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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Getting Started With Essential Oils

If you don't quite understand essential oils and what they are for, you are not alone. I get lots of questions from people asking me why I chose Young Living, are oils safe when pregnant, how do I use the oils, and what oils can I use for a certain symptom. The first thing I want to say is, I am not a medical professional. I am offering advice and information learned from the Essential Oils Pocket Reference (which I am giving away free to the first 10 people to sign up with the Premium Starter Kit) as well as information from thousands of other oil believers! Here's some common questions I or others have when they first start out.

Why Young Living?: I chose Young Living for the personal belief that they are 100% pure. I did a lot of praying and asking God to lead me to the company He wanted me to choose and I just felt a calling to choose Young Living. Check out my Facebook page, Agape Homestead's Young Living Essential Oils, here you will learn a lot more about oil uses and business aspects of Young Living and why I went with them.  From their Seed to Seal guarantee to the fact that they grow all their own plants, distill them themselves, are organic, test all their oils multiple times, and have 3rd party companies test them, makes me more confident to use them. They also have several farms around the world.  Many oils say do not ingest and are more for aromatic uses only. I feel safe ingesting these oils and feel safe using them on young and old alike. When unsure about an oil, I always dilute it first, and look it up to make sure it is safe to ingest. I did some research on other companies and just did not feel like they were as pure as Young Living. Everyone has their own beliefs, but this is my personal opinion. Yes, they cost more than the ones you get in the store, but all the work that goes into making one bottle of oils is definitely worth more than they are selling them for. 

What are essential oils?: Essential oils are a non-fatty oil. They are an aromatic, volatile liquid that is in many shrubs, flowers, trees, roots, bushes, and seeds, most often extracted with steam distillation (Essential Oils Pocket Reference, 2011, p, 1).  Here is a great article about essential oils.

Can I use these oils when pregnant?: Absolutely. They are safe to use when pregnant. However several are not recommended to use when pregnant, and therefore you must do your research and figure out what is safe and what is not. There are lots of great charts on Pinterest that will help you out. The Essential Oils Pocket Reference book is a great resource as well. 



Do I have to turn this into a business?: No, you do not! If you choose to sign up as a wholesale member, this makes you a distributor, and gives you the opportunity to turn it into a business, but you don't have to sell a single thing! No monthly quotas to meet and no need to host parties. Once you buy the kit, you only need to spend $50 dollars in a whole year to keep your discount. If you hate the oils and don't want to buy anymore oils you don't have to. You will just lose your discount for the following year. 
The business opportunities are great with Young Living though. Once you start sharing with your friends and they want to sign up you can start to earn money and pay for your own oils and even have a nice paycheck coming in. Whether you just want to use the oils for yourself and your family or you want to turn this into a business, I think you will love essential oils. 

How do I use Essential Oils?: There are three common ways to use essential oils. Ingest, diffuse, and apply topically. The Pocket Reference book is a great tool that will help you know what oil to use and where to apply each oil. 


How do I sign up?!: 

Signing up as A Wholesale Member – A step-by-step Guide



1. Click over to the sign-up page.

2. Select “Sign up as: Young Living Wholesale Member

3. The “Enroller ID” and “Sponsor ID” boxes should already be filled in for you. But if not, enter 1611368 in both boxes or you can enter Laura Lee.

4. Fill out your name, billing address, shipping address, and contact info. (The reason you are asked to list your social security number is for tax purposes. If you make over $600/year selling Young Living products, you will receive a 1099 form in the mail, as is required by law. Young Living will never share this info with anyone.)

5. Create your password and pin which you will use to log in to your account and order your oils.

6. Select your enrollment starter kit. This is where you can specify which starter kit you would like (and you know I think the Premium Kit is the way to go!) – they range in price from $40 on up and you only need to spend $40 to get the 24% discount. Note – you must sign up with one of these kits to become a wholesale member. This is mandatory. To maintain your 24% discount going forward, you only need to spend $50 worth each subsequent year with Young Living on any product in their store. That’s it! You can also purchase other items at this time if you wish.

7. Set up your *optional* Essential Rewards Program (ER).
Now don’t be confused by this next step. Buying one of the ER kits is not a requirement to sign up as a wholesale member! This is a rewards program you can opt into to start earning money back to help pay for your oils. At this point, you can skip this step by selecting: ‘No, thank you. I plan on enrolling in the Essential Rewards Program later’. If one of the ER kits looks valuable to you then by all means get one in addition to your starter kit but please understand that you cannot buy an ER kit in lieu of a starter kit. This program is the most economical way to purchase your oils and other products. I belong and am already on my way to getting some free oils with it.



Saturday, April 5, 2014

Living the Crunchy Life

I got called a hippy the other day by a friend, I know it was a joke, but it made me proud! It's not something you usually want to be called (I prefer the term crunchy), but when you live a lifestyle like ours it's like a rite of passage! It means you made so many changes in your life that people are starting to notice. My friend called us hippies because we try not to eat corn syrup anymore. In my head I was thinking you don't know the half of it! Like the fact that I haven't used shampoo and conditioner or face wash in over two months (baking soda, vinegar, and castile soap are my replacements). I brew my own kombucha, ferment things for fun (and health reasons), make my own jam, raise chickens (for meat and eggs), grow our own vegetables, make my own elderberry syrup, use essential oils and try to avoid conventional medicines as much as possible.

This lifestyle is definitely not easy, and we're only at the beginning stages! My next goals are to make my own bread, make deodorant, replace my body wash with either something homemade or with less ingredients, raise a pig, and make my own toothpaste. When you live differently you get a lot of people who think you are crazy. They might even call you a hippie ;). People are going to judge you, but that's okay. If this is how you feel like you should be living and this is your calling in life, you need to listen to God. Not your family members, friends, or people who read your blog that you don't even know. Hopefully, as time goes by, your friends and family will accept you for who you are, you might even encourage them to make a change in their own lives! If not, just know, that if this is where you feel God calling you to be, you don't need to change for anyone!

Things on the homestead are going well. I feel continually blessed each day in the ways Christ is working in our lives. We are getting between 2 and 3 dozen eggs each week and are able to sell most of these. Last week we sold out. The egg sells buy all of our feed and we are left over with a little bit each month. It's by no means what we need to live, but it is encouraging that we are not losing money raising chickens. Our baby chicks that the momma hatched are growing fast. Hopefully, we will be able to get them out of the pen soon so they can roam free. Right now they are too small and they need to stay in with the momma. I am sure she is anxious to be able to roam around as well. Inside we have 25 baby chicks that we are anxiously awaiting to get outside. They are growing quickly and will be ready to go out to pasture in about a week or two. Cornish Cross Hens live very short lives (about 8 weeks to be exact) so we hope to give them the best 8 weeks of their lives possible. Soon it will be time to cull them and freezer bag them for selling and for own meat supply. It's hard to not become attached to them as you watch them grow. It's interesting to think of what God has planned for your life. I never thought I would be raising chickens, and now I have 40 of them. My desires for my life have changed so dramatically in the last few years. It's not always normal, but it's our life and I love it!

After separating them.