Lazy W Marie

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

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worries melting like snowflakes

November 17, 2014

This morning Handsome and I crept outside for a later-than-usual Hot Tub Summit. The air was cold and gray, the sky already quilted white and releasing a slow, reluctant curtain of snowflakes. We soaked up both the cold and the heat and unbraided ourselves from sleep. With nowhere to go today and a blessedly short list of duties, we had a really easy time staying relaxed. Oklahoma weather teams have been preparing us all week for a snowfall today, maybe an inch. And while we never fully trust the forecast, we did get a little excited. If not for the cold (Handsome belongs only on the beach), then certainly for the unwritten excuse to hibernate. We are happily immersed in season two of Dexter right now. Plus, so much romance… We have lots of ways to pass the time.

While we were sitting in the steaming froth I watched several fat, lazy snowflakes flirt in circles in the cold air around us. They melted easily, even before touching our skin. The steam probably dissolved them. I closed my eyes and took a silent inventory of all the little dagger-shaped worries that have bothered me this week. So many small, panicky moments, so many sudden fears piercing my happiness. Mostly what-if thoughts about my children.

Phantom worries that never came to fruition.

I am so lucky to be nourished by crystal-clear scripture, good literature, the best of friends, and more than my fair share of Love. Basically, grace. Loads and loads of grace. Had those dagger-shaped thoughts landed on a cold heart they might have stuck. They might have pierced me through and drained me of all my life. But instead, they fell over and over again on a warm, healthy place. They melted before they really touched me.

I have nothing against the snow. It’s beautiful and muffled and rare. It is infinitely more pleasurable that ice, after all, so when we get a blanket of the magical stuff I don’t mind celebrating it. I especially don’t mind hibernating with my handsome husband.

In the hours since this morning’s hot tub magic, we have received much more than the single inch the weather folks predicted. The farm is heavily snowed under, thick piles of it everywhere. But the message is still clear to me: Tiny worries melt quickly in the heat of faith and Love. They can pile up too, if we let them.

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Please forgive my mixed metaphors, friends.

More importantly, feed your faith. Nourish you heart and keep it warm. Stay healthy and receptive to the best of things. It helps you resist worry. It helps you stay whole.

Signing off to count my blessings and go watch a baby llama play in the snow.

Thank you for stopping in, friends.
Much love and many melted snowflakes to you.
XOXOXOXO

3 Comments
Filed Under: daily life, faith, thinky stuff, weather, winter, worry

cranberry-almond biscotti

November 16, 2014

Friends, I am once again in love with a new cookie. A biscotti, to be exact. Cranberry-almond biscotti. I recently found this recipe in an old, worn out issue of Food & Wine magazine and couldn’t wait to try it. Because, while every other woman in the civilized world is fawning over pumpkin this and pumpkin that, I’m just not that grooved by it. I have maybe two pumpkin recipes in the whole universe that I like enough to bake myself, and that’s it. But cranberry-almond? Whisper it to me. Press it into my arms. Leave it in small, neatly wrapped packages where I will least expect it. I looooooove anything cranberry-almond, and I don’t care who knows it. Anyway.

lazyw, recipes, oklahoma, food and wine magazine, biscotti, cranberry almond, cookies
cranberry-almond biscotti

The word biscotti actually means twice-cooked in Italian. It’s interchangeable for cantuccini, or coffee-bread. Perfect! Because really good, dense, stale biscotti tastes amazing soaked in hot coffee. So good. People also dunk it in sweet wine for an elegant, late night dessert. Apparently biscotti is meant to have nuts in it, particularly almonds. So for me this makes life worth living.

I’ve toyed around with double-baking regular cookie recipes before, like chocolate chip, and it turns out okay. But really without the almonds it’s just not the same. It lacks the important crunch. Also, the dough recipe here has far less sugar and butter than standard cookie recipes. It seems like a great base to play with later. Exciting!

Okay. The ingredients here are simple. I only needed to buy one new item, almond extract, and it promises to be useful all winter long. Totally worth a few bucks.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar (see what  mean?)
3 Tablespoons butter, melted & cooled
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup almonds, coarsely chopped (1 baggie…I used the slivered ones)

cranberry almond biscotti

 

Method:

1. Melt the butter to browned stage and remove to a cup so it can cool. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare one baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2. In one largeish bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. In another bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar at medium speed for a few minutes until the mixture is pale and creamy. Add to this the butter and almond extract. Inhale the perfumy goodness. Pour the smooth egg mixture over the dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon till well combined. Now stir in the almonds and dried cranberries. (By the way, aren’t these delish? Way better than raisins. Yum.)

3. Flour your hands a bit then mash up the dough really well, massage it into a consistent ball and divide into two logs. Shape them to about ten inches long, flatten them, and arrange parallel to each other on the parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, to golden color. Allow to cool slightly. 

4. When slightly cool, use a sharp serrated knife to slice logs on the diagonal into half-inch slices. Turn these slices on their sides, cut sides down, and bake once more for about 10 minutes. Now let them cool completely.

5. With great anticipation, plan which hot beverage you will use to soften these treasures before placing them on your grateful tongue. I strongly recommend French roast coffee with heavy cream, no sugar. 

cranberry almond biscotti

 cranberry almond biscotti

cranberry almond biscotti

cranberry almond biscotti

Okay, have I tempted you to try this? If you’re not a fan of dried cranberries, then just sub in chunks of dark chocolate. Or maybe trade slivered almonds for pistachios? How else could be dress up this twice-baked adventure? I am pretty excited to play around with it.

Now please excuse me while I dunk one more slice of this manna straight from heaven into my last mug of perfect coffee for the day. We are huddled up at the farm, waiting for the season’s first snowfall.

How are you spending your Sunday? What new cookies have you tried lately? Do you agree with my distaste for most things pumpkin, or am I the weird one here?

Feed your body, feed your soul.
XOXOXOXO

2 Comments
Filed Under: recipesTagged: cranberry almond biscotti

garden boot camp

November 13, 2014

Hello again! I am so glad you stopped in today. I have lots of farm stories, recipes, and even crafts to post, but while I have a minute I am quickly sharing a great gift idea for the gardeners in your life. Particularly the Oklahoma gardeners. It’s more than just new rubberized gloves or even rare seeds; it’s the gift of knowledge that will inspire and inform the plant-loving devotees in your life.

Oklahoma Country Master Gardeners hosts garden boot camp in January.
Oklahoma Country Master Gardeners hosts garden boot camp in January.

Every winter the Oklahoma County Extension hosts a Gardening Bootcamp for locals to attend and bone up on their growing skills. For just $40 you (or your Mom or your best friend or your Grandpa or your neighbor) can enjoy a hefty dose of the expertise, guidance, and inspiration of Master Gardeners without making the full semester and volunteer hours commitment. The boot camp is for three consecutive Saturdays, all in the dead of winter while your planning, plotting, chlorophyll-craving brain is in restless overdrive. Perfect!

I will have finished the Master Gardeners classes by then, and will possibly be in the full swing of answering phones at the Extension office. But I am still considering attending this boot camp as well as Schroeder Wilson’s Geek School (more on that later). How much knowledge is too much, anyway? The folks who host these events are just wonderful. Smart, funny, generous, and passionate about their craft. I know that your $40 will be well spent, as will your precious Saturday time.

morning glories w cicero quote

So sign yourself up! Or purchase a reservation for a gardening loved one. Print off the flyer up top, and give it as a Christmas gift with those rubberized gloves or rare seeds. How perfect. What gardener, young or old, new or seasoned, wouldn’t appreciate that?

Okay. On to adding a hundred cotton layers to myself before another round of outdoor chores. Oklahoma winter has certainly arrived. Happy Thursday friends!

“If you have a garden and a library,
you have everything you need.”
~Cicero
XOXOXOXO

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: gardening, master gardener class, OklahomaTagged: garden boot camp, oklahoma master gardeners

happy veterans’ day to my brother

November 12, 2014

Hello, friends! Thanks for stopping in. I’m taking a minute to wish someone very special a happy Veterans’ Day. He is by coincidence visiting his California home for a few days right now, in the middle of a long deployment. I hope he can feel this little written hug across the miles.

 

My first little brother is Joey. Joseph, really, to the known adult world. I was about six when he was born and for much of our lives people have mistaken us for twins. He has always been a wonderful little brother. I love him so much.

That's me holding Joey and our sweet sister Angela. Before we ever knew there would be a Genny or a Phil. xoxo
That’s me holding Joey and our sweet sister Angela holding his hand. This was before we ever knew there would be a Genny or a Phil. xoxo Three cheers for calico!

 

Joey grew up smart and strong and married the most amazing woman, Halee. I happened to be hanging out with him the day after their first date, and I will never forget how he could not stop talking about her.They fell madly in love and she fit right into the family, effortlessly. In the years since Halee has become much more than a sister-in-law to me; she is one of my closest friends. She and I have had countless conversations about being married to strong, career-minded men. It’s a gift for which I am grateful, and I know her husband appreciates her support. I think the two of them are a great portrait of teamwork in marriage. They display the beauty of complementing strengths and of having a united front, skills they have needed through one deployment or job change or relocation after another.

