Lazy W Marie

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

friday 5 at the farm: highlights from the week

Five Stories & Memories Worth Keeping from Labor Day Week, 2018:

#1 Nourished

We welcomed September with a Polish feast at our beloved Sperrys’ home.

Pierogis (first for me!), kielbasa, sauerkraut, a big crunchy green salad, and then dessert…

Dessert may not have been authentically Polish, but I guarantee nobody cared. It was called “Banoffee Pie,” and it has changed our lives.

It’s a prebaked pie shell filled with slices of banana, which are drowned in a sea of homemade caramel, and all of it is then topped with a thick cloud of homemade whipped cream, and then some grated dark chocolate because Kellie loves us a lot. I googled the recipe and discovered that sometimes they are made on a shortbread crust, which I am sure is delicious as well. We ate it fresh that night with Kellie and Mickey; then we nibbled leftovers greedily for two full days. It’s one of those desserts that gets better with a little time in the refrigerator. Yum!

Evenings with the Sperrys are so great. We always eat well, which is sharing a meal, which is different than just grabbing a bite with someone. We laugh a ton. And we have deep and meandering, free-form conversations about anything and everything, all four of us. It’s pretty great.

Complete with so many pup cuddles, too. We are in love with their three dogs. This time, after dinner we joined them for a walk around the block. Don’t you love it when your friendships begin to include not just the big, orchestrated events but also the simpler pleasures and routines in life? 

#2 Season of Transition

Pool Season 2018 has been winding down. Every week, we have tried to spend as much time out there as possible. Whether we were in the thick of a tropical heat wave or hunkering down beneath more heavy rain, the pool has been surprisingly comfortable. But those temperature swings and the growing algae are making it all unmanageable. So Labor Day Week is very likely pool closing week at the W.

We are thankful to have been swimming for so many consecutive months this year. It’s been a lot of fun, especially with Bill the Rodeo Inflata-Bull. Ha! In fact, on Wednesday afternoon Jess (our youngest) brought a friend to the farm. They had a pretty entertaining competition over who could stay on longest. It seems there is a technique to not just staying on, but also to the getting on in the first place. If Summer 2019 includes more chlorine rodeo fun, we may have to agree upon a scoring system.  

P.S. I often tell the kids when I snap photos of them visiting the farm, that I will not share the photos online, haha! This is really tragic because they are all gorgeous kids and always take such fun and interesting photos! Anyway.  Please enjoy, instead, a photo of our dinner table garden bouquet and Jessica’s homemade pumpkin pie. Absolutely delicious! She altered the recipe in a few ways, and everyone loved it! 

#3 Back to Work

Having enjoyed so much time off together in August, this first week of Septemeber, although slightly shortened thanks to Labor Day, felt weird without Handsome at home.

The shift in weather definitely enhanced the overall feeling of a new season. It’s almost like back to school, although those particular autumn routines are far in our household’s past. Each “workday” for me this week has been packed with productivity, and my energy has been good and steady. I am noticing that Virgo draw toward deep cleaning and lots of order. I just miss our late lunches and easy afternoons, chilling together. xoxo It was another very good staycation. 

#4 Wet, Unfueled Run & God’s Timing

I had planned on a 12 mile run for early this morning. I ate a good dinner Thursday night and slept well. Unfortunately, we woke up to not just the predicted rain, but flash flood warnings. I normally would eat a bite of peanut butter toast or something before a run that long, but given the time crunch, I decided to just get to the trail asap and grab as many miles as possible, then see what the day might hold. (Treadmill finish is always an option.)

I ran and ran, giving thanks for the excellent glycogen stores from last night’s chicken and broccoli-rice, clicking off one mile at a time. The rain stayed soft and gentle, with lots of black clouds but no lightning and no floods. So I kept running. Eventually, I hit 9 miles at that easy pace then got really tired and really hungry, haha. Then the asphalt got slippery, so all of that together meant that I slowed down quite a bit. The morning finished with exactly 11 miles, injury free, ha! 

