Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

nieces’ back to school, easy mug cakes, & a luscious rainy tuesday

Yesterday I happily set aside a bunch of Monday routines in order to spend some time with my two beautiful nieces on their last day of summer break.

Kenzie is entering fifth grade, and Chloe is entering sixth, and both attend school in Oklahoma City where they have year-round schedules.

As I was inhaling dramatically to offer them much needed comfort about the sad end of summer and the horrible bummers of being thrust back into early mornings and unoriginal uniforms, they both rocked my world with outbursts about how thrilled, excited, and motivated they are for the new school year.

I was like, wait, what?

Personally? I always loved school. The beginning especially was magical. But in recent years I have noticed so many kids bemoaning it. These girls are legitimately happy. Their burst of enthusiasm really caught me by surprise and made me proud of them.

As soon as I arrived, Chloe sat me down on the couch for what became a 45-minute backpack tour. She pulled out, modeled, and explained every notebook and accessory, every color scheme and organizing tool, all the details of her new gym bag (she gets to have volleyball practice before school, shower at the gym, and “clear her head” before study hall, be still my heart!) plus new shoes that aren’t too new, they’re broken in just perfectly.

Kenzie admitted to having a little more in her new back pack than she needed, but every item had a solid reason for being there. And she was very much infatuated with her chosen colors and patterns, too. The whole display was terribly endearing. Oh, and I got to bring her a belated birthday gift!

She is really into mermaids right now, so we gave her one of those plush tail blankets and I embroidered her a big tote bag to say, “Mermaid in Training.”

After luxuriating in back to school joy and the girls’ plans to make good first impressions, we made lunch. Chloe mixed up a chopped Asian salad for us to share, Kenzie toasted bagels, and I made each of us an omelette. We could have gone out to eat, but the girls surprised me again by saying they’d rather stay home to play cards, eat small foods, and just talk.

“Umm hello, where are the modern, bad attitude, spoiled preteens please?”

As we assembled our little bistro lunch, Chloe explained that volleyball season had just started and that this year it’s lasting longer and is a bigger deal than before. She is trying to take it more seriously, think of herself as an athlete now, and therefore really consider what food she puts in her body.

I KNOW. Obviously I will need to order her a copy of Matt Fitzgerald’s Endurance Diet, right?

Then for fun (because even athletes need to have fun) we made mug cakes. Have you tried this yet? They are as easy as the internet claims, and they are highly customizable and satisfying. I recently made a peanut butter variation at home for Handsome, and it murdered his sweet tooth that night. Mug cakes are a great trick to have up your sleeve if you’re trying to limit but not eliminate desserts.

Here is an easy starting point for a single serving chocolate mug cake. Obviously the sky’s the limit on what you add in before cooking or how you top it afterwards.

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 TB unsweetened cocoa

3 TB milk

3 TB vegetable oil (or melted butter)

1/4 tsp vanilla

All you do is coat a good sized coffee mug with nonstick oil spray, mix those 6 basic ingredients in it with a spoon, add what you want (like marshmallows, chopped nuts, a dollop of peanut butter, chocolate chips, broken up candy bars, etc), and microwave for 2 minutes. It comes out piping hot and not very gorgeous, but you can conceal the weird surface with all sorts of pretty, delicious things like cool whip or ice cream. I dare you to try it!

My half-day with the nieces ended with a raucous card game of “Baloney,” which was so fun. My nephew, their beloved big brother who grew up alongside my own two girls, and his girlfriend got home and joined us for that bit of nonsense. What great kids, in every way. I am so thankful for my family.

The rest of Monday was spent back at the farm making a dent in house work, which included a big effort clean the downstairs floors. Over the weekend I had grabbed this spray cleaner to try on our wood floors, and it smells nice and cleaned them okay, but zero gloss. What do you guys use for shining wood floors?

Then Handsome and I had a pretty romantic Monday night, to cap it all off. We have been binge-watching Mad Men and both love it so much. Neither of us got the foot rubs I mentioned in yesterday’s post, haha, but maybe that’s what Tuesday nights are for.

Now, midday Tuesday, I am diving back into projects around the house while the farm soaks up many hours of cool, gentle rain. Unheard of weather for August first in Oklahoma.

This morning I joined two local friends for a 6+ mile run, just as the rain got started, and it was pure heaven. This is one of days that helps you catch your breath and makes you crave deep cleaning, fresh sheets, Spanish guitar, and soup for dinner.

