Monthly Archives: May 2017

Mirrored Tile

iamthedivacztThis week’s diva challenge is to fold the tile in half and tangle one side mirroring the other. I didn’t think this would be all that difficult, after all Laura did two and they were both very nice.

I have to say that I liked the process on this one, kind of, but really dislike the final look, at least turned the way I drew it.

I decided to fold my tile in half, top to bottom. I had this image of a reflected lake in my head for this tile and I must say that the final tile is absolutely nothing like that mental image I had to begin with but that is okay. What really made me dislike this finished tile is that it looks an awful lot like a spider, if it is viewed the way I drew it.

I just started with putting a border and a corner-to-corner X string. From there I drew an arc on the center point of the top section and then mimicked that on the bottom section. I continued with arcs and blackened in areas. From there I drew some lines, kind of along the lines of footlites.

Then it went funky! As I started drawing the lines in the other two sections, I knew it was going to make something that looked like a spider, but I continued on any way. :D

So here is my tile before shading.

DC#318 ~ Lifeofjoy.meI decided I better scan it before I finish blackening. Here is another scan before shading.

DC#318 ~ Lifeofjoy.meIt’s really difficult to shade with such thick black sections, but I persevered. ;)

DC#318 ~ lifeofjoy.meI have to say, it looks a whole lot less spidery turned this way. :)

DC#318 ~ Lifeofjoy.meAs it turns out, now that I’ve revisited Laura’s post, I didn’t exactly know what a diptych was and should have probably clicked the link because now I see that I probably should have emphasized the fold/connection.

I don’t have time right now, but I’ll try to get a photograph of the tile folded and standing up and add it here. Maybe it will look more like it is supposed to.

Thanks for all of your sweet comments on my grandson tile last week and thanks in advance for taking time to comment here as well! You all are really encouraging. I hope you have a great week.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Bacon in the Oven ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Baked Bacon

For the juiciest, most tender, delicious bacon you have to bake it! Oh! And it is super easy!

Can you tell I’m passionate and excited about this? :D

This is delicious stuff! It is super easy. I’m talking, much easier than babysitting it over a stove top and getting splattered by it.

Now, save yourself some elbow grease and line your rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. You can use aluminum foil but I have read and heard that it is not good for you, as it can leach bad stuff into your food. I get a twenty-five foot roll at Dollar Tree for a dollar. I don’t know how good that is but it is a good way to try parchment paper to see if you like it. I have found that I love it!

Baking Bacon ~ Lifeofjoy.meThis is one package of thick cut bacon; I guess it was about one and a half pounds, I don’t remember exactly and the trash has already been taken out of the house, so that’s as close as we’re getting on the amount. ;)

As you can see, I flip and rotate the pieces so that they fit nicely onto the sheet pan. Sometimes one end is smaller than the other and so I situate them so that there’s a narrow part on the same side of the pan as a thicker piece beside it. Here you can see what I mean, although the pan is not full. (We did this one last week and had too many pieces for one pan but not enough for two full pans.)Bacon ~ Lifeofjoy.meNext you put the pans in the oven and turn it on 375ºfarenheight. I have been told that there is something really good about putting it into a cold oven but do not know the reason or paid attention to why yet.

Set a timer for ten minutes, at which point you will check the bacon and rotate the pans. You may want to flip a few pieces but I don’t usually.

Set the timer for five minutes. Check bacon for desired crispiness.

I usually bake mine for about twenty minutes total.

 Note:  If you are using thin bacon, I’d rotate the pans at about  eight minutes  and keep a close eye on it.

Yummy Breakfast ~ Lifeofjoy.me

I hope you love this bacon as much as we do. Oh, if you failed to set a timer and your bacon got extremely well done, I encourage you to taste it anyway. Bacon is not cheap, so I ate the burned bacon . . . it wasn’t all that bad . . . honestly. ;)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Touch and Hugging

Touch and Hugs ~ Lifeofjoy.meRecently I read a couple of blog posts that stuck with me. Two of the posts were about touch. The one pointed out that when you were single/engaged, you and your sweetie touched a lot. You probably had a hard time keeping your hands off of each other. But as time passed, much of the touching seems to be just for intimacy, which really should not be. It makes some really good points about touch and gives an idea about using it to calm an argument. I encourage you to hop over and read it here.

