Expect miracles. Those of us who have battled infertility know that that phrase is not to be spoken lightly. It’s almost a dangerous phrase. Because to expect miracles means that you have to expose your tender heart to hope for the nth time. Which also means you have to be willing to accept disappointment for the nth time. •••And yet nothing is more powerful than hope and belief.•••

What is the alternative? Living life as if nothing is rigged in your favor? As if miracles don’t happen to you? As if you never win anything? Nah. No matter how many times life has delivered sh*t to your door, you gotta be expecting better for tomorrow. In the words of the wise sage Joe Dirt, “You gotta keep on keepin’ on. Life’s a garden: dig it. You gotta make it work for you.”

One year ago today, I was 5.5 weeks pregnant—and partially terrified. Because the last time I had gotten a positive (2.5 years prior), my HcG and progesterone numbers were abysmal and I had a miscarriage. Dare I be excited? Dare I expect life to be rigged in my favor? Those of us who have lost know the feeling of nervously sitting in front of those kind phlebotomists. The way time seems to crawl when you’re waiting to hear back from your doctor about “the numbers.” Are they good? Have they continued to rise?

One year ago today I got these two printouts on which my doctor had scribbled one word: <<GOOD>>. Because of how I had been treating my body for two years (improved diet, eliminating toxic ingredients, using plant-based hormone-boosting oils, and mindset work), *this time* my numbers were excellent. I allowed myself to hope even deeper. Maybe life gives me exactly what I expect. Maybe life gives me a miracle.
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#infertilityawareness #fertility #rainbowbaby #progesterone #hcg #rumi #QOTD #thepowerofhope #thepowerofbelief #dontgiveup

Coming Out

Here goes everything. Writing and posting this publicly, I stand to lose:

• credibility/likability 

• followers

• perhaps even friendships and family members

So I’ve sat on this topic, in the closet, for many months now...wanting desperately to fully disclose, but fearing the consequences. I’ve decided the time has come—with all of the recent media-fueled hysteria, I refuse to stay silent...I make my living sharing about a holistic, and pharmaceutical-clean/lean lifestyle, so why would this be any different? Sure the stakes are higher as this topic is more controversial, but hey...y’all know me: I’m an open book with a big mouth intent on maybe...perhaps helping a few people improve their quality of life and that of their future generations. So here it goes:

* I have not given nor do I intend to give my child a single vaccination. *

Before you judge me...or decide to what level you should disown me...or stay away from my child...you should consider which is the likely scenario? That: 

(A) Two middle-aged, college-educated adults who tried for many, many years to have a baby finally get their wish and then selfishly and stupidly enter into a decision lightly that could put his life in danger, along with the lives of other children that we don’t give a rat’s a$$ about? Or

(B) That—charged with making the best health decisions for this new soul we were chosen to steward—we diligently weighed the pros and cons of vaccinations and after hours and weeks of digging into credible sources, tears, disbelief, and finally resolution, decided without a shred of doubt to decline all vaccinations for our child?

If you’re still reading, perhaps you’re teetering on believing B. If so, stick with me. You should know that our 20 year-old daughter is vaccinated and that we ourselves were both vaccinated as children. This is new territory for us. Perhaps you never considered NOT vaccinating because it saves lives right? Well it’s actually not so clear cut. I’ll lay out a few pertinent details in list form so that you may understand our journey that led us to this point.

• It started with me having a seed of doubt that I agonized and cried over as a newly pregnant woman. Erik was 100% FOR vaccines, and yet thankfully open to looking into it to allay my fears.

• Coincidentally, a family member shared a document with me that the doctor she works for gives all of their newly expecting patients. A list of all of the ingredients in the vaccines. Be forewarned: the rabbit hole is deep. https://cdn.fbsbx.com/v/t59.2708-21/25428948_10108525960698445_7957803324009349120_n.pdf/Vaccines.pdf?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=cdn.fbsbx.com&oh=1bb9739cc1b1b4fbdb76d18c9246b771&oe=5C5CC85E&dl=1

• Horrified, I went straight to the CDC website itself to read the vaccine inserts which, interestingly, are not provided to parents. What I discovered astounded me.

