I had a wonderful Mother’s Day!!! I got a whole lot of Liam lovin’ and most of the rest of the family too.

Sean treated us to dinner at Santa Fe. Brian, Lauren, and Liam met us there. <3 They were actually there before we arrived. Because we had 7 with the 3 year old, they didn’t want to seat us together! Ugh! But my sweet Lauren worked it out and we got to all sit together.

Liam was as excited to see me as I as to see him. He hugged me and sat by me and chatted with me. (I know Lauren must work hard to make sure he knows us so well being that they live two hours from us and we don’t see each other often.)

When it was time to leave, I knew he wasn’t going to be happy about me getting in a different car and having to wait a half hour to see us again. So I rode with them. I played “Where is Thumbkin” with him. I sang it enough times that he caught on and did the motions with me. <3 <3

Then we played with his cars. He loves matchbox cars and had some in his backpack. We zoomed them on his legs and the car seats and up the mountain of the front seat. Then under his leg of a carwash. We had quite the bonding experience. It’s a good thing too because when we got to my sister’s place his attention was taken by others.

It was a really fun day. We celebrated six birthdays and four mothers. We just kept adding and subtracting candles from the cake, although we did have to switch cakes up mid-way because the eclair cake mom had made was starting to get a bit . . . let’s just say it was less firm than it had been. (I tried to create a collage of the six of us but I couldn’t get it worked out and the pictures weren’t good enough to take up a lot of space. So as usual, no picture. )

We have been known to complain about how quickly birthdays are celebrated–blink your eye and we’re done because most of the time we all just ask for money. But since there were six to go through this time, it took long enough to feel that we’d actually celebrated birthdays.

Lauren helped Liam make some darling keepsakes for we mothers. Mom got me some hydrangeas and Tracie got me some daisies. She added a cute tag with the quote from “You’ve Got Mail” about daisies being the friendliest flower . . . so cute. Sean gave me money and bought some flowers with me when we ran errands last week. Tiff gave me a pedicure, assembled and frosted the cake, and made me breakfast. Michael got me some brush pens I use for lettering and some money. Now I can buy lots of books and craft supplies. And of course, sweet cards from them all.

The cousins played some Uno and Banned Words. The guys helped Mike finish putting up their gazebo. It’s nice with a hard top instead of canvas. It was an overcast day and was actually a bit chilly. (And yes, I loved it!) Liam spun Tracie and I around on her cafe chairs but wouldn’t swing on the swing. He did jump on the trampoline though.

It’s hard to believe he is only three; he’s so big!!! He’s wearing 5T!!! He’s talking so much now and we’re even understanding a lot of it. (When my kids were little, the boys translated what Tiffany said to me all the time. )

Well that was last weekend. Since then it has been rainy and overcast everyday, in which I have a severe lack of motivation. Oh, there has been sunny bits too but not enough to compensate.

I hope you have a good weekend; I’m looking forward to a quiet one.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

It was a busy week.   Tiffany worked hard in preparation for my birthday. She made homemade sourdough bagels — some plain and some blueberry. She meant to put some Everything but the bagel seasoning on some of them but forgot.

They looked good but them flattened out. Not sure what happened but they are good all the same.

It was soooo good with some light laughing cow cheese and the seasoning sprinkled on top.

She also made Keto Italian Cream Cake. It was good but I just wasn’t as into it as in past years.

I’m looking forward to the cake on Sunday. We are getting together with family for the first time this year! We have six birthdays and Mother’s Day to celebrate. Whew! We’re going to make a double layer chocolate trimtastic (THM) cake with the THM mostess cupcake filling between them and then a chocolate ganache on top.

Anyway, Tiffany made lunch of Dreamfields macaroni and cheese and bacon wrapped onion rings.

It was delicious! Dinner was yummy too. Meatloaf skillet and roasted cauliflower was dinner. Tiffany pointed out that I had that last year for my dinner too.

I had a wonderful birthday that started with lovely cards and gifts and some tea.

The next day Tiffany broke out in poison ivy rash. She was miserable. So, Sean ran errands with me this week. I wanted to pop into Ross or Burlington Coat Factory to see if I could find a new tank top but neither store was open yet. I think I heard our govenor is opening things back up on the 15th.

While Sean and I were shopping, we checked out the plants in Walmart and scored some perennials that were 50% off.  I hope they  thrive.

I’m looking forward to this weekend, celebrating with family. I hope you have a good weekend celebrating with your mother and children.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Sean, Tiffany, and I went for a walk down the big hill yesterday. We decided that since Sean was with us, we’d go all the way to the stop sign, not considering whether we could make it back up that horrendous hill at the end or not because he’d be happy to come pick us up in the car.

We really prefer the longer walk but should still continue to climb the big hill at least once a week for endurance and stamina.

There is this pretty patch of wild irises that we’ve never seen before. Mostly because they don’t bloom all that long, so you have to be at the right time to see them. I think we might have to harvest a few.

I don’t know what kind of plant those sticks were or will be later this year but they are sure messing up the beauty of this flower patch. Here’s a closer view of the irises.

We cut a few last week when we walked and brought them inside. I’ve very happy for cut flowers in the house this year. Tiffany planted quite a few flowers, including nasturtiums, so we should have lots of cut flowers for the rest of the year.

A littler further on our walk are these cattails. I remember last fall they were so pretty. I’ve always liked cattails. I think we may harvest a few of them and plant them back by our pond soon.

Here are some of what I think are new ones this year.

I think it is interesting that they grow on the side of the road. Literally ON THE SIDE of the road.

By the way, our road is a dirt and gravel road. That water/wet area is the “ditch”.

We could smell the next ones before we saw them.

I didn’t realize there were white AND yellow flowers on the same honeysuckle plant. That is honeysuckle, isn’t it?

This next one Tiffany thinks is Pokeberry which would be the poisonous version Elderberry, at least so we think. She thinks she saw some elderberry a little further but we must’ve been talking as we walked by it yesterday, and didn’t get a picture of it. She said that she read that where you have one plant the other is usually nearby. Pretty odd to me, but we shall see.

Here’s a closeup of the flowers on that bush.

We also saw a cactus in the pasture.

See? Right here!

I hope you enjoyed the sights from our nature walk today. What are some wild things you see on your walks?

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Wow, I had an awesome beginning to my day the other day. I got so much accomplished. I managed to get all the things on my list done. It was amazing. However that meant that I was pretty non-stop until early afternoon. (Well non-stop after I finished my morning tea and read some of my current book. )

But then I decided that I’d earned a break and thought I’d check out a new game I downloaded and played it a little too long. It’s a cooking time management game, which I just love and have no idea why I love it so much.

I just opened up my pizza shop in the game. I love pizza and this is fun to me. Again, I don’t know why. The shops I’ve opened so far are a burger shop, cake shop, cinema food, sakura, and now pizza. I’m eager to see how the game progresses.

There are events and pets and all kinds of things you can spend in game dollars and coins on but you can also spend some actual real dollars too, if you’d like. I’m pretty cheap where my games are concerned but I even decided to spend a little bit to see if it is a game I like or if it is just a money and time trap. BTW, if you click the image above, I think it will let you friend me and I’ll get a little something for having invited you.

Tiffany and I actually ran errands this week. I went into WinCo and she came in when I texted her that I was checking out, so she could come in and help me bag it up.

Then she dropped me at Aldi and she ran next door to Sprouts and got the few things we needed there. Then she got back to Aldi in time to help me bag up those groceries. Then we went to Walmart where she got the household items and I got the grocery items. Checked out and realized we’d forgotten matches, so we popped into Dollar tree and got a few more items we needed.

Thankfully, Tiffany had put dinner in the crock-pot before we left and I’d made the rice the night before, so dinner was a breeze.

We also had a nice surprise the same day. My parents came by to see the puppies, chicks, and kittens. While they were here, I showed them around our plants as well.

Tiffany’s garden is actually growing! I wish I’d taken pictures to share, but it was a busy day and I forgot all about it.

Well, I’m going to keep this short today because it was a busy day and I’m tired.

I hope you have a good weekend, I believe we will.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

The new animals here are all getting big. I promised pictures of the kittens, so here they are. It seems from today’s pictures that they may have just opened up their eyes. There really are four of them.

This picture is a bit blurry but you can make out the fourth kitten a bit better. It is mostly white.

Actually, you can see it clearer her but everything else is blurry.

Three are bobtails and one has a tail. There is one that is mostly white with tabby patches on its head and rear.

The chicks have grown quite a bit.

It’s interesting to have a varied flock because some are taller than others, instead of them all being the same. It’ll be great when they start laying eggs because they are not all the same color. We’ve got some Eastereggers which means they lay either blue or green colored eggs.

