Packing The Little House!

Wow! We are starting to pack the Little House. (Travel Trailer) We had to wait until Mike replaced the lock on the front door to start putting items in the little house. Whenn we first purchased it, we could not lock it, because the keys were lost. We have slowly been  dividing our possesions into catagories: Trash, Goodwill, Things To Sell, and Keeper Items. The Keeper Items are what we are loading into the Little House. We are measuring closets and storage places so we know what size plactic storage boxes to buy. It has been so much fun organizing the Little House with only the bare essentials. Talk about a simple life! :)

The picture above shows our 4 children, from youngest to oldest (Alexis, Melissa, Matthew, Christina). By now all 4 children and all 8 grandchildren have visited our little house and are excited by our potential future! Just the other day, we were all packed in the Travel Trailer at the same time--crazy fun!!

2 Corinthians 1:12 "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward."

Moving Down The Simple Path,

Robin

Haircut, and trying to curl...

Me, Right after getting my hair cut--It's less fluffy now!!

Okay, so I got my hair cut--finally! It's almost chin length and layered.I LOVE IT!!

Great picture, huh? Well, I've never been able to curl my hair, but now that's it's been thinned out, it works. I hate standing there waiting, though. I was looking at Love Notes By Lauryn (Will Post Link Laterr!) and saw something about headband curling. Well, I figured, what the heck, and decided to try it. One prob-limo...I CAN'T FIND MY STRETCHY HEADBANDS! Ugh! Dire emergency here! Guess what I used...a sarong!! I just wrapped it around, and knotted it in the front (Because it's not exactly comfortable to sleep on a knot!!) and then wrapped the extra ends back around my head and stuffed them under. Seems to be working. Not sure if it will work, because I have short hair, but it might....it's worth trying, and I love doing stuff like this!!!

Update:

Okay, so the whole headband thing didn't work. My hair is too short, so it kept falling out. Well, I saw something else about doing pretty much the same thing with socks, but wrapping up the individual sections and then knotting the sock. Um, well, I only did a couple, because I was going to sleep in them, which you aren't supposed to do, (PLUS, it's not comfy!!)  and I just wanted to see what it looked like. One worked, but the rest just made my hair stick out in weird positions. Sooo, #1 rule: if you do this, DON'T SLEEP IN IT!! Wahhh :( They aren't going away, either.

As promised, the link to the best site ever....Love Notes By Lauryn!! She is so awsome!! (And pretty too :)  ) Her site is the greatest everrrr!! You've gotta check her out!!!

~Alexis

Time turns flames to embers.....♦♦♦

Innocent--Taylor Swift
I guess you really did it this time
Left yourself in your warpath
Lost your balance on a tightrope
Lost your mind tryin' to get it back

Wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days?
Always a bigger bed to crawl into
Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything
And everybody believed in you?

It's alright, just wait and see
Your string of lights is still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not where you've been.
You're still an innocent,
You're still an innocent.

Did some things you can't speak of
But at night you live it all again
You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now
If only you would seen what you know now then

Wasn't it easier in your firefly-catchin' days?
When everything out of reach, someone bigger brought down to you
Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep
Before the monsters caught up to you?

It's alright, just wait and see
Your string of lights is still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not where you've been
You're still an innocent
It's okay, life is a tough crowd
32, and still growin' up now
Who you are is not what you did.
You're still an innocent.

Time turns flames to embers
You'll have new Septembers
Every one of us has messed up too
Lives change like the weather
I hope you remember
Today is never too late to be brand new

It's alright, just wait and see
Your string of lights is still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not where you've been
You're still an innocent.
It's okay, life is a tough crowd
32, and still growin' up now
Who you are is not what you did
You're still an innocent.
You're still an innocent.

Lost your balance on a tightrope.
It's never too late to get it back.

     ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

I love this song. especially the part

"Time turns flames to embers
You'll have new Septembers
Every one of us has messed up too
Lives change like the weather
I hope you remember
Today is never too late to be brand new"

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

i don't really know why i'm posting that, but there's not a whole lot to blog about, so...hmm let me think of something else to write...My sister Christina has been spending a few days with us. what else....I'm hungry...hehe, I'm going to quit. It's just going downhill from there. Oh, I baked cupcakes last night with the help of Christina. I meant to take a picture of them, but I forgot. We tried to make a frosting, but...*Ahem* It didn't exactly  work out...let's just say it was more of a sauce, and leave it at that. It tasted good though :) The whole thing pretty much summed up to a mini-catastrophe. But, hey, the cupcakes were good!

~Alexis

Welcome, Spring!!

                                           :) Welcome new followers, Teresa Wood of
                             A Life Made Simple, and IrishDon--my brother! Glad to have you with us!!

Okay, so I have been meaning to post since March 21st, and welcome Spring. Here in South Georgia, we have been having some beautiful weather! All the azaleas have bloomed, and I wake up to all of the little bird songs. Boy, are they happy! Sometimes I think about how nice it would be to live a simple life!! My Daughter Melissa and Grandson Dylan stayed with us almost a week while they were having their bathroom remodeled. Of course, he's Grandma's snuggle bunny first thing in the morning! One particular morning he woke up early, climbed up in my lap, and asked to sing the birdy song! I thought it was just too early to be singing, but.....!

Here's the song:

Way up in the sky
the little birdies fly
way down in the nest,
the little birdies rest.

With a wing on the left
And a wing on the right
The little birds sleep
All thru the night

SHHH!! (quiet)
They’re sleeping

(really loud)
The bright sun comes up,
the dew falls away,
"Good morning, good morning!"
the little birdies say.

Since Dylan has been born, we have been waking up the birds together, and he loves this song!

In the last 3 weeks, besides some bright spots with the family, I have been struggling with my health. No surprises there!!! Doctors Appointments, Lab Work, Ultrasound, Chest X-ray, and more Doctors Appointments! My primary care checked me out again, and sent me to 2 specialists, a Gastroenternologist, and an Endocrinologist. The Gastro was a complete jerk, and I'm just not going to talk about it!! The Endocrinologist was a wonderful Doctor, and I had a very thorough exam.  He's putting me on a medicine for Diabetes in the form of a once a week shot. (Not insulin) I pray this goes well! During the thorough exam, all of my reflexes were checked. Usually they only do the knees. Unfortunately, we found out that both of my ankles had no reflexes. Pretty hard to deal with!! I've known for some time that due to Diabetic Neuropathy,  my feet were nearly lifeless. They feel nothing! So now I have the proof from the Doctor! No matter how I have tried to prepare myself for this news, it is unreal! First the eyes, now the feet! Sarcoidosis and Diabetes are the enemy!

Moving Down The Simple Path,
Robin

Spring has SPRUNG! (and...PICTURES!

Okay, so in reality, spring has long since sprung, but we'll just say it's just started, since I've been slacking off in the realm of posting.

My Nephew, Dylan. (I should say "one" of my Nephews. I have 4. He's the youngest.)

My friend, Tori. (Ansley1905)

Charlieee!

I've been looking up tutorials on sewing things, such as skirts, pants, pillows, etc. I found some really great sites while searching, so I figured I'd list them :)

***

Dana, from danamadeit.com::

(Everything I am writing I have found out from reading her posts, since I cannot seem to find an About Me) Dana has 3 Children, 2 Girls, 1 Boy. She makes some of their clothing, and has tutorials on alot of the things she makes. You can buy patterns from her as well. She has a wonderful and helpful site. You should check it out :)

Sew, Mama, Sew!

I have to admit, I haven't looked at this site a whole lot, but they have great articles about 7 things you need to know about sewing, great tips about zippers,  how to make buttonholes, how to pick out the right sewing machine, etc.

