Just Laurel

Icing on the Cake

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I love frosting.  If I’m going to eat cake, I have to have the corner piece or the biggest, fattest, glob of sickening sugary frosting flower available.  Can you believe I’ve actually seen people scrape the frosting off and simply eat the cake p l a i n ?  Puh-lease!  The frosting is the best part.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase:  “Well, that’s just icing on the cake!”  It means that whatever good thing you just got or just received or just did – well it just got one step better and that lovely sweet addition to your already wonderful thing just got elevated to delicious awesomeness!  I mean cake is good!  It is tons better with frosting!!  (Unless of course you are one of those scrape-the-icing-off people.  I am sorry for you – you just won’t understand this.)

Now I shall segue to a most logical next topic and that is music.  (you guys are going to learn how my mind works by reading my wandering blogs!)  I sing in a six voice group and one of our recent songs is Revelation.  Now I have to blame my husband Ted on this one.  One of the lines of lyrics in this song is:  “With all creation I sing”.  He told us, after we sang it one particular time, that it sounded like we were singing “With all creation icing”. 

Creation icing! 

I love it!

What is it?  (I pondered)

Creation Icing must be something … something wonderful … created(of course) … created by God … that God took one step farther … and topped with something even sweeter!  I told Ted about my word and created definition and he said, “Oh yeah, like a snow covered mountain”.  Fail.  Okay – it is a creation (mountain) topped with another creation (snow) but I think he was still in cupcake mode and his mountain was chocolate with cream cheese frosting. 

How about bees??  Crops wouldn’t be pollinated without those little buggers.  In the process, they make HONEY!  Now that’s a really sweet ‘icing on the cake’!  Or how about rain?  Naturally we need rain so things can grow, we have water to wash and drink, and most importantly for sailboats.  The beautiful sweet topping is often the rainbow.  Can you think of others?  What great creation can you think of that God took one step farther and really laid in on thick and sweet – making it even one level better?  Post your ideas – I’d love to hear them!

For now, I leave you with 2 updates!

#1  It looks like Amanda’s accent wall in her apartment bedroom will be the lovely purple shade called CLEMANTIS with the other walls painted the lovely shade called RHAPSODY LILAC.

#2  I received my ‘author proof’ of my book today to go over – and it was the first time I saw the cover design.  I was stunned!  We went with an idea Ted had that the publisher”s art team transformed and added the title in an awesome font.  I couldn’t believe I was looking at my book.  My book.  I sat at the table, staring at the computer screen and cried.  And there, along the bottom of the beautiful cover design of my book, I read “Laurel Rausch Greshel”.  Wow.  Now THAT was icing on the cake!

just Laurel

Dirty Laundry

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Amanda and I drove over to her apartment today to check on the changes that are being made and to measure walls.  The apartment has been undergoing some rennovations to make it barrier free.  A man who works at the building stopped by to talk to us and answer any questions we had.  There were several small issues regarding things like moving a light switch so Amanda could reach it and a door being in the way of Amanda’s wheelchair manuevering.  But basically, the apartment was in pretty good shape.  Amanda spoke up and said that there was one more thing she wondered about.  I was a little surprised that she had something else to mention, since we had already mentioned everything, so I was a little wary as to what she was going to say.  This man and I both paused and waited for her to speak.  She hesitated for a second and almost thought not to mention it, but then bravely asked, “Could you put in a clothes chute?” 

Now where did that come from?

I laughed and reminded Amanda that we were on the ground floor of an apartment building that did not have a basement.  Where were the dirty clothes going to ‘chute’ to I asked.  She thought for a moment then murmured, “Oh!  Never mind.” 

Amanda is a creature of habit.  Amanda’s bathroom at our house where she changes her clothes has a clothes chute.  I suppose she was just trying to make her apartment as much like her current home as possible, including the routine of dropping the dirty clothes down the chute! 

The scenerio made me ponder more on laundry or clothes chutes.  I don’t believe they are put into many of the new construction homes today.  Too bad.  They are so darned convenient!  Take off the old dirty clothes and make them disappear down the chute!  That made me think of dirty laundry.  Not the kind we feed to our clothes washer but the personal matters we all have that could be embarrassing if made public.  So then that made me think of my book.  (Laurel – did you have too much caffiene today?  Where are you going with this?)  Folks, I really got personal in telling my story of the past 29 years.  There’s some real dirty, honest thoughts in there.  The kind of thoughts that you try to squelch and hide because you don’t really want to be talking about the ‘what-ifs’.  (sigh)

It would be great if all the bad, all the goofs and blunders, all the negative thoughts, the mistakes, the sins, and the “oops’s” we make in life could disappear down the chute.  But sometimes the bad makes clear the path to good.  Maybe my dirty laundry will make you feel more comfortable about yours! 

Bless her heart – Amanda simply wanted her own laundry chute!

just Laurel

Isaiah 43:18  Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past! (Throw that dirty stuff down the laundry chute!)

Psalm 51:2  Wash away all my iniquity  and cleanse me from my sin. (Do the laundry – ask for forgiveness!)

50 Shades of Purple

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…as she lovingly carressed the gift handed to her, the soft hues of color in her hands went from deep throbbing purple all the way to a pastey white – a color almost like fair skin that has been choked of circulation and hidden from the sun.  Excitement tingled in her fingertips as her heartbeat quickened… it was time to choose … this would affect her life for a long time and once the decision was made, there would be no turning back … would she give in to the beckoning impulses?  Would she let others sway her decision?  Her choosing would only solidify her commitment …

Yeah, so I went to Sherwin Williams today and brought home paint samples for Amanda to choose from.  What did you think I was talking about? 

I’ll have you know that although contemporary literature says there may be only 50 shades of grey – I have 56 shades of purple for Amanda to choose from to paint her bedroom walls in her new apartment.  And I don’t believe I even grabbed all the samples available.  AND that doesn’t even include other stores and brands. 

Amanda’s passion for purple makes me a little crazy.  When she was three years old her favorite color yellow became the chosen color of her first wheelchair.  Yellow didn’t last and she next became your typical pink loving girl.  That color also was featured in wheelchair number two.  The pink stuck.  Second daughter Kristen made purple her favorite and youngest daughter Jillian always seemed to favor orange.  All was well and good with three different daughters and three different favorite colors.  That is, until Donny Osmond came along.   

Our family was priveleged to see Donny Osmond in a performance of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and Amanda, in particular, was smitten.  Long story short, she has seen Donny in a total of 3 different performances, has met him face to face including having her picture taken with him, and has numerous Donny items (from Donny.com of which she is a follower) in her room.  She knows all the nitty-gritty about him – including his once-upon-a-time signature purple socks.  So, OF COURSE, purple became her favorite color.  Kristen has told her “No fair – it was MY favorite color first”.

So now we have to deal with Amanda choosing everthing from shirts, hats, coats, notebooks, pencils, glasses, pillows, and yes – room color – to be in her precious reminds-her-of-Donny purple.  We did compromise on the bedding and I got her to accept a lovely comforter with not only purple, but orange and green in it as well.  I will let her have one dark “accent” wall done in a vibrant purple but the other three walls will be a lighter lilac.  She was giddy holding those color cards!  Now to choose ….

Can you believe the paint color names they come up with?  Mature Grape, Euphoric Lilac, Vigorous Violet, Impulsive Purple, Elation, and Awesome Violet.  I think E.L. James might have to write a sequel.

That’s all for today.

just Laurel