The pups have grown too. I notice it most in Heidi because she was a bit young when we got her but I’m so glad we got her the same day as Finn because they play with each other and keep each other company.

Plants too

The plants are growing too. My oregano looks ready to begin harvesting already.

It’s taking over. I need to thin this down some or something. Maybe box it in so it cannot spread any more.

Our smallest plum tree has quite a few plums on it.

There were some on the larger plum tree too but they are harder to see because there are so many more leaves.

We did find a peach or two on the planted peach tree. But we also saw this on it. Did this happen because it was wounded?

It was hard to see any peaches on our volunteer peach tree that’s in the chicken pen. It had a lot of blossoms when they were flowering, so I’m guessing it should have a lot of peaches. I’m hoping they will not have any disease this year. If not, I’ll be looking into how to heal the tree.

I’ll have to show pictures of the apple tree that looks more like an apple bush another time because we didn’t get pictures of it yet. I’m guessing it needs a good pruning.

Walkabout Flower Bouquet

Tiffany and I went for a walk the other day and saw some pretty flowers on the side of our country road. First there was one. Then more.

By the time we got home, we picked up a few more. It turned out nice but didn’t last real long.

I visited my parents yesterday. Don’t worry; we practiced social distancing. As hard as it was, we did not hug. We sat six feet apart on their back patio and had a nice visit. I got some sun–a slight sunburn. It was the first time I’d been away from the house other than a walk or two in about three weeks or more. I was just done and wanted to visit with my parents. I’m needing a visit with the rest of my family too. I’m hoping this Mother’s Day is going to be a wonderFULL celebration.

Even my grandson has grown a lot since I saw him in person, last. Can’t wait to hug them all!

I’m going to run for now. I hope you have a good weekend and that you are not losing track of your days as much as I am.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

This hasn’t been the best week. It started off finding out that my youngest sister’s forever friend passed away. It appears that she had another seizure, when nobody was home, and by the time anyone found her, they could not bring her back; she was only 46 years old.

Susan was a few months older than my baby sister, who is 10 years younger than me. They have been lifelong friends from the age of three. We had moved to Virginia and started attending a church there at the same time she and her family did. There was another little girl there that was three as well. The three of them were great friends. (Tracie values this friendship so much that she has tried to provide her children with the same experience. Lifelong friends are amazing.)

Their friendship has endured even through our move halfway across the country to Oklahoma.

Over the last several years Susan has come out to visit with Tracie and her family for a week. I know that Tracie is glad to have those memories.

I believe that last one was when Susan was going back home the last time. Thus the smiles weren’t quite as big.

Susan was a hairdresser. When we still lived in Virginia, I loved that she did my hair because she knew me and saw how I did my hair on a weekly basis. I didn’t ever have to tell her what to do because she knew. It has been so hard to get my hair right after moving to OK.

She loved to fish! I don’t know any gal who enjoys it as much as she did. I think she even liked it more than a lot of guys I know that enjoy fishing.

Just last weekend she posted pictures of her fishing with her stepdaughter.

Susan was a fun gal who loved God with all her heart, loved to worship and sing praise to the Lord, and loved her family. Please pray for her family . . . I’m sure this is extremely difficult on her two young boys (tweens), stepchildren, husband, parents, and other family members . . . I know it has been incredibly difficult for my sister, so I can only imagine how they are all handling it.

The next day our Blue Tick Heeler, who was approximately fourteen years old, died. Her health had deteriorated over the last several months and we knew it was coming.

She was a great watch dog! However she was prejudiced. She did not like people of color and would bark viciously at them, not allowing them to come anywhere near her.

She could hear vehicles approaching from a long way off and was sure to notify us when someone came in our driveway.

A couple years ago a drop-off puppy adopted us. Sasha enjoyed its company and it seemed to make her young again. She’d run and play with her but definitely let her know she was queen. When we got the puppies a few weeks ago, she enjoyed them and would sit on one side of the fence and they’d sit on the other. Heidi resembles her, so who knows what they thought. I’m glad we didn’t put the puppies in the same area as her because it probably would have been bad for them to have gotten that attached to her and then her pass away. Sasha was a good dog and will be remembered fondly.

I think I’ll close for today. It’s been a sad week. Thankfully there is new life, with the puppies and the chicks. Oh! And we had kittens born this week too. I’ll share some of them next week.

