Every Day Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy should never be your first line of defense when it comes to emergencies but having some of it on hand can be helpful for healing certain ailments.  

Here is a bit of a breakdown of what is nice to have on hand. 

Essential oils are quite effective for muscle pain. You can mix a few drops any peppermint, juniper, clove, pine or balsam oil oils in 8 ounces of a carrier oil such as grapeseed and rub it over the sore spots add them to a bath or rub them directly into the skin.  Just a word of warning though. Never use essential oils directly on the skin without the carrier oil or you could cause an allergic reaction in yourself or your children. 

Use Tea tree oil along with geranium or lavender oil to heal cold sores.  Mixed with chamomile oil, tea tree oil it can be a good remedy eczema.  Keep in mind too that you don't have to mix up this kind of thing yourself.  However you can if you want! Tea tree oil can be bought in commercial preparations or made into an oil by yourself by diluting two or three drops of the essential oil into eight ounces of a carrier oil such as aloe vera. This oil can then used to heal and disinfect small cuts, scrapes, bruises, insect bites and bee stings.

Many aromatherapy oils are extremely effective when it comes to getting rid of headaches or stuffed up noses. Lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, neroli (orange blossom) or linden blossom oil either diffused through a room with a steamer. If the kids have given you one of those tension headaches you can rub these oils on your head or neck.  Headaches that are caused y sinus problems are effectively relieved by diffusions of lemon, lavender basil, clove, eucalyptus, frankincense, juniper, pine or rosemary oils. If the headache is believed to have a hormonal cause, chamomile, jasmine, geranium, clary sage or lavender may relieve it. 

Aromatherapy can also be used to treat nausea, dizziness and nervous conditions. This is effectively done simply by rubbing a blend of peppermint and ginger oils in a circular motion on the stomach and pulse points or by anointing a handkerchief with a few drops so that you can sniff the aroma while on a road trip.  I sometimes give my kids ginger candies to quell queasiness on the road. 

Essential oils can also be used to relieve jet lag and hangovers as wells .Oils that are very effective for both are peppermint, orange, clary sage, geranium, eucalyptus, ginger and basil.  Teas created from these herbs and plants are also very effective if you overdid it the night before! You don't have to be an herbalist to get this stuff. Many herbal remedies already made from these oils are available in stores.  All you need to do is read the list of ingredients in the cream, spray or lotion carefully to see if you are getting the right thing.

Chaek out this candle shop

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Cheap Airline Tickets For Moms

 If you are a mom you need to save as much money as possible. Using the air miles offered credit cards are one way of getting cheap airline tickets. However there are also other ways. 

Here is the big secret to getting cheaper travel. Airlines are delighted to serve you if you have to travel on a fixed date in the next seven days.  That’s because they figure you’re a business traveler who will pay full fare, even if that means dishng out twice as much money as you normally would.

You can’t beat the system every time, but some of the tactics that leisure travelers use to find discounts can increase your odds of landing a reasonable fare.  

One way to beat the system is to fly out of an alternative airport.  This airport might be a 30 to 45 minute drive from your preferred airport but the trouble may be worth it. For example, flying into Baltimore instead of Washington, D.C., or into Oakland instead of San Francisco can save you up to 50%  in the price of an air flight. 

See if your destination has a similar alternative by using one of the many discount airfare sites that are out there.  Some of the fare comparison sites, such as BestFares.com, will search for alternative airports automatically once you type your destination and preferred times of flying into their data base. 

Sites offering comparison-shopping engines can dramatically speed the process, though they may miss some fares and turn up others with unsuitable restrictions.  There is not much need to surf several fare comparison sites simply because they all get their information from the same big database. So the bargains that you will find on any of them will basically be the same. 

The big clue here is to not waste time surfing them all as you are looking at duplicate information. It might seem that other websites have better bargains but that is because the information about rates times and taxes etc. might be configured a bit differently. If you have flexibility on one of your travel dates, consider including a Saturday stay.

Although some airlines are experimenting with doing away with this practice, most tend to reserve the lowest fares for itineraries that include a Saturday night stay.  By booking your travel in this way you can save as much to 50%. If you can’t change your dates, consider changing your flight times. Most travel sites have an “anytime” option for your preferred flight times, and that might turn up cheaper flights at less popular times of the day. Or, you might consider trying to book your travel on  auction or discount sites such as Priceline.com. 

However if you don't like uncertainty these methods are for you. You won’t know your precise flight time or airline until after you purchase your ticket.  This is the only drawback if you are trying to hustle a ton of kids to the airport. There is nothing worse than a bored kid standing around in an airport!

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