• More aluminum--a neurotoxin--than even the FDA considers safe is administered to children in these vaccines. Also many contain aborted fetal tissue so those who are pro-life AND pro-vaccine should look into this. Not to mention the countless other toxic ingredients.

• I was led to videos by two prominent previously pro-vax doctors. I watched their hour and a half presentations and was blown away at how they came to change their opinion on what used to be such a crucial part of their jobs, risking their reputation in the process. (Happy to share links to those videos)

• I began looking at statistics and learned that many of these diseases were sharply declining far before the vaccine had been introduced due to education and an increase in sanitation practices. And yet the vaccine usually gets credited. https://www.learntherisk.org/diseases/

• I learned about building natural immunity and how herd immunity doesn’t really “work” as many previous outbreaks happened in communities that have 90%+ vaccination rates. I also learned that the CDC considers a person “unvaccinated” if they are not up-to-date on the current 118 doses of “recommended” vaccines, which is the majority of the American public. So the media prints the cause of an outbreak as an unvaccinated individual when it is really due to an individual who simply isn’t current.

• I learned the only way to truly know your immunity to diseases is to have your titers drawn which virtually no one does. Because vaccines aren’t effective for life and many actually lose their effectiveness within 10-15 years, and as little as 1-3 years. I myself haven’t had a vaccine in probably two decades, and I’m willing to bet that many pro-vaxxers don’t realize that they are not protected as they believe themselves to be.

• There is a large community of individuals who have children/family members that have been vaccine injured. Some severely. Some have lost lives. I refused to watch the YouTube videos because I just couldn’t bear to. There is actually a department called VAERs that pays money to the families of vaccine-injured children—billions. The problem is that many do not receive compensation because they have been led to believe by doctors that it’s impossible that the injury is due to a vaccine (despite it sometimes being listed as a possible side effect on the vaccine insert which we do not see). 

• It should be noted that we read ZERO books by celebrities and watched ZERO one-sided documentaries in coming to our decision. We also chose not to feel guilty for vaccinating our 20 year-old daughter because at the time, we knew it to be best. 

• We looked at the statistics deeper than what is portrayed by media. Let’s take the tDaP for example, now pushed on pregnant women. The CDC website says that the vaccine is safe fo mothers and babies. and yet the insert says that the safety of this same vaccine has not been evaluated on pregnant women. Hmmm, and yet you want me to pass this untested cocktail onto my unborn fetus? Let's also consider the MMR vaccine that is currently being brandished in a fear-based way. The last reported death of someone by measles was in 2015. One death. The MMR vaccine however has led to over one hundred deaths (and that's just what is reported as due to the vaccine by VAERS), not to mention those that are hospitalized, injured, or adversely affected to various degrees.

• To put it succinctly, we evaluated the risks of the vaccines and the risks of contracting the illnesses they are supposed to protect us from and have decided not to vaccinate. We are 100% resolute in our decision. 

In conclusion, Erik and I love each and every one of you. If you choose to unfriend us for this, so be it. If you choose to have your child stay away from Jackson, it’s heartbreaking but we understand that you’re just doing what you feel is in the best interest of your babies. I get it. I would ask you, ***how much time have you truly invested into researching vaccines and vaccine injury?***

If the answer is none, that you just trust that diseases have been eradicated from them, I would challenge you to take a closer look.

If you have had a seed of doubt or if you do after reading this post, I’m happy to share studies, videos, websites, graphics, etc with you. I’ve collected a folder. 

If you’re a little pissed but still want to keep us around, I’m open to privately engaging in healthy, intelligent dialogue. All hateful comments on this post will immediately be removed; please PM me. Thank you for reading. Go forth and educate yourself. Anti-vaxxers aren’t uneducated jerks intent on killing innocent children.

Again, we love you and would love to keep as many of you in our lives as possible. That being said, I’d rather be hated for I am, than loved for who I’m not. So out of the closet I come! 

Baring It All About Birth

October 8th was such a whirlwind. I’ve finally had 8 weeks to process it and I’m ready to write about it and share it with y’all. Everything I read said you can make a birth “plan” but be flexible because anything can and does happen when it comes to childbirth. For me, it was really post-birth that didn’t go according to plan. But the rest of the experience proved to be more intense than I ever imagined! Here is my story...