How About Orange

This site is AWESOME! They have all SORTS of tutorials/ideas/etc! I can't get enough of this! I latched myself onto the tutorial on making the felt coasters, and told myself "You HAVE to make these TONIGHT." I drug out the old felt from last Christmas that had gotten buried in my closet because it was blue (Not Christmasy, unless you plan of using Blue & Silver, like we ended up doing--AFTER I made them!!), printed out the pattern, and sat down to work. I read through the instructions before crashing. "X-acto knife or Rotary Cutter"--and I didn't have either one. "Daaaad, do you have an Exact...um, egg-zac-toe knife or a rotary bladey thingy?" (I'm really good at catching the details when i'm distressed--NOT!!) "No, I sure don't. I might have an old one, but you'd need a sharp one. You can probably get one from Hobby Lobby. We'll try to pick you up one next time we're there." "Yeah, but I need it TONIGHT!! :( :( :(" I sadly walk to the kitchen, staring at my felt. There had to be a way to do it tonight! (I'm very impatient, as I'm sure you've noticed. It's in my genes!!!!!)"Chris-teeeeen-aaaaa," I wailed, slowly walking over to the couch, where she sat reading. "I'm trying to make this coaster thing, but it needs an eggs-ack-tow knife, or a rotary blade, and I don't have one, and I need one." *Buries Face In Couch, Dramactically* "Hold on, lemme see, here..." *walks over to computer* "Well, you could just cut it there and there with sissors, and fold it over to cut it there, and then you wouldn't need it." WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?! She's a genius. Or..either I just didn't think of that because I was in the midst of peril. Either one.

Well, I made them, and it worked out, without a knife. Although I still can't say X-acto. At least I can spell it, right?!

~Alexis

Super Mario 64

Mushrooms are awesome. Just sayin'

(I wrote this about 2 days ago, and since then have found my games. They were under a magazine on my bed--and I know I looked under it. Go figure!

Okay, so just about everyone that knows me (Although if you're reading this you probably don't know me, because Melissa (my sissy) doesn't read this, and probably only followed us because mom threatened her) knows that I'm HORRIBLE at losing things. Well, About half a year ago, maybe a whole year, I lost two of my DS games about the same time. Harvest Moon DS, and Super Mario 64 DS. Today, I was going through some of my boxes in my closet, when suddenly I saw something in the bottom of the book box--my game case!! Yep, both missing games were in there, which means I lost them both at the same time. I guess I just didn't realize I'd lost the other one until later. Whenever I lose something, I freak out. "Where IS it?!" "Where the heck did I PUT it?!" "It's GOT to be right here!!" "But I just set it down, and now it's disappeared.." And, once I'm reunited with it again I....freak out. Notice a theme here? So, today, when I found the games, I half-screeched half-screamed: "YES! I FOUND IT! HOW DID I LOSE IT? HOW DID IT GET IN THERE? I CAN'T BELIEVE I FOUND IT!" Etc, etc. And then, in the midst of freaking out, I....lose it again. which is exactly  what happened, and now I don't know where I put them. *Sigh* This happens All. The. Time! I couldn't wait until we got home to play them, and now they're missing again. This just recently happened with my Zune. And before that, with my DS.

And so on, and so forth...




~Alexis 

A Dream Come True!!

No kidding! I have been dreaming of owning a Travel Trailer (RV) for the past 6 years now! Hubby found "Our Little House" sitting on a lot for sale not too far from where we live. It is a 2006 Gulfstream Cavalier, very clean and in great shape. And at the asking price, it was a steal! We had it delivered to our driveway a week ago. We brought it here to check it out, load it up, and just basically "play with it"! After a month or two, we are taking it to our little lot in the country. At least for now, we will be camping out in it on the weekends. As with everything else, we are taking it one step at a time--the future has yet to be decided. I believe that traveling is looking hopeful!! :)  The picture above is the floorplan to our Travel Trailer. In one of her last posts, my daughter Alexis tried to explain the layout, so I thought I would clear things up by showing the picture. In that same post of hers (We Bought a Gulfstream!! And, Also, a new plan),  There is also a picture of the exterior of the Travel Trailer, so I didn't repost one. My Grandson Dylan spent the weekend with us, and loves "Gramma's Li'l' House!"!

 2 Corinthians 5:7

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."

We have been looking at many options and alot of doors have been closing. The way in which  our little house became  available and was so easy to make happen  assures us that this is "A God thing"!! Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!! :)

Now I must go and read some more RV Blogs!!

Moving Down The Simple Path,

Robin

Brownieees!

The brownies I made today :) They have snowflake sprinkles on them.

Up close..!

 Kind of loo

ks like it has steam around it, right? Well, I mean, they did, but you couldn't see it with the camera. I used Dream effect for it, and whenever you take a picture of food it looks like it's steamy.

Isn't the plate cute?!

My brownies♥

The ingredients...and no, I did not use bottled water, I just used that for the picture instead of a bowl of water ;)

I made the fudgy kind. The cake-like kind tastes just like chocolate cake. Well, duh, that's why it's called that, lol!

