caring for my people, and the unusual reasons i use essential oils.

In the last two weeks, we've had a weird amount of sickness in the house.  This is unusual for us - we usually don't feel 'hit' by cold and flu season until about February, from which point on we are often sick until June.  (That's life in a large family; the germs just keep making the rounds.)  But here it is, September, and it's in the eighties so it still feels like summer, but my mind is suddenly feeling forced into Doomsday Prepper mode - what will I need to have in my arsenal to hopefully fend off The Crud this winter?

An old photo of broth simmering away on the stovetop and in my pressure cooker.  Remember when my kitchen used to be green and brown?  Rough times.

I have stuff on hand to start brewing Fire Cider.  I have elderberry syrup kits.  I want to get some garlic fermenting.  I have ascorbic acid Vitamin C, colloidal silver, and Vitamin D3/K2 drops.  My freezer is typically stocked with plenty of broth.  And I have essential oils.

I use a nail polish organizer to keep them within easy view inside my linen closet.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  I like oils.  They work.  I don't think they're a cure-all for every result of the Fall, but I do think they're a helpful part of a greater wellness arsenal.

I have been musing on home life lately, and looking to author-mentors to guide me along the way, and two things that have continued to come to mind through my readings are atmosphere and memory.  And I realized that essential oils could play a much larger part in a home atmosphere of care and compassion than I first realized.

To use an example, if a child has a headache, and I give them a Tylenol to swallow, it may help the headache, but it has mostly removed me personally from the process.  I have solved the problem, but I have not necessarily entered into the sickness.  However, to use a medium like essential oils is to touch my hurting child.  Some of the oils themselves, like peppermint or eucalyptus, feel immediately soothing, and my hands administer that.

Personally, I need this opportunity.  I'm not particularly patient with illness; it frustrates and exasperates me when the kids are sick.  I know myself too well to think I can be trusted with a cabinet full of easy, impersonal pills as my first line of defense.  I need to be trained to enter into my kids' suffering with compassion, understanding and patience.

(Now, I realize there may come a time for pharmaceuticals.  But I want to make my first attempts mine.  I want to be personally, intimately there with my kiddo as much as I can.)

Additionally, not only do oils utilize healing touch, but they also have distinct smells.  Which, I know, duh.  But the sense of smell is strongly linked to memory, and I want to leverage every tool at my disposal to help my kids form good memories of their life in our home.  Edith Schaeffer says that the only way to keep time is to take it with us into the future as memories.  Our life on earth is fleeting, but we can redeem the passing time by hanging onto as much of it as we can through intentional memory-making.  I want my adult kids to smell peppermint and experience comfort as they remember me rubbing their heads or their bellies when they didn't feel well.  I want them to have triggers for memories of being cared for and loved well when they were at their most vulnerable.

So I have made it a point lately to pull out my oils when there are opportunities to do so, and my kids are noticing.  They are asking for them, and telling me how much they like it when I use them.  I know that in our home, an atmosphere of care and compassion is slowly growing like leaven through a lump of dough, and I'm excited by that.  And time will tell whether they're forming the memories I hope they are, but I can pray they are and I'm doing what I can to help them.

Practically speaking, if you haven't used oils much, I can tell you that you don't need a ton of them to start, and you don't need to buy super pricey ones.  Plant Therapy is an excellent, super high quality brand, and Edens Garden is also good and comes in prettier packaging.  (Priorities, am I right?)  Most of the oils and blends I use are in the $8-$13 range, which helps me feel like I'm balancing the stewardship of both our heath and our finances at the same time.

These are the oils that I personally use the most:

Peppermint: for headaches and tummy aches in kids over six.  Peppermint can irritate airways in younger kids, so we don't use it on them.  Plant Therapy (here and here) and Edens Garden (here and here) both offer oil blends for these ailments that are safe for younger kids.  For the older kids, I buy the kind already diluted in a roller bottle, as it makes it easy to apply, and peppermint is a strong oil so I want to make sure the dilution is correct.

Lavender: for headaches, sleep disturbances, stress, and skin issues (rashes, itchiness).

Tea tree/melaleuca: as an antibacterial in cuts and scrapes.  I also sometimes put it in homemade cleaning solutions for extra germ-fighting.


A couple extras that get more occasional use:

Helichrysum: to stop bleeding.  EXCELLENT for nose bleeds.  It's a pricey oil, though, and while I'm glad I have it, I'd be able to live without it if I needed to, as my kids aren't major bleeders.

Frankincense: for skin issues, especially scarring.  This oil is also a bit more expensive than the first three (though not as expensive as helichrysum), and gets less use.  I just personally have a major beef with scarring, so I like having it on hand, but it's not absolutely necessary.

Healthy Hero: a kid-safe immunity blend.  (Did you know Thieves is not recommended for use around children under the age of 10?  As this is the age range most of my kids are in, I don't even have a normal/non-kid-safe version on hand.  It's important to me to make sure I'm not risking their health when I'm trying to build their health!) I honestly don't use this as much as I could/should, but it does get pulled out occasionally.


