Category Archives: Finally Friday

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

Brown Mum's ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Church Search, Weather, Art, Holiday Prep, and Planning

Well, this week has mostly been one of bare minimums. ;) I don’t feel like I’ve done very much this week beyond the things I really needed to do either in the home or for the blog.

Last Sunday we visited another church last Sunday. The people were so kind and welcoming . . . all 7 cars of them. There were less than 25 people there . . . it felt like we’d just gone to a nursing home for a meeting . . . they were mostly in their 70s and 80s. The fiddle player was 85 and the pianist was about 82. :)

They were incredibly nice. They gave each of us a small gift before we left. They really were very welcoming! However, Tiffany is 23 and is looking for a spouse and there are absolutely ZERO options there. So obviously, that will not be the church we settle in for now. :)

There’s another church not too far away that we are considering visiting but we’ve had the durnedest time getting service times. When we were in service Sunday they finally returned Michael’s call asking for the service times. Thankfully his phone was on silent. :)

Weather

Thankfully the weather has gotten the memo that it is now autumn and the temperatures are coming down. We’ve still gotten some hot days but most are nice with temps only high in the 70s. :)

Since the weather is cooling off and it is October, I am now eager to get my fall decorations up. I’m also glad to start eating some soups. I don’t know about you but I have a hard time eating soup if I have to have a fan on. :D

Art

Today is October 2nd which means it is the second day of Inktober. For me this simply is a time to focus on art and try to do some art every day this month. It also means, it is probably going to be using Zentangle or Zentangle-like patterns. I’ll be sharing my art on Wednesdays but I may also be sharing on Instagram and/or facebook.

I got my bullet journal ready for fall too. September was a very bad month for productivity and my bullet journal is proof. ;) There is all of 2 or 3 pages of September and that includes my September planning page. It was pretty pitiful. :(

I’m also looking forward to doing another Bob Ross painting with Tiffany this month. Hopefully we can get two done.

Holiday Prep

October is our big push for getting Christmas presents purchased. Of course this means that we have to get our Christmas lists made. I’m a good example and got mine done. But Tiffany was the first one to get her list done. Others are slowly getting theirs done but as you might imagine, the guys in the family are the slowest to do so. :D.

Website Planning

I’m beginning to think about next year. I’d love to say that I’m going to work on updating this website but realistically it isn’t going to happen until after the holidays and the first of the year. But it is something I’m feeling a desire to push through and get accomplished. ;) So hopefully, I’ll be motivated to do it in the new year.

I’m going to run for today. I hope you have a great weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Family Visit, Girl Day, and More

Our fun and busy week started last Saturday. After breakfast we headed to Edmond to spend some time with our oldest son Brian, his wife Lauren, and their son Liam. We met at their apartment and found that they had a house (actually condo) to go look at after lunch.

We went to Brian’s favorite Boba tea place which is also a good and inexpensive restaurant. We ate lunch there and then went over to the park for a bit until it was time to go look at the condo.

Here is Lauren, Tiffany, and I.

This one is Brian, Sean, and Liam.It was a nice park. This lightpost reminds me of Narnia. :) Sean and Liam played swords with found sticks. Michael and I; Brian and Sean walking at the park.Oh! and those flip flops were a big mistake. I will take tennis shoes in the future. ;)

I love this picture of Michael and Lauren talking as they walked. :) And then the boys are a bit ahead of them. :)

Then early this week Tiffany and I went into town for a girl day.

We went to Gardner’s, our local used book store. We finally learned how they price things: if it doesn’t have a sticker on it, then it is half of the retail price. Of course, then if you have in-store credit, you only pay tax on that amount plus $1 per item.