If I get caught up enough on housework, then my big fancy afternoon plan is to mellow the entire house, shower and even wear perfume (ha), then read somewhere quiet and cozy for as long as Klaus will tolerate it. Cross your fingers for me that the rain makes him sleepy. I am in the middle of three really good books right now, and everybody knows that rainy afternoons are best for reading.

Tomorrow afternoon I have two special guests coming to the farm, then in the evening my husband and I will be guests at our friends’ home for dinner. Very excited for all of that, and I will share stories and photos soon!

Happy Tuesday, friends. Keep on carpe-ing those diems!

“There shall be eternal summer
in the grateful heart.”
~Celia Thaxter
XOXOXOXO

 

 

our weekend of diems that were fully carpe’d

Hello and happy Monday!! Handsome and I are still thrumming from a weekend packed with good stuff. The “carpe diem” lifestyle has been happening, and it suits us just fine.

Starting with Friday night, we filled the farm with a variety of friends and family to swim and watch “Deep Blue Sea” outside under the stars. It was Shark Week, after all. I love how all of our people mix beautifully with each other. Really nice. And that movie! One of our all time favorites. I had forgotten how many lines from it we quote on a regular basis. Especially from LL Cool J. Hilarious.

Deep Blue Sea, 1999
This is Maddie, me, and Kenzie, left to right, swimming with sharks. Probably. We had a lot of fun scaring each other and having underwater flip contests while the movie played across from the deck.

deck + futon mattress + blankets = movie cuddles under the stars

After many hours of that fun we left the kitchen messy (a rare indulgence), crashed hard, and slept until an unheard of 7 am Saturday morning. Haha, that’s quite late for us. We enjoyed our leisurely morning routines, fed the critters, then set out for a little drive through small towns and back roads. That adventure took us to Tecumseh, where we explored antique rooms and ate an early and memorable lunch at The Farmer’s Daughter. Delicious! I’d been hearing lots about this cafe and am happy to report that it’s even better than expected.

Look at this interior wall made from old, chippy doors! And a chalkboard menu!

My meal was a salmon salad with all the delicious trimmings and exactly one bob bon, pecan-coconut covered in chocolate. Perfect. My guy had ribs with exactly his favorite kind of macaroni and cheese. We were both pretty proud of our selections.

After that we drove more, looking for garage sales, but came home with limited treasure. I did snag a few potted plants from a greenhouse tucked away on the side of a state highway. Also a stack of hardback books for 27 cents total, but that purchase cost us about 20 minutes standing in line. Why?? Haha Still, happy to have the books.

Angel wing begonia, foxtail fern, and a purple heart. Easy and lush.
I’m excited to read the Pickens memoir, and those Michener epics make my mouth water.

 

Late Saturday night, after some swimming and playing with the animals, Handsome got brave and anted-up for yoga. The outdoor movie screen was still in place, so we used it to follow a Tara Stiles “relaxing” sequence, haha, but let’s just say it was a rage-filled half hour!! So much fun though. He cracks me up. We might try Adrienne next time, as she is much more mellow and low key.

Sunday mid-morning I laced up for 7 miles of pure bliss, an hour very well spent. My body is really getting comfortable again, and the weather was magical. I bumped into two sets of friends at the park where I ran, and those conversations were icing on the cake!

While I ran, Handsome worked on his Cadillac restoration. He’s undecided and enjoying the creative process, but for now the previously pink beauty is a sleek and sexy black. Her name is Marilyn.

We swam more and did a few other projects around the farm.

baby watermelons!

Late Sunday afternoon we threw on some clean clothes and drove to the city for something we rarely seek out unless we are in New Orleans: Live music!

Our friend Lynn has fallen madly in love with (and secretly married!!) an exceptionally talented musician whose band is all rockabilly, both vintage and original, which is straight up our musical alley.

The band is called “Jimmy Dale and the Beltline,” and if you ever get a chance to see them live, jump on it!! We had so much fun. I promise to tell you more about this unique couple soon. Besides being adorable and loving, they nurture a joint creative force that makes Oklahoma pretty special.

Whew! As I hit “publish” on these weekend memories, Handsome and I are still happily thrumming from it all. We are also coming down off some incredible Monday energy. You know that exhausted-but-accomplished feeling you earn after setting yourself up for a really excellent work week, and you probably want chicken and dumplins for dinner, and maybe a foot rub? That and more. So good.

Thanks for checking in, friends! See you tomorrow for Monday stories, a recipe, and more.

