Lazy W Marie

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

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top ten posts of 2014

Whew, are we actually at the end of the year already? Or, finally? Yes, both. Happy end of the year to you, friends. I thought it would be fun to glance backwards and see the top ten posts of 2014. I am always surprised by the thoughts that spark the most conversation, so this is fun for me.

Fearless. A post from last January was all about replacing fear with faith. And it led to a wonderful year, I almost can’t believe it! My journey to that “aha moment” to say the least.

fog, lazy w, oklahoma, faith

Slow Food Early Spring Ordering Also from last January, a lot of us were pretty excited about getting our gardens started! No surprise. I keep company with some wonderful growers.

july 2014 harvest

Reviewing Dee Nash’s Book! Then in February I was honored to be one of the bloggers who previewed, reviewed, and hosted giveaways for my friend Dee Nash’s first book, the 20-30 Something Guide to Gardening. That was so fun! She photographed me for her book, too, even though I barely qualify for this age group, ha!

Ted Bundy Ah, yes. Ed-tay Undy-bay. If you haven’t read this story yet, you might want to take a few minutes to do so. Pretty funny.

Notes to Boys I have had the pleasure of interviewing lots of authors, but this one stands out. Pam Ribon’s book Notes to Boys was laugh-out-loud hilarious, wonderful, smart, and just everything good about books by authors from my generation. Trading notes with her was even more fun. Here is my review of her fabulous memoir.

Harvey’s Story I ran the OKC Memorial Marathon for the first time last spring, more than anything to honor my husband’s parents, who were first responders to the Murrah Building bombing in 1995. Harvey was kind enough to sit for a lengthy and heart-touching interview over a series of quiet nights at the farm. And the first part of his interview was well accepted. You all were so affectionate to him with your words.

No More Belly Dancing for Me In August I became a belly dancer and then stopped. I had reasons.

me-hula-cropped

Worm or Pasta? I am neither proud nor terribly upset by this, but my dilemma over identifying a weird house plant passenger got plenty of traffic. This post from September was, well, interesting.

worm-or-pasta

Introducing My Great-grandpa’s Apiary Journal Last year my Uncle Tim gave me the most wonderful gift, his grandpa’s (my great-grandfather, Papa Joe) beekeeping journal. I introduced it to you in January and have been sharing entries from it in bits and pieces every since. More to come in 2015!

bees aug 2014

Clinging to Love Throughout last year I wrote pretty frequently about the incredible power of Love, prayer, faith, and positive thinking. In May I strove to clear up a few misconceptions and hope that it was successful. I think a lot of you, my friends, are thirsty for affirmning words and deep spiritual nourishment. It is available! And truly anything is possible. Even more of that this coming new year.

june maroon lily

I am so thankful for you, every time you choose to click over here and see what’s happening at the Lazy W or in my head. I’m looking forward to hitting reset in a few ways and starting the fresh new year with better focus, longer reach, and deeper love.

Are there any Lazy W moments from this past year that stand out to you? What about in your own life? I would love to hear.

For the record, it was a worm.
But not a butt worm.
XOXOXOXO

a wonderful, unremarkable day

Yesterday was so fun in a patchwork-Christmas kind of way. I was busy from the minute I woke up to the minute we crashed in bed (I fell asleep with my red kimono still on, I was so tired). Monday was filled with sewing projects, animal silliness, fresh high-vitamin food and also frosted sugar cookies, scarlet red poinsettias, and two of the people I love most in this world. It was an unremarkable day by the calendar, but it was absolutely thrumming with Love. And already I can see that today is, too.

It started early. While sitting at my sewing machine in its temporary dining-room spot, I heard a harsh tapping on glass. A cute little white chicken we named KFC was perched on a milk can in the front flower bed, staring into the picture window there, tapping her beak on the glass. I had already fed everyone. So much, in fact. I  swear, the more I feed the animals the more they expect to eat. It’s ridiculous.

KFC the chicken trying to pressure me into giving out more treats.
KFC the chicken trying to pressure me into giving out more treats.

Then a little while later I heard the same tapping and discovered that KFC had relinquished her window post to this hen we have named Red Dot. (So named because she is red and has a dot on her face.) Red Dot stared at me with the most disgruntled expression a chicken can possibly have.

red hen in window

The big mood lifter for everyone yesterday was the return of sunshine. For more than three weeks Oklahoma has been wrapped in fog, dark clouds, and just a flannelly cocoon of winter weather. We are not built for this much darkness! I really don’t know how people in the Pacific Northwest cope with it. So yesterday we all felt refreshed just seeing the sun. I went for a quick little 3 mile run wearing only a light jacket, and I had thoughts like better get the pool opened up soon!

Even with cool temperatures, feeling sunshine on our faces and arms was pure luxury.
Even with cool temperatures, feeling sunshine on our faces and arms was pure luxury.

Even the animals were in high spirits, as if the window-tapping chicken story wasn’t enough to convince you. Our oldest was home for most of the day and did some fun ground work with Dusty, her horse. And by ground work I mean they practiced climbing hills and played gone-gone peekaboo.

These two. xoxo
These two. xoxo

It was a cookie-making night, and I had so much fun. I even stopped counting how many carbs were sneaking into my grateful mouth, that’s how much fun it was! Martha Stewart’s Royal Icing recipe, by the way, is perfect. Perfect, easy, and stunningly uncomplicated for her. It gives a nice glossy shell and is thick. My only complaint about last night’s cookie extravaganza was the conspicuous absence of red food coloring. Why? Why is there never any red? In twenty years of having my own kitchen, I have owned red food coloring maybe three times. It’s mystifying. Who is taking it? The chickens?

Bet royal icing: one cup powdered sugar, one egg white, few drops lemon juice, food coloring. BAM. Perfect.
Best royal icing: one cup powdered sugar, one egg white, few drops lemon juice, food coloring. BAM. Perfect.

How is your week of Christmas going? I hope your heart is peaceful. I hope your home is warm with joy. I hope your expectations are set more on Love and surprises than on purchases. I really hope you’re not counting calories… just pleasures and memories and moments.

Thanks for sharing a few minutes with me! Happy Christmas Tuesday, friends. I’m off for seven miles and some Christmas caroling with the parrot.

“He who has not Christmas in his heart
will never find it under a tree.”
~Roy L. Smith
XOXOXOXO

 

I love people who… Christmas edition

Back in August I wrote a fun post about some kinds of people I love. You all were so great! You added your own loving thoughts at the end of that post, on Facebook,Twitter, and in email, and it was one big warm fuzzy. Let’s do that again for Christmas, okay? Okay!

paperwhites

At Christmastime I love people who…

Send out Christmas cards with cute family photos in them.
Send out Christmas letters giving updates
on their family’s major events from the past year.
Or forget to actually mail their Christmas cards
even though they were purchased last year on sale and are just so cute.
(Not that I’ve ever done that.)

I love people who are devoted to real trees
and buy them from the same tree lot every year.
Also people who go cut down their Christmas tree, Clark Griswold style.
Who use artificial, pre-lit trees and fluff them out religiously.
Or who fawn over elegant flocked trees.
I really am crazy about people who love their antique metal trees.

I love people who host cookie exchanges and wear Santa aprons and silly sweaters.
I love people who faithfully buy those round tins of Danish butter cookies
and share them with me.
People who build actual gingerbread houses? Those folks are just plain legit. Amazing.

santa cowboy

I love people who feel passionately, one way or another, about Elf on a Shelf.
You just do you. And I’ma do me. Okay.
I have been known to actively defend parents who lie to their children
for too many years about Santa, etcetera.
It’s magical. I love you for lying about it a little. Or a lot.
I love every one of you who hangs a stocking, leaves cookies for Santa,
or feeds Santa’s reindeer (we do that).

Do you observe Advent? Do you light one more candle each week, pray,
and read devotionals with each other?
I love you. That is beautiful.
I love manger scene traditions and Christmas pageants,
solemn hymns at midnight and angels and stars as tree toppers.
I also love families who sing only the ridiculous, funny holiday tunes!
Who doesn’t, deep down, want a hippopotamus under the tree?

At Christmastime I adore folks who go all out
making handmade gifts, baking elaborate sweets,
covering every edible thing in the house with chocolate,
and crafting perfect paper snowflakes. I love those things!
I also think people who stick with gift cards are the bomb-diggity,
because they usually have more time to cuddle and watch movies!
Like Elf.

I really really love people who hang lights on their house,
whether it’s a simple white strand over the front door
or a complex, colorful, set-to-music extravaganza
that triples the electricity bill. It matters.

cool lights

 

How could we ever go on without the tradition keepers?
How could we ever manage to laugh at ourselves without the more carefree among us?
I love all of you, each of you, for every bit of magic you bring to Christmas, year after year.
And to those of you who I’ll see this season, I hope I can find some magic to cast in your direction, too.

Merry Christmas!!
XOXOXOXO

 

5 things times 4 for Mama Kat

This week I am accepting Mama Kat’s fun invitation to write four lists of five things, following her prompts. I like lists. Let’s do this.