After that we went to $5 Below. We haven’t been in there in a while and we found some things we absolutely didn’t want to walk away without. :D And I found a stocking stuffer for Liam–Minecraft stickers. That boy loves Minecraft. :)

There were several books there for $5 that we saw. Tiff and I each got one for being creative every day. We’re going to do it next year. We like that it has prompts and space to draw/create every day for 52 weeks. Consequently, it can be started at any time but I got it for our stockings. Come to think of it, I probably should have gotten Lauren one too. (She’ll have to tell me if she’d have liked one or not. ;) ) Tiff also got that writing prompt book I shared yesterday.

We left that happy place and went across the parking lot to Barnes and Noble. :) Yep, happy place number three. Tiffany managed to get something at each stop. I on the other hand did not. Maybe next time. ;)

She got us a passion fruit tea to share in the cafe at Barnes and Noble. Please excuse my hair in this next picture; it seems to have been going every which way. :D

Tiff got her hair cut that morning too.

I waited until our errand day to get my hair done. Funny tidbit: she saw signs that said they were having a senior citizen discount one day of the week. I can get this discount some places (ages 55-60 are quite the puzzling times for the discounts). Turns out at Great Clips you have to be 65 to get their senior citizen discount. :( So waiting an extra day to get my hair done for the discount backfired, as I wasn’t even old enough for it.

Snapchat has this adorable lens that turns a face into an anime. See?

Then another day, Tiffany and I did a Bob Ross painting together. It’s fun to paint along with Bob. We talk to the television, telling him he has to slow down or repeat himself. :D I shared that Wednesday. It was a lot of fun and we will definitely be doing more together. :)

Hop over to Wednesday’s post to see the final results of our painting.

It’s been a busy and fun week. My baby sister and her girls are coming for a visit today and I believe the girls are spending the night. I know they will enjoy spending time with Tiffany. :) Maybe I can get them to do something artsy? :D

I hope you have a great weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Competition and Abundantly Blessed

One of the games I play had a guild competition this week. A guild is just simply a group of people/players you’ve joined in the game and with whom you can chat. Well the game had a competition this week between the guilds. They’ve had a few others, so we kind of know what to expect.Well this one was a bit wonky! Some of our guild players opened the challenge and had hundreds, or in some cases, thousands of energy to play the competition, when normally you only get 120 charges of energy which allows you to play 6 times and then you have to wait for it to recharge or pay for some energy with gems. However gems are limited in the game, so they want you to pay real money to get more.

I was a bit jealous of those players that got thousands of energy charges. I asked questions and decided that I would not close down my game that night but did close my laptop, although I did not shut it off. I woke up the next morning and had 9220 energy charges!

Oh my goodness! I was so excited. And then I played and played and played and played and played . . . and I got really good at finding the objects hidden in the 6 locations of the competition . . . and then I got tired of playing those same locations so much. I realized that I do not ever want to have that much competition energy to use because the competition only lasts for 4 days.

That means that I was playing way more often than I normally do. It also means that I wasn’t really doing any of the other things I enjoy doing. At least I did take a break to get the Purk monotangle tile done for Wednesday.

I’ve been reading the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson and haven’t hardly read any pages at all since the competition started and I really miss it. I’ve also not gotten much of anything else done around here. I’m glad it ended last night. However, before it did, I got another 700 energy charges or more.  :)


Sean made a quick trip to Virginia early this week. He stayed with our friends Paul and Stephanie. You may remember the art she and I did while they were here a couple months ago. (Copics, Embossing/Stamping, Distress Stains & Magicals)

Well, she was going through some of her art supplies and was going to get rid of some of them. Since Sean was there, she asked if I wanted any of them. Of course, I said I’d take whatever she wanted to send back with Sean.

After talking with her, I expected a few things. This is what she sent. :)

There are about two dozen ink pads and re-inkers in a rainbow of colors. :)

She also included some acrylic paint tubes and glittery watercolors, as well as some small and large tape rollers. Then there are the stamps and even a small die cut machine with a couple of dies. Not to mention the punches and stamp sets!

So much fun to be had! I am truly, truly, abundantly blessed!