The other post pointed out that with sight, it only happens through one organ, the same with hearing, and so on. But touch can be felt over your entire body. They shared a few thoughts that were interesting on touch.

Then I remembered an article that I read a long time ago about hugging and the scientific benefits of it. It is said that you need four hugs each day to survive, eight for maintenance, and twelve for growth. :) There is even more interesting information about hugs and hugging on Dr. Mercola’s website. (The link didn’t work last night so I put it into the wayback machine on archive.org and was able to view it.)

I know all this info on touch is right one because in the last year or so, Michael has started touching my shoulder or foot or such, as he passed by me to go into the other room. I have to say, it really made an impact on me and increased how close I feel to him.

That second website recommended a way to remember to touch your spouse more, with ten coins in your pocket.

I just want to encourage you today to make an effort to increase the tender touches to your love and see if it increases your bond together. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Flowers, Liam, and Visiting

It is always so busy at restaurants on Mother’s Day, and we dislike crowds, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Whataburger on our way to my parents’ house that day. While we were there, I think there was a group there together from somewhere, although I have no idea where. At any rate, they passed out some pretty carnations to every mother in the place. It was really very sweet of them.
Mother's Day Carnation ~ Lifeofjoy.meMother's Day Carnation ~ Lifeofjoy.meI got some pretty annuals to put in the front circular flower bed.

Circular Flower Bed ~ Lifeofjoy.meSome geraniums, I think.

Flowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meFlowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meYep, I got that one in two different colors. That pink one is so vibrant and the orange was really nice too. I couldn’t decide between the two, so I bought both. :D

Vincas, which I love because they are drought tolerant and I actually managed not to kill them. I’ve got a lot of these because Michael bought me several different colors of them. :) Hmmm, it seems that I did not get a picture of these yet. I’ll have to remedy that and share next week. :)

Gerber Daisies

Flowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meThose look so nice they look fake. :D

This one is called Lemon Slice something. I don’t remember what the rest of it was but lemon slice was so perfect for these bright beauties. They may be petunias.

Flowers ~ Lifeofjoy.me

The purple flowered one in the middle is a perennial, so I’m looking forward to seeing if they survive. ;) Of course you cannot see the small purple flowers on it though.

Flowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meI tried to crop this in my wp but it didn’t seem to work and I don’t have time to keep messing with it. Hopefully it will do well, and I’ll put up another picture later. ;)

Then there are these.

Flowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meFlowers ~ Lifeofjoy.me


My sister and her girls came over for a bit one day this week. Tiffany made us a mini chocolate cake. It was pretty good but the sweetener was a bit strong. Gotta work out the kinks. ;)

Mini Choc Cake ~ Lifeofjoy.meThen we got to babysit this cutie this week too!

Babysitting the Cutie ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Michael is so good with him.

Michael and Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.me

It happened to be the same night that my parents came for dinner. So it was a joy to have both here at the same time. :)

Mom and Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meAfter being warned about the chair, Daddy seemed to be comfortable and enjoying conversation with Michael.

Dad and Michael ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Lauren said he gets two pouches of food for dinner. He was definitely enjoying himself. :D

Liam 2 Pouches ~ Lifeofjoy.meAnd this is the new face he is making . . . cracks me up!

Puckering Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.mePuckering Some More ~ Lifeofjoy.meLove the knee pads! :D

It has been a fun but busy week. The weekend is going to be full of baking because Tiffany’s birthday is this weekend and Mom’s is a week later, so we’ll be celebrating both this Sunday and I have three desserts to make before it is all over. (Wow, that was a Heidi worthy sentence! :D )

I hope you have a great weekend!

Until next time God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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History, Geography, and Biographies

Stacks ~ Lifeofjoy.meTiffany and I had a library day last week because we needed to use some faster internet than what we have at home to do some updates and downloads on our laptops. Then we also wanted to browse the stacks.

I had seen a kids non-fiction book series that I wanted to check out. I’ll share some of that next week after I’ve had a chance to read some of them. But while I was looking for these books I had an idea that I wished I would have had when my kids were young.

Here is the idea . . . take your children to the children’s non-fiction section. Point out the 900’s section and have your children each pick out one book for them to read and later tell you about over the next week or two. Our library has a really interesting selection of books in this section. There are books about people, places, and historical events.

If you are prone to only spend time in the library once every couple of months or so, then have them plan accordingly with maybe a couple alternatives in case they just cannot read one of the books they brought home.