And, not related to curing illness, but for creating atmosphere and smell-linked memories in our home, I've fallen in love with diffusing this lately:

It is called Lemongrass Ylang Ylang from Edens Garden, and it has magnolia in it, so it's definitely floral.  But it's balanced with citrus, which smells really clean.  It might not be for everyone, but we love it!  I have become super sensitive over the last few years to synthetic fragrances, and 'stuff' in the air.  Sometimes I even get physically ill.  But oils haven't done that to me, so I like having an intentional scent in our home that doesn't make me feel crappy, or put toxins in the air around the kids.


So while those aren't earth-shattering reasons to use oils, I do feel like they're the most compelling ones in our house, and ones I don't see mentioned often in the discussion.  Soon, I'll fill you in on another surprising tool that Scripture instructs us to have in our wellness arsenal...

avoiding the Plague like it's, well... the Plague.

We used to be healthy.

When we lived in Iowa, flu season would roll around and we'd be all, "Oh, pshaw.  Oh, shrug, shrug.  Oh, whatever."  We'd get the occasional cold, but the barfs were very rare for us, hitting us only once every few years.

The last couple of winters, though... man.  I don't know if it's the climate down here, or if our house is some kind of disease-ridden hotbed, or if our new Missouri friends are secretly and slowly trying to poison us, but, dang.  We have been hit hard and often, with our stomach bug cycles seeming to just repeat over and over and over from February until June.  Multiply the barfs by eight people across four months, and it is truly apocalyptic.  I'm genuinely surprised I'm still alive to tell the tale.

But this year, you guys.  This year is going to be different.  It has to be different.  I just can't do it anymore.  So I'm girding my loins, stocking my arsenal and setting my face to rout the enemy.  I will not be mocked; I will not be conquered; I will not be weak.

I'm busting out the big guns: a daily concoction of elderberry syrup and grape juice.

 I keep a silly-looking Dixie cup dispenser on hand in the kitchen for this daily purpose; the flip-top mason jar lid has made it MUCH more likely that I'll stay regular with this, since it requires so little effort or clean-up to bartend this cocktail.

Why elderberry syrup?  Because this stuff is a Christmas-flavored Immune System in a Jar.  I get kits from my friend Paige (YES! I KNOW!) at Elder N Honey Co. and make it with honey I buy locally.  (Eh.  "Local" is relative; I buy mine by the gallon through a friend in Iowa, so it's not exactly in my backyard, and figuring out how to get it from her place to mine involves a series of complicated hand-offs compiled to form what we've dubbed "Operation Honey Wagon.")  If you can boil pasta, you are a more advanced chef than is required for making your own elderberry syrup with one of these kits.

I ordered two kits this year, which is enough to make about six pints, but we're already through two pints so far, so I may need to order a couple more when they come back in stock.  (These seriously fly off the shelves; they're that good.)

The results of one kit.

Also - why do I add grape juice?  I'm both proud and ashamed to admit that it's mostly because of an unquestioning belief in everything I read on the internet.  I saw a random Facebook post about the stomach flu being unable to survive in a stomach regularly doused in grape juice.  Why?  Who knows.  There is no supporting science that I'm aware of.  HOWEVER.  I figure it can't hurt, and I'm a desperate woman.  So, grape juice shots for everybody!!!! (Except Laurelai, who is the only preschooler in the history of the world who doesn't like juice of any kind, so she takes her elderberry syrup straight and neat.)

I will soon be adding these Vitamin D drops and some sodium ascorbate to the cocktail to add to the immune boosting powers, but for now, this is at least a good start.

For Callista, who is old enough to take remedies with honey, but is also still young enough that I'm solely responsible for her care and therefore constantly looking for shortcuts, I use these Vitamin C drops, also from Elder N Honey Co.  They come with their own little dropper, so I don't have to deal with using my own medicine syringe, which is just more work than it's worth somehow.  I ordered 6 oz. to cover us for the upcoming season.

In addition, I also have been brewing my own fire cider - a truly terrifying infusion of apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, horseradish, turmeric, garlic, jalapenos, etc. etc. etc.  It sits for a month, at the end of which time I am supposed to strain out all the solids and refrigerate the infused liquid.  At the onset of any nasties, any of the Potentially Infirm are instructed to mix a shot of this fire cider with some honey, and cross their fingers that they don't poison themselves.  It all sounds very thrilling, and promisingly effective.  My half-gallon batch was ready to strain on Halloween... but I've been too chicken (ahem, I mean, too early pregnant and too concussed... and also too chicken) to approach it.  But I will pep-talk myself into it one day soon.

After sitting for a month, the ingredients seem to have leached most of their color - and presumably, their essence - into the liquid.  Which I am very afraid but resolved to drink.

I am also about to embark upon a journey of fermenting garlic cloves in raw honey, which I'm actually quite excited about, and seems simple enough.  (Peel garlic; cover in honey; leave in breathable jar for a month, turning occasionally; beat All the Germs; call yourself a home remedy wizard; win awards.)  

And that, friends, is what my kitchen is currently churning out in preparation for creating an anti-Plague bubble around the Van Voorst family this winter.  What other tips do you have for me?


*Yes, yes.  I realize this post was a total plug for Elder N Honey Co.  I'm not being compensated by them or anything; I just love this company that much.  The Amazon links, on the other hand, are purely affiliate links.  Cha-ching, suckers. JK JK I am always grateful for the small amount of commission that comes my way when you order - at no extra cost -through the links I post!)

postpartum weight loss: how I (finally) lost all the baby weight.

If you missed it (in which case I would encourage you to subscribe to The Minivan Voorsts YouTube channel!), here's yesterday's vlog on how I've reached my postpartum weight loss goal.  Spoiler: it's not a magic pill.  But it's also not torture.  It's somewhere on the spectrum between a magic pill and torture, closer to the 'magic pill' end.  So that's a positive, for sure.

Second spoiler: it's Trim Healthy Mama.  I bet you already guessed that, though, huh?  Because the BUZZ IS REAL, Y'ALL.  All those moms ain't lyin'.  It works.

Go here to hear how it works, and how it's worked for me.

my recipe for homemade toothpaste.

I've mentioned before that we don't use store-bought toothpaste at our house.  Long story short, toothpaste can coat your teeth with glycerin and weird chemicals, preventing the teeth from remineralizing.  And if it can seal out minerals, I'm presuming it can actually seal in cavities.  (But I'm no tooth scientist; just a common-sense mom, if that hasn't been clear.)  Plus, with as much as our kids swallow it, I didn't love reading the ingredient lists on even the natural toothpastes and wondering what the crap I was even looking at.

A while ago, I mentioned on the blog that I brush my teeth with soap and baking soda. No morning breath, fewer coffee stains, no weird chemicals in my mouth - win/win/win! This is my new favorite kind to use.

A post shared by Paige Van Voorst (@theminivanvoorsts) on Feb 5, 2018 at 9:53am PST

So we've been using bar soap to brush our teeth and I've really been liking it.  It has kept our teeth really clean.  But with only one bar of soap between us, we were running into the problem of extensive germ-sharing.  We would each run our toothbrushes along the surface of the soap before brushing, and I strongly suspect it was cycling sickness amongst us.  I was trying to figure out a way to give everyone a separate bar of soap, and to keep them all separate and organized, but a noncomplicated solution was proving elusive. 

My best idea involved a couple baskets hung on the inside of the cupboard doors, with a color-coded water cup holding a color-coded soap dish and toothbrush for each kid.  It's still not out of the realm of possibility that a system like this might someday be unveiled at Chez V.V., but for the time being, I didn't want to spend the time and money hunting around for all the supplies I'd need.  Luckily, a better solution presented itself in the meantime.

I follow The Clementine Bee on Instagram because of the adorable eco-friendly products they offer, and a couple weeks ago, Melissa (the owner) posted the ingredients she was gathering together to make some remineralizing toothpaste for her family.  As it turned out, I had every ingredient in my possession - ironically, from the time four years ago that I had purchased all the supplies to make remineralizing toothpaste... and then promptly forgot about them.  (I have issues with follow-through.)

So the other day, I pulled out everything I'd be using.

Coconut oil
Bentonite clay
Baking soda (OPTIONAL: see note)
Essential oils (I used peppermint and tea tree)
Stevia (liquid or powder)
Trace mineral drops (optional)

I mixed together about 1 part coconut oil, 1/2 part clay, and 1/2 part baking soda.  There is really very little science to this - you really can't mess it up.  Just going by consistency, and keeping in mind that the upcoming summer months would make the coconut oil extra runny, I opted for a bit more clay to keep things stiff.  (In the winter, when coconut oil tends to stay hard in the cooler temperatures, I'll use less clay.)  Note on baking soda: you may be worried about it being too abrasive on your enamel to brush with baking soda, and that's fine!  Just leave it out and increase the clay.

Once I got a consistency that looked good - soft, but able to hold its shape on a toothbrush - I added  a few drops of trace minerals, a few drops of each essential oil, and a few drops of stevia.  (If you're using powdered stevia, add small amounts at a time and taste as you go.)

Once it was mixed, I was back to navigating the germ dilemma.  Did it really accomplish anything for me to put it all in a communal jar that we'd dip our toothbrushes into?  Or, alternatively, did I really want to have to have eight separate jars of toothpaste floating around the bathroom, potentially getting mixed up with each other anyway?

I wanted something sanitary but simple to store.  Like a tube of toothpaste.  But what could I buy that would function like a tube of toothpaste?  Then I remembered I had one lone refillable squeeze pouch a friend had given me last year.  I hadn't found a use for it, so it had just been languishing in the kitchen drawer, all alone and purposeless.  Bingo bango.

It has worked well.  We did have one incident where the toothpaste kind of hardened in the spout for a little while, but once it resolved itself, we haven't had the same issue since.  I also had to duct tape the bottom closed since it did pop open once when the kids were trying to squeeze it.  So it's not a fail-proof system, but it does seem to be working well enough for me to consider it a win!

Honestly, it tastes like toothpaste.  Sweet and minty.  It does have a bit of saltiness from the baking soda, but I could easily add a bit more stevia to cover that up if I minded it, but I don't.