I’ll have to share the things I make using these supplies in the future. Oh, did I mention the copper embossing powder or VersaMark pad? Yep, she sent those too! I sure am blessed! :)

I hope you have a good weekend. We’ll be visiting with Brian, Lauren, and Liam for a bit this weekend. :) I’m looking forward to it.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Down to Three and a Relatively Quiet Week

Last Sunday we went back to that one church that that didn’t have a pastor yet because they got a new pastor. They sent out a postcard notification, so we decided to check it out.

He seems like a really nice man with a great big heart for people and a desire to reach out to the community. But we did not enjoy his sermon nor his preaching style. Our church search continues.


In other happenings this week, Sean moved out. Of course he is not very far away as he moved a trailer onto our property since we have nearly ten acres. ;) Of course he doesn’t have all of his things out yet, so Tiffany and I have not filled it up yet :D

He was sooo packed in there. He played a masterful game of Tetris. :D But he had so much stuff that he thinks he’ll need a storage unit shortly. :D

But seriously though, we are going to move the exercise equipment into that room and the spare bed into the library. We’ll put a desk and other things we have extras of, like pillows, blankets, luggage, and such in there too.


It’s so nice outside. Although we didn’t get the low temperatures predicted, the temps did go down and it was lovely! :) I really enjoy the cooler temperatures. I was able to wear some long pants and a warmer t-shirt, instead of my usual shorts and tank top. :D

I prefer the temperature in the seventies, so it’s quite nice right now. However, it is supposed to go back up to the eighties in a few days, so I’ll enjoy it while I can.

This weekend seems to be a rather quite one. Next weekend we’re headed to visit our other son, daughter-in-love, and grandson. :) Tiffany and I should be working on the rooms next week and hopefully I’ll get to some art too. :)

Well, this is pretty short but I don’t have much to share, so I’ll run for today.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Diet, Mistborn, and Games

This week I’ve started my six week focus on releasing some weight. So far, it is going well, although I’m not doing so great with the exercise because I’ve been fighting headaches for a few days. But I’ve been doing really good with increasing my liquid/water intake and eating fruits and vegetables. I’ve also made an effort to eat at least one low fat, low carb meal or snack each day too. You can read more about that here, if you’re interested.


I finished the second book in the Mistborn series, Well of Ascension. It was really good and I love the characters! Unfortunately, since this is the second in the series, I cannot say much about it.

I like the characters a lot and enjoyed their development a lot. I enjoyed OreSeur and Vin’s relationship with him. I also liked Elend’s development and meeting Tindwyl. I did miss the balls/parties in this one though. ;)


Not much has been going on here. I’ve enjoyed reading my book and playing my game. There’s a game that I play and they’ve been having group challenges, so I’ve been playing a bit more than usual.

I haven’t played much of Cooking Diary lately though because in order to continue, I need more rubies and refuse to pay for them. I usually like the food truck events though and some of the rewards are rubies. I checked it out the other day and found I’d missed two food truck events with their anniversary. :D So I played it a bit the other day.

Well, I’m going to run, it’s been a light week. ;)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Birthday ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Family Fun and Books

Well, let’s see, last Sunday my oldest son and his family came up to celebrate the summer birthdays–his and his son’s. :) We haven’t gotten together in a while. And of course, I didn’t get many pictures.

First up was Brian’s birthday celebration. :)

And then Liam’s turn–he’s turned 4 this year! Where has the time gone?

It was a nice visit but too short. ;) It was nice to see most of the family (my middle sister and her family weren’t here).


We re-visited Okmulgee First Assembly of God last Sunday too. We got there during announcements because we took a wrong turn in our effort to find a shorter route. :D It was nice that they started on time; that has not been the case at most of the churches we have visited. ;) We’ll probably go again this week.


I started reading the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. I finished the first book and really enjoyed it. I’m ready to start the second one.

The magic system is really unique and not what I’d call magic because it uses metals and quite interesting.

I love the main and even all the extended main characters. I’m not sure which is my favorite–I love Vin and Kelsier but also Sazed, Breeze, Hammond and the others of the crew.