This story is worth remembering because YES we can do more than we are prepared to do and because YES if God’s timing can be trusted with the big miracles in life, then surely His timing can also be trusted with little things. One mile at a time.

#5 Thoughts on Loop

I almost cannot stop thinking about a few topics:

  • Adaptogens and adaptation, not just in health and fitness but in all areas of life. Humans are so adaptable! 
  • Will I ever be able to grow zucchini again without squash bugs making me crazy? (spoiler alert, unlikely)
  • The fine line between prayer and meditation and how slow-paced running is definitely related
  • The movie Interstellar (which I haven’t seen in a couple of years but the themes are always with me)
  • Granola, mostly pumpkin infused with lots of coconut, nuts & seeds, and dark chocolate
  • Exactly what to plant in the two big rubber troughs flanking the barn mural

Regarding those trough planters in the above photo: I have some ideas but would love your suggestions! They are both filled almost to the top with well rotted manure, they get eastern exposure, and they are some of the first things you see before parking your car along the gravel drive. I would love some ideas for year round liveliness or at least seasonal color. Thanks!!

Bonus Content:

Friends, we have a few huge miracles brewing, from several areas of life. We have for so many months asked for prayer, and we appreciate every single one.

Now we are in a season of giving thanks. Giving thanks for the present moment, for the hope that keeps us moving, and for the ever increasing evidence that God is working behind the scenes in supernatural ways.

Please keep it up! And please know that we are thrilled to send you Love and pray for you every time you need it. Just let me know.

Tomorrow is Jocelyn’s 23rd birthday. I am so happy and so grateful, I keep catching myself giggling and weeping over it all. 

God is good. Life is beautiful. The whole adventure is just amazing.

Happy September!! Talk again soon!

XOXOXOXO

the trouble with having a lot of words in your mouth & fingers

About a week ago I issued a mild rant on Facebook about how shiveringly cold the stores all seem to be during the summer months. Like, I had been grabbing a few groceries and stopping for farm supplies and maybe caught pneumonia. My fingers were numb, you guys, and dark blue. Full disclosure: Being out and about immediately following a sweaty run makes it all worse, and I had forgotten to bring along dry clothes and warm layers, but still. Facebook complaining is fun. Everyone agreed with me on how bitter cold the stores are. I felt vindicated.

Then this past Thursday morning, I prepared for the situation. I set out for my sweaty miles and subsequent errands with dry clothes and a cozy zip-up jacket in tow. I felt like the smartest adulting adult in town, prepared for the arctic retail world. 

Around noon that day, I walked into Sam’s to grab desserts for a party that night. (I have not even told you all about Handsome’s birthday week!) As I entered, the woman attending membership cards and such asked me whether the jacket was a return, or did it belong to me. I launched into a detailed, flowering, and informative discourse about how cold I had been last week, about how in fact my teeth were chattering, and how happy I was to have remembered a jacket this go-round. Obviously, she was about to agree with me, right, and complain a little about the air conditioning or the heat then say good job for remembering a jacket and dry shirt?

Instead, there was an awkward pause, so obviously I filled it with more words.

“It’s just so hot outside, you see, and so cold in here.”

She was non-plussed, just looking at me, not blinking really. Just standing there in her reasonable, climate-appropriate clothing and blue vest with pockets.

“All. you had. to say. is that. it’s yours.” She spoke this plain sentence so carefully that I could see it being diagrammed in the (very cold) air between us.

“Oh, ok, yes, it’s mine.” My voice wavered, having lost all the storytelling enthusiasm from a moment ago. I won’t bother lying to you, friends, it hurt my feelings a little. Did she not agree about how cold it always is in there? Or did she not care? Did I smell bad from sweating profusely? Did I remind her of a mortal enemy?