Of course, be sure to have them write down the title, author, and date they read it on a log to keep track of it all. But I recommend keeping it as a reminder of all the books they’ve read and things they’ve learned rather than one of those logs that makes you write down your times and/or how long your read. There is some research that the latter type of log can actually be a deterrent to reading.

They can keep this log on any piece of paper. You can dress it up with stickers or you can print out one of these available online free of charge. (Remember to stay clear of the ones with times, unless it is something your child desires.)

I hope these ideas and resources are helpful to you.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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Liam Tangled

iamthedivacztI’m so glad I didn’t just skip the challenge this week. It didn’t seem to be something I would really enjoy but I have to admit, this one was soooo fun!!!  When I saw the Diva Challenge was to use a cut-out and Laura had used a model, the first thing I thought of using was a picture of my grandson. I entertained the idea of choosing food from an advertisement or something from a magazine, from which I have plenty to choose. But the idea of using a picture of Liam was the strongest idea, so I went with it.

First I had to pick a picture of him. This smirk of his just cracks me up. Oh and when he opens his mouth in an ‘O’, it just gets me! :DSmirk ~ Lifeofjoy.meThen I had to cut out his image in gimp (a free program for photos and such). Tangled Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meThen I had to save it and finally print it. After that I cut it out with scissors and affixed it to my tile.

Next came the tangle selection. I thought footlites by Carol Ohl would be good. Since Liam’s hand was on a busy box in the original photo, I decided on Cadent in that section. I wasn’t sure what to use in the final section. I toyed with some grid tangles but didn’t want anything that might look flowery or too dramatic. In the end, I settled on Tipple.

I forgot to take a scan of it before I shaded it, although it wasn’t really very dramatic, at least to me. Here it is in grayscale-finished.

Gray Tangled Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meAnd here it is, as I see it in real life. :)

Color Tangled Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meI’m pleased with it. I could’ve blended the shading on Cadent a bit more but I like it. I will probably end up framing this one and hanging it up. Oh! I have just the thing! I got some glass frames for Christmas; this will be perfect! :)

A quick note about last week, I couldn’t figure out why none of the faithful commenters had commented on my tile last week. So, on Monday, I went to the Linky to check the link. Turns out that I never pushed publish on the post!!! :p Ugh!!! That’s the first time in nearly three years, that I have done that. Oh well, live and learn!

I appreciate this community so much! You’re comments are most appreciated!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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Chicken Alfredo Pizza ~ lifeofjoy.me

Chicken Spinach Alfredo Pizza

Creamy alfredo sauce with spinach and chicken pizza! Yes, this one is good and lower carb because the cheese sauce is less carby than the tomato sauce.

So, here it is . . . finally, the full recipe. First I gave you the delicious Alfredo sauce. Then I gave you the pizza crust. Now today, we combine it and add toppings.

I think this would be really good with some sautéed onions and fresh mushrooms but I haven’t tried it that way yet because the kids don’t care for onions and mushrooms. But that’s okay. :) It is still good!!! (Please note that if you decide to add onions and mushrooms that you should sauté them before putting them on the pizza, as it is only in the oven long enough to melt the cheese on top and heat up the toppings.)

So you have your crust and your sauce made. We put all but about a quarter cup of the batch of sauce on the crust but you use however much you like. Then add some cooked chicken. I had some pieces left over from a rotisserie chicken that I’ve used before. I have also just used about a half a pound chicken breast cooked and diced.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza ~ lifeofjoy.meThen we added about a cup or so of thinly sliced spinach. It’s nice not to bit into a big leaf and struggle not to pull it away with most of the cheese from your slice. ;)

Chicken Alfredo Pizza ~ lifeofjoy.meThen we used about 1-2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. We’ve tried it with white cheddar and we didn’t care for it nearly as much as with regular cheddar.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza ~ lifeofjoy.mePut it back in the 350º oven for 5-10 minutes, just until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza ~ lifeofjoy.meCut and enjoy!

Alfredo Pizza ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Chicken Alfredo Pizza ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

More on Exptectations

This week’s post comes from a lovely gal that I met in our homeschool group years ago. She is a darling, lovely, sweet lady that loves God, her husband, and her family with all her heart. She recently shared a post on facebook about marriage and I asked her if she’d want to write something up to share here with you. It’s a little longer than I usually share but I thought it best to share it all at once rather than broken up into two posts.

