Book Reviews by Ehlen Administration

So yesterday the bundle launched, but it's a bit overwhelming. How on earth can you wade through all the material? It's kind of like trying to figure out how to actually live healthy. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by healthy living? It’s not that you don’t understand or agree with why it matters. You’re sold on the merits of eating whole foods, raising healthier kids, avoiding toxins and chemicals, getting fit, and using alternative remedies. But sometimes it’s a whole lot easier to say than to actually do, right? Believe me, I’ve had the same struggles and questions as you. What on earth do you eat (and especially, what do you feed your kids)? How do you afford to buy healthier products? And where do you find the time to make and do all this stuff? I know what it’s like to feel that healthy living shouldn’t be this hard, and it shouldn’t have to cost so much, either! Don’t you ever wish someone would just tell you exactly what you need to know and how to make these c...

I don’t know if you’ve seen or not, but over the past few days I’ve been telling you about a collection of 20 herb and essential oil resources that I’m honored to be a part of. It’s called The Herbs & Essential Oils Super Bundle and it’s only on sale for 6 days. After that, it’s gone forever! You guys know I love my EOs (essential oils, for those of you who don't know the lingo) and I use them daily on both myself and my family. But I confess I'm not nearly as knowledgeable about herbs. As this bundle includes ebooks and ecourses about both, I was very excited to dive into some of the herb books, and as per the usual with Ultimate Bundle sales, they did not disappoint. The first thing I did was sign up for the 5 Multi-use Herbs (And What to Do with Them) eCourse. Yep, it's a course, and they send you a link to 5 videos about some common herbs, chamomile and rosemary, to name a couple. I use these both in oil format, but wasn't sure how to handle the actual p...

Raise your hand if you’ve been let down by the conventional medical system. Me too! My oldest is special needs. Probably on the autism spectrum, although honestly we don't have an actual diagnosis of that yet, but similar sensory and social issues for sure. When he was 5 or so, a neurologist told us that really the only option to treat him medically was risperidone, which is basically an anti-psychotic. Even the neurologist told us that finding the right dosage was unlikely, and it only helped 20% of the time anyway. While David is certainly challenging, he isn't psychotic. I was pretty determined not to use a medicine that probably wouldn't work and would kill his liver eventually. I think there are lawsuits about risperidone now. (Check out these side effects!) I became "that mom" - the one that does all the crazy stuff to help her kid. Because honestly, it's only crazy if it doesn't work. We do all sorts of therapies, conventional and unconventiona...

If you haven't signed up for info about this sale do so here ! One of the most overwhelming things about having children is all of the unsolicited advice.Throw some special needs into the mix and it is just multiplied. I still rely a lot on personal research, trial and error, and just generally telling people to mind their own beeswax. I still regularly read books and ebooks about essential oils, gluten-free dairy free cooking, and detoxing my home. That's partly why I was attracted to this bundle - I read about stuff like this all the time, and it's a freaking good deal! A somewhat canned but highly useful informative post is below, and I suggest you all take advantage!  For the ridiculously low price of just $29.97 (for the PDF version) or $39.97 (for the eReader version), you can get access to a carefully curated collection of eBooks and eCourses with a total combined value of $1,030. The bundle contains a wealth of information from the very finest healthy livin...

My apologies for not posting an oily blog yesterday; I w as writing a blog post for my adoption agency about my reaction to Robin Williams’ suicide. I had planned to write another back-to-school with crazy hippie oils article today, but I feel compelled to at least address the topic of mental health. Before I do, let me make some disclaimers. There is no one, silver bullet cure for depression or any other mental health issue. There is not a magic oil that would have prevented Robin Williams from hanging himself. I wish there was. But health issues are complicated, they have many triggers, and are best responded to by a multifaceted approach. Depression has mental, physical, spiritual and emotional causes and consequences, and should be respected when treated. It is not something that you can will your way out of or blow off as just being sad. It is also not something that you can just pop a pill for and be cured. In fact, there is not really a cure outside of an act of God, ...

  Last week I got sick. This may not be quite as earth shattering for you as it was for me, I realize. But I haven't been really sick for quite some time - well over a year and maybe more. We all have those times when your body just can't quite fight it off, and this was one of those times for me. Since it happens rarely, I thought it might be useful to let everyone know what worked for me and what didn't. First off, let me tell you the cold really only lasted three days or so. You read right - three. Not two weeks, like usual, 3 days. I've had to blow my nose occasionally for the past couple of days, but nothing like the hacking and dripping that used to plague me for at least ten days. The first thing I did was suck on an On Guard drop, which I love. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't taste great. However, when you are sick you can't taste much anyway, and this really helps you start draining and numb your throat a bit. I also "bombed...

Follow Elizabeth's board Essential Oils stuff on Pinterest. Hey All, I'm on vacation this week, but I thought I'd point out that I have an EO board on Pinterest with some great articles, ideas and suggestions for using EOs. (For the geeks out there also check out my Geek Chic board, chock full of Firefly, SG1, MST3K, TNG, AoGG, and many other acronymed geeky goodness.)   Please note, while there may be affiliate links or payment for reviews, all opinions are my own. You can't buy a good review from me, people. I am way too mouthy for that.

Like I said in my last post, you are in charge of your health care. Not the government, not your pharmacist, not your insurance, not your friends, not Big Food, Big Pharma, Big anything else, and not even your mommy. Unless you’re still a kid, then tell your mommy she’s doing an excellent job taking care of you if she’s looking into EOs. And if you are a mommy, recognize that raising your children is your job, along with their daddy, and that sometimes you know more than your doctor about them, given that you live with them day in and day out.  I’m not discounting physicians, they go to school for a long time and know more than I do about being sick and how to treat sick people. I’m grateful for that, and heartily endorse using them for this purpose. However, I’m also heartily endorsing NOT being sick if you can help it. I use EOs to keep my family healthy, and treat minor issues that come up for every mom, like scrapes, headaches, colds, etc. Now no one is perfect, and I s...