This passion week was difficult on Jesus too but three days later was glorious. He rose from the dead and lives forevermore. One day we will see Him. I’m looking forward to that day (in the future ) but for some, it will not be a good thing because they have not accepted Him as their Savior and He will have to send them to Hell. Do yourself a favor, seek out an online Easter service this year ( live.life.church is the one that Brian, Lauren, and Liam attend) and find out what Jesus did to secure your eternal joy.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Another week has passed and so has March 2020. That is astonishing to me.

We have a lot of birthdays in the spring and with this “shelter in place” and such orders, we are not able to get together and celebrate our early spring birthdays and it is looking like our late spring birthdays won’t be either. So, when we are able to reunite and celebrate, it will almost be like Christmas. I just hope it is before our summer birthdays.

When we all get together, there are thirteen of us and my parents are both in their 70’s, so it is just safer for us not to get together right now.

I am amazed at how much the puppies have grown in the short time we’ve had them. I am also very glad that we got both a boy and a girl the same day so they have each other to play with.

We’ve had them three weeks and the difference is amazing. Heidi is catching up to Finn’s size. Of course, he’s getting bigger too. They really enjoy playing together.

Heidi likes to climb. I’ve never seen a dog do this, let alone a puppy.

Don’t worry, she’s okay. She does it all the time. Seriously!

Tiffany is doing a great job training them. At first she was just trying with Finn, since he’s a few weeks older than Heidi but she saw he was getting a treat for coming and she hustled right on over.

Tiff says the chicks have grown a lot in the week and a half we’ve had them too. Of course, you imagine there is a lot of growth from just hatched. We did end up losing three chicks, unfortunately but the rest are doing great!

The fruit trees made it through the freeze as far as I know. I have not gone and checked on them myself yet.

What are your plans for April? Other than planning for Easter, I’m doing a lot of reading. I’m really enjoying it. I’m pretty certain I’ll get the library books read before I have to take them back, considering they are closed for a while.   I’ve read six books in March, starting two books that I didn’t finish before the end of March but already finished one as I’m writing this. So April is off to a good start.

I got a turkey ham from WinCo and scored a ham on sale at Aldi this week for our Easter dinner. I’m probably going to be making the Easter Story Cookies because I want them and some candies for fun. I’m not sure what dessert to make . . . maybe a baobab cake, immune boosting

Tiffany and I are buddy reading Dune together. One of us starts the book and reads two chapters and hands it off to the other, who then reads four chapters, thus leapfrogging over the other by two chapters. Then hands off the book back to the first reader who also reads four chapters and back again until we’ve finished the book.

Well, I’m off to read some more. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Sean’s birthday was this week. That means lots of big cooking for me. It is tiring but I love being able to do it. Thankfully Tiffany helps me out, keeping me from failing when everything is ready at once.

This time around Sean wanted some big fluffy cinnamon rolls. In order to keep them healthy I made them from sourdough. I didn’t read the directions carefully enough and they weren’t going to be ready until brunch. So I also made Cinnamon Roll Cake from Northern Nester first thing on his birthday. Unfortunately, nobody got a picture of that one. But here are the sourdough cinnamon rolls that were done to have with lunch. Both things were crossovers on the Trim Healthy Mama plan, so eating them together was no big deal.

He requested sweet potato fries loaded with cheese and bacon for his lunch. (Again, no picture, but they weren’t really picture worthy. )

Dinner was a sausage and cheese calzone, I guess is what you’d call it. Sean asked for meaty, cheesy, doughy goodness.

It’s not the prettiest but it was good. Oh, then we had sourdough lemon poppy seed bars for his dessert. Again, no picture.

Puppies

I’m surprised how much Heidi has grown in the week we’ve had her. Sean and Tiff took them on a walk the other day and tuckered them out.

Not the best picture because I took it from a video. But you can see how big they are now. She still waddles a lot! So cute!

Chicks

We ordered some chicks a few weeks ago. This time we ordered a mixed flock. We got all Australorps last time but this time we decided to go for a variety. We still got 4 Australorps. We really didn’t want  a lot of chicks but the shipping is just outrageous, if you can even get a small number shipped. So better to have extra chicks than to pay ridiculous shipping.

