A New Life

I have happy tears streaming down my face as I’m writing this. My friends, Lan and Chelsea, their sweet little guy, Landon, gave his life to our Lord and Savior. Along with our entire congregation we witnessed Landon show the world that he is saved!

Lan, Landon’s dad, was the one to baptize his son. Seeing Landon look up to his daddy, his hero, the man that is showing him what it looks like to walk in faith and serve Jesus. . .it was so beautiful! Lan and Chelsea, I am so proud of you guys. You are raising your babies so beautifully! It’s inspiring to me and so many others too!

RyAnne, our oldest daughter, recently gave her life to the Lord too. I came across a scripture that I call her’s. In 1 Timothy 4:11-12 is reads:

Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

It’s our job as parents to teach our babies what it looks like to walk in faith. If you are struggling with how to do this, Google it. No, I’m not joking with you. Just as you would Google search for the latest and greatest new gadgets and the reviews that go with them, you can do the same thing in regards to more information about how to walk with Jesus.

An even deeper level, would be to find a community! One that will SHOW you how this looks, one that will hold you accountable and keep you on track.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25

Landon, I love watching you grow closer to the Lord and share your love of Jesus with others!

Olivia's PreK Graduation!

I can’t even believe I am typing this - PEACE OUT PREK!!! Insert tears!!! I didn’t lose it at her graduation. I almost lost it during her graduation breakfast at Chic-Fit-A while she ate her fave “circle things” (hash browns). It was when we got home that it really hit me, our baby is FIVE and going into kindergarten. This is my all time fave age!

She’s little enough to still need me.

Sassy enough to be a little independent.

Too little to know what it means to talk back to me - thank the Lord but I know it’s coming! lol

We just love this big, little girl!! It’s been an incredible year with the best teacher’s, Mrs. Lee-Trust and Mrs. Meadows. Ladies, I have so much respect for you, and ALL the teachers out there too! These two ladies have a special place in our hearts, as they both taught RyAnne during her PreK year too. These ladies have so much love to share that is spills over into our babes!

Ladies, thank you so, so much for teaching our sweet little babies!! Thank you for loving them, making learning fun and being incredible roll models! We love you bunches and hope you have the best summer ever!

Happy first day of school y'all!!! | Social Circle, Ga.

OH MY GOODNESS!!! How adorable are these babies?!?! I know, I'm totally partial! But holy cow! Last night, while I was tucking RyAnne to bed she asked me to make her a list of the things she needed to do in the morning. I used to do this all the time last school year and she loved it!

I woke up extra early to make her and Olivia their first list of the school year! They picked out their clothes last night and were just SO excited!! And that's how they woke up - totally excited about today!!!

We first dropped off Olivia at the Primary school. Homegirl walked into that classroom like she owned it and gave Mrs. Meadows a hug! I know she's in the best hands with Mrs. Lee-Trust and Mrs. Meadows!! They were RyAnne's Pre-K teachers too!!

RyAnne was very adamant about her mommy, daddy and baby brother walking her in to class. I didn't mind at all!!! She's so excited about this school year! Her teacher Mrs. Bell is the sweetest and came highly recommended!! When we visited her classroom during the open house, RyAnne noticed how many of her friends were in her class!

So, in case you were wondering, the answer is YES! I cried! Both of my baby girls are going to school full time now! I know they will do amazing! It's just hard for this momma to believe her babies are so grown up. 

I said a massive prayer for my girls, all the teachers and all the babes headed back to school today! I sure hope you all had a wonderful first day!!

Ten Tips for Transformation Tuesday!!

If you follow along with me on Instagram Stories you have seen my workout vids and hopefully you have seen PROGRESS too!!! While I was pregnant with Rocco I decided the year I turned 35 was going to be the year I got in the best shape of my life!! I changed my lifestyle with little changes here and there and they have added up to BIG RESULTS!! I want to share just a few things that I changed to add up to 44 pounds DOWN!

#1. Drink plenty of WATER! I work really hard to stay hydrated. I fill up my big 32 ounce Feti (faux Yeti!) cup and make it my goal to down four of those a day! I even set a timer in my phone to go off every hour reminding me to DRINK WATER! I know - totally dork - BUT it works!!

#2. I start my day with one cup of warm water and a freshly squeezed lemon. The health benefits are tremendous for just how simple this little cup is! Google it!

#3. I stopped eating anything that contained gluten! This started when my husband found out he had a gluten intolerance. It wasn’t as hard as I thought!!! If you want more info about gluten intolerance go visit celiac.org SOOO much info and if you have a food in question you can search that food on their website and it will list gluten containing ingredients!

#4. Shortly after my husband found out he had a gluten intolerance I did a juice cleanse. After completing the cleanse and totally detoxing I found out I have a DAIRY intolerance! Ugh, I was kinda disappointed because, well, PIZZA!! But there again, once I decided to stop eating dairy my body felt INCREDIBLE!! I know this isn’t for everyone! I do highly recommend giving it a try for just a week. . .or heck, what about three days?! Small goals people!!

#5. FRESH EVERYTHING! At least that is always my goal!!! Fresh veggies, fruits and meats instead of precessed, packaged foods!

#6. Workout at least three times a week! It was SO hard getting started but once I got back into this amazing routine my mind, body and soul became at ONE! I felt rejuvenated and alive again!!! Moving my body, stretching it and breathing fully all became a drug (A HEALTHY ONE!!).