I did have a bit of a hard time with first few chapters though because it is a dark and harsh world. Vin survives beatings as a normal part of life in those chapters; thankfully that stops quickly or I’d have had to put it down.

I did know one major spoiler before I even started the book and am very thankful I did. It helped me with my expectations and not fall in the trap Tiffany had fallen into of looking for something that wasn’t coming.

I also read the first book in the Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It is an interesting middle grade book that includes time travel and seems like it could possibly be an interesting look at history. I’ve started the second one but got very involved in reading the first Mistborn book.


Well, that was my week. I’ve enjoyed the time with family and books I’ve been reading. I hope you’ve been having a good week and have a good weekend ahead.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Church Search, Reading, and Family Visit

Well, the last week has been rather uneventful. We visited another church on Sunday and although they are very contemporary, have a lovely facility, and seem to have great hearts, it is not for us.

They have a traditional service, earlier in the morning and then a contemporary service around 10:45. We attended the second service where they did use a small bit of fog and quite a bit of lasers. Unfortunately, it gives us an entertainment vibe which throws us out of worship. The entertainment aspect seems to disconnect us from the worship experience.

It was quite nice to have a water baptism that day. They actually included it as part of the worship service. Water baptisms always bring tears to my eyes, and especially when it is a child. The baptism on Sunday was supposed to be a mother and child but the child backed out; it was handled well though.

We also did not get anything out of the sermon. And one of the anecdotes he shared made be a bit defensive for my son’s beloved church. I wasn’t the only one that felt this defensiveness either. ;)

We’ve decided to revisit one of the previous churches again. It has stuck with Tiffany and I, so we think revisiting it will either confirm it’s a good fit for us or prove the otherwise.

I woke up yesterday morning with an old hymn on my mind. Then I got to thinking about the two churches we’d been to that seemed stuck in the 80’s or 90’s. Then I realized that it could be that they are singing the older songs and choruses to be free from paying royalties or licensing (or whatever it is called) for singing the newer songs.


The rest of the week has been rather uneventful. I’ve fought lack of motivation all week. I finished reading the Horse Dreams Trilogy by Stephen Bly. I really enjoyed this series a lot. I keep thinking about it. I liked reading about the west, even if the story wasn’t exactly believable at times. ;)

It is a Christian series so it is clean in my book, but I know some from stricter faiths would not agree, as there were a couple of kisses had between the three books.

What wasn’t believable for me was that in this extremely small town there would be so many Christians AND that all three of the bachelors she encountered were good Christian men, though each had his own flaws. ;) I still found it very enjoyable. Oh! Also the fact that our main character seems to make close friendships quite easily and that she was able to find the town she was seeking so quickly.


I’m looking forward to a spending time with my extended family this weekend! Brian, Lauren, and Liam are coming up and we’ll be celebrating our July and August birthdays–which happens to be Brian and Liam’s birthdays. :D

I haven’t seen my parents in a few weeks, much to my lack of motivation to do pretty much anything lately. I also haven’t seen my little sister and her family in a while either. So this weekend is going to be nice!

I’m going to run for now. I hope you have a great weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Old Movies, Homemade Cards, Good Books, and More


Our friends left before it was even bright and early last weekend. :D They made it home at a decent time having driven the fifteen hours back to their home. It was so nice to have them.


Saturday Michael, Sean, Tiffany, and I went to the waterpark for a couple of hours. It was fun. I even went down the slide. :) Last time I went, Tracie and I just waded in the water and rode the lazy river. ;)

Sunday we visited another church. It would be an okay church to go to if there were no others to try out, especially since it is less than fifteen minutes away. However, we still have some churches to try, so we’ll see how it turns out.


I mentioned that Stephi makes cards. Well, she brought me a birthday card and a box of cards to give. :)

Here’s the card she made for me. I love how it is three-dimensional. :)

Here are a couple of the cards she made for me to give away.

