Natural LivingOn My Nightstand January 26, 2017 In last week’s New Year’s post, I talked about how we’re trying to simplify our lives and free ourselves up to live with abundance in the areas that really matter. Part of that for us is changing some of how we live in our home. Y’all know I love all things home. We love to renovate, I love to design spaces, and I have a blast thrifting and looking for things for our house. But I do have a tendency to focus too much on the pretty stuff that I love and not enough on the function for our family. This past year, we realized how we were just drowning in stuff and our home felt like it was lacking function and meaning in certain areas. We’re on a mission to change that going forward! I’ve been going through areas of our house making tiny little changes to start that really amp up the function and meaning of what’s around us. Being sick for those two weeks really showed me how unfuncitonal my nightstand was in a new way. When I’m well and feeling good, it isn’t as big of a deal to not have what you need handy, though it sure does make life easier! But being sick, I needed it close by and it made me realize, why am I not always living this way? I thought through it and came up with three things I really wanted to focus on here (and really the rest of our spaces as well!). I started by taking everything I had on my nightstand off, so I had a clean space to work with. I wanted to priotize function first. So, I sat down and made a list of what had to be right here for me to have easy access to each evening, during the night, and first thing in the morning. For me, the first necessity that has to be here are my oils. I depend on them so much to help relieve issues and sleep each night, but especially when I’m struggling with different things. I sat out a little bowl to corral the oils that I need handy for bed and morning. Here are my necessities that usually fill up this little oil station: I love diffusing Peace & Calming and Peppermint throughout the night. Nothing knocks me out like Peace & Calming and the peppermint clears my pregnant-stuffiness right up and the easier breathing helps me sleep. I roll deep relief on my back, neck and shoulders each night to relieve muscle tightness . When I’m really stuffy or struggling with a stronger cold, I’ll rub R.C. on my chest and diffuse it. It eases all of that and helps me sleep deeply. I also love keeping lavender and cedarwood handy. They’re known to help with sleep, so I alternate diffusing them with my other favorite diffuser combos and each night, I rub a mixture of them with Peace & Calming and coconut oil on my feet. And last, but not least is my favorite lavendar lip balm. I don’t know why, but I can’t stand to go to bed with dry lips! Plus, the lavendar is a sleep booster (I keep the grapefruit lip balm in my purse because that scent feels refreshing – perfect for daytime). You can read about our Natural Living journey here and find all Natural Living related posts here. The other top functional necessity for my nightstand was a diffuser. In this house, sleeping with a diffuser nearby is a must. I can tell such a difference when I don’t have it on in how well I sleep. I keep a coaster handy for my water and I love having a pretty tray handy to corral my jewelry at the end of the day. Unfortunately, my jewelry doesn’t always make it back to the jewelry station in my closet each night, so this is a perfect spot to keep it organized in the meantime. I want more and more meaning infused into every corner of our home. Family pictures are a must for that and I’ve been adding them around in different areas. Here, my favorite wedding photo of us and a picture of me carrying one of my babies won out. I love looking over at them each morning. And this little cross rock is so special to me. Back when we were going through our miscarriage, I was still teaching and a few students I was very close to from church knew about it. One day, one of them came in with this and a card from her mom. Her mom had been through the same thing and sent me this to always remember that God is in control and has such a beautiful plan for our lives and our families. He never leaves us or forsakes us. I wanted it out somewhere that I could see each day to remember that time. It was the most trying time of our lives so far, but it was also the most defining and faith affirming. Seeing this each day reminds me of how faithful God has been to us and assures me that He will be in the future, even if it looks differently than we might expect. His promises are good and we can trust them. After a space is functional and has heartfelt meaning for us, my goal is to layer on some pretty in the space that’s left. That’s such a change for me because I usually think pretty first and compromise everything else, but I’m loving this new direction I’m taking with our spaces! The pretty things above were here before, but edited them down and kept my favorites and what works with the rest. A stack of old books, a pretty potted plant, and one of my favorite vintage photos that reminds us of our Honeymoon makes this spot feel like me. Now this spot is just perfect. 100% functional for my needs, heartwarming, and just pretty enough to delight this design lover! I’ll be sharing more about how I’m editing the pretty in our home and adding function in different areas over the coming months! Nesting for baby 🙂 *** For the rest of this month, Young Living is giving away a bottle of Peace & Calming with every Premium Starter Kit (choose the Dew Drop diffuser for promo). As you read above, this is a FAVORITE in this house and I’m so thrilled new sign-ups are getting to try it out with their kit now! I’ll be offering a $20 OFF promo as well (sent via Paypal rebate after purchase) to all new sign-ups! So, for the next five days (until end of month at midnight), anyone who signs up will not only be joining our awesome team and community, but will also get this free amazing bonus oil and $20 off your kit! Wahoo! I’ll be doing a video next Monday all about the Premium Starter Kit and how to use each oil, but in the meantime, for our story and more info about the kit and how I use the oils, click the button below!
Gayle says January 26, 2017 at 12:53 pm I’m ordering a PSK for my daughter, Lindsay. Thanks for letting me know about this promotion. Reply
Austin says January 26, 2017 at 4:24 pm LOVE this post! As Adam and I are getting closer to our wedding (79 days!), I’m moving my belongings to his/our place little by little and realizing just how MUCH I have. I’m trying to pare down to just what I absolutely love, otherwise we will be overwhelmed by knick knacks. But boy is it hard! This is encouraging to me to keep going. Reply
Corinna - ADesignerAtHome says February 2, 2017 at 11:22 am I love that you share your oil use journey. It’s something I’ve been meaning to look deeper into for years and it’s feeling like 2017 will be the year I finally focus on what’s important! Reply
Lindsay says February 27, 2017 at 9:26 am Thanks Katie! It’s the Aria diffuser from Young Living 🙂 Reply