#7. ACCOUNTABILITY! I realized pretty quickly that I needed an accountability partner for each of my goals! I have a friend that wakes up with my at 5:30am every morning. We text each other as soon as we wake up with “Good Morning” cheers about how awesome the day will be. I have my trainer that holds me accountable at the gym and my husband holds me accountable for cooking healthy meals before the sun sets! I have a cookbook to create and he makes sure things are in place and helps set the table for photos!

#8. MEAL PLAN! I plan out my meals for the week and then create a grocery list at the same time! Time saver! Killing two birds with one stone!!! Just being amazingly productive!!!
P.S. I will be giving away SEVEN dinner recipes AND a grocery list from my cookbook very soon!!! All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter and BAM! - seven nights you don't have to think about what's for dinner!!! ;)

Here is the sign up for those FREEBIES!! 
ttps://mailchi.mp/bb4ca530cbf6/hollylrobbins

#9. Gratitude Journal! I had to change my thought process! My depression took over my thoughts and everything I wanted to do in life! Simple things like going to the grocery store turned into something I couldn’t do without feeling an anxiety attack in my chest! I start my day or end my night with writing out ALL the positives that happened that day NOT focusing on anything negative. In the beginning I had to DIG DEEP because I was turning everything into a negative! Now it’s much easier to see ALL the good in life!

#10. I stopped weighing myself! Instead of weighing in I started paying attention to the way my clothes fit. When you start working out you start gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. In a lot of cases you start gaining weight! This can be extremely heart breaking when you are giving it your all at the gym and it’s NOT showing up on the scale. Don’t let that get to you!!! You didn’t gain 50 lbs overnight so losing 50 lbs AIN’T gonna happen overnight either!! 

I took these photos on March 12, 2018. I weighed 163lbs.

This morning, July 17, 2018, I woke up feeling lean, healthy and full of energy! Which is a HUGE difference from how I felt just four months ago! I now weigh 152 lbs.

Be patient with yourself, give yourself grace and focus on the small changes you want to make in your life! You can do it!!

KENTUCKY

It’s been a tough year of loss for Trey and I. We lost his Pawpaw unexpectedly and then that same week Trey’s very good friend “Uncle” Bill passed away unexpectedly as well. That was so rough. Shorty after Trey’s uncle went to heaven too. And now here we are, this week we received the phone call that Trey’s Mawmaw had made her way to heaven. Friday at 7:45am we made the 11.5 hour journey to be with our family in Kentucky. It wasn’t an easy trip but it was one we didn’t want to regret not taking! 

Trey hasn’t seen this side of his family for about two decades and I had not met the majority of them. It was so wonderful being surrounded by such welcoming and kind people! Trey’s cousin Rickie and his wife Kathy (who we had not ever met before) opened their home up to us and fed us so well. 

Although the loss of our friends and family have been so hard to accept there’s always a takeaway from each service we attend. For one, what a blessing to know that these beautiful souls are now with our savior and no long experiencing the pain that took them! That is very comforting! 

At little Mawmaw’s service, this verse stood out to me, 

“Work willingly at whatever you do. As though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”

— Colossians 3:23

Ms. Betty loved to cook. They had ten children in their home and her husband was a farmer so they always had farm hands in their home too. She cooked for them ALL! Not because she felt like she had to but because she wanted to serve!

When Trey was a young boy he remembers spending two weeks in Kentucky with his grandparents. Ms. Betty had made everyone a huge breakfast with sausage. She noticed Trey didn’t like sausage so she offered to make him a hamburger patty instead! After ALL that cooking she went above and beyond to cook one more thing. During that week, Trey rode on the back of his grandfather’s tractor and put seedlings in a shoot while they planted a field. My husband planted a crop in Kentucky! That’s so cool!!! 

Orville, my father-in-law, farmed with his dad every day before school and as soon as he came home from school! He would milk their cows and help tend to the tobacco crops. Below is the home he grew up in. A tornado hit the farm not too long ago and the current homeowner is still working on putting it all back together.

My mother-in-law, Taryn, was the daughter of a preacher. Her dad, Jerry who passed away this year too, built a church in their town and that’s what brought her to Carrollton, Kentucky. Her and Orville met in high school, fell in love and moved to Georgia where her dad had started another church.

Above is the home Taryn and her family lived in for about five years before moving to Georgia.

Ms. Betty worked as a waitress at a local restaurant and also worked at the General Butler State Park. We drove through the park on our way to her house and then made our way to the Ohio River for a gorgeous sunset.

We stayed in Ghent, Kentucky with Trey's second cousin little Rickie and his wife Mrs. Kathy. They live on family land that Rickie's dad owned and left to him and his sister, Lisa. We woke up to the most gorgeous views of rolling hills! Just over that last hill is Indiana!

While it was ONE HECK of a drive, 20 plus hours and we spent less than 24 hours there in Kentucky, it was much needed time with family! We drove with Chastin, Trey's sister. and I'm so thankful for our conversations, laughter and tears we shared! That would have never happened if it weren't for little Mawmaw bringing us all together!

Ms. Betty wrote the sweetest poem while sitting in the hospital with her dying husband. It was engraved on their headstone.

“A night without rest and so long is the day watching your loved one slip slowly away. At times catch a smile while his eyes show pain. Listening so quietly as he calls out your name. It’s okay to be sad and it’s okay to cry for the time has come to say good-bye. You have to let go knowing you’ve done your best and let our Lord Jesus do the rest. With outstretched arms He’s waiting for you’re loved one from the past leaving you with precious memories that will forever last. So let not your heart be heavy as he watches from above as you say your last farewell.”

— Your loving wife Betty