They are truly lovely! It was such a thoughtful gift. :) I know she put a lot of time into it.


Our friends are not big movie buffs but we pulled out a couple of old movies to watch. The first we watched was How to Steal a Million with Audrey Hepburn. I think they enjoyed it. It is a very clean movie, if you can get around the deception in it. ;) Paul said it was predictable but enjoyable. :D I personally don’t believe it was predictable though. ;)

The other movie, although perfectly clean, is a little more risque, I think. But it was completely UNpredictable. :D It is If a Man Answers, with Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin.


This week started out good. Monday was reading day and I spent some time reading the last of the Lunar Chronicles, Winter. I enjoyed the series. We’ll talk about it on an upcoming video on our youtube channel, Joyous Jabbers. Lauren and I have read and enjoyed it. Tiffany is planning to read it soon. I’m hoping we can record a video with Lauren, talking about the series. :)

So, I finished Winter. Then I read The Mustang Breaker by Stephen Bly, which is the sequel to Memories of a Dirt Road Town. I immediately picked up the final in book in the trilogy, I Wish I’d Known You Tears Ago. I finished those yesterday and have now put them on my wish list. ;) Now I’m wondering which of his other books I should try.


We had a storm roll through Tuesday evening. Unfortunately the electricity went off for a while. That is not good in the heat. Since it was evening and had rained, it was cooler outside with the slight breeze. So Tiffany and I went outside and read. We sat in the chairs under the Mimosa tree, thus occasionally we’d get a bit of water dropped down on us. :D I was quite glad when the electricity came back on. ;)

I had a horrible migraine headache this week, that left me weak. It forced me to take a day off. I tried to sleep it off like I normally do, but it did not work at all. Tiffany was awesome and helped me through the day. I spent most of that afternoon playing games on the Switch.

We had a horrendous storm early Thursday morning. The thunder and lightening was so loud it startled all of us awake at about 4:30 in the morning! I’ve never seen the color red in lightening before but I did that morning.

I ended up needed to take a recovery day that day. I spent the day reading mostly. It was nice to finish the Horse Dreams Trilogy by Stephen Bly. Of course, those events all caused Tiffany and I to move our errand day. We don’t really like moving errand day but it’s nice to have the option. ;)

Well, I’m going to run for now. We don’t have any plans for the weekend. I hope you have a good weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Spending Time with Long-Time Friends

Our friends Paul and Stephanie have been here this week. :) Stephanie was my matron of honor when Michael and I got married 33 years ago. Paul and Michael became good friends right away. We introduced them to camping early on and we have enjoyed many camping vacations together.

They moved and then we moved and they moved again. But through the years, we have remained friends. We may not see each other for a couple of years, but when we connect again, it is like we were never apart.

We have had an enjoyable time together this week, even though we haven’t really gone anywhere. We have simply enjoyed being with each. We’ve gone to the lake a few times to walk around–it’s a small lake and very small park–and enjoy getting some fresh air.

Early this week we went and visited with Brian, Lauren, and Liam. We ate at a new restaurant in the area–Eddie’s. It was delicious! Afterwards we went to Brian’s favorite place for boba tea and introduced it to Paul and Stephanie.

I got mine with only 1/4 the boba and it was much better for me than with the whole amount of boba.

After that, Brian showed us around where he works, at Life Church. :)

Brian loves his job and the fact that his day job furthers the kingdom. So proud of him. :)

Stephanie and I have had some art time. She has been doing stamping and card making for many years. I’ve never been very successful at stamping, so I asked her to give me some pointers. :)

She also showed me how to emboss. :) I’ve never used the embosser I got for my birthday last year. So she showed me how to use it. Thankfully, she said I got a good embosser and an excellent deal. :)

She also showed me how to use copic markers, which I have had for several years and never attempted using. I shared about that last Wednesday.