Which is why I haven’t been blogging much. I have scads of amazing stories to tell you guys, truly amazing ones, stories way better than this, but I literally never know where to start or how to stop or exactly how many details you want. They are all important to me, but what do you want to know?

Do you care about the exact contrast between orange butterflies and hot pink zinnias? Or do you care to read about the drifts of basil I am loving or the hyacinth bean vines that bring everything full circle, or the honeybees? Do you crave to know about how the horses drive me crazy in equal proportion to how much I love them? Or how much my heart is breaking for our friends whose life is recently turned upside down? 

Do you want to know how my fitness experiment went in August, or could you use some killer salad ideas? The Book of Joy probably warrants a straight up Lazy W podcast, I am not even kidding you about that. And all the millions of ways that God has been tending to our needs and desires just astound me. I am shivering more from the thrill of all that than from the cold grocery stores lately. This gradual build-up of strong summer energy and the full moon last week and the beginning of a new season of life, parenthood, sibling relationships, books worth reading and why running is actually really important to me. My gosh, the reasons for not writing have nothing with having nothing to write about.

Meanwhile, my paper spiral notebooks are overflowing with daily entries. The farm is thriving. Our marriage is enjoying a burst of life and flavor that make me crave that bubblegum with a juicy center. Gratitude seems too pale a word for it all. And the days slip past too quickly, even with the yet unanswered prayers keeping us grounded and humbled. Thank you for listening. Don’t forget your jacket, ok?

“Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.”
~Allen Ginsberg, quoted in On Being a Writer
XOXOXOXO

 

 

 

friday 5 at the farm, camera roll short stories

Because, as always, life is bursting with long, deep, worthwhile stories but also, therefore, are my days too full to properly tell them all, how about a quick look at cell phone snapshots from the previous few days? I’ll hit the high points.

Oklahoma Weather: Depending on your perspective and chosen activity, our weather lately has been either gloriously cool and wet or murderously humid. You have to admit, though, it is wonderful to be a week and a half deep in August sunshine and see the ponds and lakes overflowing instead of burning up to cracked-apart mudholes as so often happens this time of year. And we could easily be in triple digits again. Yes, we have mosquitoes, and yes, running and working outdoors can be challenging; but the gardens are bonkers! The hay meadows are lush and heavy with big round bales, freshly cut. And the Lazy W chickens are sure happy, too. Egg production is up from 4 per day to 11 or 13. I’ll take it! 

Nourishment: So much great food. Every day I am learning more details and themes about what my body needs to feel great and not only get the most from my workouts (so different right now) but also stay feeling amazing for the rest of the workday.

Except for Tuesday, when I ate one million and a half cashews (fail number one), and Wednesday, when I let myself get too hungry during the thunderstorms and ate a third of a box of Triscuits (fail number two), I have paid good attention to nutrients and the size of my meals and just overall stressing way less about stuff. I will write more about this in an upcoming health post, but the whole shift away from running has kind of messed with my mind a little.

The photo below was from Monday, our traditional weekly pasta meal. Whole wheat noodles (LOVE them) with fresh garden tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, and some shredded chicken breast. Add garden fresh basil, obviously. So filling and tasty! And I felt that ticklish, content feeling while eating it with no regrets later. Unlike the day I inhaled the truckload of cashews.

Shameless Sweaty Selfie: Taken after a particularly exhilarating 9-mile run, fasted but well hydrated. Behold the blotchy skin and copious amounts of sweat. This was only one of two times this week that running felt really great, so I had to capture the moment. The funny thing was that my pace was only about 20 seconds per mile off from the day before when I felt like I was literally going to die, but this run was like flight. Bouncy, strong, filled with that lemon-juice-and-trampoline energy, you know? Endorphin City. (My car was parked.)

New Farm Animal Alert: Oh I forgot to tell you guys we adopted a big strong gorgeous boxing kangaroo! Smiling is his favorite. We love him so much it hurts a little.