This photo was taken in 2009 at a Navy ball. I love seeing Joey in uniform and Halee in formals! Such a gorgeous, loving couple.
This photo was taken in 2009 at a Navy ball. I love seeing Joey in uniform and Halee in formals! Such a gorgeous, loving couple.

Together they gave us all an amazing little nephew to love. Greg is a cutie who as a toddler ate his first bite of watermelon here at the farm. Then a couple of years later we were walking in the back field and he suddenly jumped into our pond, with zero warning! No problem, it was like three inches deep there. He was fine and we all laughed and laughed.

Oh, Greg. I am crazy about anyone who takes their watermelon this seriously.
Oh, Greg. I am crazy about anyone who takes their watermelon this seriously. And, friends, look at his face and try to not see his daddy. I know!

 

Since college Joey and Halee have been building an incredible life together, mostly revolving around the United States Navy. They have made one difficult decision after another, weighing options and opportunities, trying to see into the future and know ahead of time what is best for each other and their little family. For all of us, really, because no matter the distance, whether stationed in Japan or Africa or Florida or San Diego, no matter the weight of responsibility, they have always stayed closely knitted to family here in Oklahoma. They have been determined to not only meet their obligations but exceed them. And now Joe (that is really hard for me to do, not call him Joey) is now an accomplished Navy officer. A Lieutenant Commander to be exact, working as an engineer and a Diving Officer, currently stationed in Japan.

hoey bw dive

I won’t pretend to know everything this life path has cost you, Joey, but I hope it has brought you at least as much reward.  And I hope you feel loved and appreciated for everything you do, day to day, year after year. You are pretty quiet and humble about your military career, as it should be I suppose. But do you still know how proud we all are of you? How thankful we are for the example you are setting for the next generation, and for the work you do for this one? When you and I do get the chance to sit and talk, I treasure every minute. I see you as the blonde headed little boy in grade school, constantly playing Legos, and I see my infant brother who once stayed overnight in the hospital with an IV in his scalp. I see the teenaged boy amazed to see his tiny niece for the first time and the college student who still found time to come home for birthday and Halloween parties.

Happy Veterans’ Day to you, Joe, to your colleagues, and to Halee and Greg who are the closest members of your team. You are loved. You are admired. You are appreciated for your sacrifice and devotion. Stay safe and happy!

With so much love,
Your fake twin sister
xoxoxoxo

 

Thanks again for stopping in and reading, friends! If you or someone you love is a military vet, consider yourselves hugged and thanked by the Lazy W. xoxo

1 Comment
Filed Under: family, memories, thinky stuffTagged: Veterans' Day

magical, grateful november day

November 9, 2014

What a gorgeous, sparkling-sunshine afternoon. I feel the magic of November all around me. And several hours stretch between right now and the next hectic time, so I want to frame this moment. Before I ask for anything else, before I think of what’s coming around the bend, I want to give thanks and breathe deeply the Love that has already been offered.

nov 9 porchnov 9 fall bordernov 9 aging crepe myrtlesnov 9 travel pecan treenov 9 dormant sunflowersnov 9 brilliant maple

A quiet walk around the farm is stunning right now. The colors, textures, and easy sounds of autumn intoxicate me. And our life is so combed through with mercy, I feel the need to pause and take stock more often. The weight of uncounted blessings is wonderful and keeps me conscious. Keeps me wide-eyed and in the moment.

We all have big problems and we all have heartache that has been sapping our strength for so long we almost can’t remember what life was like without it. But maybe just for today, lay it down. Maybe just for today, allow the particular beauty and magic of November to refresh you.

Just look around and see how beautiful life is, just exactly as it is, right this minute. Be content with your abundant blessings. Let yourself feel overwhelmed by beauty. Be stirred by the mystery of things you could never accomplish on your own.

And tomorrow, or whenever you have to deal with reality again, your soul will be refreshed.

“Gratitude is the memory of the heart.”
~Jean Baptiste Massieu
XOXOXOXO

1 Comment
Filed Under: 1000gifts, daily life, small stones, thinky stuff

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Hi! I'm Marie. Welcome to the Lazy W. xoxo

Hi! I’m Marie. This is the Lazy W.

A hobby farming, book reading, coffee drinking, romance having, miles running girl in Oklahoma. Soaking up the particular beauty of every day. Blogging on the side. Welcome to the Lazy W!

I Believe Strongly in the Power of Gratitude & Joy Seeking

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