My in-laws are coming today to visit for five days.
I have a cold. (Or wicked allergies. Still not sure.)
My toilet keeps overflowing.
The dishwasher literally fell out of its cabinet.
Our only “spare” room is super hospitable with 2x4s and concrete.
I dropped my cellphone in the toilet. After Jelly Bean peed in it. And now I need a new one.
We still have so many unopened boxes that I’m considering just renaming it Q*bert’s Dream House and calling it done.
I too curse in code! We’re soul mates!
Did I mention my in-laws are coming?
Stress: I am having all of it. As are my kids, since I spent all day taking it out on them by alternately getting massively upset about inconsequential things and then hiding in my room and crying. But my sweet friend Makenzie saw my imminent breakdown and brought me some essential oils to help with my mad anxiety and stress. Truth to be told, while I’ve seen these types of oils around the health and fitness communities, I’ve never thought much of them. I mean, my anxiety is so tough it’s basically resistant to everything. So how is scenting my air going to help where major psychotropic medications have failed? But, hey, I’m willing to try anything. Plus they smell yummy so it’s a win right there.
She brought me two to try out: lavender to calm me and wild orange to make me happy. While I don’t think there’s a substance on earth that truly calms me, oranges do generally make me happy. She instructed me to dab the lavender essential oil on my collarbone and huff the wild orange. She let me borrow one of her air diffusers and told me to put it in the room where we’d all be spending the most time because it will stealthily make all of us happier. And it cannot be overstated how awesome that would be. I’d basically be the lovechild of Willy Wonka, the Avon Lady and James Bond. But with better costumes. (I always have better costumes.)
Really though, I’m very interested to see how this will work out because I couldn’t have come up with a better weekend to Experiment with stress reduction. I tried looking up some science to see if there’s any research into “essential oils” but while I found lots of enthusiastic testimonials, I didn’t find any hard science. Although there was some that linked smelling pleasant smells in general to less stress. (Cinnamon bun odor was the clear winner. Followed by pumpkin pie. I think I’m sensing a theme…) Nevertheless, I do believe there is much wisdom to be found from “alternative” health sources and as long as it doesn’t involve scraping my back until I bleed, I’m all for giving it a go.
It’s not just my friend Makenzie that swears by these though. Several months ago, before I moved, a friend dropped in on the Gym Buddies (sob) and I on the stretching mats and had us smell several vials of oils. She’d brought them because a couple of the Gym Buddies suffer from chronic headaches. So apparently the oils can be good for lots of things.
Do any of you use essential oils? What do you think of how they work – placebo effect or lost art? Anyone else loooove Q*bert??
I think I’m allergic to some essential oils, particularly whatever is in the one called “stress relief”. I think it’s a mixture of different oils. People around here seem to marinate themselves in it and then get in a lift with me. Two floors later I can barely breathe, two floors after that I’m dry heaving. Thankfully I work on the fourth floor !
I do find some relaxing (white rose and violet) but lavender makes me angry (I’m so backwards !).
I think white rose and violet remind me of younger carefree happy times and since smell is supposed to be the strongest trigger for memory that may be why those work on me. Whereas Lavender reminds me of a car trip from hell with someone, hence the anger 🙂
Good luck with them.
And I never did figure out how to play Q*bert, I’m still trying to deal with my Candy Crush Saga addiction
Oooohhhh… goodness. I feel your pain.
I would take long walks, do yoga, and meditate.
Any scent that works, you should adopt for life! 🙂
Can’t hurt, right?
And in the mean time, find one thing – JUST ONE THING – that you can do. Somehow, accomplishing just ONE THING makes life seem so much more achievable. I don’t know why, I honestly don’t. But it works.
And good luck with the in-laws.
[An air mattress and barring the door of the broke bathroom will go far. Hopefully?]
You’re looking at this the wrong way. The fact that you just moved gives you total permission to live in a huge mess without making excuses. My husband and I just moved into our new house last week, and I’m having the book-club here tomorrow and Open House on Sunday. My husband says “Are you crazy?! The place is a MESS.” And I say “So what? Of course the place is a mess, we just moved; nobody expects the place to be cleaned up!” I want everyone to see it in its chaotic glory and offer up suggestions about colors and furniture placement.
Hey Charlotte, I know not much about essential oils, but my dear friend is an essential oil guru, and swears by them. I, who am the queen of hippy dippy and hokey, still have moments of “you’ve gotta be kidding me. Oils?” But people absolutely love them, and I’m ordering some to try when I get back to the states. I’ve heard WONDERFUL things about frankincense, lemon, and peppermint.
I’m a yoga teacher by trade, so I have to say that my favorite form of stress relief is lying on the floor (no mat required) and rolling around in a hedgehog-esque ball until I feel better. If anyone walks in and gives me a sideways look, I just say “what? I’m practicing yoga!” and they leave me alone – free pass to awkwardly collapse into a fetal position.
I think it’s mostly the placebo effect but the thing is is that the placebo effect is real. As in when it kicks in it genuinely helps people so long as there are no significant side effects from things that can help including through the placebo effect it’s worth trying out
After a long day I like to use cinnamon leaf oil as it has seems to have a relaxing affect on me. Not sure about the science of it all. May be just something different. I know that I like it.
Bummer for all toilet and dishwasher – the downside to moving into a new place – always something to deal with!!!
If those work I need to get some ASAP – we leave tomorrow morning for a 2 day drive to Florida. 24 hours in the car with 2 teenage boys and my husband who sometimes is the biggest kid of all – stress is consuming me right now!!!! Oh, and I haven’t even started packing!!
I’m with Dragonmomma – having just mobved in gives you full ability to say “this is how it is I just moved in”. The inlaws who are coming know darn well what they’re coming into and should be prepared to stay where they can be fit into. Unpacking with little peoples (and escaping dischwashers) is challenge enough. Just enjoy the visit…who knows maybe the inlaws might help you unpack a bit? 🙂
As for the essential oils – I’m as skeptical as they come, but for me they do work. Lavendar helps calm me and there are a few “soothing” or “rescue” blends you can buy that can do a world of good for helping me unwind. Whether it’s all in my head or not I’d recommend them…it’s not hard to do after all, and it it helps even a little bit I say go for it. A cheap oil diffuse can help make the scent fill a room. Just don’t buy cheap oils or diffusers or they can burn…and that smells nasty…
OK…so I can’t type. You need a simple oil diffuser, but not a cheap one. gargh. NEed coffee…
I don’t know your in-laws (obviously), but maybe they’d be willing to help with some of the unpacking/fixing? At the very least, I’m sure they’ll understand the chaos. 🙂
If you’re OK with taking supplements, you could try gaba. As far as essential oils, I’m all for anything that’s harmless & works!
I like essential oils–they help my headaches and improve my mood. I don’t like lavender, though, which is supposed to be the magical calming scent. Vanilla is nice and anything citrus is uplifting/refreshing. The Body Shop makes a lemon body scrub that exfoliates, moisturizes and also helps keep mosquitoes away (okay, not an essential oil, but it does have lemon oil in it and it smells great!). I don’t use them a lot and I don’t think they work miracles, but they help.
I used to love Q*bert but I haven’t played it in years.
(((Hugs))) I completely understand wanting to have everything perfect for the in-laws’ visit, but think you need to let it go and give yourself some grace for the move. We had a local move the first weekend of June and with all my planning and purging beforehand it still took all of June to get rid of the boxes. Except for the ones lining the wall of my closet. 🙂
Sometime the toilet and dishwasher will be really funny. Just maybe not yet. I’m sure your in-laws will still love you.
Chin up Charlotte! Compared to getting your house saleable, packing, and moving in, what, like 3 weeks, this should be OK. The in-laws will be so excited to see their grandbabies, they won’t care what the heck the house looks like.
As far as oils, I’ve never tried them for real, but I have a friend with a son on the autism spectrum who would only calm down when they spritzed a certain combo of oils on his arm. It was like magic how it calmed him down, cause we’re talking Grade A tantrum to sitting quietly and smiling in, like, 20 seconds. So it definitely worked for them. Also, three of my friends ended up with breech babies about 2 weeks before their due date (at different times, obviously) and this same friend read that putting peppermint oil on the top of your tummy can get a baby to turn. I still don’t know if it was coincidence or not, but all three babies turned head down within 24 hours of the peppermint oil. One of the ladies had even been to the doctor for an external cephalic version and no luck. I am skeptical by nature, but I imagine I will try peppermint oil with my bun in the oven if he’s still breech at due date time…can’t hurt, I guess…
Well, it sure sounds like you have good reasons to be stressed!! I would be climbing the walls myself. I agree with another commenter that yoga works great to reduce stress and anxiety but I doubt you have time for a good yoga session until your in-laws leave. I do love essential oils and have had great success with them. I would encourage you to give them a try. I like the Young Living brand – pure essential oils are pricey but well worth it in my experience. I can put you in touch with a very knowledgeable rep ( also a yogi- not me) if you’d like more info.
Here is some of what I’ve used with great success in my diffuser.
Lavender for calming
Thieves for anti microbial and antiviral – so in love with this!
Peppermint for energy
Citrus for happiness
Hope you feel some good results. Best of luck!
Jessica
In the words of Calvin from Calvin & Hobbs;
When life hand you lemons, wing ’em back and add some lemons of your own.
no advice for stress but wanted to share advice for a dishwasher falling out of its cabinet. We got a new one and don’t know how to attach it to our granite countertops….so we use a #10 can of wheat from our food storage! with a towel folded up on top so it doesn’t dent the front. It props open the door when you pull out the baskets! 🙂 I knew that wheat would help this gluten-sensitive girl one day!
Add me to the not-a-fan-of-lavendar club; it seems to give me a headache. I remember trying peppermint oil, which is supposed to energize you/wake you up. I found it does have a sort of head clearing effect, but doesn’t necessarily last long. However, I do think aroma therapy is one of those harmless things that it doesn’t hurt to try.
The thing to remember – people who come to visit aren’t frustrated with unpacking/moving. They are usually happy to take on an easy task- like a single box- books, linens, dishes. As long as you can say- this box goes here- you’re happy they are helping- they are happy to lessen the chaos. (don’t give them all your kitchen equip that you want in various places- that will just frustrate you and them). Alternatively, they may be happy to leave the chaos and take your kids out. That would give you time/space to get some stuff done. Or you could have them do those niggly chores- extra copies of keys, outlet converters…
Good luck.
I have tried essential oils in the past, not for a few years now. To be honest I believe that some did work for me. Stress reduction is important in everyone’s life. I like meditating and yoga, as I have found them to be working well over the past year. Thanks for the post!
I haven’t tried essential oils myself but a lot of my friends swear by them. Personally when I’m stressed I like to go hiking, I go find a trail and hike for two hours by myself and it just so great to forget about everything and focus on the hike.
I feel your pain, we just moved and the in-laws are determined to come help us unpack. My mother-in-law and I organize in very different ways, so it will definitely be an interesting experience.
I am extremely interested in your opinion on essential oils. Like you said it’s so hard to find actual research on it. Also, most people who use essential oils also sell essential oils and it’s hard to get true opinions out of people trying to hawk you stuff. Sometimes I wonder if that’s how people feel about Mormons, we all are hawking our product so it’s hard to just ask about it.
Interesting. I’ll have to ponder that more.