The Home Pharmacy. Sickness in the house.

Last week Andy was sick as a dog. He planned this all along to test out my essential oils I think!  He had it all.  Cough, runny nose, sneezing, headache, congestion, the whole smorgasbord.

I was well past trying to prevent illness in the house and instead had to go to trying to prevent the spread of it and getting Andy better.  So I thought this is a good time to post some absolute basics that really form part of The Home Pharmacy.

One of the first things I always do is get chicken soup going.  I keep everything on hand to be able to do this anytime.  Chicken in the freezer, many items are dry goods from the pantry, there are always veggies in the crisper....  so I can put it on straight away.   You can find my recipe here Cure all chicken soup.  Another option is to keep it in the freezer already made up.

I am also including Mimi's Chicken soup as we all have our slight variations and honestly if you become good with this soup it is so beneficial so here is hers... Luscious Warming Chicken Soup.

Mimi wrote another post full of things to do when there is sickness in the house.  She has some money saving tips on such things as electrolytes.  These skills are something we should all have yet these days a lot of people would be in trouble if the pharmacy was closed.  Skills like these are so important!  Feel Better Recipes.
I think that our own home pharmacy could consist of all of these things and it includes skills, recipes and the ingredients needed.

I also realised a few things. My old fashioned super soft sick day handkerchiefs are suddenly the best thing ever.  I make these and stash them away in our medical cupboard.  I keep giant stacks of them in zip lock bags.  They are big squares of super soft worn and washed ready flannelette.  Most I just make them  from old sheets and they are meant to go into the bin after use when someone is ill. Because no one in the family ever wants to throw them out I also hem some and do wash those but I save these for less seriously sick times.  Once again I was glad of these.   You don't believe the difference until you try them when your nose is sore.  So many times I have been pleased I have a big supply.  This was when I was making a big lot recently...

After making my essential oil roller balls my next project was to get to use and understand my diffuser. Chloe gave me my first diffuser as a gift.   Things lined up so that now I have my On Guard blend essential oil, my diffuser and sick husband so this got me going.   I cannot believe how much I love my diffuser!

This is funny as just like with the roller balls suddenly I was thinking how did I mange before?  What took me so long?  The house smelled really good and Andy liked it.  I told him this was my germ killing blend.  I kept this going and I used my roller ball on my feet at night and generally did things to try and not get sick myself.
I realised I really want a diffuser for the bedroom as well as the living area and ordered one.  So basically I went from never using a diffuser to wondering how I would ever do without one.
Andy loves the doTERRA Easy Air blend and says it helps.   I have mainly had On Guard going and Easy Air for Andy when sleeping.   I learned to close the doors to rooms we are not using so that the vaporised oils are in the room we are in.  This is an issue with open plan areas but I am amazed how quite a large space is still ok.  But a one room space like the bedroom where I can shut the door is even better as the room really fills with a lovely waft of essential oils.  It is beautiful.

For years I have used Miracle Spray and this is my cleaner that I have used to kill bugs, wipe door handles, surfaces etc. which you do 10x more when someone isn't well.  I love this recipe and it smells amazing. Your house smells clean.  Many of you will know this recipe already.  Miracle Cleaner. 

I made ready to use cleaning wipes with this also.  And my next stack of sick day hankies was in this picture too! 

I always have Vitamin C, Echinacea, Olive Leaf Extract and Garlic.  I start taking these as soon as anyone isn't well or something nasty is going around.

In the last few days I had quite a few things I had ordered online arrive and this was timely.   I have been reading about Thieves Cleaners which are a Young Living product.  Different essential oils brands have their own version of the traditional famous Thieves Blend.  doTERRA have On Guard. Hopewell Oils have Plague Defence.   Rocky Mountain Oils have Immune defence.  These are all great blends but you can also make them yourself.  I have been experimenting with this and loving them.  That is a post coming up.

The week was a general reminder to have the place well stocked, to have basics on hand and it got me  to have a crash course on my diffuser.  Now I love i so much!  Your diffuser will come with instructions so that part is easy!

What are your tried and tested treatments in your household?
Do you have things you would like to improve in this area?
For us it is the last day of summer!!!  Tomorrow is Autumn!  This is so exciting to me.   It also means we are getting ready for flu season.
For the US ladies I want to add that I know how the flu season has been there.  Australia had it so terribly and it caught a lot of people by surprise as we had gone out of winer into spring and people were still getting it.  It seemed to extend late and I thought this was unusual.  So beware about that.

I feel I am learning learning and getting somewhere.  Andy is feeling much better. I got out of it with the sniffles.  I have used On Guard and Oregano Oil for myself a lot.

I hope your week is going well!  xxx