Early on in my pregnancy, I did some research and decided adamantly against a routine hospital birth, unless in case of an emergency. I also decided that a home birth wasn’t what I wanted either because I didn’t want to give birth in an inflatable pool and I was nervous about complications arising. A birthing center was the perfect Goldilocks choice for me with its big beautiful birthing tub and it’s proximity to one of the best women’s hospitals across the street. 

I was almost positive I would go three days past my due date all pregnancy long. Call it a premonition but I never thought I’d go early. That is, until Jackson began dropping a couple of weeks before my due date and I began experience symptoms of what they call prodromal labor. I readied myself with oils, energy work, and by meeting with my backup doula because my hired doula was out of town. Sure enough, on the morning of October 8th (four days before my due date) I awoke with what I thought were contractions—not the period cramps I had been experiencing before. I began timing them on my app and sure enough, they were already 5-6 minutes apart.

What the?! My books, my pregnancy forums, and my childbirth classes all said to prepare for 3-12 hours of early labor. But now the contractions were pretty intense and almost 5 minutes apart?! I guess we kinda skipped early labor. So I texted Sally, my backup doula, and she was over at our house within the hour. Labor progressed way faster than I thought with me hearing a pop at 4 am (just two hours after I woke up) followed by water coming out in the toilet. And then all over the floor. After that, shit got real fast and I found myself on my way to the birth center where they could check my cervix and baby’s heart rate. Three centimeters dilated and 100% effaced. Heart rate good to go!

6 am. Contractions stronger and more painful now. They wanted me to walk down the stairs and around the birthing center. I told them I couldn’t. They gently cajoled me into it so my labor would progress even more and I took two very excruciating trips around the birthing center, pausing every 3-4 minutes to moan in pain. 

We made it back inside and they admitted me into the only birthing room I didn’t want to be in—the one without windows. I complained and they said they would clean one of the other two rooms once the women in there went home with their babies. The birth center doesn’t keep you more than 12 hours after you give birth. Around that time, I got super nauseated. I was sitting on the bed and I eyed a trash can in the bathroom. I calmly told Erik to grab it because I was going to throw up and I did. I lost everything I had in me. I hadn’t eaten much since labor started because I didn’t have much of an appetite. This would prove to be a horrible idea later on down the line.

I labored in the cave room in the garden tub, on a birthing ball in the shower, and on the bed. Everywhere I went, the contractions were excruciating—worse than any other period cramps I had experienced. I knew an epidural was not an option so I moaned and breathed rapidly through them. Eventually I got word that one of the other women left so they cleaned the room and transferred me to a room with big beautiful windows. It was lightly raining outside and I felt relieved to see nature through the glass. It was probably 10 am by that time I guess.

Noonish? Contractions were out of control intense. I went from the shower where Erik sprayed my back with hot water to the bed to the tub again. The warm waters of the deep garden tub were my happy place, still the water had nothing on the freight train contractions—spaced very close together at this point. Erik got in the tub with me and held me and spoke words of encouragement while my doula gave me cold water to drink and applied oils to me at my command. I used peppermint on a wet rag to cool me down, lavender on my chest to calm me, and Copaiba on my lower back to help with back labor. 

Eventually the nurse asked me to do some more walking and I said “I CAN’T!” At that point every minute or so I was in excruciating pain so walking seemed like a dumb idea. She got on my eye level and firmly looked at me saying, “you are right there. Walking will make him come faster.” I almost cried and slowly got up and forced myself to walk. Every other minute I was down on my knees with Erik holding my arms from above as a wave of muscle spasms took me down to the floor. The noises I made were guttural—primal. I can’t describe it. Animal.

I only walked down the hall and back before I was back on the bed, grabbing the pillow and yelling into it. At this point, I was exhausted. I had had nothing to eat in hours and they kept trying to feed me honey sticks to give me energy. My bladder was full from all of the cold water I kept demanding but my body wouldn’t void it. My throat was sore from yelling and my lips were dry from the breathing. (At this point you’re probably thinking a natural birth sounds like a wonderful idea aren’t you?!) I began wondering why I opted for it and thought twice about asking to go to the hospital but told myself not to let myself utter the words. This is what I wanted and by God I was gonna get it.