 Annd of course, you need a glass of milk♥ Well, it's not a glass, and you can't really tell what's inside, but whatever. I wanted to use my....

Snoopy and Woodstock cup! Ever since I was little, I have LOVED Woodstock. I used to have this little Woodstock lip balm that I carried everywhere :D

~Alexis

We Bought a Gulfstream!! (And, also, a new plan)

                                                       (This was written last night!!)

Ignore me standing behind the door...hehe, Tori took it too fast :)

(I would be writing this next to the first picture, but it won't let me!!) No, not a Gulfstream Airplane, a travel trailer! Tomorrow (Monday) will be a week since we bought it! It's so cool :)

If you're wondering why Dyl is in these two pics, it's because he thought we were taking a picture of him. ("we" meaning Tori & I. She's the one that took most of the pictures.)

Welcome Home! :)

Ignore my legs, please. I was holding the door. There is a way to hook the door to the side of the trailer so it doesn't swing back & forth, but I didn't know how to do it at the time. So, I was designated Dylan watcher and door holder, while Tori got the fun job--photographer! It was kind of cool though, because I jumped out and scared her later ;)

 

This is the "master bedroom" if you can call it that. It has like a queen bed in it, I think, so there's not a whole lot of room to walk beside it, but there's still enough room for a little intable sort of thing on the left side, (not pictured) and a closet that you can see on the right. I hid in there one time, so it goes pretty far back. You can't really tell, because of the shadow it casts. We don't have it plugged into electricity yet, so it's not the best enviorment for picture-taking.

Almost the same picture, but you can see the window on the right.

Last picture! I promise I'll get better pics soon, maybe tomorrow. This is the couch. In the left bottom corner, you can see the kitchen counter/sink. Above the couch is a window.the brown you see on the right is the door to the bedroom. On the right side, theres the door, then the dinitte/dinette/dinnette (I have absolutly no idea how you spell it), with a window above the dinitte/dinette/dinnette thing. then theres the fridge. You know how most RV's have little fridgies? Well, this one has a normal sized one. I mean, normal sized because it's the normal width, but i'm still taller than it.  Okay, then there's a wall a little bit longer than the fridge, with a curtain attached to it. This you can pull across if you, like, need privacy to change or something. Behind this wall/curtain, is a bunk bed. Now, seeing as I'm a very tall 12-year-old, and taller than most of my family at 5' 5" and still growing, and I can barely sit up straight on the bottom bunk, and can't even squat on the top one, I'm pretty sure i'll be sleeping on bottom. Especially since there's a window on the bottom bunk. Okay, this is a little hard to explain...the bunks are like half open. there's a wall that covers the other half. Well, not just a wall, a room. This is the bathroom. It's the very back of the trailer. Now, let me explain the left side.( and while I'm explaining this, I'm leaving out the bedroom, since it covers the whole front, and it's seperate. You've seen the couch, and the edge of the counter. Right where the couch ends, the 'kitchen" starts. The sink comes first. It has two sinks. Well, not two faucets, but two of the buckets things. ARRGH! I'm horrible at explaining!!  Then, there's the counter, and then the stove. It has 3 burners in a triangle-y shape, and it's gas I think. Directly above the stove is the microwave.  Above and below the rest of the "kitchen" is just drawers and cabinets. Next to the stove is a closet, much bigger than the one in the 'Rents Room, and it's mine ♪♥ Yaay!! ♪♥  Anyway, next to the closet is the sink for the bathroom, since theres no room for it in there. Now, you're back at the bathroom. If you understood any of that, you deserve a medal or 1,000 bucks or something.

I know I said I'd post every day, but sometimes there's just nothing to blog about!! And I don't wish to have a boring blog, but I'm not very good a self disiplining myself to find something to blog about, so I don't think I'm well-suited for blogging every day. I will try to post alot though. 'Cause blogging is Rainbow~! ♥ (If you need translation, read my last post!) I also thought that if I found a cool site of something, I could have a little section at the end of my posts for the links to sites I find interesting.

Well, ta-da! (Or is it ta-ta?)

I do have a secret, but for now my fingers are sealed!!