Unfortunately, Penelope and Finneas seem to hate the stronger taste of mint than they're used to, and we've had to overcome some tears and gagging during the transition.  So I promised Penelope that the next time I make this, we'll try lemon essential oil instead of mint.

Overall, I'm really, really happy with this toothpaste, and I'm really hoping it helps keep the kids' teeth healthy and strong.  It tastes good, and cleans SO well.  The only drawbacks I am noticing are that you need to rinse it out well when you're done brushing (it can kind of overstay its welcome), and unlike normal toothpaste residue that creates a white film in the sink, this stuff (being clay-based) can leave a brown, muddy-looking residue.  But since we wipe down the counters and sink daily, it hasn't been horrible to keep on top of.

There you have it!  Who knew you could concoct toothpaste at home?  If you'd like to give it a go yourself, here are the supplies I used:






Okay, okay. I didn't actually use the animal pouches in the bottom list, but HOW CUTE ARE THEY?!?!?!?! I just had to include them. Maybe at some point, I'll make each kid their own tube of toothpaste to keep track of, each with a different animal pouch. Adorable.

I will mention - these affiliate Amazon links are to the smallest packages of the products I already had on hand. You will likely be able to find many of them cheaper or in smaller quantities at your local health food store, or even Aldi!

how i store essential oils (and my favorite brands)!

I like to do things pretty naturally around here.  We brush our teeth with soap.  I take weird supplements.  (Right now, my favorite 'cocktail' to carry around the house all day is a potion of apple cider vinegar, ginger juice, magnesium powder, collagen and seltzer.)  Annnnnd... I love essential oils.

Yeah.  I know.  Me, and everyone else on the planet, amiright?

I'm not a super-oiler by any means.  I don't have microbrewed specialty concoctions of oils hanging from vials around my neck.  I don't have all of the really peripheral oils with names like Dragon's Blood and Loyalty.  I have a pretty straightforward, basic set of oils that I lean on pretty heavily for our straightforward, basic health and first aid needs.

I was going kind of crazy with how disheveled my oils organization was getting.  I was having to dig around in cupboards to find whatever oil I needed at the time, and if you know me at all, you know that when my stuff isn't organized, I feel all convoluted and discombobulated and claustrophobic, so I knew I needed to deal with it.  I wanted something that would allow me to see all my oils at a single glance, without needing specialty stickers for the caps, and something that didn't take up a bunch of room.  Enter: Nail Polish Organizer.

It's perfect.  It fits well on the shelf in my linen closet.  The shelves are deep enough to hold small (4 oz) bottles of carrier oils, as well as the weird, kind-of-superfluous refiller cups that come with every diffuser.  (Why diffuser companies don't think I can figure out how to just use a normal cup is beyond me.)  All the labels of the oils are visible.  There's quite a bit of room to expand my collection.

As for brands, I've tried all kinds - from Aura Cacia, which you can get basically anywhere, to NOW, which is sold at most health food stores, to Edens Garden, Plant Therapy, Young Living, and DoTerra.  And my favorite is...

Plant Therapy!

When I first started buying oils, I went with Edens Garden, and most of my collection is still comprised of their oils.  I liked the quality and felt comfortable using them, without having to sell my own blood in order to afford them.  (That was super important to me as a beginner!  I wanted to be able to try them out without having to bottom out my grocery budget for a couple of tiny bottles.)   They also have an explicitly child-safe line, so I didn't have to spend hours scouring the internet to figure out if I could use such-and-such oil on a four year old.  Plus, call me shallow, but the labels are pretty. 

In doing a bit more research, I have started moving more toward Plant Therapy.  They are very transparent in their GC/MS testing, and offer the test results for each oil and batch, so not only am I comfortable with their quality, but I completely respect their honesty and commitment to educating consumers about what they're getting.  They have aromatherapists on staff to educate their buyers about safe oil usage.  Plus, they're still really, really affordable, and they, too, have a KidSafe line.  (The only thing I don't like about them is their labels.  Again, call me shallow.)

And to be honest, while I haven't had the opportunity to compare multiple types of oils, peppermint is one we use a lot of in our house for headaches and belly aches.  I have used Aura Cacia, Edens Garden, a random brand I got from my chiropractor, Young Living, DoTerra, and Plant Therapy, and Plant Therapy is hands down the most potent and effective in our extensive personal experience.

I know there's a lot of info floating around out there, and I'm not here to tell you what to buy.  I really have no skin in the game when it comes to your own medicine cabinet!  I will say I don't believe that a single brand has the market cornered on purity or effectiveness.  I think there are quite a few great brands out there, and if they're safe AND affordable, that's where my money's going!

*Legal disclaimer: I don't get anything from Plant Therapy, or any other EO brand, and they don't even know I exist, so there's that.  In case you'd like to check them out, these are affiliate links through Amazon.

i wholegiveup.

Well, I threw in the towel.  Yesterday was Day 17 of the Whole30, and I up and quit.  I was irritable and starving, which some might say is par for the course, but I kind of got to a point where I was like, why am I doing this to myself?  And inflicting misery on everyone else around me as a result?