After hours of labor I finally felt the urge to push. This stage only went on for 45 minutes but it. Was. Intense. I ended up on an inflatable birthing stool with my legs shoved up against the midwife whose back was against the tub on the floor. I hardly had any physical energy left but the midwife, nurse, my doula, and Erik were all cheering me to push again...and telling me to bear down because I kept wanting to breathe, push, and scream from my chest. Finally when they said they could see his hair (and I finally understood what they mean by the ring of Fire) I gave one last humongous shove and out he came. Seriously. Once his head was out, his shoulders and the rest of his body slid out effortlessly. I was spent but elated. A part of me thought I wouldn’t be able to do it—give birth to this boy vaginally without an epidural. But I did it!

They placed him in my arms, Erik behind me, and I stared at this miracle child in disbelief. We held him and cried; it was so beautiful! I was assisted to the bed where I learned that he came so quickly in transition that I suffered 4th degree tears. After I had just finished pushing a baby out of my nether regions, they were gonna sew me up with nothing but lidocaine. In other words: UGH. It was as fun as it sounded. Erik got some skin to skin with Jackson while I was being doctored up, and I got some baby snuggles as well. 

Up until now, I got the birth I planned for except for the significant tearing. Now is where it’s not so gravy. Two problems came up. Because my blood sugar was so low and I had just been through birth on very little energy reserves, I became lightheaded and lethargic. The midwife decided to put give me a glucose IV because wasn’t looking too good. Erik took care of Jackson while I sipped soup and built up my blood sugar. 

#2, and the worst part: Jackson’s breathing was faster and more labored than the midwife liked to see. We stayed skin to skin with him for a few hours while they monitored him. Eventually, she decided that instead of sending us home, she would feel more comfortable if St. David’s NICU across the street took him in to monitor him overnight. So around 1:30 am we were wheelchaired to the hospital, exhausted and worried.

As it turned out, I had drank more water during labor than anyone the midwife or nurse had ever seen. Remember when I said I couldn’t void my bladder? When they catheterized me to drain my bladder, they couldn’t believe how much liquid came out. A full bladder blocks the birth canal and makes it difficult for a baby to navigate around and come out. So I shoved him out so quickly that he didn’t have time for the fluid to be forced out of his lungs resulting in rapid breathing called transient tachypnea. This led to a 5 day stay in the NiCu until we were finally released. 

So there ya have it. I got my natural birth...just some postpartum scares I hadn’t planned for (like you ever do!). If I’m blessed with another pregnancy, I will do two things differently during childbirth: EAT MORE FOOD before labor gets too bad, and DRINK LESS WATER. All in all, we made it. I’m proud of myself for what I endured and thankful for my birth team—especially my supportive husband. Thanks for reading! I hope this doesn’t scare you away from a natural birth, as it was a very beautiful and life changing experience! You live and you learn!

Waiting For a Rainbow: The Story of a Dream, Loss, Belief, and Determination

In many ways, I'm the little girl who never grew up. As a child, I was obsessed with Lisa Frank. Do y'all remember her stuff? She had a line of folders, binders, stickers, etc that were blindingly brightly colored and littered with puppies, kitties, unicorns, and rainbows. As a young lass, I was in awe of rainbows...I wanted rainbow everything. And rainbows in the sky? Well that was just the most magical thing in the world to me. I dreamt of pots of gold waiting just for me at the other end of these magnificent natural phenomena.

Flash forward about three decades and I'm still that little girl inside. In fact, I happen to believe that the little kid within us never truly leaves. Some of us are just better at hiding him or her. Well I don't hide her. I'm 35 years old and I love to dress what some others call "a tad young for my age". I have a unicorn tape dispenser in my office with rainbow colored tape. Glitter is my middle name and I still believe that allowing yourself to sparkle on the outside gives other people the courage to do the same.