Last time we wanted speckled sussex hens but they were out of them by the time we ordered in October several years ago. But this time they had some. We also got some Buff Orpingtons, Ameraucanas, and even a couple Salmon Faverolles, the latter still lay eggs in the winter. The Ameraucanas are supposed to lay blue eggs. We also got one free surprise chick. Last time the surprise was a rooster and a very dominant one at that. This time we think the free surprise chick might be a silkie. Unfortunately it had pasty butt and was a bit weak. Tiff cleaned it up and we gave it some egg yolk and prayed over it; so we’re hoping for the best. (Update: Sadly this little chick didn’t make it. )

Oh, we did get 2 roosters again this time, both are Speckled Sussex. So we’ll see how that goes. Shiloh loves babies of all variety. She’s most familiar with kittens. When there is a new litter of kittens, she pesters us to go outside all day long and sticks her head inside the cats’ house.

She really likes the puppies too but Finn is nearly as big as she is and Heidi is quickly catching up. She really disliked it when the puppies got to go on a walk but she didn’t get to go.

Grandson Mail

We got mail from Liam this week too. He got some Spiderman stickers and wanted to send the to Poppa. Then since it was Sean’s birthday, he made him a “card”. Well Grandma and Tiff couldn’t be left out, so he sent us mail too. I got a horse picture with a big crown sticker and a page where he traced over captial A and miniscule a.

He’s showing Sean’s “card” in this picture.

Well, it’s been a busy week here. I hope you’ve had a good week as well.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

We got a bit more toilet paper this week. There are four adults here, so we needed to be sure we have enough for a bit. My guys ran errands this week; we were thinking they’d get it done quicker than Tiffany and I. However, I’m glad to report that I am not as slow as I thought I was.

The left about 7:30 am and didn’t make it back home until about 1:00pm, about 1.5 hours of that is travel time though. That is at best as long as Tiffany and I make the run but could have even been longer. As it was, they had to call home several times for verification on items. I didn’t realize when they left that Sean had not yet been inside WinCo, although Michael did go with me last week, so he at least had some familiarity with the store.

Then of course, there was the problem with things being sold out at one store and having to look for them at the next store and finally settling on something else. We will get by and do fine.

Ants

We have had an influx of ants again! Ugh! Thankfully they are the little ones but they are still quite annoying! They run all over the counter a couple at a time. And now, as I’m typing this I have just killed two that have hitchhiked on my shirt as I was washing dishes or something.

Rain!!!

We have had sooooo much rain our mud puddles have puddles! It’s ridiculous! Michael and Sean had to go the long way around to get to town for groceries. Trust me, if they hadn’t needed to go, they wouldn’t have.

Tiffany planted some seeds in some pots and hanging baskets. She set them outside this week and they ended up with over an inch of water sitting on top of the surface of the soil. I hope the seeds didn’t get washed away when they poured off that excess water.

The frogs have really turned up their singing. It is quite loud. I mean, I like a little ambient noise and at least they are not cicadas, but enough is enough.

Books  . . . Reading

I’ve read the next two books in The Invisible Library series. I’m still enjoying it but it would not be for everyone. However, I believe my daughter-in-love would enjoy them. They have fae, werewolves, and dragons in them. This is the first time I’ve read books with fae in them. I can see how it adds to the story. I’m really liking the series though. Tiffany is a little bit behind me in her reading of the series but is beginning to catch up.

I finished the Caves of Steel book by Isaac Asimov last week. I’ve requested the next one in that series on my kindle paperwhite. I’ve already gotten it but haven’t started reading it yet. I’m interested to see where it goes.

If you saw our video over on our youtube channel last weekend, then you know that I picked up the book, The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey. I had no idea this book was going where it is going. It is about a virus/parasite outbreak. It has a lot of cursing in it and if I weren’t so curious as to how this crazy thing ends, I’d have put it down because of the cursing. Thankfully I am able to skip those words as I read most of the time.

I really don’t like reading books with a lot of cursing in them because I come away feeling a little bit dirty. At least there hasn’t been any sex in it. I’m on page 253 of 403, so about 2/3 of the way through it. I also did not realize it was a thriller. It was in the sci-fi section. I’m finding that I don’t mind reading thrillers. It seems to me that Ted Dekker writes thrillers too.

Well, I need to go see if my fruit trees need to be covered up to protect them from a frost or not. I had heard that it could get below freezing tonight. I’d really love to have some peaches and plums this year.

I hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy being at home. Work on something that you’ve not had the time to do, be it project, craft, hobby, puzzle, movie, or read a book.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº