Lazy W Marie

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

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no longer surprised by joy

February 8, 2015

When I first opened my eyes this morning, sunlight was streaming into our bedroom warm and smooth, molten, kinetic. The walls were pulsing with that wonderful early morning sheen, thick with golden light, and then in a moment it was gone. Slipped away in the cleaner white light of day. A rare moment captured.

Then a little bit later when Handsome and I stepped outside with our mugs of perfect coffee, ushering the chickens and geese out of their nighttime coop and tiptoeing towards Hot Tub Summit, we caught another rare moment. The east pasture and middle yard were capped with a thin blanket of wooly fog, rolled out like a blanket no more than twelve or fifteen feet above the ground. Through that fog, more sunlight streaming fiercely, joyously, making every tree branch come to life despite their dormancy. The backlit fog was stunning. And then it was gone, burned off in the warming rays.

These moments were brief but breathtaking, and I am so happy we both got to see them.

Miracles have been happening in our life. Always, yes I know. Life itself is a miracle. But friends… Miracles have been happening. Some of them have been direct answers to prayers, often desperate ones. Many of these prayers are several years old, too. Other miracles have been complete surprises, wonderful doses of saving grace from near tragedy or windfall joy out of the blue.

I try to move slowly through my days whenever possible so I can notice the details of life more fully, absorb them, and magnify the Light streaming in that gilds everything. Ann Voskamp illustrates this discipline beautifully. Besides making the days more lovely, this also serves to calm me with those yet unanswered prayers. I feel steady and sure, confident in the powerful Love surrounding us.

Today I barely feel the need to ask for anything more because the momentum of miracles in our life is so strong, so kinetic. But we are invited to ask largely, so I will. Before that though, and after it and all day every day, my prayer is Thank You. Thank you, and I trust You. I trust you with everything big and small, seen and unseen. Thank You.

 day lilies cs lewis

Are you seeing miracles in your life right now? Do you need a miracle? They are certainly available, and you don’t have to deserve them to receive them. But you do have to ask and trust.

Wishing you a really gorgeous, happy, love-filled Sunday. Handsome and I are soon heading back outside to soak up more unseasonably warm temperatures (Oklahoma still thinks it April, not February) and see what new miracles are on the horizon. Thank you so much for stopping in.

Thank You.
Thank You and I trust You.

XOXOXO

 

 

6 Comments
Filed Under: daily life, faith, thinky stuffTagged: CS Lewis, Joy, miracles

goldfinch (book review & event photos)

February 7, 2015

Hello, happy Literary Saturday to you! I’m so glad you’re here. How about we discuss a new-ish piece of fiction and look at some happy, yummy photos, too? Okay? Cool.

Last night our famous little Oklahoma book club, Dinner Club With a Reading Problem, convened at hostess Kerri’s house to eat a delicious array of salads (lovely idea, Kerri!) and share our thoughts on Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. A couple of months ago Tracy’s husband Pete suggested we read it, and I am so glad he did. I gave it a five-star review on Goodreads, despite some character weariness there just past the halfway point (I’ll explain soon).

The story is centered around the life and coming of age of a boy and his questionable possession of this famous 17th-century painting.
The story is centered around the life and coming of age of a boy and his questionable possession of this famous 17th-century painting.

About the book, and my personal thoughts:

Published in 2013, Goldfinch is no longer a new release, but it is a Pulitzer prize winner, widespread bestseller, and totally worth your time. The writing is taut and elegant, descriptive no matter the scene or character (i.e., lots of details whether you want them or not), and the story is complex and interesting to say the least. Reading it opened my eyes to a whole segment of world culture that is foreign to me. It’s definitely unique among other novels and, though pleasurable, is a challenge to read.Challenge is good. I’m not alone in that opinion; take a glance at this article which claims that only 44% of readers who purchased Goldfinch online actually finished it. Wow! That’s less than half! (You’re welcome for summarizing that math for you. Excuse me while I dust off my shoulders.)

At around 800 pages it is a long book, certainly, and I agree it pushes the reader through a few dry spells; but it also boasts refreshing time leaps and luscious, sensual immersion into the moment over and over again. I am a sucker for well developed, believable, yet slightly fantasized characters, and this hefty book delivers many times over. A few of the main settings are almost as well developed as characters in their own right, particularly Hobie’s antique furniture shop and Manhattan apartment home. It grew to be so beautiful in my mind that now I almost feel like I have lived there in the past but had my memory gently smudged. That is writing well done.

