Lazy W Marie

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

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Grape Fruits & Good Thoughts

Have you eaten a ruby red grape fruit lately? I bought a big bag of them last week and have been enjoying one per day ever since. Each one is massive and almost completely edible, even the white fleshy membranes. So tender. They are juicy beyond belief, like biting into the ocean. But a sweet, tangy ocean. They need neither salt nor brown sugar to temper the powerful flavor, because they are naturally perfect lately. When your teeth grip the pink, webbed meat and fruit juice splashes in your mouth, you can literally hear the vitamins collide with your blood cells (it sounds like sparklers on the Fourth of July), and within minutes your future seems brighter, stronger, more likely to improve. I ate one this morning and my bank account instantly went up by like forty three bucks.*

 

grapefruit

 

I’m a pretty big believer that regarding physical health, what you put into your body matters a great deal, as much as or possibly more than what you do with your body. I believe the same about our minds. What we are able to do with them comes a step after what we allow to seep into them. Or at least, the two are so intertwined that we might as well consider mental input-and-output as one. An infinite circle of thought, whether healthy or toxic. And we all know by now that thought is the beginning of action, is the beginning of habit, is the beginning of path and character, etc…

 

What do you allow into your body, your mind, your home, your heart?
What do you allow into your body, your mind, your home, your heart?

 

That’s about all I have right now. Just some encouragement for you to make conscious choices about what kinds of mental influences you allow in your days. Beyond positive or negative: What schools of thought are your entertaining? What social attitudes, spiritual leanings, and life approaches are regular parts of your thinking diet? I know I have to stop and ask myself these questions once in a while. Unexamined ruts are no good.

Also, buy some ruby red grape fruits. They are spectacular right now.

Eat well, listen well, move better, think better
XOXOXOXO

*disclaimer: this is a lie

Friday 5: Animal Captioning

Happy Friday!! How about a Friday 5 at the Farm? Today, let’s caption stuff.

Anyone with animals, if they are being honest, will admit to spending plenty of time speaking for those animals. Whether you have dogs and cats, horses and llamas, or even just a pet rock, you probably watch your beloved non-humans live their domesticated lives then provide your human spin on their thoughts. I bet you even use a special voice for each animal.

The only exception to this might be if you have a parrot. Parrots tend to speak for themselves, whether you like it or not.

Trust me on this.

Around the Lazy W, animal-captioning is the cheapest and most abundant form of entertainment. I mean, clearly, we have a bevy of critters who need us to interpret their thoughts, right? Handsome and I catch ourselves speaking through the farm animals like it’s second nature. It’s always hilarious and only occasionally disturbing.

So. Tonight for Friday 5 I’m gonna share five farm animal photos and the thought captions I’ve thought up for them. Then I’d flat-out LOVE IT if you’d try to read their thoughts and write new captions. If you happen to know these animals and their personalities, either by visiting the farm or by reading this blog, then you have an advantage. Go wild. Be smart. Be hilarious. Be inappropriate. Be thoughtful. Have fun!!

 1. Ethel & Chicks

ethel with chicks and captions

2. Dulcinea at the Bee Yard

llamas guarding honey with caption

3. Big Boys Discussing Thunder B-ball

chunk dusty ibaka caption

 

4. Pacino & His Baby

pacino with chick for edie corrected caption

5. Romulus the Heartsick

rom diddly caption

So there you have it. Five photos, five captions by me. You can do so much better! Let me hear it.

Happy Friday, friends, and happy weekend!

XOXOXOXO

Happy Mice are Running Mice

I read the funniest article yesterday about an experiment performed on wild mice and other rodents, an experiment to answer the question about whether these creatures would exercise at will, given the alternative of freedom. (I did not realize this was a burning question in the scientific community, but what do I know?) You understand what I mean, right? Do mice traditionally run on treadmills just because they have to, given their laboratory setting, because they have nowhere else to go, like the proverbial hamster wheels? Or do they run for pleasure?

mice like to run too
I am trying so hard to stop eating tortilla chips at every meal of every day of my life. It’s gonna be a process. Salted cucumbers are a decent stand in. Light a candle for me.

I bet you see where this is going. Because had the test results pointed to LAZY MICE, I would not bother to share it with you.

Well, friends, the mice ran. They ran their little mouse hearts out! The treadmills were positioned in open fields, near well populated forests, and the undomesticated little sweeties had every opportunity in the world to do anything else they wanted to do. Like, forage for example. Or sleep. They could have had mouse-battles with sweet bowstaffs. They could do anything besides run, but over and over again they chose the tiny mouse treadmill. The scientific consensus was that the mice literally ran for pleasure.

Bam. There, it’s official. Running is fun!

Honestly I wish all my friends and loved ones could feel the deep and lasting high I am always talking about. After a while it’s like your bones are literally glowing. But running might not be for everyone. The thing is, is (hi Jon!) that you don’t absolutely hafta run to be happy or healthy. But to be happy and healthy you do have to find something physical to do on a regular basis. Find activities that get you gross-sweaty and also help you bliss out, then do them over and over again. See where that leads you.

As for the running-addicted mice, I just want to know how they figured out the myriad settings on the treadmill. Because WOW those machines are too complicated!

Be like mice and run happy.
XOXOXOXO

 

 

Friday 5 at the Farm: Upcoming Projects

Happy Friday! Man, you guys, there are so many wild, love-blown, vastly more important things I crave to talk to you about than what projects I’m doing at the farm. So many prayers, miracles, hopes, and worries that need to be named and celebrated. I mean, obviously the worries don’t need to be celebrated; but the conquering of them does. Life is amazing, and the elasticity of time is blowing my mind lately. Einstein had it goin’ on. Anyway.

hammock time

Resting in promises comes more easily some days than others. But I always build up so much energy when I finally do. Keeping my eyes on the light, not the shadows, recharges me.

These important life things I crave to discuss need to simmer a while longer. Maybe forever, I don’t know yet. In the mean time your prayers are appreciated. And let me just say I have recently been reminded that praying is a lot more powerful than just hoping. They compliment each other, but they are not substitutes for each other. I’m great at hoping and imagining good things (kind of an expert). Praying? I could do a lot better. I’ve grown a bit too passive in my day-to-day peacefulness. That’s changing. Anyway.

On to Friday 5 at the Farm.

My personal calendar is about to switch over from spring to summer, and I see fun projects all around me.  Such variety, too! Here is a round up of five worthwhile shenanigans I have up my sleeve:

Book Page Wall…

I’m thinking this will become the new wall treatment for my colorful little kitchen pantry. Last year in New Orleans I bought an old paperback copy of Julia Child’s first cook book, and the pages are the perfect yellowishness and flatness. My idea is to layer those pages first, like you see here, then start adding old family recipes on top, in frames. Really excited for this!

(source via pinterest)
 

 

Farmer’s Market Display…

I’m a far cry from selling produce constantly, but very soon there will be farm fresh herbs, eggs, mixed greens, and veggies available for sale at the Lazy W. Also some llama manure and chicken litter. So… why not? It’s adorable, anyway. “If you build it they will come,” and all.

 

f5 veggie stand

Gold-Dipped Glass…

If anyone ever submits my name to a television show about hoarding, it might be due to my glass collection. Mason jars, cheap florist vases, salad dressing carafes, Mexican soda bottles, you name it. I experience physical discomfort at the thought of discarding a shapely piece of glass. This, coupled with my renewed interest in all things glittery and gleaming, might make for a summer afternoon of gold dipping.

f5 gold vases

New Bees Arriving…

In the next couple of weeks I’ll bring home our new bee colonies! There is prep work to do, and I am so excited. I almost backed out of it this spring but have decided to buckle down and learn what I don’t know. It’s so worth it!

f5 honey sweet

Long Run!

Oh, friends. The marathon. Such a great experience! Then it was over. I ran very lightly the week following it, then I let life funnel my energy elsewhere for a couple of weeks, grabbing two or three miles or maybe some time on the elliptical machine  when I could. Now this week I am crawling my way back to a nice, steady trail routine. I feel amazing. Running is the best! This weekend and next week I have penciled in some 10-15 mile adventures (maybe more) that really have my heart singing! So… pasta!

f5 carbs

 

So that’s what’s up in my world. Also, if you’re interested, I’ve done a fair amount of reading lately and have so many books to tell you about. The garden is really taking off, too. It’s that time of year when I could stay outside for eighteen hours straight.

Now please tell me about you!

  • What crafty projects do you have planned this month?
  • What really difficult challenges have you almost abandoned, then decided to accept?
  • What are your reading?
  • Where do you run?
  • Tell me your thoughts on prayers and hopes and how they are related.

Happy Friday, friends! Thanks so much for stopping in.

“Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
XOXOXOXO

 

 

(almost) wordless wednesday

Yesterday afternoon while brushing Chanta I sat down in the grass. He let me stroke his long, sturdy legs. He snuffled the top of my head and knocked my cheap sunglasses to the ground. I leaned against the meat of his forearm, passenger side. Then, exhausted from the morning, I laid down on the grass, flat on my back, still holding his brushes. He look me square in the eyes and exhaled all of his sweet, grassy horse breath on me then swung that massive head to the left.

chanta in sun edited

He started crunching the grass all around the edges of my limp body. He could have walked away, grazing the full expanse of the front yard and vegetable garden area, but he stayed with me. Munching and breathing around me. Almost beneath me, tickling my ribs and moving my legs out of the way if they covered a little patch of sweet clover. My hair sprawled out on the ground was in danger of being mistaken for hay. I wondered if Chanta was trying on purpose to make me laugh and thought for a while about anthropomorphism then felt sad for people who don’t know animals are emotional creatures.

The sky behind him was both blue and gray, quilted with brilliant clouds and warm with the sun. The farm was sleepy, full of birdsong and buffalo chuffing, peaceful.

I know the truth about some things that I can’t articulate. Sometimes I allow fear and grief to drain me, but Love always sweeps in and fills me back up. The storms always calm, and the sky always returns to it gray-blue brilliance.

XOXOXOXO