A lot of people don't know this, but the baby in my belly is a sheer miracle almost eight years in the making. His nickname is Rainbow Jack, which is short for Jackson and there are quite a few rainbows in his nursery already. Why? Well because he's what's known (albeit not quite commonly yet) as a rainbow baby. A rainbow baby is a baby born after a loss, a miscarriage, or a difficult journey with infertility. They are symbols of hope for a rainbow after a storm, or a promise of sunshine after the darker parts of life. Allow me to share with you four seasons--or life themes, if you will--that I believe we ALL encounter that build strength and character. And it's these seasons and traits that can lead to all sorts of colorful rainbows of your making if you just have enough patience and grit.

#1 You Must Have a Dream 

This seems self-explanatory. I mean, we all have dreams right? No, I mean you need at least one big dream for yourself that you TRULY believe is all yours. That you're destined to live it. A dream that you are adamant will not stay a dream, but will become a reality no matter how hard it is or how long it takes. 

My dream? When I married Erik, I inherited an instant-family. He was a single daddy raising two young kiddos, a step-son from his first marriage who was 11 and Alexis who was 7 by the time I married into the family. He was such a wonderful father to those kids, I couldn't wait to create life with him. Little did I know how difficult a task that would prove to be. When we finally began trying about five years into our marriage, I always dreamed I would have two babies--a boy and a girl. We discussed what we would name our babies. I began to envision myself as a mom to babies, even though I was already getting plenty of practice as a mom to two young children that I didn't birth. 

Imagine your dream as a reality. Make vision boards. Journal about it. Keep doing it, because sometimes it takes years to come to fruition, such as was the case for us. After four and a half years of negative pregnancy tests and painful periods, doubt began to creep in. Lesson here: you will most certainly doubt the feasibility of your dreams at some point. Until one day, you may find yourself there.

Seemingly out of nowhere, in August of 2015 I found out that I was pregnant! Finally a positive test! Soooo... why, then, was I bleeding?

#2 You May Experience Setbacks

Or a loss. The path to your big, wonderful, delicious dream is most likely not linear and clean. It's probably a quite a bit messy. Fraught with detours and roadblocks and NOs and again, more self-doubt. This is the character-building phase. The patience-testing part. It's not fun, but it's actually quite integral to the process. 

My setback? Miscarriage. It's a word that women don't like to talk about, although I've since learned it's alarmingly common. After waiting four and a half years for that positive pregnancy test, I thought, this is it! It didn't take long for me to learn that...welllll, maybe not exactly. I was bleeding slowly every day. Getting blood drawn every other day was proving what the back of my mind knew to be true...my hormone levels were not high enough to sustain the pregnancy. Even after the fertility doctor put me on progesterone, my hormone numbers continued to drop. What little glimmer of hope I had was slowly fading to a quiet darkness.

Listen up y'all. When you have dreams, sometimes it may look like they are finally coming to fruition and then something bad happens. It doesn't mean that you need to stop pursuing them. Maybe it does mean that you take a break from it for awhile, or reevaluate your process. Maybe you take awhile to grieve a significant setback. It will be different for everyone. For me, I grieved for a little bit. I decided to get a tattoo of a bird taking off on my wrist as a symbol of letting go of control and sadness and moving on. The way I saw it, I could either wallow in misery and have four more years of "why me" and "it's not fair" or I could change my mindset and allow myself to 

#3 Press Into More Hope and BELIEVE

There is perhaps nothing more powerful than BELIEF. There is science that shows how when we change our thoughts, we actually affect change in our circumstances. Whole books have been written about it, and they are best-sellers. Guided meditations have been created as a way to influence our thoughts, subconscious patterns, and therefore our outer realities. I recommend looking into all of this!

I could've looked at this miscarriage as a sign that maybe it's just not meant to be. Maybe I was wrong about my dream...maybe I should just do all of the fertility measures that everyone has been harping on me to do. Maybe I should adopt even though my heart isn't in it yet. Maybe I should just give up on this dream of being a mother to my own children. 

Instead, I decided NO. I will not give up. In fact, I will see this heartbreaking experience as something good. I chose to look at it as a victory. For once we had actually conceived! No, it wasn't the ideal conception and it appeared to be doomed from the start. But we GOT PREGNANT. I saw it as a sign that pregnancy was a possibility for us. If my body had done it once, we could do it again. And this time, we would prepare better than we had before.

