So last week and the first part of this had quite the wide spectrum of news reports: terrible tornadoes in the south, a Royal Wedding and the death of a long-sought-after terrorist.

Seeing the photos of the tornado aftermath is nearly unbelievable. The loss of homes pales as the loss of life is calculated. But what are that many people doing for lodging since their homes are destroyed? How are the survivors handling the trauma of what they’ve been through?

Fully believing God has control of the weather, I am not one who believes that God sends these storms to punish people. Remember Hurricane Katrina? There were a few who made such declarations. So why does He allow storms like these? I don’t profess to know. But what if through His allowing people to feel need, they would come in contact with people who portrayed Jesus with skin. What if this is another reminder that this world is not our home, that to hold tightly to anything here is futile. That there is nothing here besides souls that we can take with us? That some things just aren’t as important as we though they were.

As I was getting the order ready for the family who won the canvas on the Dream Come True giveaway, suddenly their city of Birmingham jumped out at me. I wondered if they made it through okay and was able to find their blog where Mrs. McFarland tells of their experience.

And there’s the news story coming out of our small town:

She sat at her desk, casting furtive glances at the ominous looking clouds glowering down at her from their lofty position. Having seen the videos on weather.com of the hurricane devastation in Alabama captured the night before did nothing to calm her nerves. Knowing that same weather system was the one glowering at her did not either.

Eye witness reports from over the years describe the sound of a tornado as similar to the sound of a freight train. Keeping that in mind she made a mental checklist of available hiding places should a tornado actually develop and hit their small town. She decided the desk in the back office was most likely to be safe. Only 1 window in the room, vs. 2 in each of the others.

Suddenly as if in a dream, the sound like a freight train could be heard roaring closer and closer. She ran to the door to see what exactly it looked like, having never actually seen a tornado before. And it would be necessary to identify a funnel before actually crawling under a desk. But the deafening roar (or so it seemed) came and went rather quickly.

When it was over, the only evidence of what had just happened was the steam silently rising from two silver ribbons leading south out of town.

　

The Royal Wedding I did not get to see in live. I forgot about time difference, and nearly forgot that the wedding was going to take place on Friday. As I was driving to work I heard on the news, “And the Royal couple has just left ….” and I thought. Oh, it’s over already. Duh. Ever heard of a things called time zones?

So I watched a couple of videos, and was charmed. Yes, a lot of hoopla and it gave me claustrophobia to imagine being in the middle of those huge crowds in the streets, but the groom was handsome, the bride beautiful and elegant and it was good to see something good in the news for a change.

I was young when Charles and Diana got married, although I remember it fairly well, for not having TV, and internet was on brewing in the mind of Al Gore.

Looking back over the life of the former Royal couple, the story of Diana, Charles and Camilla is still sad to me. Hopefully Princess Di’s children have learned important life lessons on how not to do relationships. I wish the new Royal couple all the best. Not that they need it or anything. 🙂

And the news breaking Sunday night about Bin Laden. I’m not even quite sure how to put my thoughts into words about this one. I imagine that was news heard around the world. I know it has an impact on a global level. However, I don’t believe it made the same waves on a spiritual level. Evil has not been eradicated. (There have been Hamans, and Herods, and Neros, and Hitlers through history. Their deaths have not ended evil on earth.) Another unsaved soul was plunged into eternity to face his Creator and for that, I can not help but being somewhat sad. I am thankful that his ability to influence is gone. To think of the waste of a life who obviously was a huge influence of a lot of people, the potential that same influence could’ve had for the good instead.

I can’t help but wonder what Rob Bell thinks of Bin Laden’s death. In case you are not familiar with him, Bell is a pastor, who believes hell is experienced on earth, instead of in eternity, and that Love Wins and in the end everyone will be saved because they cannot resist God’s love.

I enjoy reading the blogs of Jim Daly and Randy Alcorn’s, because they usually talk about current events, and their compassion for people comes through very clearly in their writing. I apologize for not linking to their blogs. Right now I’m on a slow internet connection but I may try to add them later.

So, what’s your take on the past week’s events?

Thanks to all who helped with the fundraiser for Vanya!! Adeye blogged today that a family has been found for him. More details here: http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2011/04/when-dreams-become-reality.html. I would love to hear more about how that came to be.

Have a great Easter weekend!!

be blessed

So far, you’ll wonder if it really was designed by me. Mostly because it looks so different than most I’ve designed before.

Sometime I am going to get a metal print. I know this because I have one paid for already. Now to pick the perfect image to put on it. But, metal prints are expensive and though the one I’ve pre-purchased was half-price, they still are more than I’d want to spend on a regular basis. And I doubt that I’d have customers who would want to pay those prices.

I’ve been loving the vintage sign look and think it would look awesome on metal. But metal prints yada yada yada.

What I’m really trying to say it that’s it’s time for me to go to bed since I’m getting nothing said.

Without further ado, let me show you the “new” vintage designs I came up with recently and with it I’ll show you a new way of printing/mounting that I am very excited about! And that’s much more cost effecient than metal.

That, my friends, is 24″x24″ piece of art hanging (temporarily) on my wall. Yeah, the flowers look a little washed out on here. It is a matte (think very not glare-y) print mounted on a 1/4 board. The board has is then attached to a 3/8″ backer which makes it stand out from the wall, enough to give it a 3D look.

 

I wasn’t sure how these “vintage”, very saturated prints would look but I was very tickled!! Here are a few more vintage designs, with a little more tweaking needing to be done before I get them printed.

 

 

 Here is another 24″x24″ that I got printed. I love the look on this one as well.

