Lazy W Marie

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

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Grateful Holiday Launch 2012

   Whew! What a Thanksgiving! How was yours? Are you exhausted? Exhilarated? Are you so full of decadent food that you now want nothing but Greek yogurt, salad without dressing, apples, and chicken breasts? Is your house weeping for a good scrub, or is it already shining and sparkling with Christmas? I am somewhere in the middle of all of that good stuff, and happily so. Today I get to clean and decorate the house, run a thousand miles and do yoga, make Christmas cards from scratch, cook something healthy, sew nine aprons to sell, then read and review two books.

   I should do approximately all of that, 
before Handsome gets home from the Commish. 
In my dreams.

   My Thanksgiving weekend started with a long, wonderful Wednesday spent with my youngest daughter Jessica. Words cannot relay how refreshing it is to be alone with her, to catch up on her life and her heart, for her voice to fill the room and her arms to wrap around me. We had a girlish meal of hot tea from an antique strawberry tea pot, English muffins with local honey, peppered bacon, and fresh pears and oranges. Feeding her food we both love fed my soul much more than my body. I watched her with the animals, and she is the same as ever. Sweet and confident. I watched her walk across the room, though, and she is suddenly a young woman.

I love this photo so much. Jess named this bee Fred when it landed on her glove, 
and she seemed to thrill at the sound of the buzzing as much as I do.

   She suited up and helped me inspect the bee hives (good news/ bad news there; more on that tomorrow), proving her sweet spirit with every slow, steady movement. Saying goodbye at the and of the afternoon was painful, always more difficult than I show, and I think she would say the same. But I am deeply grateful for those hours together and for the rest it gives me to reconnect with her. I love her and her big sister so much, so constantly, that words fail me here every time.

   That evening Handsome and I attended another Thunder basketball game and screamed our lungs out! It was a close contest from beginning to end which culminated in an overtime victory for our beloved OKC team. So. Much. Fun. And such a great way to release tension!

   Watching the games on TV is great, but the entertainment value of a game there at the arena is in its own category of awesome. The music, the lights, the crowd’s energy, the wildness and civic affection of it all, is just unbeatable in my opinion. And the fact that we have a basketball team whose sportsmanship and skill kind of blows everyone else out of the water? Wow. So yes, the two of us are extremely thankful for the gift of game tickets so frequently. What fun!

   After some crazy late night grocery shopping on Wednesday, Handsome and I luxuriated Thursday morning then spent many long, carb-filled hours divided between his parents’ house and mine. We laughed with a fraction of our siblings (not everyone lives nearby or could travel this year). We played with nieces and nephews. We made plans to see lots of them next summer. Mostly, I think, we enjoyed seeing our parents happy and busy. It is a blessing not lost on us that we both have our parents alive and well and present in out lives. We love them all so very much and are grateful for all of the work and love that they poured into giving us a happy Thanksgiving!

   We had planned for house guests at the end of the week, but last minute changes left us with a clean, empty Apartment, so we did more luxuriating with each other at our own end of the house… Then a leaking hot water tank changed our plans again and some necessary Black Friday shopping for a major appliance tested our holiday resolve. Happily, we passed the test. I even bought poinsettias.

   Friday night both sides of our family gathered at the farm for a bonfire, some leftovers, pizza, and roasted marshmallows. I am still so thrilled that we can invite both of our families here and everyone blends in and has a great time together! This is a big source of joy for me, and I also appreciate that everyone is happy to bring treats to share. Watching children from both families play together and make memories warms me up.

   I think it’s just perfect that in the United State we celebrate Thanksgiving immediately before the onslaught of Christmas and all of the materialism and consumption that inevitably comes with it. This week I have stopped several times to be actively Thankful, to record my blessings either on paper (the spiral mandala) or on a chalkboard we have screwed to the wall of our stairwell. The chalkboard is a leftover from Brian and Rebecca’s wedding back in May, and we use it for all sorts of things now.

   Friday night our families helped fill it up with some really happy graffiti of thanks, and I gotta say… eventually erasing this communal masterpiece will be difficult. I predict these words and scribbles will be up for many weeks. Here is a list of what I found there:

  • romance
  • laughter  Laughter is so powerful.
  • sleep
  • happy marriage
  • my babies
  • my home
  • family
  • darling
  • family
  • Brandy & Marie  Okay, who wrote this one? Are you jockeying for an awesome Christmas gift? Because it’s totally working.
  • love
  • Mom
  • good jobs
  • life
  • time to play
  • God
  • …and his love for us 
  • our parents
  • home
  • marriage
  • bills paid
  • happiness
  • life
  • pets  Between the households just represented that night, I bet we have easily over a hundred pets. 
  • good books
  • art supplies
  • Matthew
  • healthy children  Amen, amen, amen. Whatever our other struggles, having healthy children is a blessing we should never stop appreciating!
  • friends
  • Matt I am growing a little suspicious of this now…
  • life
  • family
  • Amy
  • the right to bear arms  We are in Oklahoma, after all, where the open carry law just passed, and several of our family members are law enforcement. No surprise at this little celebration.
  • family

   Just look at how often different people mentioned marriage, family, home, and friends. We are obviously thankful for whatever brings love and security. We prize these above so many other things, even as wealthy and indulgent as we are. This floors me and motivates me all at once! Does it you?

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   So… Happy last week of November to you all! I hope you are off and running in your own beautiful ways to a memorable holiday season. I hope you take time to focus on the things for which you and your loved ones are truly thankful, and build on those rather than bleed your energies out toward things that don’t really matter. Pray for each other. Pray for my sister if you can. Dwell on beauty and possibility every chance you get.

