Lazy W Marie

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

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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

 

Friday 5 at the Farm: Not Marathon Related

I have so many more things to tell you about the marathon! So many. But the next piece is a bit lengthy, and it’s Friday, so how about a quick breather? Five quick little farm updates that have nothing to do with running. It’s a miracle.

Do you divide your new blooms before planting? It;s a great way to spread color around the garden.
Do you divide your new blooms before planting? It’s a great way to spread color around the garden.
  1.  We have three new baby chicks. My friend Mrs. Robinson, who taught both of my girls when they were little (a million years ago) recently welcomed me into her new classroom of first graders, where I took a couple of our farm chicks to visit the kids. They were all busy tending to incubators full of hopeful little eggs and wanted to see what their feathery future might hold. Well, on Easter weekend three robust little yellow chicks entered the world, and this week was the perfect time for them to go live at the farm, literally. They are assimilating so nicely, and we love them. I’ll say again: There is nothing quite so sweet as having tender, chirping little baby chicks in your home. They soften the blow of living.
  2. I have finally purchased most of my warm-weather veggies, and I have that early-summer giddiness happening in my belly and on my bare arms. The weather this weekend should be in the high eighties, maybe even the nineties, and this is my sweet spot. So excited. We’ll be doing lots of garden updates very soon!
  3. New books! I had a crazy long lunch break while subbing seventh grade today and had forgotten to bring a book to read, so I went to the local library and scooped up a stack of goodness. While supervising an afternoon video marathon in Science class, I plowed through 130 pages of Stephen king’s On Writing. It’s a book I’ve been wanting to read for ages, and so far it is exceeding my expectations. I also checked out Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis and A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, two more titles over which I’ve been really salivating. One or two others, I can’t remember now. I’ll definitely post reviews here soon.
  4. Tomorrow is another Zombie Bolt 5k,and this time it’s a mud run obstacle-course style event. It should be a blast! Really cool people, really fun times. And the weather could not be better for it. Handsome and I get into costume and everything. So much fun!
  5. I crave to run like you would not believe. I’ve eaten well and exercised very lightly all week, until one fried food meal tonight. (I made the mistake of waiting until I was exhausted to find food.) But my body just craves a good, long escape like crazy. SORRY! I mentioned running. Sue me. If I show you these cute babies will you forgive me? 
Sometimes birds flock together even when they're not of a feather. Such is the case at the W, usually. xoxo
Sometimes birds flock together even when they’re not of a feather. Such is the case at the W, usually. xoxo

Okay! Please tell me something going on in your world! Any animals stories? Any new books? What’s growing in your garden? Going for a run this weekend?

“Just living is not enough. 
One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”
Hans Christian Andersen
XOXOXOXO

 

Friday 5 at the Farm: dreams last night

My hands smell like oregano and my hair smells like sunshine, in the little kid-who’s-played-outside-all-day way. And it’s not quite 10 am. Today and tomorrow, no running. Just fun with friends and loved ones, fellow runners and amazing supporters who have no clue how deeply their love is felt and appreciated. I really can’t sit still. Here are some dreams I had last night…

I dreamed that oregano was growing everywhere, prolifically. In every crevice of the farm, in every parking lot in Oklahoma City, every field around the world. Every where I went in my dream, I inhaled its peppery savory scent, and those tiny green leaves fringed every sight.

I dreamed that it was race day. Handsome and I were standing in the rain, watching thick, violent bands of lightning split apart the black sky above the Devon tower, wondering where everyone was. Wondering why it was 10:30 a.m. and no one had started the race yet. Then I realized in that awful dreamy awareness that I had gone to the wrong spot downtown and missed the entire thing. I woke up at 3:24 panting.

I dreamed that my oldest daughter was nine again and cuddled next to me in my bed. She was shining those pretty brown eyes at me, asking me for breakfast. My best friend’s beautiful daughter is turning ten this weekend, I am sure this has to do with it.

I dreamed I was wearing a cobalt blue embroidered Mexican dress. It was quite fetching but stiff, starched. The backside of the embroidered flowers cut my skin.

I dreamed I was swimming in salty, shallow water, sunshine pressing down on me hard like a weight. Handsome was watching me from the beach. I swam too far into the deep, came back, swam too far again. The water slowly lost its color was eventually as clear as glass, no blue. No salt. Just light and wet.

I have no idea what these dreams mean, if anything. I do know that I woke up having to pee so bad I barely made it the fifteen feet across our carpeted floor to the master bathroom. And after I finished my coffee this morning I filled my slow cooker with boneless chicken breasts and a big heap of fresh oregano from my herb garden, threw in some sea salt and minced garlic, and wished it well. Is oregano the new basil? Possibly.

 

Bright, warm sun, a ticklish breeze, and simple white clouds. Perfect.
Bright, warm sun, a ticklish breeze, and simple white clouds. Perfect.

 

It’s just after ten now, and M is on her way to the farm. We have yoga planned. Then a day at the Memorial Marathon Expo and waking around the Festival of the Arts in downtown Oklahoma City. We have the best friends in the world. Fingers crossed that the weather stays as drop-dead-gorgeous as it is right now! Hugs to everyone running this Sunday!

XOXOXOXO

 

 

fractals, Love, & wild geraniums

In my vegetable garden there are four raised beds built from wood that was once the kids’ old playhouse, one chaotic heap of compost, a corner full of empty bee hive supplies, and space allotted for a Three Sisters patch (corn, beans, and squash based on fish heads). There is also a cool reclaimed-wood arbor dressed in faded flag bunting, some gently sagging barbed wire where asparagus might still be growing, a thornless blackberry bush, and this old metal chair spray painted black.

 

wildcraft garden chair
The tallest greens you see here are wild geraniums. The llamas love them! I’m trying to learn about foraging in Oklahoma, so for a while at least these “weeds” are treasures.

 

I have allowed the weeds here to grow pretty wild lately, just enjoying the lushness and sexiness of a new season taking over the landscape. The abandon of life, crawling and undulating all over the place… Filling every void… Scenting the air with chlorophyll… Irresistible.

To the visitor’s eye, surely my vegetable garden looks crazy. Unkempt, perhaps even neglected. But food is definitely growing there: In the raised beds I have spinach, cabbages, carrots, radishes, potatoes, kale, snow peas, and mesculun. And you know what else is growing? Creativity and freedom. This messy rectangle is an ideal spot for reflection and analysis. Plain old day dreaming. It’s a self-contained fractal and one of my most favorite places on earth.

An unbelievable three and a half years ago, our book club read and discussed William P. Young’s The Shack. Since then I have healed from certain things so much and have gained such a healthier perspective on life. I might even read the book again to see how it hits me now.

 

My purposes are not for my comfort, or yours.
My purposes are always and only an expression of love.
I purpose to work life out of death,
to bring freedom out of brokenness
and turn darkness into light.
What you see as chaos, I see as a fractal.

 

Today I am at the farm all day. No subbing, nowhere to go, lots of wonderful, worthwhile stuff to do. And I couldn’t be happier. My days are so different from each other lately, and woven together they present a gorgeous pattern of life well lived. So much Love every where I turn, it’s pretty incredible. I am deeply grateful.

Sitting here at our dining room table, the winds are picking up, blowing the curtains hard through open windows and blasting me with the brief, exotic perfume of irises and lilies. My coffee is getting stale now, telling me it’s time to go outside. I feel certain yearnings but have trouble wishing anything at all were different, even the heartaches we still have. Life is too beautiful and wonderfully unpredictable just as it is. I so firmly trust, now, finally, that Love has purposed everything.

XOXOXOXO