I want to address the late-story character weariness only to warn you of it and encourage you to not let it keep you from finishing the book or enjoying it. I mean that. Surely other people feel differently than me about this, but just in case you and I are page-turning soul sisters, please know this going in: A guy named Boris is likely to really get on your nerves. He will make you almost crazy, and at some point while reading you will consciously hope (while gritting your teeth) that the actor who plays Boris in the movie is unreasonably good looking, so as to distract you from his decompository character. He’s really awful, okay? Boris will make you temporarily hate all Russian people, which is not your nature. And he will cause you to take new and more passionate stands against all kinds of drug use. Which will become time consuming and irrational on your part. Please, friend, read the book and don’t let Boris steal this pleasure from you. It’s worth it in the end.*

Okay, besides that, it’s all really great. Truly.

On that note, reports that the novel is being adapted into a screenplay is exciting. I like the actress playing the female lead, though knowing her identity ahead of reading did limit my imagination a little. That’s okay, but I’ll refrain from spilling all those beans in case you’d like to read the book blind before seeing the movie. Which of course is a policy I always strongly endorse.

I’d love to mention one more thing I deeply admired about Goldfinch. Written as a first person narrative with the main character being an adolescent boy growing eventually into an adult man, I find it fascinating that a female author could write so convincingly. That’s not meant to sound sexist; it’s just a genuine compliment to Tartt’s ability to shape her own voice. And the voice was age-appropriate, too, grasping believable details along the way. The things a teenager would notice, the teenager narrator noticed. The things an adult would notice, the adult narrator noticed. And so on. I loved it completely and wonder if Tartt writes this way naturally or has cracked a code somewhere along the way. It really amplified the pleasure of reading for me.

Okay, let’s hear from some of the other book club girls:

Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
Mysti took the time to write notes and conversation starters for the group. These are excellent thoughts! I wish we could have a second dinner to focus on them a bit more.

Melissa and I basically agreed on the book, as we are wont to do. She expressed a similar frustration with Boris and felt the same way I did about the main characters’ love story. Or lack thereof. She said that, although the book was laboriously long, she often found herself thinking about it while not reading. The characters became real to her, and isn’t this one of the best compliments a writer can receive?

DeLana, on the other hand, felt exactly the opposite way about Boris and Theo (Theo is the main character). She felt that of the two young men Boris exhibited the best attitude. They both made poor life decisions along the way and hurt plenty of people, but somehow (and I have to agree with this now that DeLana has illustrated her point) Boris the Very Unpleasant Russian was actually the sunnier of the two people, overall. Also, she points out, he managed to keep this disposition despite the fact that just like Theo he had lost his mother at a young age and lived with a neglectful and abusive father. So, attitude is everything? Maybe so. And big thanks to DeLana for shifting my view a little. Such is the beauty of book club!

Mysti came prepared with wonderful, insightful questions for the group, some of which we answered naturally. One of my favorite prompts was, “Would you read a 700 page sequel of this book, by this author?” LOL. By now you know that most of us found the novel to be long. What I have not fully described is how passionately most of the girls felt like it was just way too long. Like, to excess. DeLana even thought that most of the individual sentences were unreasonably long. On this I disagree, but to each her own, right? Another question Mysti posed was, “Why is art so important to the human soul?” How wonderful. I have been thinking about it a lot since we dismissed last night. The story, after all, is not only centered around a famous piece of art but is also framed by the world of art and furniture trade. Really fascinating stuff.

It’s worth mentioning here that of the nine women in our group lately only three of us finished the book to the last page. A few of the girls read a lot of the book. A couple of us explored the Cliff Notes. One of us (her name rhymes with Rexamie) is waiting for the movie. : )

And now for the salad-themed feast…

We enjoyed two different cold tortellini combinations, a crunchy oriental Ramen slaw, creamy macaroni salad, fresh broccoli salad with hard boiled eggs, marinated artichokes with capers and red onions and other wonderful things, made from scratch hummus, taco salad with French dressing and Doritos, a raw kale and mushroom mix, and several other fresh offerings. We feasted! Someone last night commented it was “summer on a plate,” and I couldn’t agree more.

Oh and several decadent desserts. Of course.

BC kitchen

BC kerri lr

BC hummus

BC food

BC salad 1

 BC salad 2

These grapes! Lightly dressed with some kind of magical cream cheese-sour cream mixture and elbowed up with pecan halves. I could totally go for some of these for breakfast! Yum to the max.
These grapes! Lightly dressed with some kind of magical cream cheese-sour cream mixture and elbowed up with pecan halves. I could totally go for some of these for breakfast! Yum to the max.

Doesn’t that all look amazing? As I’ve said many times before, we never leave book club events hungry. This coming Tuesday I’ll post the recipe for my salad contribution and maybe a few of the others if my friends are feeling generous. : )

Mysti and Seri modeling our club's t-shirt. Adorable!! xoxo
Mysti and Seri modeling our club’s t-shirt. Adorable!! xoxo

Thanks again for visiting me here for Literary Saturday! I hope your weekend is beautiful and nourishing in every way. Please share something you’ve been reading lately. Or maybe a salad idea? You can never collect enough book titles or recipes, after all.

“—if a painting really works down in your heart and changes the way you see, and think, and feel,
you don’t think, ‘oh, I love this picture because it’s universal.’
‘I love this painting because it speaks to all mankind.’
That’s not the reason anyone loves a piece of art.
It’s a secret whisper from an alleyway. Psst, you. Hey kid. Yes you.”
~Donna Tartt
XOXOXO

 

1 Comment
Filed Under: book reviews

a girl and her horse

February 4, 2015

She loves him so much. I can see it in every movement, every word, every giggle. He loves her, too, like he loves no one else. They communicate in a secret, amazing way.

dusty joc black n white compressed

Her thin, muscular legs wrap around his belly, guiding him and loving him. Her hands brush and braid his mane or his tail. Her arms wrap greedily around his thick neck while her tiny feet endure hoof smashes and the occasional tap-kick. She pretends to scold him for this in a voice dripping with patience and understanding.

She leads him in circles and urges me to ride him, teaching me what she learned while she was gone. Such an incredible trade, an unexpected gift. She cleans his hooves and extends his legs forward to stretch and cuddle some more. She combs her fingers through his long, fuzzy, gray and white winter coat. She teaches him and loves him and needs him and is needed.

She shivers in the cool breeze but insists on keeping her skin (such a beautiful olive wrapping) exposed to the sun, she craves it so much. Then I bring her a blanket anyway so she can stay warm but also cuddle against him, warm on both sides now. She is as swaddled and kissed as when she was a baby, and watching her I feel every impulse in my body as before, everything in my heart and mind firing off with love and energy and hope for the future. Her future.

She holds his hoof and he holds her heart, and at this moment everything is exactly how it’s supposed to be. And I whisper thank you, thank you, thank you to the One who makes it possible.

XOXOXO

6 Comments
Filed Under: 1000gifts, animals, daily life, Dusty, joc, memories

browned butter pecan sandies

February 3, 2015

Do you need another cookie recipe? I have stumbled on a new favorite and would love to share it with you. This time it happened by first making a failed batch of an old stand by, and I’m not sorry. Here’s the story.

pecan sandies, cookie recipe, browned butter

My sweet baby sister celebrated another birthday this month (Gen’s birth story according to me can be found right here) and I really wanted to send her some shortbread to nibble while she pretended we were having either coffee or Earl Gray tea or whatever she fancies. She lives way out west and has built a beautiful life there. I miss her so much, but anyway. xoxo

Shortbread. Though I make this all the time, for some reason the batch that day was overly dry and crumbly. It fell apart even before it was slipped into the oven, then after cooking it became even more fragile. There was no way that shipping it to Los Angeles would yield anything resembling a cookie. The birthday girl would wind up stirring crumbs into her tea and maybe walk away feeling quite unloved. Like a sad kangaroo.

Clearly the old stand by recipe needed more moisture or less dry stuff or something.

I started by knocking off 1/4 cup of the called-for flour. And browning the butter because I have the biggest kitchen crush right now on Joy. And let’s add pecans because our Grandma Stubbs always gave us Pecan Sandies and even though they were store-bought they were so good. Grandma made us feel loved, so surely this would do the trick for Gen’s birthday, right?

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
pinch sea salt
1 stick butter
1/2 cup pecans (chopped is nice)
dash or two cinnamon

PS browned butter

PS dry

PS mix

PS cut

Method:

Cook the stick of butter in a small skillet, allowing it to get frothy and golden brown. Stir in the pecans and cook them with a dash or two of cinnamon then remove from heat before the butter burns.

Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar, and salt.

Pour the browned butter and pecans into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon. (Since there are no eggs in shortbread, I see no need to let the butter cool.) The mixture will be somewhat dense but also on the dry side, not sticky like normal cookie dough.

Form it into a ball and smash it flat onto a baking sheet, massaging it gently into a circle. (No need to grease or line the sheet. The butter in the recipe is plenty.)

Score the shaped dough with a serrated knife, but don’t cut quite to the bottom. You just need to perforate it. Finger-crimp the edges if you want to.

Bake at 350 degrees for ten or twelve minutes. Allow to cool.

Trace the perforate lines again with your knife, separating the cookies. Cool some more.

Eat exactly one cookie to make sure it’s delish (it will be) then package the rest of them sweetly and ship to your nearly perfect baby sister.

PS cookie compressed no sticker

Okay, not nearly. She is totally perfect.

GENNY tadah

I hope you try this! It’s a quick and simple fix for when you’re craving shortbread. Excellent for tea time or with a late night glass of ice cold milk. Even better for baby sisters who amaze you with their fortitude, independence, and loving nature.

Happy Birthday Month Gen!
And Happy Baking Friends!

XOXOXOXO

6 Comments
Filed Under: Genevieve, recipesTagged: browned butter pecan sandies

marathon monday: playlist for tempo

February 3, 2015

It’s Monday again and I am happily perched at the top of another marathon training week. Week 7 to be exact. We are approaching the halfway point.

Last week was weird because I accidentally wrote on my planner the mileage plan for a different program (still unclear how this happened) so I followed that and wound up running way less than I should have for my real plan and way less than I was ready for. Then Handsome and I rested hard like serious business all day Saturday and Sunday, so by this morning my legs were bouncy with energy. Energy to spare.

The llamas have energy to spare, too. They have been filling up on sweet, soft hay like 24/7 plus all the treats they can wheedle out of us, and this cold yet abundant sunshine puts them in the best mood! They are my running buddies and I love them.

Dulcinea is behind me there, facing off with Romulus and Meh. There is always a gentle conflict. xoxo
Dulcinea is behind me there, facing off with Romulus and Meh. There is always a gentle conflict. xoxo

My correct plan this week has me running 4 miles, then cross train, then 7 miles, then 4, then 13. Since I had extra energy today I did light weights plus 5 miles, and it all happened pretty quickly. It was fast for me, at least, which in this game is all that matters. I felt so amazing at the end that I almost ran more but decided to stick mostly with the plan. But I have to say… While endurance is my overall goal, the (relative) speed is addictive.

Do you happen to remember last May when the Monican recorded an entire vlog in answer to my Twitter question about speed? Click right here to read her entry and maybe watch that vlog. She’s really great, and this stuff was so helpful to me. One of her tips was to use music to improve cadence, and today’s run here at the farm brought all of that back.

So I thought it would be fun to share the songs on my phone that help me run a little faster. Okay? Okay. Cool.

  • Rap God Eminem
  • Smack That Eminem
  • Happy Pherrell Williams
  • Black Widow Iggy Azalea & Rita Ora
  • White Walls Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
  • Can’t Hold Us Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
  • I Will Wait Mumford & Sons
  • Problem Ariana Grande featuring Iggy Azalea
  • Come With Me Now Kongos
  • Best Day of My Life American Authors
  • Shake it Off Taylor Swift (shut. up.)

My actual running playlist is much, much longer than this (major props to Handsome for this), but these are the songs that I shuffle to help my legs move. The tempo of each one is quick and sustained, and all of it is addictive. Very helpful.

Do you have your own tricks for running faster? Do you have any great running songs you’d like to share? Thanks Monican for your guidance! Pace times are gradually improving here at the W.

Shake and Bake
XOXOXO

4 Comments
Filed Under: runningTagged: Marathon Monday, run eat repeat

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Hi! I'm Marie. Welcome to the Lazy W. xoxo

Hi! I’m Marie. This is the Lazy W.

A hobby farming, book reading, coffee drinking, romance having, miles running girl in Oklahoma. Soaking up the particular beauty of every day. Blogging on the side. Welcome to the Lazy W!

I Believe Strongly in the Power of Gratitude & Joy Seeking

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