Lesson? Keep believing in your dreams. If they are truly worth it to you, step up and own your birthright. But is that all you need? No, a dream and belief alone are not enough. You need

#4 Determination, Grit, & Manageable Steps in That Direction

Dreams without follow through stay dreams. Yes keep the overall forest in your field of view, but take a look at the trees, for the trees will get you there. Chunk your big, scary goal into mini goals. Take manageable steps in the right direction. One of my favorite sayings is "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." 

Erik and I decided after that miscarriage to make some changes in our lifestyle. We had already began using essential oils, but we began researching on how to use them to support our bodies hormonal balance. I used oils to boost my progesterone and he used oils to boost his testosterone. We started eating healthier and eliminated most processed foods, while working on our gut health using probiotics and food enzymes. We kicked the nasty chemical-laden cleaners and personal care items to the curb and began using plant-based products. We continued to work on meditation and mindset and filled our heads with more of what we wanted to see in our worlds. In short, we went to work manifesting health and wellness by making our bodies and minds an inviting place for a child to thrive.

And sure enough, without a single fertility drug or Petri dish, we were again with child. And THIS time, my hormone numbers were excellent. This time, we knew that this pregnancy was here to stay. This baby, the one following a loss, is called a rainbow baby. And his name is Jackson Douglas. This baby will paint our lives with colors that have yet to be discovered. This baby is our dream come true, almost eight years in the making.

I know you have dreams for yourself. Perhaps even outrageous ones. You've no doubt spent time visualizing them and seeing yourself victorious. You may even have experienced one or more setbacks or detours. I pray that you have continued to hope and believe that the world deserves to see you living out your dreams. And no doubt you have the wisdom to know that you must walk a little more towards your dreams everyday, step by step by step. Keep all of this up and you'll get your rainbow. 

As Judy Garland so beautifully sang, "Somewhere over the rainbow, dreams really do come true."

My Old Self: A Desperate Druggie

My life 8 years ago...

🛑 WHOA. Major flashback and reflection moment. 

This was my life 8 years ago. Scrambling to find someone to loan me some pills for my migraines because they were so frequent and horrendous. Topomax is a horrific drug with irreversible side effects and I’ll go to my grave crusading against it, and yet here I was begging for it. Did you know that I was so desperate for relief, that as a self-supporting college student with my own job paying for all of my bills, I paid $24 for each Imitrex pill before the generic was released? My prescription was for 9 pills a month. You do the math. 

What I didn’t know then that I know now is that there is a much better way. It’s called making your body an inviting place where wellness thrives. It’s called feeding and watering it appropriately. It’s called using plant-based hormones to help your body regulate itself. It’s called ditching the harmful chemicals in your house that “smell so good” and finding an authentic alternative. It’s called relying on holistic remedies FIRST and saving the rescue pill for the absolute last resort instead of always reaching for that orange bottle with the childproof white lid.

Doctors were more than happy to just write me scripts and send me my way out the door. It was I who did hours and years of investigating to see that my migraines were not food-induced, but stemmed from taking artificial hormones in the form of birth control to help regulate my endometriosis (that went wrongly diagnosed for over a decade). Also chemical fragrances too. You see, I got tired of business as usual and took my health into my own hands because 13 years of going to doctor after doctor had done nothing but occasionally manage symptoms and in some cases made me sicker. I tell you this, nobody cares about your health and well-being more than YOU do. So if you are struggling in that arena (and most people are in one way or another), and you are tired of the same song, thousandth verse; reach out to me. It’s my passion to help people in multifaceted ways; not just essential oils, plant-based household products, quality health supplements (although you better believe I’ll tell you all about those!). Happily Oily After has grown to be a network of people who can support your health and well-being in non-invasive natural ways, including but not limited to:

• health/life coaching
• nutrition advice
• Bowen work
• Chiropractic
• Massage therapy and myofascial release
• Acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine
• Yoga, meditation, and mindfulness
• wellness doctor recommendations 

Please know that there is a much better way and although it is not a quick fix (it involves commitment, research, and the tenacity to see it through), it has long-term rewards that are more than worth it. The baby who is nestled snugly in my womb is proof of it. I love and care about y’all. Thanks so much for reading. Again, please reach out to me if you or someone you know could use a different way of doing things...