I found it interesting that she dealt with expectations recently too. (You may remember I wrote about that last week. ;) )

Without further adieu, I give you Ana Osborn.

Until next time God bless,

Michele ºÜº


It is incredible to me how relationships are painted in stories.

Boy meets girl.

Girl loves boy.

Boy and girl overcome a hiccup.

They live happily ever after.

Now don’t get me wrong, the passion that they portray in the stories is ALL true…well at least in my case.  I felt every extra flutter of my heart and loved every tingle that traveled up my arm when I held his hand.  The problem with Hollywood is that they tell of the greatness of love when the romance is young and it is easy to be selfless.  Yet the story rarely unravels past the I dos.  In my opinion, that’s when the story truly gets good.

As a little girl, I dreamed of a love that Hollywood would be envious of.  Then I found it!  The man that God brought to me was nothing that I had envisioned for myself.  He was better!!! In fact, he was just what I needed.

Fast forward thirteen years and he is still all those things.  However, in thirteen years we have had ups and we have had downs.  The incredible thing is that people assume we have a fantastic marriage because we are two people perfectly paired.  A more untrue statement could not possibly be made.  Each marriage comes with its sets of challenges and each challenge is usually harder than the one before.

This past Sunday was Mother’s Day and my anniversary (Note how I said my…more on that later).  I love days that celebrate me.  Yes, that sounds so selfish, and it can be.  However, who doesn’t enjoy being celebrated and honored?  My husband has always been incredible at planning the perfect dates and making sure that each birthday, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, whatever, went perfectly.  Yes, guys, perfectly.  He checks restaurant reviews, and always finds unique gifts that sparkle that I always adore.  This year has been different.  He has been working six to seven days a week and has not had time all year to really put any thought into special days.  All year I was disappointed when special days came and went and nothing.

Imagine my expectation for last Sunday.  Two major days in one, surely, he had something planned!  Something, anything . . .

But nope, nothing.  We went to church and came home.  I kept thinking “oh he is just waiting for the right moment . . . any minute now he will go get something out of the bedroom or his car.”  Guys, it never happened.  Monday came and I was downright depressed.  I cried and cried and my usual bubbly phone call mid-morning to my husband was never made.  I sulked and brooded like a two-year-old . . . actually I think I out did them too.

As per the norm these days, due to a large project at work, he got home late.  I could see that he was exhausted from a long day of physical labor.  He was covered in mud and sweat.  As he removed his boots on the chaise in our room the Lord spoke to me loudly, “It was his day too!”  Instantly I felt a pang of shame, not because of the truth spoken but that it didn’t even occur to me that it was his day too.  Then I heard, “Every day you sought to be celebrated he was working.  He would rather have spent that time celebrating you!”  That was the moment I broke.  I walked over to him and helped him remove his socks.  For the rest of the evening my heart just poured out service on “the flesh of my flesh!”  Ephesians 5 came to life to me in that moment, “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it,” I had become so obsessed with what I wanted and what I needed that I totally overlooked the needs of the one that completed me.  Now please hear me, I am not saying that I didn’t have a justified complaint . . . maybe I did.  However, in that moment I realized that my complaint did not, and does not, and never will supersede the mandate that God sets out before me as to what is love.

I had made the colossal mistake of buying into the lie that love needs to do FOR me.  I had crossed from love into entitlement.  My heart was not concerned with service but selfishness.  To my everlasting shame, I never once thought of how I could celebrate him.  As tears flowed from my eyes, and an apology to him from me came, I was surprised at how my heart shifted.  My heart was filled with gratitude and love and emptied of anger and disappointment.  Once I began to step away from me me me and I I I, I was able to shake off the depression and sadness.

God calls us to serve in every area of our lives but especially in our marriages.  When we serve our spouses we are also serving ourselves.   That should not be our motivation, but it is the truth.  I wish I could say that I know how it all works but I don’t.  In fact, Paul called the marriage union a great mystery (Eph 5:32).  However, the Word is clear that our spouses body is our body; and ours is theirs.  We are one and how we treat each other directly affects us.  In my opinion, that is why so many marriages end.  People assume that once they are free from that particular marriage their problems will cease.  Rarely is that the case.  All that really happens is the exchange of one set of problems for another.  Your spouse is designed by God to become part of your DNA.  When that DNA is disrupted death ensues in the heart, mind, body, and soul.