“I got a black car!”
~Jimmy Dale
XOXOXOXO

 

a private moment filled with reminders

At the park where I ran this morning is an open-air, concrete pavilion with several large caged fans mounted at the ceiling, all pointed down to the floor at different angles. I was stopped for a drink of water at a brick building about twenty feet away.

A young dad was standing inside that pavilion, holding his young son up in the air, facing away from him, the dad’s arms wrapped around his little boy’s slender, stiffened legs, chunky sneakers hitting his dad mid-torso. The boy’s arms, also stiff, were glued to his own torso. His blonde head was tilted back, and he was screaming into the fan, at high volume and with lots of gusto:

“III LLLOOOOOVVVEE YYOOOOOOUUUUU DDAAAAADDD!!!”

Over and over again.

Just like we all did to oscillating fans when we were kids. But it was an extra big fan. Extra loud.

So many times.

The dad just held him there, a blonde headed little torch of energy, beaming happiness. The boy screamed I love you dad at least a dozen times while I stood there drinking water and stretching, spying on their private moment in public.

Mom, baby me, and Dad, circa 1974.

This is what I wanted to tell you today:

Go for a run if you can and love your kids steady and hold them up really strong and love your dad, too.

Over and over again.

XOXOXOXO

 

a much happier storm season blowing through us

When the farm has just emptied of kids, evidence is plenty. The deck, pool, and surrounding lawns are all festooned with brightly colored plastics: Water guns and leaky swim masks, half-inflated floats, sun-crunchy pirate beach towels, and orphaned flip flops and hair ties. They are all scattered like confetti across the calm, green expanse. We discover an empty juice box here and there, a chewed-to-nothing melon rind, a discarded (hopefully used up) bottle of sunblock.

The chairs and chaise lounges are all askew, abandoned and resting happily like exhausted chaperones after a late night middle school dance.

When we bought these nine acres in 2007, our dream and vision was to give our girls, then 10 and 12, a second half of childhood, a healthy, wholesome coming of age with lots of space for deep breathing and long-leg stretching, animals to love and learn from, and much more.

The seeds of that vision had barely germinated when some destructive life storms blew through our family and changed everything for a season. We hung on, everyone survived, and eventually the sun came out again, brighter than ever. But that’s another story for another day.

Now I sit outside soaking up the cheerful debris of a happier storm, one of so many like it, each one important. “Cousin-Palooza 2017” came and went in a flash, leaving in its wake all this color and all these good vibrations. I sit here taking note of how much love and joy have actually grown here in the midst of that other storm.

Despite it? Or because of it?

For all the years that storm took from our family, has it actually nourished our foundation?

I think so.

I think, I feel in my bones, that the culling and strengthening and the deep watering from both tears and sweat have all contributed to an ongoing beautification. Not just a bigger deck or prettier gardens, not just faster internet, better food and more artwork on the walls- although yes to all of that!

But really, more trusting hearts for my husband and me. Freer minds. Effervescent joy that is actually pretty difficult to flatten.

We are blessed beyond reason. Thankful for adult siblings who trust us with their children so we can share these nine acres in some of the ways we always imagined. Happy to cultivate memories and bonds with our nieces and nephews that, despite inevitable storms headed our way in the future (that’s just how life goes), will last a lifetime and anchor us all.

Chloe, Kenzie, & Greg. July 2017 xoxo
Daybreak in Fort City, upstairs in the Apartment. They slept hard for almost 7 hours then sprang awake at full power, ready for chocolate chip pancakes and more fun.
Little fishes doing tricks all day long.

I always resist the hurry to clean up after a party. I am in no hurry to see it all wiped away, all the colorful debris that kids especially leave behind.

Except that other good stuff is on its way, and we need to make room. Every day, every moment, holds a new promise and a host of surprises. The whole big, beautiful, equally colorful future is about to happen.

I’m ready.

XOXOXOXO

 

friday 5 at the farm: feel good meals this week

Happy Friday!! Lots to celebrate over here. Lots of good stuff to press again into our flesh so it becomes more a part of us. 

 

Yesterday I got to nourish my soul as much as my body by gobbling up two hours of top-shelf conversation with my cousin Jen. Actually our moms are cousins. More importantly, we are friends and have been since we were little girls.

 

Jen and me at Roman Nose state park, circa the 80’s. Climbing rocks in flip flops? Since this is a food post, I will tell you that I clearly remember eating cottage cheese with pineapple that day, on a bed of lettuce. We also roasted hot dogs.