   If I accomplish my crazy Monday Tasks list in time, I will be back tomorrow to discuss our Lazy W bee situation and maybe sell you some aprons. Have yourself a fantastic day!!

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
~Thornton Wilder
xoxoxoxo

 

10 Things the Thunder Taught Me

   Our Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team played an incredible season this year and also took our city, really our entire state and beyond, on a thrilling and memorable ride through the NBA Finals.

   Late last night they saw a bitter end to all of their hard work, losing the championship title to the Miami Heat, but they certainly did not lose any fans. They have, in fact, cemented their fan base with their dignity, talent, sportsmanship, and sheer entertainment value. I’d love to take a few minutes to honor them.

   Now, honestly, before this Thunder season, none of our friends and family would have dubbed either Handsome or me as an avid “sports fan,” but now I wouldn’t miss a game for anything and I already cannot wait for next season! Now, I ride the emotional roller coaster of every victory and every defeat, and now I am beginning to understand the plethora of sports metaphors that have eluded me all these years.

   For those of you who might not know, our team mascot is a buffalo. Kinda perfect, huh? Above is Rumble, the OKC Thunder bison who walks on two legs, sometimes on stilts even, and helps bring the crowd to boiling point game after game. He is a dancin man. Err, buff.

   And you all know Chunk-hi, our own little bison. He walks on four legs, never on stilts, but he also froths us up on a regular basis and can dance if the music is just right. Like Rumble, Chunk-hi prefers hip hop or rap. Loud.



   Oklahoma City home games are becoming widely known as unsurpassed in fan support. The events are always sold out and packed with entertainment;  the crowd is always ridiculously loud and energetic; and I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who regrets bringing this team here, who still doubts that we could support a professional basketball franchise, in terms of either money or morale. In a few short years the Thunder have become part of our civic identity, and we love them. We love them collectively as the tightly knit team that they are, and we love them individually. 

Hello Mr. Collison… Do you rebound ferociously here often?

   One of my favorite things to do during this Finals month has been to ask people “Who’s your favorite Thunder player?” Do you know what happens? No one can name just one guy. Everyone starts with one player, then adds another, then another, then another, often names in tandem. It seems that the Thunder plays so cooperatively with each other that fans have a difficult time separating them. I think that is awesome! At this rate, they can only increase in their connectedness and maturity as a basketball machine.

   Do you see the score and the timer? Handsome and I were at this game, you guys. I have searched my thesaurus for words to describe the feeling but sit here empty handed. The Thunder won by the way, 149-140, after two bloody, sweaty, screaming overtime battles. That guy there is Russel Westbrook. He is one incredible athlete and never boring to watch. I love how he celebrates on court!

   Okay, I have to share some things I have picked up from the Thunder this year. Some life-applicable things I see that the best of sports can teach us, even those of us who are a little late to the sports metaphor game.

  1. Positiveness: Head Coach Scott Brooks is known for his calm, positive, forward-looking approach. I have nothing to add to this. It’s simply the way to live, you guys.
  2. Focus: Brooks has also trained his team to view each game as solitary. Whether the preceding match was a win or a loss, all that matters is right now. Working to a certain extent with blinders on seems to serve this team very well, and I imagine it would serve us well too.
  3. The entire effort matters. We have watched the Thunder change the course of a basketball game in the final seconds, proving over and over again that it is never over until it’s over. OKC viewers have joked for weeks about how many nails have been bitten off and how many people are on heart calming meds during the games. Follow through, follow through, follow through.
  4. Learn to tune out noisy feedback, both positive & negative. This is a tough one, both to digest and to apply, but it might be the strongest bit of advice I have personally gleaned from this season. The Thunder certainly express gratitude to their fans on a regular basis, but they also make it clear that they are not playing for media service or talking-heads approval. They play for their coach, for each other, and for victory. Period.
  5. Hospitality counts. Oklahomans are a bit divided over this topic, but I have to mention the Charles Barkley thing. If you don’t know what I’m talking about and want to chat, let me know. My take away is that southern graciousness goes a very long way, in many directions.
  6. Study your opponent, then credit them. Nearly every Thunder game has been wildly different, because their opponents have been so different. Our guys start each game playing hard, then they begin to learn the other team’s game and adapt immediately. The Thunder flexibility and evolving powers are pretty impressive. They also finsh each game, win or lose, with honorable and appreciative comments about their rivals. How many of us can boast the same?
  7. Speaking of honor, Play clean & honorably. Our guys can walk away from this season with their heads held high, knowing they are watched under microscopes and still regarded around the globe as a clean, honest, noble team. Everyone can learn from this, no matter your walk in life. How you play is more important than the outcome.
  8. See today’s value and tomorrow’s potential in each other and commit to that despite (once again) outside noise. How many times do we hear post game comments from our players, highlighting not themselves but each other? And Coach Brooks’ adamant support of his relatively immature (but clearly talented) players is flat out inspirational. 
  9. Age is just a number. Thunder players are among the youngest and the oldest in the NBA, and they play together seamlessly. Enough said.
  10. No excuses. Even when supporters were making excuses for one thing or another, with the best intentions of course, the Thunder never did. I only ever heard them acknowledge errors and learning experiences, even when most people would have allowed them a public gripe session. To me, this is more testament to their incredible sportsmanship. It is also a needed reminder to us of the Oklahoma standard.

   Sincerest congratulations to head coach Scott Brooks, to all of his staff, and to every single Thunder player. You conducted yourselves as gentlemen; you played magically; and you gave Oklahoma another thousand or so wonderful reasons to be proud. We wish you all a happy, healthy off season and cannot wait to welcome you back to the spotlight! Thank you for all of this and more!


Your Newest Fan
xoxoxo