I wasn't craving things like Oreos or Mt. Dew, or really anything else that was bad for me.  (Although I did have one dream about some reallllllly cheesy macaroni.  And another dream about 100 or so foil-wrapped rotisserie chickens, all laid out before me like it was a feast and I was a king.)  I wanted brown rice.  I wanted milk.  I wanted butter.  And heaven help me, if a nursing mother just wants to eat some rice and drink some milk, I'm not going to stand in her way.

Am I a bit ashamed that I didn't have what it takes to finish out this round?  Yeah, to be honest, I am.  I wish I had finished strong.  I wish I had more discipline in the face of difficulty.  But I don't really regret giving up.  I spent two and a half weeks eating really healthy, and now I'm going to go back to eating my own particular brand of 'mostly healthy.'  And that's good enough for me.

So there's that.  Consider me WholeOuttie.

whole30 is making me want to wholeKill someone.

So, I know I told you yesterday that I'd talk more about church planting, but... nevermind.  Today, all I'm here to say is that I have a headache, I'm completely burned out on Whole30, and all I want is a giant Rice Krispy treat.  I'm sitting here all bitter and resentful at the fact that I'm eating a huge bowl of ground beef with tomato sauce on top and acting like it's a meal, and knowing the worst part of it all is that it's completely and totally self-inflicted.  There is no reason to keep going with this, other than to not have to actually give up and quit.

So on the one hand, I'm like, "It's good to practice discipline and learn to tell yourself what to do, even when you don't want to.  It's good to follow through on your commitments, even when you don't feel like it."  And on the other hand, I'm like, "Forget that noise.  This is so arbitrary it makes me sick."

I haven't been grocery shopping in three weeks, which hasn't helped matters.  I'm basically subsisting on SO MANY eggs, apples, raisins, cans of tuna, salad, salmon filets and frozen vegetables, eaten in a continuous loop.  I had Todd get me some pistachios on a recent dash into Schnucks, and I have never been so stupidly excited over pistachios in all my life.

I'm clearly not in a mood to be trifled with, so I think this is where I'll leave it today.  I'm going to go return to my big bowl of meat and pretend that it's a big bowl of butter.  Which is no less gross, but it's at least different and anti-Whole30, so it's got that going for it.

i'm eating us out of house and home.

As you already know, I'm doing a round of Whole30.  I've attempted this two times before now (though I've only completed it one of those times, whoops) so I'm not totally new to the game. 

This time around, I was ready: I had learned a few lessons from the times before, like adapting meals that I already eat, rather than trying to look up a bunch of Whole30-specific meals, and I was feeling pretty confident.  Plus, I'd been doing Trim Healthy Mama for a while before this, so I wasn't dealing with a sugar addiction anymore, and I was used to loading up on protein and veggies.  So other than skipping out on a few foods I typically eat, like cheese and 85% dark chocolate, how much different could it be, really?

The first week and a half were pretty smooth sailing.  Other than the brownies I ate the first two days (which I don't even feel bad about because guests made them and brought them over, and who am I to spurn their generosity?), I didn't deal much with food cravings or feelings of deprivation.  I honestly hadn't thought much about it at all.

Then there was yesterday.  Dastardly Day Ten.  Not only did the food cravings hit (I have never wanted a glass of milk and a plain slice of bread so badly in all my life), but my metabolism decided to rev wayyyyyyyy up.  Yesterday alone, I consumed four cans of tuna, four eggs, and half a pound of bacon, in addition to all the fruits and veggies.  Plus like four cups of coffee.  (I think my body is trying to cope with the loss of chocolate by consuming copious amounts of coffee.  I don't know if that's a move in the right direction or not.)

I don't know if I can stomach the idea of this much tuna and this many fried eggs for the next three weeks.  They're pretty cheap, easy-to-prepare sources of protein, but one can eat only so many eggs and so much fish before one is egg-and-fished out.  I'm nearing that point.

So maybe with the today's projected mid-fifties temperatures, I can get outside and grill some chicken to keep in the fridge.  Maybe grilled chicken won't scratch the itch that a really cheesy, greasy piece of pizza would scratch right now (OHHHHHHHHH MYYYYYYYYY WORRRRRRRRRRRRRD) (also, when does grilled chicken ever scratch that itch?), but at least it's not eggs. 

And at least I live in Missouri, where I have the option to grill because it's 55 degrees on January 11th.  (Reveling in Missouri's winter weather will never, ever get old, so if you're getting sick of hearing about it, you might want to go read some other yokel's blog.)

a little more on postpartum recovery, and my goals moving forward.

A while back, I posted on a few things that have helped me recover incredibly well from this birth.  Honestly, I'm not sure if I've ever had a more restful, nourishing, smooth recovery period after a baby, and I really think it's because of how intentional I was in preparing for the postpartum phase, as well as how committed I was on the back end to protecting and sticking with those decisions.  This post goes into detail about how cocooning, napping and good nutrition have made a world of difference for me.

There are a couple of other things that I feel have helped, too: Ab Rehab exercises during pregnancy, supplements, and not pushing my body to be 'normal' too soon.

Diastasis recti exercises during pregnancy. 

