Monthly Archives: August 2018

Dishwasher, Birds, Birthdays Coming, and Flowers

Finally Friday

This weekend we will finally be celebrating my oldest son’s birthday, a month late. We will also be celebrating my grandson’s second birthday. Wow! He’s getting big. I should have pictures to share of the cutie next week. :)

Son and Grandson ~ lifeofjoy.me

I’ve been busy getting ready. We’ll be getting together with extended family one day, for which one dessert will be needed. Mom is taking Mud Pie but since we don’t eat sugar any longer, I’m creating a sugar-free version. :) I hope I’ll be able to include the recipe next week.

Brian, my son, has requested a variation on Sausage Sandwich for his birthday dinner and Mostess Cupcakes, a THM recipe from the Trim Healthy Table cookbook. I’m hoping to remember to take pictures of the recipes as I make them so that I can share them over the next several Tuesdays.

Sean fixed the dishwasher last week!!! Hallelujah!!!! It broke just before our friends came for the week. We used paper products but still washed a lot of dishes.

Dishwasher fixed? ~ Lifeofjoy.meSean did lots of research to fix it. And it took a few attempts before he was successful. He finally had to use the wet vac to suck out water that wouldn’t drain. He eventually found that there was a loose connection inside the front panel near the handle/latch. But thankfully, he fixed it!!!

One day recently Michael was home, working outside. A bird flew into the van beside where he was working. It landed on the ground and Michael picked it up, prayed for it, and blew on it. He set it down and continued working . . . he brought it to the door for us to see.

Man and Sparrow ~ Lifeofjoy.meBird in hand ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe set it down, hoping it would fly off but it just sat there for a bit.

Bird on railing ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe later took it to another area and it flew off. I guess it needed to catch its breath. ;)

My wrist has been hurting lately, so I have not been able to do any weeding. Consequently my garden has that ‘natural’ garden look . . . definitely NOT the manicured garden look at all. ;)

Overgrown Garden ~ Lifeofjoy.meAnd you see that red spike flower? Well, the kids have planted that kind of flower the last several years but the heat always get them and they die out. This year they did NOT plant any this year and yet, here this little guy is. And it was doing quite well until the 100º days hit. Ah, but my Vincas and Marigolds are thriving. :)

The Sunflowers that planted themselves did well too. The other day when I went out to photograph my tile for Wednesday I saw some pretty yellow birds. Finches maybe?

Yellow birds ~ Lifeofjoy.meYellow birds on sunflowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meI went inside to get my telephoto lens and when I got back out they flew off. But I did catch one up in the top of my Mimosa tree.

Mimosa tree and Yellow bird ~ Lifeofjoy.meOnce many years ago, I’d seen several dozen yellow finches in the tree outside our home at the time. They were beautiful but I didn’t get a picture. I’ve not seen any since but these reminded me of them. At least I did get a picture of them.

Well, that’s enough for this week. I’ve got lots to do. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Homeschool Free Resource

Thoughtful Thursday

Homeschooling Resources ~ Lifeofjoy.meNearly two weeks ago, one of my favorite resources had a server meltdown and lost ten plus years of posts/resources. Although this is a horrible thing,  now is a great time for you to visit frequently and sign up for their email list where you will get exclusive links as well.

Monday through Thursday they will have new freebies but then on Fridays they will post 5-8 past freebies. The good thing about this is that they will probably be checking these freebies to ensure that they are still active, so you should not get any duds. :)

Oh, sign up for the email list right away because they will be sharing some links exclusively with subscribers. So head on over and check out Homeschool Freebie of the Day.

This week they’ve shared a dictation resource, a language arts resource and one for science, craft, and art projects. I’m headed to do some downloading, so I can check these out and save them for my kids use. ;)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Clouds and Waves

Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle

This week I had some tangles that had been focus tangles in the past several weeks that I wanted to try my hand at but had not yet. I believe three of them were focus tangles on Square One: Purely Zentangle and the other was a featured tangle on day on Pattern Collections one day last week.

The tangles are Aurabed by Karin Frank, Cindyer by Yu Ru Chen, Poa by Marion Kreuzweg, and Ilac by Ria Matheussen. I decided to draw them all together because they all seemed to be drawn (with the exception of maybe Cindyer) in a column or strip. I remembered a challenge I’d done some time ago of a striped tile and thought these would do well in the same kind of layout.

Here it is without shading.

Tangling waves and clouds ~ Lifeofjoy.meOf these, I think Cindyer was my favorite to draw. The hearts just kind of appeared. ;) That is tangling magic. :) Poa kind of looks like big fish with mouths open or rafts floating down waves.

Even though I didn’t draw Aurabed (at the top) exactly as the stepout, I still like it a lot. It was probably the easiest to draw. I enjoyed Ilac, even though I didn’t quite do it justice. I can see myself using it and some of the others again. Cindyer reminded me of Cadent a bit and Cadent is one of my favorites although I haven’t used it in quite some time now. But I digress. ;)

Here it is shaded.

Tangles Aurabed, Ilac, Poa, Cindyer ~ Lifeofjoy.meIt always amazes me how plain and unshaded they look when I scan them in and look at it on screen. It frequently looks better smaller. The reason I don’t just put it up in the smaller size is because I know I like to see the detail in tiles, so I show it with all its imperfections, in case others are like me. Here it is a bit smaller.

Tangles Aurabed, Ilac, Poa, Cindyer ~ Lifeofjoy.meAnd then on the advice of others that have such lovely tiles shared on facebook, I started taking pictures outside for a more favorable look. ;)

Waves & Clouds ~ Lifeofjoy.meOkay, I’m just going to say it . . . it looks A LOT more shaded in real life. 8)

Clouds and Waves Tile ~ Lifeofjoy.meI drew the tangles in columns rather than in rows. Of course I did rotate my tile as I drew it. It was fun to do.

Thanks for stopping by! Do come again. I hope I’ve encouraged you to try something new.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº