Category Archives: Finally Friday

Because Friday is finally here and I need one day to talk about whatever comes to mind.

Hello Again :)

Well, things have not gone as I had hoped nor have I been diligent to work here. To this point, this blog has not been a job, notice there are no ads here at all, but a ministry and hobby. I posted every day, Monday through Friday, because I wanted to be dependable/reliable. However, it became difficult after several years to feel like I had something worthwhile to share.

At this point there are over 6 years worth of posts to go through to update this site. :o So the updating is overwhelming.

In the past months, something would happen and I’d think what a good blog post it would make but since I wasn’t currently posting, I didn’t write it. After a bit of this happening, I thought I might be ready to start posting again but then when I tried to remember anything about which I wanted to write, it was gone.

I’m thinking that what I might do is make posts as I feel I have something decent to share, rather than forcing myself to come up with something just because “the show must go on.” :D And I’ll make it a point to be diligent to keep at the hard stuff here, trying to make it look a bit more appealing and easy to find things. ;) In the meantime, remember that if there is a topic you are interested in, using the search bar above should be very helpful. We use it all the time to find certain recipes (oven baked pancakes and minestrone are two recently search recipes) here since I’ve lost my hard copy. I really should print those out in case I want to make them when the electricity is out! (We have a gas stove/oven.)

I did install an email notification system here, to help keep you informed of new posts, since I’m not going to be as consistent as I had been. You can find it at the bottom of the page. I do have some ideas for my Tuesday and Wednesday posts that I will share on those days. ;)

I hope this finds you well. As always, if you have questions, I’d love to try to help, just leave a comment on whichever post is relevant; I’m notified of all new comments, so I will see it. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Friday Tidbit: Cold Weather and Elevated Bed

While I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

We’ve gotten a winter blast and some beautiful ice. I’m just thankful we have not lost our power. :) The ground was quite slippery. :)

In an effort to keep our lungs clear, the kids gave us an incline created with extra pillows and egg crate/memory foam. :D It’s actually quite comfortable.

Sorry the pictures are not great but I wasn’t feeling up to much. ;) You can see it is inclined a bit and it has actually squashed down a bit in the last several days; I need to puff it up before I got to bed tonight. :)

I hope you have a great weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Friday Tidbit: Little Progress is Still Progress

While I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

Tiffany has made slow progress but it finally feeling like herself again, most of the time. Michael’s progress is slow as well. He is resting a lot, which is unusual for him. I’m glad he is taking it easy, not that he has any choice, he seriously couldn’t work if he tried.

I’ve done small projects this week. Each one took longer than I thought they should have. But, I did get them finished, all the same. Unfortunately since they took longer to complete, it limited me getting other things done. Consequently the website update is taking longer to accomplish too.

It sounds like Michael and Tiffany may have had covid. So I’m not going anywhere. Unfortunately, there is a funeral/memorial service I’ll have to miss on Saturday. And I have cousins coming into town but won’t be able to see them either. Then Sunday we were supposed to go to dinner with a friend and meet her boyfriend but that will probably have to be postponed as well. Also, my daughter-in-love’s birthday is soon and I was hoping we’d get to go visit with them, so we shall see.

I hope you are well and have a good weekend. Looks like I’ll be enjoying it at home. ;)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Friday Tidbit: Caring for the Sick

Beginning Jan.4th, while I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

Well, Tiffany has been feeling a bit better but Michael caught whatever it was she got. I’m working hard to stay healthy. :)

I finally made the soup I’ve been planning to make for about a month. It is a quinoa soup with meatballs. I made the meatballs out of chicken breast. I made them a couple days ago, which made it easier to put the soup together. It has quite a few ingredients.

I’m hoping all will be well soon and that I stay healthy too.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Friday Tidbit: Motivation and Deals

Beginning Jan.4th, while I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

I’ve had trouble getting motivated to do much of anything so far this month. Although Monday I did pray before I got out of bed, asking God to help me be motivated. It was a few minutes later that I got motivated to get out of bed and change the sheets right away. I even made the bed right then, not just stripping the sheets off the bed. I don’t think I’ve ever had a prayer answered so quickly. :D

I’ve made very little progress on the update but intend to focus on it better . . . praying for motivation. ;) I think I’ve got the landing page about finished though, so that is a start.

I ran errands alone this week because Tiffany wasn’t feeling good on the day I went. I prayed on my way in to town that God would give me good deals and he didn’t disappoint.  My favorite deal was the Hormel Canadian Bacon for 48¢ a package! I swiped up about a dozen of them. I also got some good deals on some chicken breasts with and without bones and bagged salad. It was a good but busy day.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Friday Tidbit: Not Much and Grief

Beginning Jan.4th, while I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

Not much is going on right now. This was the first week that Tiffany and I haven’t had to run errands, since we planned enough last week. We really like that!

Grief comes in all different ways! I’m lacking motivation to do anything; it’s possible that I’m escaping grief by doing things I enjoy (a.k.a. playing games ;) ). Tiffany pointed out that I don’t like to be sad, and she’s right. So, I avoid it. :D I didn’t realize I was doing it until I got to thinking about how my sisters are dealing with the grief, of Daddy’s death.

I was looking through my pictures to include one of Tiff and I but we don’t take a lot of pictures together . . . note to self: rectify this ;)  . . . and as I scrolled through I got to the pictures from the memorial . . . that was a little hard, I didn’t want to get sidetracked so I sped up my scrolling. Then I got back to the last pictures of family while he was still alive . . . and as I think about it now, tears are welling up. I love my daddy and it hurts that he is no longer here . . . but I will not dwell on that right now. ;)

So, thank you for your prayers for my mom, sisters, and I . . . well for all of us — some of the grandkids are a bit more emotional than others . . . we appreciate the prayers that are still being said for us.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Friday Tidbit: Week 1 Update

So I’ve made some progress, although admittedly not very much, with updating the website behind the scenes. I know this is going to be a slow process and that is why I’m not ceasing to post at least something Mon-Fri.

I never did get around to updating last week’s post. Sean, Tiffany, and I were playing some Phase 10 when I realized I needed to do my blog post. :D I made that quick little diddy in between rounds.

And this was the winner! Before that we got Michael to play Concept with us. :)

We had a good time. Of course it would have been more fun with the rest of my family, but we made do. And of course, we toasted in 2021 with some sparkling grape juice :) and I found that some of my cheapo glasses are broken and I’ll need to de-clutter some of them. ;)

This week we’ve gotten rid of the clutter that developed while I was taking some days off. ;) After making cinnamon rolls and donuts on New Years Day, I ceased all cooking and cleaning for a few days and enjoyed some down time playing a Switch game that Sean got recently (Immortals Fenyx Rising {Greek mythology} which has a game play style like Breath of the Wild, one of my favorite games ever).

It is amazing how many clothes I let accumulate over the last little while. Between the towels Michael washed while he was off work and my pile, I must’ve folded four loads of laundry! :D

Well, I’m going to run for now. I hope you have a good weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Xmas ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Merry Christmas (2020)

Well, I have failed so far in taking any pictures but Lauren took some so I’ll get her to forward some to me so I can add them to this post later.

The donuts were a hit for our Christmas Eve breakfast, as was the breakfast burrito bake. We changed things up, just a bit this year and opened stockings and then ate breakfast and then went back and opened gifts. (Sorry about all those “and”s.)

It was fun seeing the gifts my sister’s family received. We exchanged ornaments and this year Tiffany painted the ones we gave. I’ll share a picture later. ;) I was going to buy it but the reviews said that they were on lightweight wood and not very brightly painted. So, odds are that we would have had to repaint them anyway. So Tiffany just offered to paint them to begin with. So I bought the ornament wood blanks and gave them a nice white base coat. Then she whipped them out like it was nothing. ;)

I got an old game out to play with Liam yesterday. It is called Pizza Party. It is really a lot of fun for children. I remember playing it with my nieces and they never wanted to stop playing.

This was the first time he’s played it and we had a ball with it. :) I had forgotten that pizza is his favorite food. So you can imagine, he loved it.

It was a fun Christmas Eve and I’m sure today will be both emotional and fun. Emotional because my dad is in heaven but fun, because we will be intentional and make it fun.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoyable weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Disappointing Yet Happy Weekend

Last weekend we were supposed to go to Yukon to see the lights with Brian, Lauren, and Liam. Mom was going to join us for the first time too. Unfortunately it got very cold and I didn’t think it was a wise idea to drive for two hours to go traipsing around in the cold.

The up side to the cold weather is that we got a good snow out of it! We must’ve gotten around five inches or so. It was so pretty coming down!

And it was pretty even after it was snowing heavily. Tiffany and I walked back to the pond, as we like to do.

It really is quite beautiful. But we definitely need to get to cleaning it all up! It has really grown over.

The cedars are soooo weighed down with snow! I tried to help them somewhat by shaking off some of the snow.

It really did help.

Of course, I got a bit of snow on me in the process. :D

I always love the pond when it snows.

The front yard looked pretty too.

Those cedars are still a bit heavy laden. Usually snow disappears the next day but since we got so much this time, it is staying a bit longer. I may have to go out and help them out today, at least the lower branches.

Tiffany groomed Hutch, my parents’ dog, this week. Mom said that Dad had planned to take him to the groomer back in the early part of November but just didn’t feel up to it, as they both got sick. Well, it has been another four or five weeks since then and poor Hutch has gotten really matted.

Tiff has been grooming Shiloh for a good long time now and even cutting Michael’s hair. So she felt pretty certain that she could groom Hutch decently.

Here is his before picture.

He’s such a cutie.

Here are some pictures of the work in progress and an after shot.

She did a great job for her first time and how matted he was. Neither Tiffany nor Mom wanted to skin him by doing a complete buzz cut. It’ll be easier next time. :) Even though it was tough, she enjoyed doing it. Hutch is a good dog.

Well, that’s it for me today. I have lots of Christmas gift wrapping to do today. I hope you are getting your shopping and wrapping done without much struggle.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº