Lazy W Marie

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

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Just One Strand for Charlie Brown

   This year Handsome and I decided to follow a yearning we’ve both had for years, that is to find and decorate a skimpy, humble, happy little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. 
   In years past we both I always buckled to the pressure of big and bold, doubtlessly playing silent games of comparison for the girls’ comfort and approval.  This is one of the hidden, if slightly treacherous, blessings of having accepted our circumstances for now: We are learning how to feather our nest for ourselves now and then.
Brief Side Note: Can a thing be slightly treacherous? 
Isn’t it either treacherous or not? 
Are there in fact varying degrees of treacherousness? 
I don’t think so. 
But there are varying extremes of grief. 
And there are many shades of gray in matters of
dealing with grief. 
We’re getting stronger, FYI.
xoxoxo
   Soooo… early one recent evening we found our boots and jackets and took a chilly but romantic walk through the Pine Forest next door. We found about a dozen worthy tannenbaum candidates, including some table top babies and more than a few Griswald-style giants. You know what I mean. The kind that inevitably houses rabid squirrels and such. The kind that looks like an appropriate size in the context of a FOREST but is sorta not appropriate in anybody’s living room.
   Our voluptuous momma cat Fast Woman accompanied us on the trek. She was fascinated by our path and scratched trees left and right to encourage the search. Two of the horses heard our noises and, possibly thinking we were Sasquatch, came galloping and screaming up to the forest edge. Daphne especially was steaming and panting. What the heck was actually going through her equine mind? I’d love to know.
   After about half an hour we settled on a tree close to seven feet tall, once trimmed, but certainly on the lean side of life. If our tree was bacon it wouldn’t be bacon; it would be Sizzle-Lean. It would tell other bacon trees to move over, cause now there’s something leaner.
   The trunk is skinny enough for us to wedge into an Ozarka water bottle which I found by chance in the barn. The Ozarka bottle also seems to be the perfect hydration system. And with a few household screws twisted into the base, our tree stands nice and straight. We pretty much feel like geniuses around here. Behold our egos.
   In years past, with our bigger, thicker trees, the Christmas light loading took a while. It required some serious unraveling and a dab of  yoga prowess. It was a job.
   Not so this year.
   We still chose to make the lighting a ceremonious event by making sure we were both there, turning off all the other lights in the room, and generally being in the right spirit. We even watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special. But I think it took about three minutes. No, make that two. 
   We used exactly one strand of white lights, and our tree is simply glorious. 
Glorious to us, you guys.
Glorious to us.
   I know everybody usually shares photos of their trees in fully decorated pomp and circumstance, but we’re feeling very peaceful and slow paced around the farm right now. Really soaking up the moments and trying to enjoy the truest joys of the season.
   I might decorate it tomorrow, now that our lights are up. Handsome also traced the front of our house with white lights, which pleases my soul. 
Life is good. 
Christmas is Merry.
I Love Our Tree.
xoxoxoxo

I Like to Eat my Turkey from a Big Brown Shoe

   For days now, strong ideas and long strings of words have been swirling delightfully through my mind and body. I have slept soundly every night and woken up refreshed every morning, already surrounded at dawn by the warm winds and bright colors of philosophy and possibility. In every corner of my house I have been ferreting away notebooks and slips of paper scribbled up with eurekas and scriptures that have never felt so real before, with observations about the universe at large, questions posed about conflicting ideas, recipes that feel important to me and so surely I must share them, and overly edited photos that tell long, interesting stories (at least to us).

I found this on Pinterest. You. Are. Welcome.

   But I haven’t taken the time to write this week because things have really been hopping around the farm, precluding me from focusing on any one idea and polishing it into something presentable. 
   We have had a large predator here (probably a bobcat or cougar but almost definitely not Sasquatch) and sadly have lost our Tom turkey, a pair of guineas, and at least one rooster. This means that now all the birds, cranky geese included, have been penned up 24/7 for their safety. This means that they are restless and extra noisy, but in a far removed way. This means that I desperately miss them walking around the yards and gardens. Their soundtrack and fluttering presence are both features of daily life I have come to need. This means that I now spend an extra amount of time in the chicken coop every day talking to them, petting them, and generally listening to them. 
   I have also been fortunate to receive several Green Goose orders this past week, so a chunk of every day is spent sewing. This means that my sewing room looks like an F-5 tornado hit. Thank goodness I have not yet acted on the impulse to replace the solid door up there with a windowed farm house door that is partly wrapped in chicken wire, because nobody needs to walk down the hallway and see that chaos.
   Thanksgiving is tomorrow, of course, so I have been following a torrid series of cleaning chores, rearranging impulses, table settings, cooking, and extra cardio, lest we arrive at the first of December having taken two steps back instead of one more forward. Speaking of stepping forward, I kept to my goal of not buying anything at all new for autumn decorating. Except for two things. But these baby pumpkins were grown here, which pleases my soul. 

   The big animals are all busy growing their winter coats, too. This requires me to touch them a lot more than normal and inhale them deeply, up close and personal.. These are important and time consuming tasks, you guys, and they’re further reasons why I haven’t been writing.

   
   Below is a glimpse of the Thankful Tree which I will be forcing my guests to decorate soon. We will write on paper leaves the things for which we are thankful and hang those leaves on this branch. Friends and family will either love it or hate it. Okay, I will love it and they will love it a LOT. By the way, I have been getting lots of emails from PW begging me for photography advice, because clearly I have mad lens skills, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. She’ll be fine.
   But the main reason why I’ve not been writing much is just sheer, perfect, mind numbing shock that People magazine has yet again selected the wrong man for their annual crowning of “Sexiest Man Alive.” Bradley Cooper? Not disgusting. But also not sexier than this guy…
   And he has so many incarnations…

   When will we resist the mainstream? 
   Anyway,  there’s a lot going on. I am so happy to be on the brink of Holiday Season 2011. Good things are happening. Love is stronger than ever. Hope is rising and building just like we need it to. 
Wishing you and yours all of your favorite dishes and twice as many blessings!
Happy Thanksgiving from the Lazy W
xoxoxo

Turkey Warning

   It hit me yesterday that we are on the brink of Holiday Season 2011. It hit me like a frozen turkey on the wiggly part of my kneecap, but in a surprisingly good way. Now listen, I am not really a fast-forward-to-Christmas type person. In fact I greatly prefer to savor each holiday and special event as it comes, making it last as long as possible. But I also like to be prepared, and we all know that once Thanksgiving hits, the winter sands fall fast and furious through December’s hourglass. And this year I have sworn to N-O-T wrap gifts in the back seat of the car while Handsome drives us to a Christmas party. Nor will I mix A-N-Y dough that has to rise and bake in the same half hour. So I have some planning to do. Care to join the madness?

This is Clark Kent, aka General Grievous (because of his fantastic running style).
He is our big Tom turkey. He knows nothing of the American tradition of eating turkey dinner,
and we would appreciate your help in keep things this way.
His sense of personal safety helps him focus on supervising the smaller birds, 
which is his self appointed farm duty.

   Okay. As of right now, twenty-one days stand between me and our first scheduled holiday dinner of the year. And of those twenty-one days, seven are devoted to weekend fun with friends and family, so really fourteen days are available to prepare for Thanksgiving, winterize the farm, sew up some sell-able aprons, and  keep the animals fat and happy. Hopefully I’ll be spending some time with my beautiful girls too!

   Oh, and about ninety seven minutes ago I broke my O-T-H-E-R front tooth, 
so there’s that added to the calendar.  I am not even kidding.

  Inspiration is in no short supply.  Here are a few of my faves:

  • The Taste of Home website, which is packed with wonderful, more traditional recipes and bits of planning advice. Their article about planning ahead throughout the month of November could not have  posted at a better time!
  • Pinterest, where I can feed voraciously off of the creativity of others and assemble boards of my own like this one.
  • Country Living magazine (the only periodical I still get in print.  Unless you count the Anthropologie and seed catalogs, which I do N-O-T but perhaps I should)
  • Martha Stewart, in every possible incarnation.
Pinned Image
Yes, I still pay attention to her.  And I always will.
But the best part of this photo is not her oak leaf cornucopia craft project
but rather that old, chippy table and the candlelight glow of the whole arrangement!
Wow.
I have the normal seasonal chores to do:
  • fiercely editing and scrubbing the fridge, freezer, and pantry 
  • organizing and restocking the spice rack 
  • taking inventory of table linens and mending, pressing, or adding to that as needed
  • setting up a really great baking station and a ready-for-anything food packaging drawer
  • shopping early and thoroughly to avoid the eleventh hour crowds
  • cleaning underneath the furniture and inside the closets forgotten over the long summer
I see a handful of special projects on the immediate horizon, too.
  • re-cushion and recover the seats of our dining room chairs (Been meaning to do this for a while. A long while. It’s embarrassing.) as well as two old church pews
  • repaint the interior doors and frames and a few baseboards
  • sew a few special aprons (Have I told you guys about Tie One On Day yet?)
  • lots of fun crafts as time permits
  • prepare for the chicken coop Christmas decorating contest we’re entering
A few lists would be good.
  • Which parties are we hosting? Which are we attending? What recipes? Write a master detailed cooking list.
  • What Christmas gifts are being handmade and which are being purchased? I had better be well underway by Thanksgiving! This means one project completed every two days or more.
  • What recipes can be prepared ahead of time and frozen, and when will I be home to do this?
  • Which projects can be worked on in the evenings, watching movies with Handsome?
  • I will need to make visible, tangible progress every single week day. Every day counts. Use a calendar.
   
Pinned Image
   I am under no illusion that everything will be done perfectly and ahead of schedule. I am honestly relieved just to have organized my thoughts and started some shopping. Whatever unseen force kick started me yesterday must have known that today I would break my tooth again, because had I not already cleared the cobwebs from my mind I would already be surrendering to anxiety.  Instead, I am truly happy to see the holiday season approach!  We have so many blessings to count, so much love to enjoy, no amount of cleaning, crafting, or cooking could really do it justice.
   Here’s wishing you an organized but festive month of preparation for Thanksgiving and beyond! Count the good things in your world. Especially your front teeth.
xoxoxo