Sunday, March 3, 2013

Hello Blogosphere!

I thought I would share a brief bio about me to catch you all up.   I have been married for almost 20 years and have two pre-teen boys (see picture posted here when they were younger).  I love my family and my God.  I work part time in childcare and help an elderly lady twice a month.  I am also recovering from an autoimmune disease I have struggled with for the past seven years.  It's called Myasthenia Gravis and it weakens my muscles.  At its worst I was bedridden for three months until my doctor could regulate it.  I struggle at times with double vision, weakenss in walking, talking, eating, etc.. My husband has been amazing taking care of me and the boys through all of the ups and downs.  At my best I was able to complete the Mini-marathon 5K.  It was awesome!  I did it to prove to myself that I could do anything with God's help and I did.  Currently the disease is almost into remission, however I have been struggling with side-effects to my medications.  They are more like nagging frustrations to me.

I am taking American Lit. to fulfill a requirement to finish my degree.  When I am finished I will officially have my B.A. in Biblical Studies.  Yay!!!!  This is a big deal for me because I have been trying to do this for years.  Many things have kept me from it of course... kids, finances, sickness, time to do it, etc...   I LOVE to write and reading is a part of it, but I have never really enjoyed reading American Literature.  I like this course because I am required to read selections and authors I wouldn't normally choose for myself.  It has been very enlightening.

Blogging is not foreign to me.  I have another blog I started when I was suffering from a really bad flare up.  My old symptoms came back with a fierce vengance and I dropped almost 75 pounds in less than six months because I could hardly eat or drink anything.  I wanted to have something else to focus on while I struggled through.  My other blog focuses on how I pushed through my struggles, my family, and encouraging thoughts from the Bible.  If you want to look at it you can find it at:  www.leavingalegacyonline.com.  It is more like a record of my journey to getting well.  I am also working on writing a book.  I want to take all the wasted years being sick and use them for good.  The book will be a Bible Study on the life of Joseph using my life experiences to draw parallels.  It's not done yet, but it has been a great positive focus for me while being sick.  I want to call it, "Surviving Life's Mud Puddles."  The picture above is something I might want to use for the cover.  That picture alone has a story of its own.  That's for sure!

Thank you for reading!  I am looking forward to sharing all of my "literary after thoughts" with you.

Julie