5 Things You Don’t Know About Me:

  1. I have broken my two top front teeth a total of at least nine separate times. It all started in about 3rd grade but has happened as recently as two years ago. I should totally tell you those stories sometime. Or not.
  2. I have two beautiful, smart, talented, loving daughters, ages 17 and 19. I write about them pretty scarcely but they are on my mind every minute of every day.
  3. I am the oldest of five kids, and my sweet parents had me when they were barely 16 years old. I have always been proud of their accomplishments, of how they raised a family so early and with such little preparation. As we all three age, I feel closer and closer to them. I have good friends who are nearer to their age than mine, and it helps me see my parents as people, not just parents.
  4. Our house is probably haunted.
  5. I am really, really, really afraid of frogs. It’s embarrassing. And we have a lot of frogs at the Lazy W. It’s awful.
teeny tiny green frog, the stuff of nightmares
teeny tiny green frog, the stuff of nightmares

 5 Things I’m Knowledgeable About:

  1. I can diagram any sentence, any day of the week, without compensation. I actually love doing it. Some people might correct your grammar while you are speaking; I will silently diagram your spoken sentences.
  2. Beethoven and Mozart are not unfamiliar to me on the piano. My favorite is Moonlight Sonata for its mournfulness.
  3. With a little encouragement I can change the oil in both a Camaro and a Jeep.
  4. Photosynthesis makes so much sense to me it’s ridiculous. All the mysteries in a garden are beautiful, meaningful, enticing poetry and I cannot get enough. And I am one week from the end of Master Gardener classes, yay! They have taught us a metric ton of good stuff there.
  5. Parrot behavior. I should probably write a book on it. Since little infant Pacino came to live with us almost 10 years ago (WOW) we have learned a lot through trial and error. The parrotish things we know to be true are close to what other people say, but I honestly think we know a bit extra. His vocabulary is exploding right now, by the way, which is fun. At last count he had mastery of 130+ words and phrases. Look out, world.
This was Pacino earlier tonight while I was just getting started. He helped me a lot b cuddling my arms and eating most of the tortilla chips I had out. Thanks, buddy.
This was Pacino earlier tonight while I was just getting started at the computer. He helped me a lot by cuddling and kissing my arms and then eating most of the tortilla chips I had put out. Thanks, buddy. Thanks for helping me avoid a few empty calories.

5 Things I Know Nothing About:

  1. Calculus. Also, wait… which math discipline comes right before calculus?
  2. Wrestling, both professional and normal wrestling, like at high school. Have no idea about it. Are they both fake, or what? But thanks to the Expendables movie I do know that it can cause something called “cauliflower ear.” I think my little brother really lucked out on that one.
  3. How to pronounce the brand name “Aeropostale.” This word makes me loopy. So when I find myself in that rare but inescapable situation where I need to say it aloud to someone, like maybe at a cool thrift store? I try to say it as fast as possible and under my breath. It never goes undetected, sadly, and that too is embarrassing.
  4. What the heck is the difference between megabyte, SEO, and the Cloud? Where did everyone learn this stuff? It was all just invented, right?
  5. How to make my eyebrows pretty. Just kill me.

 rp_january-plate-collage-with-sticker.jpg

5 Things I Believe:

  1. That your imagination is terrifyingly powerful. The places you allow your mind to wander and rest can (and most likely will) become the scenery of your reality. So be bold, be careful, and be positive with your thoughts.
  2. Names and titles matter. Use them with intention and loyalty.
  3. Running a few miles and drinking good, rich coffee every day truly makes me a friendlier, more energetic, more generous person. It’s just silly to mess with that routine.
  4. Love is more powerful than any emotion. It is more powerful than hate, bitterness, anger, sadness, anything. But Love has to be invited in, welcomed, and nurtured. It is more than a feeling; it is a mode of action and a thought process. A true force of nature. Made full, Love really can conquer all. I believe that in my bones.
  5. The moon has legit influence over us. I have been watching the moon phases for a few years now and believe whole heartedly that people, animals, and the garden and weather are all affected by the waxing and waning of this beautiful heavenly body.

haunted farm lazy w oklahoma ghost story

 

Thanks Mama Kat, that was fun! My list of “Things You Don’t Know About Me” could have been much longer, as could have the list of “Things I Know Nothing About.” But such is life. Thanks for stopping in, everyone! Now please tell me something about yourself using these prompts!

“Know Thyself.”
~Socrates
XOXOXOXO

Kat Bouska
http://www.mamakatslosinit.com/

happy veterans’ day to my brother

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