Happy Birthday week!

For now, I am going to try to post at least once a week! Between the serious Sarcoidosis flares and our transitional move that is about the best I can do.

Today is my husband Mikes birthday! Let me say thank you honey for being my rock when I need your strength and being my cuddly warm teddy bear when I need softness! Just like the lyrics of the country song, God Gave Me You! (Thank you Lord!) :) We have been celebrating all week with dinners out! We started with Chinese, then Mexican, and now tonight Italian! Delicious!

During the past couple of weeks I have had visits from all of the children, and even some of the grands! Other than that, I have been rather reclusive--kind of like hibernation! I believe that disconnecting and going into winter hibernation like the bears is really going to help my illness! Something has to! On that note, I had a doctors visit this week to get another anti-biotic to throw at these infections! The doctor visit itself may have done more for my spirit than any medicine! I've known this family practice doctor half of my life, and am very comfortable with him! In fact in some ways he seems like a friendly uncle! At the end of the visit he said to me, "With everything that you have going on, somehow you still always manage to stay upbeat."! That comment really touched my heart and made me feel happy!!

Since today is my husbands birthday, we paid the taxes on tags for our truck and little house! We have the new decal so now our little house is free to fly! Even Mike was feeling free and elated! We are making progress!

Also want to say happy birthday to my aunt Ruth, who turns 94 today! She is a real fighter! It's also Billy Currington's birthday, and he is her favorite singer! She says second only to Elvis!

Moving Down The Simple Path,
Robin

It's Alexis. Remember me??

Hello!

As it has been around a year since I have posted (one year, one week, and five days to be precise), I'm a bit out of sorts as to how to do this and what to say, but I really need to start blogging again.

**First, before I begin this, I must quickly say that I apologize for my previous posts. They were atrocious. Not saying this will be exponentially improved, but I'm going to try at least.

Well, quite a lot can happen in a year. <-- Understatement!

January--Not much happened in January, or as far as I can recall.  I did join Wattpad, which is an online community for reading and writing. It is primarily made up of teenagers, as far as I have seen, but it's great for me if I want to post a short story of mine every now & then.

It was a pretty great New Years, spent it with my sister watching fireworks in our neighborhood.

February--Ah. In February we got a Kindle Fire, A.K.A. quite possibly one of the best inventions known to mankind. Now, I absolutely adore physical books, and definitely prefer them, but for me an e-reader is very convenient. I read...well, a lot. Just since February 16th when we got the Kindle, I have read...somewhere around 540, give or take a couple. Apparently that is a large amount, although it's really not that much to me. But, that's why a kindle is great, because buying a new book is just--quite literally--the tap of a finger away.

This is also about the time that I quit crafting as a hobby. I discovered it just really wasn't my thing, and so I quit what I was doing to have more time to focus on some other hobbies I really truly love (like writing, and occasionally taking pictures).

March--I started taking a coding class online at codeacademy.com. (I stopped shortly after, but I've taken it up again recently)

Saint Patricks day was fun, we spent it my sister, BIL (brother-in-law in case you didn't know), and nephew.

April until now--Was all very uneventful, to be honest. Well, nothing blog-worthy. We did go to see This Is Us, the One Direction movie, on August 30th, which was great.

And...yeah. That's basically caught up, right? Probably the worst summary that has ever been written, but I just can't think of many things that happened that would be interesting to read about in a blog post.

I don't have much to say, really. I just haven't blogged in over a year, so I felt like I should. I'm going to try staying on track this time, and post somewhat regularly, but then again if you've read my older posts you can recall how many times I've said that. I tend to put the "pro" in procrastination. ;)

Oh! One more thing. My birthday is in four weeks and three days! :) I'll be turning fourteen <3 Yay!

Don't remember how I signed these,
:)Alex(:

11-12-13 & The Best Laid Plans....

On this interesting date 11-12-13, I had planned months ago to be hosting a potluck dinner at the best little campground ever! But alas, the little house is still parked in our driveway! :( I (Robin) have been having serious health issues generally caused from sarcoidosis. These include several infections running rampant in my body due to a compromised immune system. Because of this, and a few other things, Mike has had to focus on me instead of the transition plans. We hope to be moving within a month. Now if I could just develop some patience!