When it gets hard and it seems as if it would be easier to quit, remind yourself that it’s not.  The devil would have us believe that love is primarily self-serving.  God would have us believe, by his example, that love is selfless. In 1 Corinthians 13 the Lord expresses his definition of love.  I love how it begin . . . ”love suffers long.”  We are called to suffer with him when we love.  He tells us that love “does NOT behave itself unseemly.”  Love also does not keep a record of wrongs.

In every facet that I could have abused love and what it meant, I had.  I had abused the love given me by my husband and defiled  it with selfishness, entitlement, and wrath.  The good of all this came in the revelation of my wrongs and the heart change that followed.

So why write this?  Well so that I can hopefully encourage someone else to a different response than I had.  I challenge you today; that if something in your marriage is not going your way, then intentionally be moved by grace.  If you are hurt, be moved by peace.  If you are lonely, be filled with the love the Holy Spirit brings.  This action will shift the atmosphere.  I promise, it’s better to show grace and love and patience than to concede to despair.  Watch that change your heart…”love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,  LOVE NEVER FAILS.”

All for His Glory,
Ana Osborn

Mother’s Day Flowers

We had a VERY BUSY Mother’s Day! We went to my parents’ and celebrated three birthdays, as well as Mother’s Day. And of course, I did not get a single picture!!! Ugh!

I hadn’t seen Liam in over two weeks and I sure did miss him! I’m ready to do some babysitting again. :)

Miss Him ~ Lifeofjoy.meCuteness ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Once again Tiffany was a trooper and made another Peanut Butter Dirt Cake for us to eat at my parents’. We didn’t remember which one of our sweeteners we used the week before and ended up using the wrong one and it tasted . . . sour maybe? It just was not any where  as good as it was the week before. We’ll definitely use the right sweetener next time!

Mother's Day ~ Lifeofjoy.meShe worked soooo hard two weeks in a row. The first time for my birthday and then again for Mother’s Day.

She started by making a double batch of pancakes on Saturday morning. One batch to use in Breakfast Lasagna and the other for use throughout the week for breakfasts.

Mother's Day ~ Lifeofjoy.meThen after Sean and Michael returned from town with the Mother’s Day flowers, she helped Sean weed the flower bed and plant the flowers. :)

Mother's Day ~ Lifeofjoy.meAnd in between, she made that cake. It has three layers, so it takes a little while to do. She was smart and did it in sections.

Mother's Day ~ Lifeofjoy.meThey bought rubber mulch. We’ll see how it holds up. I am going to have to buy more though. Did you notice the crazy flamingo? Yep, that was Michael’s idea. :D

I used the bit of birthday money I received to buy some more flowers for my little circle up front. I weeded it on Saturday, since the kids were outside anyway . . . you know, misery loves company. ;)

I found these as I was weeding! They are the pretty orange lilies that they all got me last year. (Brian and Lauren picked these.) I’ll be glad when they bloom. I saw one bud on one of them yesterday when I was planting the newly purchased flowers.

Mother's Day ~ Lifeofjoy.me

My internet is acting up right now, so I’ll run for now. :) I’ll share pictures and more about my circular flower bed next week.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

 

Dandelions and Home Education

Dandeliions ~ Lifeofjoy.meMy father told me dandelions were weeds. I remember seeing him digging them out of the yard he had sodded. I didn’t understand why they were bad but Daddy didn’t like them, so neither did I.

Mom did not like them because it brought back sad memories of when she was a little girl. She knew things were tight financially when her mom would send her out to pick dandelion greens for dinner, which would be made into a gravy . . . a gravy Mom did not like.

Fast forward MANY, MANY years and I realized dandelions were just a wild flower. Sometimes it had the poor taste of growing in people’s well-manicured, lush green lawns. But I live way out in the country now and have grown to appreciate dandelions for what they are. :)

So when I saw the title of Sarah’s post over on her website, My Joy-Filled Life, I was intrigued. The title was “Discovering Dandelions“. I had to go see what she had to say on the topic. Knowing she is a homeschooler, piqued my interest all the more.

I love how she did not influence her children’s opinion of that ‘flower’ but instead allowed them to discover for themselves and make up their own minds. But she didn’t stop there. I encourage you to go read her article; it isn’t very long, so won’t take a lot of time.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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