the last 3 days actually).  Bergamot, Geranium, Juniper Berry, and Balance (grounding blend).  I put Geranium and Juniper in roller bottles with fractionated coconut oil so that I can use them on my feet because I HATE the smell.  Seriously, I think geranium is repulsive.  Kevin thinks it smells fine though, so I think it might just be me.  I missed several days of vitamins this week, but the days I do take them, I think I feel a difference, so I really need to get my act together on that one... The oils are definitely helpful and I'm really thankful for them because life keeps getting more and more stressful.  Oh and I'm not having any side effects from withdrawal anymore.  Praise God!

A buyer from Zulily.com contacted me earlier this week about wanting to sell crafting by knight products.  CRAZY.  So we're having correspondence with them and working on setting up our first zoology event.  It's really not going to make me much money at all, but we think the exposure will be worth it.  Zulily is a very very popular site, so maybe someone will see some crafting by knight paper flowers, but not be exactly what they want, so they'll place a custom order on etsy.  Who knows, but we feel it's worth a shot. :)

Week Four: Essential Oils & Herbs VS. Antidepressants

This week has had a lot of highs and lows.  My withdrawal symptoms have subsided for the most part.  I don't feel particularly depressed, but I have been crying a lot, mainly at television shows... I haven't been taking welbutrin daily this week, just whenever I realize I haven't taken it in a few days, which also means I haven't been taking my vitamins.  There are just SO MANY of them.  I've been doing so well with my oils though.  Yesterday I put in an order for 4 new oils to add to my routine.  

I got featured on a Richmond located shop treasury list on Etsy this week.  Looking through my fellow vendors, I discovered one of the shops made diffuser necklaces for essential oil aromatherapy.  Check out the shop here.  Although I'm an etsy vendor and should support other local shops, I'm also a DIYer to the extreme, so I found a cute little locket type thing that would fit a little pom pom and put it on a necklace with a little flower charm I already had.  It's cute and I'm loving having the scents around my neck all day.  If you aren't into DIY and would like a diffuser necklace, you should totally buy it from this RVA etsy vendor though.  

In other news, ETSY ETSY ETSY ETSY ETSY.  My bouquet is trending y'all.  I've been getting emails and emails from people telling me that they love my work and that they wish I would have been around 15 years ago.  It's been so flattering.  I have a difficult time accepting praise, so this is strange, but very exciting.  And the fact that it is MY wedding bouquet that is getting all this attention just makes me feel very special. 

In the entire month of February, I got 191 total favorites on etsy.  In this first 15 days of March, I have gotten 1,585 favorites.  

Oh and Kevin and I have been totally up in the air about what we're doing in life.  We decided not to renew our lease because our apartment is so expensive, but now we have less than 60 days to find a new place to live, whether that be in an apartment or a house we buy, or in Richmond or anywhere else in this world.  We're so very confused.  It's harder now that I'm not on my meds, but we'll figure it all out and hopefully we'll get to have a baby in the next year or so.  

Much love to you, blog world.