Because of my illness, need to disconnect, and a few other issues, our small family of three have decided to spend the winter in hibernation like the bears! The definition of hibernation is to winter in close quarters or to withdraw and go into seclusion during the colder months. This sounds really good to me and is basically the plan! I will spend the time trying to get as healthy as possible and getting my first book Blaze A Trail finished and ready for publication. My plans also include some traveling and keeping up with this blog.

Moving Down The Simple Path,
Robin

Moving in the direction of our dreams!!!

I love the picture that was chosen for this blog post. As usual, because I am blind, my daughter found this picture and described it to me. This lovely scene appeals to how I am feeling right now--peaceful and serene! My husband and I have been looking at options for the next six months. Our current lease on our "too big" rental house was coming up for renewal and the easy choice was to extend the lease and stay. This choice did not appeal to me in the least! The more sick I become with Sarcoidosis issues, the more determined I became to live more of an authentic life! Praise God! When I explained to my husband what I really wanted to do, he actually listened! It was actually my husband who put the important pieces of the puzzle together and as of the month of September, we will be moving in the direction of our dreams!! At least, it is my dream with Mike and Alexis coming on board as well! I can sense that this is going to be a really wonderful move for the whole family! New neighborhood--new start--living with the bare essentials! We took a drive around the area on Sunday and was very pleasantly surprised at what we found! There is a lake on site and many opportunities for outdoorsy activities. We plan to take this opportunity to eat healthier, be more active, and enjoy more fresh air!

I am so excited to make this announcement on my blog that as of September 2013, we will be "full-timers"!! This means that we will finally be living in the little house that we purchased a year and a half ago! When we purchased it, we felt as if it were "God thing"! A lot of doors shut for us, but Mike prayed that the right one would open, and it did! He found a truly beautiful, wooded, serene campground only an hour from work (since, for now, he is tied to his desk). We will be saving a lot of money from our current lease payment and will use that to pay off the bills more quickly so that we can bring Mike home part time. We've even talked about buying a bicycle built for two, so that I can once again feel the joy of bicycling! :)

Moving Down The Simple Path (very authentically!!),
Robin

A breezy afternoon at Fort McAllister!

We woke up Saturday morning (May 4th) to the sound of a steady rain. Due to my ever-present disease of Sarcoidosis combined with a difficult healing crisis I was experiencing a very emotional morning and asked Mike to stay home with me. He originally had plans to go to work. As expected, due to the rain, my grandsons t-ball game was cancelled. Despite the soggy day, we decided to get out of the house for awhile and just go for a drive. Somehow our truck ended up in Richmond Hill (Georgia) at one of our favorite restaraunts--The Upper Crust. After a delicious lunch, we headed out on a drive that led us to Fort McAllister State Park.

 

 

I was pleasently surprised to find that this park is wheelchair friendly. Although I am not 100% confined to my wheelchair, I do use it for long distances. Below is a picture of me and Mike and one of me and Alexis.

This scenic park is located south of Savannah, Georgia on the banks of the Ogeechee River and is perfect for a day of leasurely exploration. It would be a great place for bycicling or canoeing, and they offer rentals for both. While we were there, a group of people were fishing from the dock.

This picture of the marsh was taken on the way to the camground on Savage Island. We were basically checking out the island for an upcoming camp. It is located in a very tranquil, natural setting! Thankfully the day we were there it was very breezy, and that helped to keep the sand gnats at bay! We will be back!

Moving Down The Simple Path,
Robin

My relaxing detox clay bath!

In my last post, I mentioned one of my detox methods that I am trying out is a clay bath. Hubby and I read a lot of information about Bentonite clay including the following from the Amazon store:

Purification 100% Pure Clay Bentonite is a soft, volcanic clay mined from various locales around the world.It is also known as montmorillonite or fuller's earth. ;Bentonite was historically used by Native Americans for purification and healing.

We also read some basic instructions from websites of people who actually use these clay baths for detoxification purposes. We place our first order of 3 pounds of powdered bentonite clay from Amazon. Three pounds wasn't a magic number, however the minimum three pounds allowed for free shipping.