I started these exercises up again toward the end of my second trimester, after I stopped feeling so sick, and did them until I was too huge to do them comfortably.  (About six or eight weeks total.)  I'm going to go into more detail on this later this week, but it significantly narrowed the ab separation that was very large during pregnancy, and my current gap is much smaller than it was after Rocco (Baby #5) was born.  I have much less work ahead of me to get it to close again completely.

Supplements. 

I go into more detail in this post about the supplements I take, but I was very diligent through pregnancy and postpartum to supplement my diet with thyroid and hormone helpers.  Right now, I take a raw prenatal, vitamin D, kelp, selenium, magnesium, calcium, collagen and zinc.  I also take fermented cod liver oil - in capsules, because it's disgusting and I don't want to have to taste it!  These helped me reach equilibrium again after my health crashed in the postpartum season after Laurelai, and I try to stay on top of taking them now to help my body continue to run smoothly.

Not getting physical, physical.

I had told myself that I would wait at least twelve weeks before even starting to try to get my body back to 'normal' functioning.  I think this is so important!  I try to think about it like any other intense physical recovery - surgeries, injuries, and illness all require a bit of waiting and resting before getting too physical.  I wanted to honor what my body has done, and protect myself from injury.  So I really have spent the last three months resting and recovering, and am so glad I have.  But now here I am, fifteen weeks postpartum and ready to start moving again.

I'm getting ready to begin again with my diastasis recti exercises, and I'm going to start some other light exercise as well.  I'm also gearing up to tighten up the reins on my diet.  So get ready, because throughout the rest of the week, I'm hoping to fill you in on my current ab separation, and my plans for moving forward with that (I'll even post current photos), as well as what exercise I'll be taking up so that I can get moving again without pushing myself too hard, too quickly.  And I'll hopefully give you a rundown of the nutritional plan I'll be focusing on to help me start looking and feeling like myself again.

how we brush our teeth. in case you were wondering.

I'd been using normal toothpaste (usually one of the Crest Blindingly White kinds) for a long time and not thinking anything of it.  I have this one dead tooth in front that just drives me crazy, so I'd been throwing whatever whitening options I could at it in hopes that it would magically look less dead.  No such luck.  And in the meantime, I started developing this really sensitive, painful area on one of my teeth - what I suspected might be the onset of my very first cavity.  Over the course of six months to a year, the pain never got worse, but it never got better, either.

And then in trying to help some of Atticus' cavities heal a couple years ago, I had been making some diet and supplement changes in our household.  I was talking about it with a gal who cured her daughter's extensive tooth decay with the same protocol we were using, and she filled me in on their family's switch from toothpaste to bar soap, and how clean it left their teeth.  (She even blogged about it here, if you're wanting to know more.)  Unlike toothpaste, soap doesn't leave a film over the teeth, preventing remineralization.  Plus, depending on the soap used, the ingredients are way less sketchy, even if the kids swallow it.  (Which they often do.)

Bring it on, Cavities. The Van Voorsts don't mess around, and the Van Voorsts don't lose. (I mean, sometimes we lose, but we prefer not to, if you don't mind.) #tigerblood #winning #maybewinningiguess

A post shared by Paige Van Voorst (@theminivanvoorsts) on Mar 6, 2016 at 1:19pm PST

It all sounded a little woo-woo to me at first, but then again, I was entrenched in the world of trying to get my kid's teeth to grow back, so I was already in Woo-WooLand.  I figured we didn't have anything to lose by trying it out.

I ended up buying a couple bars of soap from LuSa Organics - an orange-cinnamon scented one, and a peppermint-tangerine one.  It took some getting used to on the kids' part, since it gets really sudsy and doesn't taste like SUPER STRAWBERRY ATTACK! (or whatever crazy flavor of toothpaste we were using at the time).  However, the adjustment was pretty minimal, and I absolutely won't go back!  The kids' teeth are so much cleaner and whiter now, and their breath is better.  (I haven't taken Atticus back to the dentist to get comparison X-rays taken, so I can't tell you objectively what's going on inside his teeth, but I can tell you that, for as doomsday as our dentist was about his teeth with the initial diagnosis, Atticus never has any tooth pain to speak of anymore.  None.)

Watching all of this unfold convinced me to make the switch myself.  So, yes, I too brush with bar soap now.  I also like to add a bit of baking soda to my toothbrush with the soap - it totally gets rid of any funky mouth tastes/smells (instead of just covering it up with mint flavor, like toothpaste does).  My teeth are so clean - virtually no plaque/tartar buildup anywhere in my mouth, even though I have a couple of orthodontic wires in there, and even though I haven't had my teeth professionally cleaned in probably three years.  And while it can't unkill my stupid front tooth, it does at least lift surface stains, so my teeth are actually slightly whiter now than before...  and my tooth pain disappeared.  A bar of soap costs a couple bucks and lasts the five kids and myself a good year and a half or more, which I consider a win, as well.

So there you have it.  You now know (some of) our unusual - but effective - hygiene habits.  Make me feel less alone - do you do anything weird in your bathroom?  (Hygiene-related, I mean!)

(kind of) trim healthy(ish) preggo.