And for the grand finale…

Jessica Turns 21: This is certainly one of those milestones that begs a long, fully explored, detailed writing. And I have tried, believe me. While writing for a few hours twice lately, attempting to wrangle the emotion, most of the words got stuck somewhere between my ribcage and my hands. Finally, it seemed like the words that did make it out were meant more for her, privately, And that’s ok. I know most people will understand that. But here is a snapshot of the three of us at dinner this Thursday, a very happy moment in the midst of a very happy life. And look at the words above our heads!! We got our baby back.

And I know in my heart that soon Joc will be joining us in these special moments. I feel it. We believe it.

Okay, onward to the next interesting project!! Handsome is home early today spraying paint on his big behemoth Cadillac. Klaus (the kangaroo) is napping between bouts of fetch and llama chasing. I have a pile of excellent things to do. 

What is new in your world? What snapshots from your cell phone could tell some pretty great stories? 

Happy Friday!! Thanks as always for checking in!

Redeem the Time
XOXOXOXO

 

cultivate

After a gentle, soaking rain this morning, we went outside to survey the farm and accept some of the afternoon’s unexpected sunshine. It was warm, but in the shade still plenty comfortable. My husband loaded the spool of the weedeater and started tracing clean lines around every raised bed, sidewalk, and rock border. This makes us both so happy. Clean edges are heaven.

I fed the animals, played fetch with Klaus, and started pulling weeds from inside those edges. So many weeds lately, everywhere you look. The lushness of our summer weather extends to all forms of life at the Lazy W.

I mentally celebrated the rambling hyacinth bean vines and vibrant gomphrena and zinnias, gave thanks for the tomatoes and basil, and got a jolt of early excitement thinking of the seeds that were planted yesterday, in the bare earth where all forms of zucchini vines had been. (I do hate squash bugs.)

Then I saw the daylilies. They seem to have stopped blooming too early this year, and that’s a shame because they are normally so tall and gorgeous, such a deep, electric shade of orange. Lately, I see only the decapitated stalks, sometimes hanging onto a withered dry bloom, the plants’ brown leaves falling exhaustedly downward. Too early.

I started combing away the dead parts, gloveless, and scooping them into my wheelbarrow already full of weeds and dead stuff. My hands went after the task easily, twisting and pulling old lilies from the pliant earth.

I caught sight of one fistful of green and brown and realized it was not lilies. I was pulling grass, too. But a foot or two up, the grass looked and felt so much like the daylilies that I hadn’t noticed. I threaded my way up and down and forested through the flower bed to see exactly what was growing and where.

I was kind of stunned to see how much grass was choking out the daylily stands, but also relieved. Maybe cleaning everything out would rejuvenate the flower bed.

The thing that really stuck with me was how similar the grass felt to the flowers. An uninvited imitator, a fraud. And one that had gone undetected for a while yet was easily uprooted.

It all leaned hard into my thinking lately about cultivating. Pulling up what doesn’t belong to make room for what does. Cultivating. Feeding what you want to grow. Eliminating what no longer serves you. I couldn’t stop smiling as those grassroots popped out of the damp earth and sprinkled dirt on my face and arms. 

This is a snapshot of the shade garden about a week ago. It has already changed so much, again.

Cultivate.

Cultivate our homes, our work environments. Our routines. Our work products, after all. Our diets. Our social media feeds. Our reading material. Our schedules. 

Cultivate our relationships. Our friendships, family bonds, romances, all of it.

I adore the idea of cultivating our lives in every way. To my thinking, it all comes down to the smallest things. For all the big planning we do, all the garden architecture and herculean seasonal efforts, sometimes we need to kneel down and feel each thing by hand, no gloves, face to face with the details. Uproot the bad habits in the exact moments that you see them and make the yes/no choices one at a time, slowly and mindfully. 

So that all the things we do want more of have all the space they need to flourish. 

Just some food for thought on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon. 

“We must cultivate our own garden.
When man was put in the garden of Eden
he was put there so that he should work,
which proves that man was not born to rest.”
~ Voltaire
XOXOXOXO

 

 

 

friday 5 at the farm, tidbits this week

Hey friends and happy Friday!! Whew.

For us, this was the first week back in full swing following two weeks of travel and staycation, and we feel it. In good ways, mostly, because life is beautiful. It feels great to be back in healthy, deliberate routines. And we feel so blessed and buffered, you know? And tired, haha. My husband especially. He returned to the Commish early Monday morning and after several twelve hour days has crashed at the farm every evening, drained to the max. We are looking forward to a fun, restorative weekend filled with a nice mix of work and play.

Here’s a quick Friday 5 at the Farm post, just a handful of noteworthy details that set this past week apart.

#1. Weirdest Homemade Meal That was Very Amazing: Oats microwaved with zucchini noodles and milk plus two over-easy eggs. You guys. I am smitten. Delicious, filling, super good for my body at that exact moment. And now I’m hooked.

#2. Klaus Discovered his Reflection in a Mirror: He was super cute about it. He peered at his own image then caught sight of mine and followed me around the room, seeking eye contact but in the mirror. He even brought one of his favorite un-fluffed bears to share with his glassy twin, but when I crouched down and was affectionate to the other Klaus, the real Klaus was not happy and scooped up my hands in his paws and kissed my face. I took a dozen photos. I will only burden you with this one. 

#3. Fancy Chicken Food: Every night this week I have been freezing our kitchen scraps in a bundt pan filled in with water and offering it to the flock the next morning. They are appreciative enough but no less demanding about the exact contents of the ice sculptures. I hope they don’t start expecting turndown service, too. Or mints on their hay pillows. Although they do get springs of mint from the garden. 

#4. Another Fun Family Night: Wednesday evening our whole (local) family gathered at The Garage burger restaurant in Del City to celebrate our beautiful niece Kenzie’s 11th birthday!! This was after I got to spend most of the day with Jessica, my youngest, who also joined us! You could say my heart was full to bursting. We love you so much, Kenz!!

#5. Egg Apron for the Win: Twice this week I spent a few hours in the Apartment, not just ironing for the first time in two weeks but also sewing! So fun!! My aunt Kristi in Texas is keeping backyard hens and requested one of those cute egg-collecting aprons. Have you seen them on the internet? Friends have been tagging me in various examples for months, but I’ve been a little intimidated without a pattern. Happily, the little box-pleat pouches turned out to be pretty simple, and the whole apron is cute too. I hope she loves it!! 

What a full and beautiful week.

I could also have told you about checking on and feeding the honeybees, which was thrilling because we are now loaded with dripping rivers of golden honey. Or about how it took me the bulk of two days to get the house “clean” again after two weeks off or away. The floors alone. My gosh.

Or you might be interested in this new fitness routine I’ve been following all of July and how surprised I am to be loving it, despite the greatly reduced mileage. Certainly, a whole blog post could be about a stand up comic routine my sister Gen recommended, how it made me laugh and cry in the space of about 45 minutes. It left me reeling, truly. Please watch it.

And of course, always, the gardens here. How wild and full they are, and how the basil and tomatoes are taking over the world.

Later tonight, assuming we can stay awake past 8 pm, we might get dressed up and go to OKC to watch our friends perform at a Western saloon. I might wear my favorite embroidered boots and do some extremely terrible dancing. Good possibility of an outdoor movie night at the farm tomorrow, weather pending. And who knows what else might come up?

Trite as it may sound, I feel Love pressing in so closely that I feel safe walking around with my eyes wide open, breathing deeply. Like, not only is anything possible but truly everything is about to happen.

Thank you for stopping in. I wish you the very best weekend!! Carpe those diems, ok?

“You learn from the part of the story you focus on.
I need to tell my story properly. “
~Hannah Gadsby, Nanette
XOXOXOXO