I am always so grateful to grab time with this woman. She lives in Colorado now, not far from Jocelyn. Needless to say, we have some fun activities planned for my next drive up.

I love you Jen!! Thanks for sharing your heart and your cake. 

 

 

Real quick, five meals that made me feel great this past week. 

I do not “meal-prep” in the traditional hashtag sense of the word, though I admire those of you who do. How fun to see what other people eat, especially folks with similar goals and lifestyles. For us, I just plan loose menus aiming for as many vegetables as I can find, some lean-ish protein, eggs, fruits, good grains and cereals, and, okay, copious amounts of caffeine. Also popcorn.

Close observers might notice a conspicuous absence of tortilla chips these days. Just an experiment to see I die from not eating them?

When I hydrate completely and nourish myself with just a little intention, I always feel better. Happier, more energetic, stronger for good consecutive days of running and farm chores, sleepier at night, comfier with life in general.

Handsome feels better with good habits, too. He and I eat the same more than our friends might believe. I might eat slightly bigger salads than he does, and he might like potatoes more than I do, but otherwise? Like 67.814% the same.

Onward!

 

1. Apple Oats & Strong Coffee with Full Fat Half and Half, no sugar: I ate this late Tuesday morning after running nine miles, six with my friend Sheila and three solo. I was cold, wet, happy, and pleasantly depleted. I got home and craved something sweet. Normally I put runny eggs in my plain oats, but this day a Granny Smith apple was perfect. Loads of cinnamon. I was at max energy for hours. And behold the extreme volume of froth on that coffee, thanks to my $1.79 IKEA gadget. Obsessed. 335 calories, 68 carbs, 3 fat, 12 protein.

 

2. Roasted Broccoli with Quinoa, Lean Ground Beef, & a Parsley Mountain: A few cups of broccoli thawed and roasted, a nice sized patty of lean ground beef, and a hefty scoop of quinoa-wild rice mix. I smothered all of it with fresh parsley and added mustard instead of salad dressing. I was so full and content. 537 calories, 15 fat, 55 carbs, 53 protein.

3. The Egghead at Red Cup: Thursday was lunch with Jen. We met in OKC at the Red Cup, an adorable, artsy coffee shop that has evolved nicely over the last couple of decades. First I ate this picturesque sandwich you see here, and washed it down with some pretty decent French Press coffee. The bread was marbled rye, and the good stuff inside was a fluffy egg or two, avocado slices, some salad type things, and maybe a smear of hummus? Delicious. No exact nutrition data to share, but I felt great after eating it and had energy all afternoon. See below for our dessert…

4. Vegan Peach Cake: Jen and I nibbled together on this cold, fluffy, nutty, fruity mound of indulgence in between updating each other on our lives lately, our hearts’ desires, and what books we both have read. We made this cake last a long while, man! And by the end of our two-hour lunch, still half of it remained on the plate. Not because it wasn’t good, because it was. It was just so dense. And we were both already so full from our actual food! Yum. 

5. Green Salad with Broccoli Slaw & Sirloin: Have you ever tried a baggie of that raw broccoli slaw from the produce department? I grabbed one a few days ago for a great price and have to admit, I love the convenience. I recently saw the idea of using these tiny veggies slivers in a stir fry, which I will eventually do. So far, on a “big salad” night I just added about half a cup of it, plain and raw, to a bed of chopped romaine and tomato, topped it with several ounces of petit sirloin and some vinaigrette, and called it a huge win. I ate a big handful of “air-fryer” russet potato fries afterwards, too. Yum. 464 calories, 38 carbs, 15 fat, 42 protein. 

Food regrets this week? Nope. We were well fed and happy every day, for which I am grateful. I feel super fortunate.

Wednesday night we ate that slightly famous homemade Chick-Fil-A pan-fried “pickle chicken,” this time on toasted hamburger buns, and I added cheese and peppers to mine. This dish did not make my top 5, but it was really good. I call it an extra win because I relaxed enough to enjoy every bite despite not being able to run that day. Still, let’s not discuss nutrition on that. Thanks. : )

Let’s admire a llama instead.

Meh the llama wondering why I take so many pictures of him.
Meh returning to his lunch of dried pine needles.
Klaus pouncing like a kangaroo to interrupt the pine needle lunch, actually having underestimated Meh’s agility. Yet again. The fight was short and sweet.

Why is food so fun to talk about?

Time for my long run! And then one already nicely assembled weekend about to launch. Gotta go.

xoxoxoxo