Love,

Michelle

Is Your Own Home Making You Sick?

Environmentalists love to rant about the air quality outside...air pollution is killing us all, they say. Industrialization and carbon footprints have doomed us! Not to impugn their outcries, but what if I told you that the air in your home may be far more toxic than the air you breathe outside? Just listen to these startling claims:

• A 5 year study conducted by the EPA found that the average air in the home has 70x greater chemical contamination than the outside air.

• The Consumer Product Safety Commission found more than 150 chemicals in ordinary household products are directly responsible for causing cancer, allergies, birth defects, and numerous psychological disorders.

• An estimated 1 in 2 will develop cancer in their lifetime, largely due to environmental factors, and most of us spend hours in our homes. In fact, the average woman applies 168 chemicals to her body every day.

These claims are sobering. Today I aim to both educate you AND convince you to strongly consider switching to a plant-based cleaner, for the sake of your and your family's health. I intend to do that by discussing:

1. Which cleaning supplies are contributing to my toxicity exposure? 
2. Which chemical ingredients are in them so that I may avoid them later? 
3. What is this Thieves alternative and what can it replace?
4. And finally, does it REALLY clean and kill germs as good as the toxic stuff?

Let's talk about where you can find these toxins that are contributing to poor air quality and unwellness? The main three areas are: your laundry room, under your kitchen sink, and in your bathrooms. 

Your laundry room contains three main culprits: laundry soap and two huge ones--dryer sheets and fabric softener. Dryer sheets and fabric softeners contain a hefty amount of harmful chemicals and we expose them to the clothes that touch our skin everyday. 

Under your kitchen sink also contains several chemical villains. Dish soap, carpet cleaners, mopping solution, glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaners, you name it. Yep, not a one of those is clean--pun intended. 

Your bathrooms probably contain the most diversity of toxin-laden products. These include bathroom cleaners, shampoos, conditioners, body washes, lotions, toothpastes, deodorants, and much, much more. Guess which two are the worst and should be ditched and switched before any others? Toothpaste and deodorant. 

Wow, I just listed the entirety of your non-food grocery cart items, didn't I? Just because it's on the grocery store shelves, doesn't mean it's safe for your family. Many of these products are made with ingredients that were "grandfathered" in and are not held accountable for their toxic load. Because of this, the FDA has only banned something to the tune of 11 ingredients, compared to over 1300 that European Union has banned. Shocker, huh? So just what are these dangerous ingredients so that you can keep an eye out for them as you start reading your labels (you will start reading your labels from now on when you leave this room, amiright?)

We don't have time to discuss every single harmful chemical, so I'll touch on the major ones. #1 Fragrance/Parfum. If your item is scented with fragrance/parfum, that one term can hide a myriad of ingredients that are super harmful to your health. (And hint: most items are scented with fragrance). We aren't even going to touch on candles, air fresheners, and plug-ins, just know that those are EXTREMELY TOXIC and should be disposed of immediately. The word fragrance is a nice term for phthalates and phthalates are endocrine disruptors. That simply means that they mimic hormones in your body and hormones are the chemical messengers that control, hmmm, pretty much everything in your body. Remember that laundry soap and dryer sheets I mentioned? Yep, loaded with fragrance. Shampoos/conditioners/perfumes, you name it.

#2 Sulfates. Sulfates are foaming agents and are found in dish soap, laundry soap, body washes, and shampoos. Sulfates have been linked to organ toxicity and cellular damage. Aren't cells the body's building blocks? Yes. So why are we exposing them to an ingredient that can hurt them? Because bubbles. Bubbles psychologically make you feel like things are getting clean.

#3 Parabens. Ethylparaben, methylparaben, diethylparaben. If you see any part of the word paraben in your products, think again: endocrine disruptor. Parabens mimic the hormone estrogen in the human body so think about the surge in breast cancer. This is bad for women, but men don't want an excess of estrogenic compounds in their systems either. Where are they found? Lotions, conditioners, and in a slew of cosmetics. 

For time's sake, we won't even get into aluminum found in deodorants, flouride found in toothpaste, and several others. But feel free to come to one of my nontoxic home classes to learn more! Now that I've adequately presented a clear case for ditching these harmful products; what's my solution? It's called Thieves!

