Dreams Can Be Painted Anywhere

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A couple of football seasons ago, I happened to have in my Big Life Purse a most entertaining item.

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Two carloads of our family had arrived at my grandson’s football game excruciatingly early.  Not that we don’t enjoy simply sitting around and visiting with each other, but when you have in tow several grandchildren (including a 1-year old), and no place for them to play except on the bleachers (enclosed underneath thank goodness), one hour can feel a little warped.

What to do . . . What to do . . . Wait a minute!  Granny has an idea!  With a wave of her Behr paint sample card . . . we played Find the Color!

How to Play: The “It” person gets to read one paint color name from the backside of the card (example: Big Purse Rouge).  Everyone else has to guess which color sample on the front side belongs to the name.  (Younger children need help but can still play.)

We all had so much fun! (Okay the guys weren’t too excited.  I think they were secretly envious.)  We were laughing and enjoying ourselves so much that one of the young girls from a family nearby came over and played with us.

If you play long enough you’ll eventually run out of paint names.  At this point, simply start making up your own names, which could be even more fun (the “It” person just needs to remember the real paint name it belongs to).

Sadly, I must note that not all paint sample cards are structured with paint names on one side and the paint colors on the other.  Please contact your favorite paint manufactures and ask them to consider reformatting their cards.  Afterall, it could be a very clever way to market paint: Dreams can be painted anywhere.

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Soft & Lazy Chic: Hot Buttered Pretzels

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Soft & Lazy Hot Buttered Pretzels

  • Buy Marketside Bavarian Pretzel Sticks at your local Wal-mart bakery.

  • Heat in microwave (I did one at a time–35 seconds each).

  • Brush with butter.

  • Sprinkle with sea salt (or any salt).  I also sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.

  • Yummmmmm . . .

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Lighten Up. This is Heavy Stuff.

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Jesus came into the world to teach love and forgiveness.  Simple and wonderful enough.  But the way to heaven?  How is that?  We know he died for our sins so that we will live forever if we believe in him.  God loves us so much he sent his only son to die for us.  This is the gift of salvation.

Do you ever wonder exactly why God needed to send Jesus?  Did a vengeful God really demand a death sacrifice to settle the score for our evil ways?  What parent would do that? Sure, human sacrifice was the hip thing to do thousands of years ago.  The story of Abraham and his son prove that God was not happy about it.  (Did you know human sacrifice is alive and well today?  We sacrifice babies by the millions in order to have “better lives”.)

I think this God-of-wrath premise is exactly the point where many atheists decide that the whole God idea is too hokey.  (Curiously, though, many atheists are fine with our human sacrifice of the unborn.)

I think our God-given free will is the key to understanding more about God, Jesus, and our salvation.

We Christians have this basic understanding of the bible: Old Testament = God creates and then judges the good, bad, and the ugly.  New Testament = God gives his only son to save the world from sin and death–and we are promised a new heaven and a new earth when Jesus comes again.  All of this is told via generations and generations of imperfect people, who often didn’t quite understand what was happening to them.

Did God expect us to be perfect from the start?  Since he did create us, he’s obviously known all along that we’ve had free will.  Maybe he originally had high hopes for us, that we’d get along just fine by keeping his commandments.  Yeah.  We totally flunked for thousands of years while he worried about us all going straight to hell.

Yes that’s what I said.  Because God doesn’t send us to hell.  We send ourselves there.  And God worries about it.  Because that’s what parents do.

How do we send ourselves to hell?  By sinning of course.  What is sin?  Sin is anything that hurts us.  Anything that hurts us is basically the result of a human-made, poor free-will choice.  Every human-made choice has a consequence.  In this ultimate game of endless possibilities, the Ten Commandments amazingly sum up every type of hurting each other there is.

What is hell?  Hell is the miserable realm where the heaviness of our sin (emotional pain) keeps us down.  Literally down.

Back to God worrying about us sinning and hurting each other.  He had to do something. We weren’t going to find the way to heaven on our own.  So he sends us baby Jesus, the perfect, innocent, and beautiful Prince of Peace who grows up to suffer and die under human hatred–all for you.  If you use your own free will to accept this gift, eternal life is yours.

So how exactly does Jesus save us for eternity?

Jesus told us the greatest commandment: Love each other.  We know this simple truth instinctively.  It is the perfect magic of salvation.  As we believe in and accept his love for us, we are transformed.  We share this beautiful love and forgiveness with others.  We shed the emotional heaviness of sin that would doom our souls to the deep and dark.  We literally lift each other up to find the light of God.

We were lost and heavy.  God sent Jesus–The Light and The Way–to teach us to hold hands and fly.

Now let your heart soar!

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Snow Long Guys!

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Here in Wisconsin we do winter longer.  Our snowmen are not wimpy.  They don’t melt the minute Christmas is over.

Yet, when you hear one of your snowmen asking, “Wouldn’t those blue jelly beans make a great pair of eyes?” you know it’s time to get ready for spring.  So, snow long guys!  My melted heart’s hopping for spring!

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Have a beautiful Easter!

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Scratching on Green Velvet

Posted in God, life & family, writing & poetry by

You will turn over many a futile new leaf till you learn we must all write on scratched-out pages.  – Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983), American writer

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Well here I am.  I apologize for my lack of attention for nearly 4 months.  In addition to the lame excuse that I’ve been busy, I have another reason for avoiding you.  I have been trying to make decisions on what I want to write about, and rather than bravely blogging my thoughts and ideas, I have chosen to simply clam up.  Actually, maybe it’s a good thing I’ve saved you from my ramblings.  If I’m going to drive you away I guess I’d rather it be due to my silence than because of what I write.

I won’t attempt to bore you by cramming 4 months of self-indulged scrap-blogging just to make myself feel better.  I will attempt to give you a brief view of where my heart and mind are these days.

New blog?  I have been tempted to start one.  I’ve been saving a list of clever names and tag lines, just in case I go through with it.  In the meantime, I’ve decided to “write on scratched-out pages” here on My Green Velvet Life.

Twitter.  You may have noticed I hang out there a lot.  It is a great place to become skilled in The Poetry of Concision and quickly share endless articles and helpful resources.  But I must admit it leaves me feeling impatient with traditional writing.  Did I mention it is fun and addicting?

Pinterest.  Pinners, I know you understand.  Non-Pinners, just imagine having the entire world as your wish book.  As you giddily pin your life away you realize your one true wish is to simply have time to pin all of your wishes . . .

State of the world.  If you know me or if you read my tweets, you know that I am a Christian, pro-life conservative who is deeply worried about the United States and the entire world.  We are not protecting life and freedom.  Why are we allowing leaders to trash the U.S. Constitution? This perfect human rights document should be an example for the entire world.  Not because Americans are better than anybody else.  Because free people are the only people capable of making our world a better place.  Weren’t we all made to live free?  Whether or not you believe in God, can you deny your innate free will?  Would you deny it in others?  Have you ever read James Otteson’s Moral Case for Capitalism?

The story of God & us.  Have you been watching The Bible on The History Channel?  An interesting comment I’ve been hearing is how people don’t like the violence in the stories. There seems to be a growing need for more understanding of God and the stories in the bible, yet a shrinking ability to find time for church, discussion, or even debate with people who don’t believe in God.  Going forward, I will try to share more of my deeper thoughts.

For now, I’ll leave you with a few tidbits:

Deeply Messy Topics (doesn’t mean they can’t still be fun)

God:  The picture that makes me smile.

Bible for the Clueless:  Stupid = not to. Practical = how to.  Miracles = do too! Jesus = listen to.

Free Will & Evolution: Why God made them perfectly messy.

Religion:  Trying to put God’s love into a box.

Free Speech & Humility:  Why social media is a spiritual tool.

Sin:  It’s anything that _____.  (My pre-school Sunday Schoolers could get this.)

Technology:  Discover what it really is.

Revelations:  It’s about seeing not waiting.

Perfectly Fun Topics

Recycling:  More cards and art projects of course.  Plus, Granny’s Never Ending Art Project . . . if I can find time to actually start it.

Brilliant Advice:  You’ll be an all-star if you take this handy item to your next spectator sport.

Recipes:  I’ll probably never top my fabulous Ode to Jergens Lotion Bagel Spread. But I’ll try!

Thank you for visiting,

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Repost: (Tight)wad Bows

Posted in holidays, recycling by

Last year after Christmas, I was fooling around with the gigantic mess of leftover wrapping paper on my art room table and I discovered a fun and ultra easy way to use leftover wrapping.  I had decided I would not publish it until the following year during holiday season, so it would be fresh in your mind as you find yourself buried in a mountain of leftover Christmas cheer.  (And you will, no matter how neat you try to be!)

Well here it is the Christmas season once again and . . . ta da!  My idea makes its debut tonight:  Use your leftover paper to make bows!

Take the wrapping paper in your hand (pattern right side up), then squeeze and wad up in the middle:

Take the ends and fold under (all around, until it has a circular shape), then staple in the middle:

At this point, you have a respectable bow, although your staple will show if you look closely.

But don’t stop there! Make at least one more bow to layer on top. You can layer even more if you’d like. I did cheat a bit on the smaller red bow. Instead of stapling I just taped it in the bottom.

These bows might be perfect for you if:

  • You love the less-than-perfect, homey, vintage look.
  • You don’t want to spend one cent on bows.
  • You are creative but not crafty.  You are maybe a little clutzy.

You could even wad up the kids and let them make all the bows for you.  They love elf work!

So wad do you think?