~Alexis

Confessions of a Former Packrat

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

WOW! I am actually starting to see a difference! In fact in the last week, while throwing out some things, I can hear my inner voice say "Why on earth were you keeping that?!"!I have come across lots of things with missing parts, miss-matched socks, and shoes without mates. Easy trash! Not to mention the stacks of papers I was saving--for some reason!! Yay! One closet empty!! And still working on the master bedroom. But it is coming together and I  can see light at the end of the tunnel! This feels sooooooooooooo good!!

We are baby-sitting my Grandson Dylan this weekend so that his parents can have some time off. He is such a joy to be around, but unfortunately, I am not feeling very well at all. I am very weak and in a lot of pain! My new Doctor has not given me anything adequate enough to fight the pain. I am really hoping for a visit to the Cleveland Clinic. They have specialists who deal with Sarcoidosis that I need to see.

Looking forward to living a simple life with just the bare essentials!!

Moving Down the Simple Path,

Robin

Shamrocks and butterflies♥

 About the blog title. I have no idea why I decided to call it that, it just kind of popped in my head. And I decided to go with it, as you can see :) Something kind of funny, though: Since I'd decided to call this blog "Shamrocks and butterflies", I want to look on Google images to see if they might have a picture of shamrocks and butterflies...although I figured it would be hard to find. Anyway, I typed it in kind of fast, and ended up typing "shamrocks and buttflies"!!! I laughed so hard, mom thought something was wrong. Hehe. This picture was kind of random, and just popped into my head also. I love these flowers :) So pretty. Even if in a warped way.

Shamrock day is almost here! That's what I call Saint Patrick's Day. Anyway, I thought, what's better than shamrocks? Well, you're right! RAINBOW SHAMROCKS!!!

You know I had to put a butterfly in here somewhere. And it's rainbow too♥

Shamrock Peace Sign=awesomeness in an icon!

 Whenever it's storming, I always think it's a party in heaven--the rain is confetti, the lightning is strobe lights (or a disco ball, perhaps?), and the thunder is music~! :D Maybe I'm just weird....?

I got a new game--Rune Factory 3!!  It's a Harvest Moon game. It's SO awesome. One of the characters, Daria, LOVES rainbows (like me), and whenever she's like happy or something, she shouts rainbow. I might do that from now on :D The character I play is a guy, which I don't like, but it's like that with most Harvest Moon games.

I know I haven't really been sticking with my program. Not only have I not been doing the whole book thing, I haven't been posting everyday, which I  really want to do. I'm going to call off book month, mostly because it's boring. Buuut,I might do other stuff like it. I just don't like themed posts!! :S I like being kind of spontaneous. I don't plan any of my blogs, and I like it that way. I seem to write better. That's like with some of my books i'm writing--if I get stuck, it helps me to just freely write whatever I want.. which is why I love this blog and my journal so much. Welp, rainbows to you all :)

(RAINBOW!!)

~Alexis

Book Month!!

Alright, first off, I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to TORI, A.K.A VMF!! Her birthday is tomorrow :) Her favorite color is yellow, so that's why the letters are :)

I know we're already a WEEK into March, but I'm a little late :) I had this awesome idea (And if you must know, it was a week ago, but I've been lazy so I'm just ow getting around to it.) that I would post every day, and it will have one story from Aesop's Fables, and then one review of another book. Oh, and regular stuff of course :) Sooo, let's start!! :D (I am going in order of how the appear in the book, i.e. I am not picking specific stories.)

Well, there's really not a WHOLE lot to report, actually. Oh, I might be getting a Kindle Fire :) Okay....I'll go ahead and skip to the story & review!

Review:

The Double Daring Book For Girls

By: Andrea J. Buchanan & Miriam Peskowitz

This. Book. Is. So. AWESOME!!!! I learned SO many things from the book!! They have everything from How to become President of the United States of America, to Fun things to do with paper. It's a really great book for when you're bored, because even if I never do anything in the book, just reading it is fun :D

Aesop's Fables Story:

The Fox and The Grapes

A hungry Fox saw some fine bunches of Grapes hanging from a vine that was trained along a high trellis, and did his best to reach them by jumping as high as he could into the air. But it was all in vain, for they were just out of reach: so he gave up trying, and walked away with an with of dignity and unconcern, remarking "I thought those Grapes were ripe, but I see now they are quite sour."

*

Small-minded people scorn what they can't have.

And there you are :) Byee!!

~Alexis