Thrive Simply

I know, I know ... a magical post-tournament recovery? What is this make-believe? So, for those of you who don't know me, I love to play Ultimate Frisbee. I've been playing for a little over ten years now and it is simply my favourite team sport. It is spirited, it makes you run, it requires some intellect to play it well, and it's reasonably inexpensive. I have formed so many great friendships through playing this sport that I cannot imagine my life without it. Like any sport you may love, it's like a dose of exercise, social interaction and self-care all wrapped into one. This summer I am honoured to be a co-captain of a women's masters touring team in southern Ontario. The leadership is a group of four amazing women and our team is a collection of talented and spirited players from London, Toronto, Burlington, Milton, Hamilton, Ottawa, and even the east coast! This weekend was our first official tournament and it was so much fun! We played a one-day tournam...

Sleep has always been difficult for me. I go through waves of insomnia-like sleep problems from time to time. When that's not happening, I still often have difficulty falling asleep, and I don't necessarily wake feeling rested. My husband snores and I have three kids under 7. I'm a jaw clencher and I grind my teeth. Sleep is not easy around here. But it IS getting better. A LOT better.  The older kids (4 & 6) sleep through the night unless something strange is up (sickness or nightmares). The youngest one is 16 months old and has been sleeping well since we did sleep training with him in December when he was 11 months old. I know, I know - I always said I would never sleep train my kids. I couldn't bear to hear them cry, I wanted to be an attached and available parent ... but I also couldn't handle a third round of not sleeping til my kid turned two. So, in December I clicked on a sponsored Facebook ad for Dana Obleman's Sleep Sense program, paid up...

Alright, time to get personal here. I'm a sweater. Yep, I said it. Not the warm and cozy kind that you wear in the winter - the wet and stinky kind that you come across in the summer ... haha. I bike to work, I run on my lunch hours, and I play Ultimate in the evenings and on the weekends. It's important to me that I don't stink all day and night, so deodorant is definitely part of my daily routine. When I first encountered this problem of sweating when I was 9 or 10, my mom got me the usual stuff off the shelves at the store. You know ... baby powder scent, and all that jazz. I used that for the most part until I went away to university and decided to switch to antiperspirant to cut down on the sweat puddles on my shirts. A few years later, I started to develop some bumpy, sore, redness, which led me to investigate alternatives. I landed on deodorant so that I could avoid the aluminum that is so popular in antiperspirants. Finally, once I started using essential oils, ...

Frankincense is one of those oils that nearly everyone has heard of. If you haven't heard of it for its many benefits, perhaps you have heard that it was a gift from one of the three wise men at Jessus' birth. Even the Babylonians used frankincense in religious ceremonies, and the Egyptians used it in perfumes and in salves to soothe skin. Frankincense is steam distilled from the resin of  Boswellia carterii, frereana ,  and sacra. The main active components include: α-pinene, limonene and α-thujene. dōTERRA sources the frankincense from Somaliland and Puntland (north of Somalia). The growers are paid well and dōTERRA has shown their gratitude by building a school there. dōTERRA is committed co-impact sourcing and this is one of the many things I love about being part of the dōTERRA team. Some of frankincense's many uses include supporting  healthy cellular, immune, nervous, and digestive function.  I like to combine 5 -7 drops with appr...