Thieves is a plant-based alternative to toxic cleaning and personal care supplies and is formulated with essential oils and other plant-based surfactants.The key ingredients are cinnamon bark, clove, eucalyptus, rosemary, and lemon. Thieves oils were first used in the bubonic plague era (the bubonic plague was highly contagious and fatal) when spice traders had knowledge of their health-promoting and air-cleaning properties. They used them to be able to rob the dead and dying without contracting the illness themselves. Flash forward a few millennia and now Thieves oils have been used to formulate an all-purpose cleaner, laundry soap, dish soap, hand sanitizer, and even toothpaste. All without the necessity for harsh detergents, toxic chemicals, and dangerous bleach. 

This one bottle of cleaner can go in your dishwasher, your washing machine, your mop water, on your granite counters, wood floors, windows, and ceramic tubs and commodes. It's so gentle that you don't have to call the poison control center if consumed; simply drink water to dilute in the tummy. Bonus: It doesn't give you a headache when you walk in the house after someone has been cleaning with it (a surefire sign that something isn't right). This is the power of Thieves.

But does it REALLY work? Does it really clean as good as the other stuff??? Prove it, Michelle! In short, YES. Take a look at these images. 

Lysol and Bleach aren't near as effective.

Some of the dirtiest surfaces in your house are not cleaned by Lysol

I thought Lysol was supposed to kill 99.9% of germs. So why doesn't it? And why does nothing grow in the same vicinity as Thieves? Simple: it's made with high-powered essential oils that are known for their health properties. Take a look at this:

Thieves oil is made largely with cinnamon bark and clove essential oils. How 'bout them apples? It even works on mold; check it out:

Mother Nature has always done it better. Somewhere we came up with the notion that we can make things cheaper and more effective in the lab, AND profit it off it. But at what cost? We are finally seeing the detriment to human life as the consequences of using these hundreds of chemicals in our homes, day after day, and year after year is manifesting in some pretty widespread and debilitating conditions. The case has been made for plant-based products that not only WORK, but keep us healthier in the process. What's stopping you from making the ditch and switch today? If you haven't already, I challenge you to begin looking closer into the products you use everyday and seeing where you can make a change and then do it. Your family's wellness depends on it. 

Sleepless in Austin

Hey baby,

I can’t sleep. Which is ironic because I need all the sleep I can get right now. Today, 8/17/18, I’m 32 weeks pregnant with you and I can’t believe you could be here any day now. I’m emotional thinking about how long being pregnant with you has been an absolute dream of mine and I still occasionally look at my round belly in disbelief that you’re actually real. I don’t know how my heart will survive the explosion of love I’ll feel when you’re actually in my arms, because right now it already feels full to capacity. 

You should know how absolutely special you are. You have been prayed for for years. You have been dreamt and wondered about for as long as I can remember. Your daddy and I went through so much—working on materializing you from our imaginations to this Earthly realm—and we want you to know that you were worth every doctor appointment, every failed pregnancy test, every painful period, every hot tear-stained cheek, every invasive test, every moment of doubt, every fear of never ever meeting you.

Know this, baby. Hope is a million times stronger than fear. YOU get to choose how you respond to adversity. Also, one more big lesson for you: YOU have the power to ALTER your destiny, no matter what diagnosis you’ve been given. You don’t like something the doctors told you? Research it. Fix your body. WILL yourself into balance. Same with anyone that tries to tell you that you can’t. Can’t do this, can’t do that. If you want it badly enough and it’s worth pursuing to you, use that stubborn tenacity and relentlessly grab ahold of that magic that is belief in your dreams. And should you ever find yourself in a moment of doubt or despair, that’s okay too. It happens. Know that we are here to back you, sweet creation. 

You are evidence that dreams really do come true. Somewhere over the rainbow doesn’t have to be a myth...we create the rainbows in our lives...some just take longer than others. Oh but those rainbows—those promises fulfilled—they are so worth the grit and patience.

Shel Silverstein wrote “And all the colors I am inside have not been invented yet.” I find myself awake at almost 5 am wondering what new colors you will splash into our lives. 

Love, Momma