We’ve had a good visit. I hope you have a great weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Major Cleaning for Company Arriving

Well, I didn’t get the craft room finished last week, so I kept working on it this week. The plan was to get it finished by Monday night and play stash and dash on Tuesday but I couldn’t bring myself to doing that. So I kept at it Tuesday and even some on Wednesday.

Oh my! It looks soooo much better even though I had to throw a bunch of stuff into a big box to sort through and find homes for in a couple of weeks. (Maybe I’ll feel motivated enough to go get a few pictures but it won’t be the same without seeing the embarrassment it was before. :o )

Okay, so I decided I could muster up the strength to go in and take a few pictures. These shelves were stuffed to the gills with not really any rhyme or reason to how they were stuffed. Just simply, put this stuff somewhere. ;)

I like to buy cheap fake flowers at Dollar Tree and make arrangements for the table. There are flowers stored in several of those boxes and some lights we like to put up in the kitchen/living room for times not covered by the fall and winter ones we have in the holiday boxes in the shed.

Those drawers were a shambles and I emptied every one of them and resorted them. There is now only one drawer that is not as I would like it but I had to stash some things in there the other day to just be done.

This is the box where a lot of things went that I’m not ready to deal with and will take a while to sort through . . . not this week. ;)

I started cleaning these next shelves earlier this year. The bottom two surrendered more easily but the top two were done this week.

There are painting supplies on the bottom shelf. The next shelf up holds my inks, calligraphy pens, other pens, embosser, and books on zentangle and typography.

The shelf above that has some game stuff on it but it now also houses some pouring art supplies and some wood burning supplies, as well as a basked that I have yet to clean out. ;)

Believe it or not, the games on the top shelf have been culled quite nicely. :) I’ve kept some of my kids games so that as Liam is ready, we can play them together (as well as any other grandchildren I am blessed with in the future).

We also culled the puzzles a little bit. I figured we’d put them together and then decide if we want to do it again. I’ve got a fun one to do this coming week with Stephanie that has Mickey Mouse on it. :)

I’ve also done quite a bit of culling in the servants’ quarters. ;)

I actually have some space here now. Of course, the ice cream machine needs to come back in here from the kitchen floor. :D It’s a work in progress.

Thursday we started cleaning the Library in earnest. Tiffany and Michael had done some a few weeks ago but it hasn’t been touched much since. This is the room our company will stay in, so it is imperative that we get it cleaned up!

Unfortunately part of that cleaning process was moving a bookcase and way too many books for one unit. Since I’m done with my homeschool adventure I no longer need the school books I once used but information does not have an expiration date on it, so I’m letting the kids decide what they want to keep and what they want to get rid of. We are boxing up all the ones they want to keep and storing them elsewhere and bagging up others and taking them to Gardner’s Used Book Store. Any that are curricula I may take them to Bibliomania.

This book case/ book shelves

was over here.

As you can see, there’s still a bit of cleaning to be done in here.

Well, today is a BIG cleaning day. Tiffany and I have a plan of attack written down. We will work for 30 minutes and then take a 10 minute break and then on to the next area. If we stay on track, we should be done and taking a nice rest by 2 this afternoon. Pray for us! :)

Oh! Although I didn’t get any pictures from the water park, we had a good time. It was a lovely, sunny day and nobody got too burnt. ;) I did get a bit sun-kissed and put a shirt on the last 20 minutes or so but it was a good time and no skin peeled in the end.

Well, that’s it for me today. I have lots to do and am looking forward to seeing our friends tomorrow!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

PS. I guess I should clear this up: We added two rooms onto our house about twelve years ago. In so doing, that gave us one small room to get book shelves out of the hallway and living room and out of my bedroom. Then when Brian moved out about eight years ago, we were able to move the books out of the one room and put them into another, giving me space to put up other shelves and store things a little less congested. As my artistic endeavors have increased, so have the supplies needed. Although, the need for some of the old supplies (think kids crafts, like pom poms :D ) have diminished. This is also the room where I store bulky kitchen helps that are not used as frequently as others.