This pregnancy has been kind of rough, in the sense that I was sick for a really long time.  The daily, near-constant morning sickness didn't let up for a full twenty weeks, and even after that, it was common for me to still be really sick every few days.  I started noticing that it was much, much worse after eating starchy or sugary foods, resulting in nausea, lightheadedness, and horrible fatigue, and it was getting to the point where tasting something sweet would make my stomach turn.  So I had initially determined to cut back a bit on those things to see if that would help.  (So, you know, stop eating fourteen bagels a day.)

But then I started thinking about my track record during postpartum months with each of my kids, and those days have been especially hard on me after my girls were born.  After Penelope, I had crippling postpartum depression, anxiety, and insomnia.  That's when I discovered my issues with gluten, and lost so much weight.  I was seriously skeletal.  After Laurelai, I had thyroid issues, hormone and adrenal imbalance, and crazy weight gain.  I think I also may have been experiencing some mild postpartum depression and anxiety.  (It's hard to know, since we were also in the throes of a recent move and our first church plant, so it all kind of coalesced into a lot of crying.)

Honestly, it may just be coincidence that my girls were much, much harder to recover from, mentally and physically, than my boys were, but there also may be some kind of hormonal explanation, too.  I really don't know.  But it got me thinking about how I can best set myself up for success, both now and later, with this newest girl baby. 

So... I decided to totally cut caffeine and pretty much all refined sugar.  Also, these major life decisions coincided with the Week of Rotavirus (which will be spoken about in sotto voce around here for the rest of our days), so it was rough going.  I've traded my beloved daily cup of coffee and raw cream for some kind of herbal junk that is at least warm and uncaffeinated, but is hardly a substitute.  I've traded sugar for... not sugar.  And I've started doing Trim Healthy Mama again.

I tried once before, but felt horrible on it, plus I hate that there's so much emphasis on weird specialty ingredients.  This time around, I've simply been making normal meals that fit the plan (no erithrytol or protein powders or weird thickeners made from idk), and I have felt awesome.  I'm not sure if I'm dealing with some extent of gestational diabetes or something (I haven't seen my midwife since December, and have yet to do the test), but keeping my blood sugar balanced has made a huge difference for me.  Plus, it doesn't hurt that I'm getting so much more protein and so many more veggies in than I was before.  It has only taken me six pregnancies to get to this point.

The real test came yesterday, when I found myself at Target after church, with dipping blood sugar, staring right into the eyeball of the In-Store Starbucks.  I wanted a coffee so badly.  I was all, 'maybe I could get it skim, so then it's only carbs, and stealthily eat some of the turkey and cheese I have in my purse to keep everything balanced...' (Yes, I had turkey and cheese in my purse, wanna fight about it?)  But I held my own, guys.  And I spent the rest of the day not with my head in the toilet, so I consider that a pretty major win!


A couple weeks down, only months and months and months left to go until this baby is a toddler and I'm hypothetically no longer pregnant or postpartum.  I am going to be ordering the hugest, creamiest, sugariest mocha ever made.  And I'll probably hate it because I'd have acclimated to a low-sugar diet by then, but I'll drink the whole thing ON PRINCIPLE.  Also, I will throw all my herbal tea in the garbage.  Because I'm nothing if not principled.

fighting a losing battle.

Well, it has happened yet again.  The stomach bug has hit our house.  And I, for one, am a little annoyed.

If you were to ask me any other year about the state of our family's health, I'd be all, "Oh, we're pretty healthy.  We usually get hit by a cold virus once or twice throughout the year, and a stomach bug every couple of years."  But this year, it seems like it's thing after thing after thing, and we can't even heal from one sickness before the next one comes calling.  In my tenure as a mother, I have never, ever seen a season of illness like this.  I have to admit, my pride has taken a hit this year.

So here we are again.  After missing two weeks of church because of a respiratory virus (that they are still recovering from, mind you), we had to miss church this week because Rocco had started throwing up Saturday morning.  By Sunday, the barfs had stopped, but he was running a relatively high fever.  Even now, he still has no appetite and has diarrhea.  And yesterday, the rest of the kids also fell in the battle.

We started the day at 7:00, with Finneas running into our room to yell that Atticus had thrown up in his bed.  I got his sheets changed and moved him to the guest bed with a bucket.  Shortly thereafter, Finneas started up.  Shortly thereafter, Penelope started complaining of a bellyache.

So I served chicken soup for breakfast, then we skipped school and watched Netflix all day.  The kids spent HOURS sleeping.  Laurelai woke up halfway through nap because it was her turn to start the whole process. 

As of last night, all of the kids have at least been hit, but I have no idea how long the bug will take to run its course.  Rocco is still sick four days in, so we may be hunkering down for quite a while as we wait for this to run its course.

Here's to crossing our fingers that Todd and I don't get it.  (And that Lauren and Austin don't either, as they spent the whole weekend here and were both barfed on by Rocco.)  UGH.  I am so ready for Spring, and a fresh start, and recovered immune systems!  Who's with me?!

slowly recovering from having All The Babies.

After Laurelai was born, my body went into this weird tailspin.  There was so much going on, and between having lots of little kids and a newborn, and the exhaustion of moving and church planting, and the fact that I'd had four babies very close together without really taking very good care of myself, I kind of physically broke down.

I was outrageously fatigued, but I couldn't sleep; I was addicted to sugar and simple carbs; the more I exercised, the more weight I gained; my hair was falling out and my skin and lips were dried out; I was constipated; I was always freezing during the day and burning up at night; I had no control over my very crazy emotions; my period was suddenly irregular and truly monstrous; etc etc etc.  I felt like crap.  There were some days I could barely get out of bed, and all day long, all I heard running through my head was, "I'm dying.  I'm dying.  I'm dying."  (That, or, because of my crazy weight fluctuations and emotional instability, I'd hear, "You're disgusting.  You're the worst.  Everyone thinks so.")  It was... a rough time.  I hate looking back on that season.

I took a full-page list of symptoms to the doctor's office, where I was basically told I was just experiencing normal postpartum hiccups and that I would be fine.  One doctor simply diagnosed me with anxiety and wrote me a prescription for Xanax.  So I had to kind of research things on my own to try to pinpoint what was going on, and do what I could by myself to help myself recover.  From all the reading I eventually accomplished, I'm quite confident it was a mixture of thyroid and adrenal dysfunction, and hormone imbalance.  They all kind of go hand-in-hand, and when one jumps off a cliff, its other two buddies jump with it.  Peer pressure at its finest.

So, anyway.  I've been intentionally taking care of myself better over the last two years.  I've been trying to  correct some of the issues I was having, and to proactively build up my body to be able to handle the stress of future church plants (including, and perhaps limited to, this one) and future pregnancies.  Considering that postnatal/maternal depletion is a majorly real (and frequently unaddressed) issue for many women, I thought I'd share what I've been using to help me heal in case it can help anyone else.

Diet:I started my healing journey off by doing a Whole30.  That month marked the first time I'd started feeling like there was a light at the end of the tunnel.  Since then, I've been very, very strict about avoiding gluten; I haven't ingested gluten in nearly two years.  This is super important if you're dealing with thyroid issues.  I also make sure to drink at least a half a gallon of water a day.

Supplements:I've never really been a supplement kind of girl; I'd believed that a healthy, well-rounded diet can provide whatever you need.  I still believe that, but I've also come to realize that our food and water sources have been so janked up for so long, that much of what our food should contain isn't really there in adequate quantities, or our food and water contain 'extras' that deplete our bodies of needed nutrients.  So I've started slowly, gradually, taking a few supplements, and these have made a world of difference.  Here is what I've been taking:

- Magnesium citrate (shown above as Natural Tranquility): magnesium deficiency can show up as constipation, morning sickness in preggos, restless legs, mood swings and increased cortisol, fatigue, body pain, and recurring headaches.  68% of Americans are magnesium deficient.

- Selenium: necessary for those with hypothyroid symptoms, including autoimmune issues

-Copper and zinc: work synergistically to help with hormone balance

-Prenatal multi: because, well, I'm always prenatal or breastfeeding

-Calcium: helps with magnesium absorption

-Vitamin D (Vitamin D from sun exposure is more bioavailable than a supplement, so I only supplement when necessary and get some sunlight whenever I can.)

-Kelp (Iodine): supports thyroid health in those that don't have Hashimoto's

Exercise:I started healing my diastasis recti using Ab Rehab before I did any other exercise.  (More to come on this topic next week.) I made sure I was seeing improvement in core strength before adding in some running.  I also made sure my adrenals seemed to be healing from the other things I was doing, since running and other cardio activity can cause weight gain in people with adrenal fatigue or failure.  So I started slow with the running using the Couch to 5k app and carefully watched how I felt during or after a run, and whether or not it was making me gain weight.  I currently run for about half an hour, four days a week.  I'd like to start adding in a couple days of yoga as well.

Body care:

I've been focusing on decreasing my skin exposure to synthetic chemicals, which can contain phthalates and parabens and other hormone disruptors.  These can wreak havoc on your hormones and adrenals.  I've started using the oil cleansing method on my face instead of soap, and using rose hip seed oil as a nighttime facial moisturizer.  Additionally, before each shower I've been dry brushing to help flush my lymph system (and ugh, it feels amazing, so it also seems self-indulgent).  And after each shower, I apply magnesium oil (magnesium is best absorbed transdermally), a really healing all-natural body lotion, and diluted nutmeg oil over my kidneys for adrenal support.

I can honestly tell you I feel amazing.  I finally wake up feeling at home in my skin.  I have seen really positive results over the last two years of making gradual changes, and all of the symptoms I mentioned above have improved or have been totally eliminated.  I feel like I'm getting to a point of health again, and I'm not dreading the drain of the next pregnancy, whenever that comes.  Slowly, but surely, I'm recognizing who I am - mentally and physically - and I'm so glad.  I still have a ways to go in my healing journey, and some things I'd still like to add to my regular routine, like taking a fermented cod liver oil and butter oil supplement, and doing regular oil pulling, since I've developed my first-ever cavities since Rocco was born, and my teeth are very loose in my gums.  But I'm happy with the progress I've made, and I'm looking forward to continued healing.

I'd love to answer any questions you might have, or chat with you sometime if you're identifying with any of the stuff I was experiencing!