As always, my baths start with really warm water and hubby made a paste of clay and water to rub on my back over my lung area for starters. Then we poured some more clay into the bath and I smoothed it on over my face, neck, chest and shoulders and let it dry. I have my reasons to believe that this is really helping to detoxify my body, but even if it weren't, let me say that this was an incredibly relaxing bath!! I highly recommend it! From eveyrhting that I have read, you need to start these baths once a week for a few weeks and then go to onjce a month. The clay costs approximately $10 per pound. After the bath, I had pain in some muscles and over the lymph nodes in my neck. To me, this is a good sign!! I will continue my detox with epsom salt baths every night, and bentonite clay baths once a week for now!

I am learning about the healing crisis as I go, but I'm not sure what to expect. I do know that Juice Plus is bridging the gap between the fruits and vegetables I consume and the recommended daily 7-13 servings. Who can eat that much?! LOL!

Moving Down The Simple (and Healthy!) Path,
Robin

...About the Healing Crisis From Toxic Hell!

It's been nearly two months now since I've started this new whole food nutrition product. As you may have noticed from the picture above,  the products name is Juice Plus+. Nutrition is the key to health and Juice Plus+ delivers! Check out our new website at www.frogturtlejuiceplus.com and watch some of the informative videos for yourself! Mike, Alexis and I are all taking the product but since I have serious health issues, I am the only one dealing with a serious health crisis.

As the title states, for me this healing crisis has been very difficult--although totally worth it! Judging from the symptoms that I have been going through, my body was very toxic and nutritionally depleted! This disease of Sarcoidosis robs and destroys your body until it finally kills you! As soon as I can get back on my feet, with Gods help using Juice Plus+ as a tool, I plan to start a campaign to raise awareness about how insidious Sarcoidosis really is. Most people just don't realize! While I am going through the healing crisis and replenishing my nutrition stores with Juice Plus+, I am also using some simple and natural detox methods to cleanse my body. These include: Epsom salt baths, bentonite clay, poultices for the lungs and sinuses, bentonite clay baths, basic fleet enemas and a mild vegetable laxative. Sarcoidosis had all but shut down my digestive system! Within hours after taking my first Juice Plus capsules, my digestive system was trying to reawaken! Thank you God for Juice Plus+!

One of the best things about the Juice Plus+ company is that when you as an adult order your box of product, a child member of your family ages 4-18 is eligible to receive a box of Juice Plus+ free of charge. This is implemented through their Children's Health Study program. Amazing! Check it out!


Moving Down The Simple (and healthier!) Path,
Robin

Feelin' Like a Fake!!

                                         Welcome to our newest follower, Steve Finnell!
                                                                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a picture of me with hubby Mike during better times when I was feeling more real and less fake. These days unfortunately I'm feeling like a big fake! My general health is at a really low point and I am trying to do what...? Okay, so I have discovered this really great product! Let's call it a health supplement in the form of whole food nutrition! I've been on this product now for three weeks and it is doing some really good things for me! So now without remembering about my energy tank being empty I sign hubby up to be a distributor with the company and promise to help. Now with normal health and energy levels this would be great, but this is me we're talking about! Me--the same woman who promised to keep up with this blog and hasn't posted since November. To be fair to me though, I have been very ill since June 2012 with both Sinus and Lung infections. (Pretty serious problems!) Then in November, a couple of weeks after my last post, the whole family came down with a pretty bad case of the flu. It literally almost wiped me out! There was one point when I was so sick that I had nothing left to fight with and just knew I was a goner! That morning as my husband helped me back in bed I felt God picking up the pieces and fighting for me. That is an amazing feeling! Thank you Lord! Going through the Winter and into the Spring I have not yet bounced back totally. After 3 weeks of this whole food nutrition supplement, I can tell I am making progress but at the same time I am in the middle of a Healing Crisis. It's hard not to give up, but I want to know what's around the corner for me. So here I am, trying to pitch this product while I am so sick from this Healing Crisis. Before, I felt as though I was on a bottom rung of the ladder, but this Healing Crisis has thrown me off of the ladder and upside down on the ground, panting for breath! Everyone involved with this company seems to be holding pep rallies and they are the cheerleaders, while I am sitting in the corner nursing my wounds. Guess I was overwhelmingly depleated! God, please give me the energy and courage to come out the other side and feel real! By the way, I will let you in on the product information very soon!

Moving Down The Simple Path,
Robin