So, tell me what you think! I’d love to hear feedback on whether you think the designs on top are just too wild or if you have any suggestions for changes!

 

 

There is a blog I’ve been following a blog for nearly a year, about the time this family brought home their 2 babies from an orphange in Europe. They are an amazing family and I have been greatly challenged by reading Adeye’s blog. They have a heart for those in need, especially children who need a loving home.

Adeye has a big giveaway going on in conjunction with raising money toward the adoption of another special child who needs a home. You can go read more about it here: No Greater Joy Mom. I would love it if you would spread the word and contribute if you are able.

You just may recognize something there.

Have you ever had the feeling that something you were experiencing was surreal. Two months ago I had that feeling again as I sat at the pasta bar at Carabbas. I was by myself so the noisy pasta bar was a quicker option than the short wait for a table. Plus, the evening before it was me scurrying around in a kitchen, attempting to stay 1 step ahead of servers and other kitchen help. See, we had our first (of many, hopefully) Widow’s Banquet. For some reason someone thought I would be a good candidate to head up the food. What was up with that??  Anyway, food went well, except for the Salisbury Steak (aka Poor Man’s Steak) wasn’t quite cooked and so we had to scramble to get that taken care of. So, if you make SS for a big crowd and bake it in an electric roaster, make sure that the meat is fully cooked/baked before you smother it in gravy for baking. That is your free tip of the day. We used a recipe that calls for cream of mushroom soup and cheddar cheese soup instead of just CoMS. It’s much better. That’s your second free tip of the day.

So anyway, there I was sitting at the pasta bar at Carrabbas and it was oddly relaxing to watch them busy clanging pots and pans and slamming oven doors and hearing an occasional song belted out by the person who was manning the grill. Pun intended.

Later that evening I was at JoAnn’s Fabrics, having taken my good old time picking out sale items to be purchased with my additional 20% coupon. As I was standing in line, waiting to have my fabric cut, I was intrigued to watch 2 young mothers, who I guessed to be in their early 20s and army wives, each getting a small stack of printed fabric cut. They had 3 well-behaved toddlers with them. The ladies were happily chatting about the little dresses they were going to make for their daughters. And one of them was getting terrycloth to make washable wipes.

As we stood there, another interesting character came by to have fabric cut. This young lady had the most unique assemblage of clothes. She had a plain black t-shirt on. Now there’s nothing unusual about that. But her skirt was one of those that were sold maybe 20 or more years ago. Remember the ones that had 1″ pleats the whole way around the waist, were polyester with a polka dot pattern? She had cut it off a little above the knees and it wasn’t hemmed. To top her outfit off (pun alert), she had a red stocking cap on, the kind like we were 20 or more years ago, not the trendy knit caps currently available. Like the kind I wore when I was 6 or 8 years old and it always smelled kinda musty. We lived on a farm and they probably didn’t get washed very often.

And then, I was the last person to get my fabric cut for the evening and it was literally closing time but the lady was in no hurry. As she was casually snipping away, she was talking about her husband, soon to be ex, she hoped, who was waiting out in a car for her. She had finally made a break from him and the long stemmed flower he had brought in for her didn’t impress her any. Having no personal marriage advice to give her, I gave her a listening ear instead. There is so much sadness in this world and the breaking up of a marriage is one of them.

The other day I was in the Verizon store 4 hours with my boss and co-worker, waiting as the salesman set up a new account for us and then set up 5 new phones for us. And to think we thought it would take about an hour. Eventually the conversation went something like this:

Me: I’m so glad that others [from church] have learned to use the hotline. I think people were getting tired of hearing my voice.
Co-worker: I’m tired of hearing your voice.
Me: And that is supposed to mean what to me?
Boss (offering an additional comeback): And I care because …..?

Gotta love sarcastic bantering!

Today in the office, boss, co-worker (same one), plumber and I were talking about people winning the lottery. We had a lively discussion with 2 of us declaring how that much money ruins lives and the other 2 arguing the other side. I said, “You couldn’t pay me to win the lottery! You would never again know who your true friends are [vs. those out for your money].” Said plumber, “Yeah, but then you could just buy new ones.” Cracked me up!!!

I had to spend about 2 hours on the road today to deliver some paperwork. I got to listen to the Braves opening game! I finally figured out why I enjoy listening to them. It’s certainly not because I’m a sports fan. Their announcers have the sort of humor that I enjoy. See, it’s kind of like my critiquing of fiction books. If the style of writing is bad enough, the moral of the story can’t redeem it. Anyway, here is 1 little tidbit (not verbatim) of today [21-year-old Jason Heyward, had just hit a home-run at his first at-bat, an exact duplicate of last year’s opening game except for the number of pitches]:

Announcer #1: He is really showing his age. This year he hit a home run on the second pitch.
Announcer #2: Yeah, by the time he’s been in the major leagues for 10 years, he won’t be hitting a home run until the second day of the season.

Tonight the very green outdoors is nearly surreal. Because only 2 months ago the trees were bare and the grass was brown. We’ve had a warm February and March and now rain off and on for the past 5 days so things are nearly bursting with green. And to think that some of you up north are experiencing snow. Can’t hardly believe it.

And some friends from N.D. are experiencing something surreal as they wait in the hospital with their 6-year-old son who has been having seizures. [Actually got an update as I write this and it believed to be epileptic seizures.] Please keep them in your prayers as this cannot be an easy thing to face. And to many others who are facing difficult situations, I’m sure they know that feeling as well.

Have a great evening y’all. I’m wishing that cleaning the house tonight wasn’t so real.