Lazy W Marie

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

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I’ve Done Stuff

October 27, 2011

   Sometimes I look at my life and feel like I need to dig a little deeper, 
experience more, contribute more, learn more, etc.  
Mama Kat’s writing prompt this week caught my attention, then, 
as an invitation to list a coupla dozen things I’ve done.  
Inventories are groovy.  
   After brainstorming a bit, I gave myself a chuckle and relaxed.  
Because anyone who has busted out her front teeth THIS many times
 is living a full life indeed.
Mama’s Losin’ It
1.  The first thing I ever did in this life was become the child of two of the world’s most humble, generous, loving human beings you will ever meet.  I was child Numero Uno.  They must have really liked me, because then they had four more.  I consider myself their prototype.
2.  Then, around the age of nine, I experienced the first chapter of my tooth breaking saga.  Gym class (we called it P.E.) was indoors that day, in the school auditorium where the floors were glossy, polished hardwood.  Hard.  The whole group was instructed to do the “Duck Walk,” which is pretty much the most awkward, humiliating, and as we would all soon learn, DANGEROUS type of animal impression an uncoordinated young girl can attempt.  Allow me to illustrate.  You squat down, feet shoulder width apart.  Wrap your arms around the outside of your ankles.  Now start “waddling.”  Go ahead and quack passionately while doing this, it really ups the authenticity.  So…  that’s all your supposed to do.  But I took it a step further and crashed forward onto the polished hardwood floor.  It was hard.  My arms were still tangled around my legs, and I was stuck in a horrible pretzel wreck in the middle of about thirty screaming, laughing dis-compassionate classmates.  Oh, and my front tooth was stuck in the hardwood floor.  Hard, except now for the indentation left by my tooth.  I needed help untangling my limbs and extricating my face from the floor.  That was break number one as I remember it.  It hurt a lot.  I remember my nose throbbing and stinging, but I had no idea that sensation that would reappear so often in life.  (Cue scary, suspenseful music…)
3.  Let’s skip ahead not quite twenty years, when I fell in love a city other than my hometown.  I’d heard of the phenomenon but it seemed silly to me, overly romanticized, until I first saw New Orleans.  This is truly a magical place, a sensory feast and a vortex of history, imagination, and possibility.  
4.  I have chosen a favorite teacher in my mind based partly on her penmanship. 
5.  I have been to Italy with my Mom and a church choir.  My purpose was to sing and tour religiously significant places, not learn the language and chase carbs.  Although I did not avoid carbs necessarily.  And I etched a treble clef into a marble garbage can casing, thus leaving my mark.
We’re jumping around a lot chronologically, by the way.
6.  Just a few years ago, I saw a tornado pass by my kitchen window, just about nine feet from where I stood.  I get goosebumps when I remember that.  Growing up in Oklahoma, tornadoes are the real deal, but they’re also fairly commonplace.  It wasn’t until several hours later that I understood how close I was to danger.  Whew.
7.  I have cried real, sobbing tears after riding the Superman ride at Six Flags Over Texas.  Don’t do it.  It is awful.  I frightened a ten year old boy sitting next to me.  Handsome was so proud, he took many, many pictures of the salty, wet aftermath.
8.  Back to grade school for chapter two in my tooth breaking saga.  I was walking backwards down a corridor, not realizing I was also walking at a diagonal.  When I turned to go forward, I was too close to the painted concrete wall and S-M-A-C-K!  I lost another front tooth.  That familiar throbbing, stinging nose pain.  And a bloody mouth.  Again.
9.  I have accidentally colored my hair a shimmering shade of aqua blue.  My youngest daughter, ever the cheerleader and sweet comforter of nervous people, tried to convince me I looked like a mermaid and it wasn’t that bad.  By the way, the magic mermaid combination seems to be bleaching your hair to a summer blonde color then immediately washing with really cheap, green, apple scented shampoo.  You’re welcome.  Enjoy.  Oh, if you do this for Halloween this weekend, please send me photos!
10.  I have walked with Handsome all night in Las Vegas, falling more deeply in love, taking in the lights and the sights, and ending the trek at Denny’s for a very early breakfast.  Or a very late dinner, depending on your perspective.
11.  I have bottle fed baby buffalo and raised one to a thriving and bouncy age so far of three and a half.
12.  I have given birth to the world’s most beautiful, most sensitive, most talented girls.  Every day I attempt to write about each of these young women, and every day the words fall flat and hollow compared to my love for them.  Sixteen and then fourteen years of motherhood are enough to fuel a lifetime of writing, yet I feel completely unworthy to relay the experience.  If you know these girls, then you understand the awe I feel.  If you do not then you have missed out on two world changers, two absolute gifts of love and beauty and grace.
13.  I once lost a front tooth cap by eating a seemingly innocuous apple.  I took a bite, withdrew said apple from my mouth, and discovered my tooth cap wedged happily in the sweet, white fruity flesh.  No pain this time, just more groaning from my ever patient parents.  More dentist attention.
14.  Handsome took me snorkeling in Mexico twice, in Texas a few times, and in Florida too.  On the second Mexico trip, I barely missed stepping on a sizable stingray that was buried in the sand.  I also crashed gracelessly against a stand of sharp coral reef and almost needed a band-aid.  And according to Handsome’s report, a four foot shark was eyeballing me underwater.  Still, the Superman ride was scarier.
15.  I have feared for the life of both of my children during gut wrenching medical emergencies, and I witnessed every time the power of prayer and the miracle working Love of God.  We are undeserving of His mercy and grace, but that’s why it’s mercy and grace.  Not a day passes that I am not aware of how blessed we are to still have both of the girls with us, even if they aren’t with us.  The memory of these miracles, this thankfulness, is often the only thing left to fuel hope for the future.  But it’s enough.
16.  With my friend Tina, I started a book club this past January, unsure of where it would take us but excited to explore new territory.  Since January, our group has grown from four to over twenty, and we have devoured seven books.  I don’t mind admitting a little pride over this.
17.  Age twelve.  While swimming underwater, eyes shut, I did a back flip.  I was pretending to be a sea lion. Normal?  Sure.  I swam S-M-A-C-K into the concrete wall of the pool and lost another front tooth.  Incidentally, I was in jeans and a button up shirt, not a swimsuit, because it was a spontaneous trip into the cold water.  That may or may not have impacted my sense of balance underwater, but regardless it’s seared in my memory.  I emerged from the pool, clothes heavy with dripping chlorine water, toothless and bloody.  That was a long drive home to my dental-bill paying parents.  Have I ever mentioned to you how patient they are?
18.  I have been a working mom and a stay at home mom, and now I am a mom at home whose kids are not here.  These are vastly different experiences, and on days when I can emotionally afford the perspective, I am glad to have had all three in my lifetime.  It does not make me an expert, but it certainly deepens my compassion for all kinds of women.
19.  Just recently I started this blog.  Again, not sure about the path or purpose exactly, but the writing has been cathartic.  And I have already met some fantastic people!   
20.  Once at Camp Cimmarron I was watching my friends play a tense game of table soccer.  Fusbol, as some people call it.  Their opponents were, in my mind, vile acting and way too aggressive.  They were the older girls who got to sleep in the train cars, not the cabins, and they wore too much mascara for their age.  As the game progressed and the unfairness of their tactics increased, something snapped inside me.  My friends were being threatened, though I could not have articulated at that time by what.  Without warning or explanation, I reached over the edge of the table and snatched the dirty white ball from the game.  I clearly remember the meanest girl glaring at me with her tortoise shell snap barrettes.  Everyone was shocked, including me.  I’m not proud of that.  Well, maybe a little.
21.  I discovered that True Love is real and that it is worth the search and the wait.  It is also worth the attention and time needed to grow and strengthen.
22.  February of this year marks the most recent traumatic event in my dental saga.  I was piling hay for our big animals and did the classic cartoon thing. I stepped on a rake.  A long, metal rake with a bright red handle.  It happened in a split second, just crack.  No more front tooth.  Again.  Again with the bloody mouth and throbbing, stinging nose.  Again with the phone calls and appointments and impressions and caps and laughing gas.  Again with the awkward smiles and hand-to-mouth laughing.
It’s raining at the farm right now.  The breeze is cool.
  The animals are hushed and sleepy, and I could make coffee 
and eat toast with pumpkin butter for hours.  
These are excellent writing conditions.  
Unfortunately, I have a dentist appointment this morning, 
so I really should close up shop now.  I’m not even kidding.  
This tooth thing continues to overshadow my life.

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Filed Under: memories, writers workshops

Another Reason to Love Mornings

October 26, 2011

    Do you adore mornings? Early morning is my very favorite time of day, that slice of time between the darkest hours of night and the palest, most timid moments of dawn. Everything is hushed. Generally the air outside is calm, no matter the season. The house is still and lit only here and there by a few golden pools of light. I am almost always the only one awake at this time, and it’s a wonderful time for perfect coffee.  
   Early morning is when my mind is most fluid and able to tap into that collective stream of life’s possibilities.  Everything feels fresh, possible, and important.  While the sun is trying to reach over the east field, I always think I can do anything and that everything good and worthy can still happen.  
   This evening I ran across a few sentences that spoke volumes to me even before I realized they were spoken by one of this past century’s most quotable men, John Wayne:
“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life.
Comes into us at midnight very clean.
It’s perfect when it arrives,
and it puts itself in our hands.
It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.”

   What do you think about this? Are you as enamored as I am by the gift of a new morning, by the opportunity and obligation to do better in this new day than we did in the previous one? No need to wait until January first of next year; we have new beginnings available to us every single day. And so we should be deeply grateful for every single day.
   We see in the Old Testament even more encouragement to love dawn: 
“It is of the Lord’s mercies 
that we are not consumed,
because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning:
great is thy faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22-23

   I encourage you to read that entire chapter in Lamentations. Especially if you are in the mode of counting your blessings, these passages are both humbling and strengthening, filled with encouragement to lean on God.  Rely on Love.
   If you spend your earliest morning moments preparing for the day rather than rushing into it, framing your thoughts and collecting your energies, I suspect you’ll enjoy the results.  Actively see the day as you want it to play out.  Harness the power of your imagination.  Resist fear and negative thinking; shun regret; embrace newness and strength. You’ll be in decent company!  Marcus Aurelius once said, 
“A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.” 
   This is not meant to imply that thoughts are all that matter, only that positive thinking is certainly a positive beginning and perspective matters a great deal.  And in my opinion the morning is an ideal time to secure your perspective.
   When I wake up tomorrow morning, I am determined to…

Pray those prayers I’ve been weary of for so long, the stuff I am close to believing will never happen
Be a better steward of my time, energy, material resources, & talents.
Be more appreciative for my abundance and for mercy.
Be kinder, more patient, and more compassionate than I was before.
Give more affection to our animals.
Reach out to loved ones in ways I haven’t tried so far.
Believe the best about people then act on that belief.
   On any given day, miracles can happen. Amazing surprises are lurking behind every sunrise, and I never want apathy, fear, or staleness in my own mind to preclude a miracle for myself or for a loved one.  
   Tomorrow morning, if you will, please pray for my family. Especially for my two daughters, Jocelyn and Jessica, and my two sisters, Angela and Genevieve. I hope your tomorrow arrives to you clean and is filled with mercies. I hope your tomorrow is richer and wiser than today, even if today was wonderful.  
xoxoxo

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Filed Under: daily life, thinky stuff

Hobo Memories

October 25, 2011

   Throughout my childhood, Mom was incredibly resourceful. She crafted celebrations from only construction paper and glue. She filled our table with healthy meals, often from leftovers. She kept five children in good clothing every season. Her resourcefulness also applied to Halloween costumes. I cannot remember shopping for costumes, although plenty of my friends did. But I never felt deprived. For us, building your look out of almost nothing was half the fun! Scavenging through the house for raw materials was a happy ritual.
   One year’s costume stands out in history. I was attending a sixth grade Haloween party with classmates.  Mom conspired with me to exact something wonderful, exploring options like punk rocker (my fave for many confusing years), vampire (the traditional kind, because I hadn’t seen The Lost Boys yet, much less Twilight or anything from Anne Rice), and Carmen Miranda.  For that last option, Mom even let me stuff my dress with rolled up bobby socks, but we laughingly agreed Dad would object. My fake sock boobs were removed. 
   Anwyay, as great ideas often happen, we arrived at my eventual incarnation quite by accident. We were sifting through the accumulation of clothes pieces and possible accessories, piling onto my twelve year old self lots of crazy, unrelated things. I remember Mom joking that I looked like a hobo. Eureka. Her face lit up and she dug until she found a pan of brown eyeshadow.
   Mom smeared my face with the shimmery stuff so it looked like I had a five o’clock shadow. She slid a stocking cap over my blonde hair and added who knows how many more unmatched garments to my frame.  After some frenzied moments of adjusting and editing, she stood back and said, “What do you think?” 
   I was already happy from being the object of her undivided attention and bottomless creativity. So to see that I was also transformed into a completely unrecognizable hobo was bliss. Mom found a long stick from outside and tied to it a piece of cloth stuffed with something bulky, denoting the classic hobo carrying satchel.  Costume complete.
   The pleaseure of being so well costumed would have been enough, but later at the party, I heard people asking, “Have you seen Marie yet?  She’s not here!” They didn’t even recognize me, I was so hoboish. 
   Well done, Mom. And thank you for the creativity and memories. Happy Halloween!

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Filed Under: Halloween, memories, writers workshops

All Day Tomatoes

October 21, 2011

   Tonight is pizza night at the farm. Homemade, handmade pizza, not $5 hot-n-ready. And today has been more moderately paced than every other day in recent weeks, so I indulged in some slow food luxuries while I could. First, I mixed up a couple of batches of pizza dough. Feeling the warm dough in my hands encouraged me to slow down even further. Then while the dough was resting and rising, I oven-roasted a pound and a half of grape tomatoes.
   The resulting yeasty, tangy-sweet, garlicky aromas wafting from the kitchen have pretty much intoxicated me. I am down for the count, good only for reading old books with yellowed, torn covers and having my toes nibbled by Pacino. As mentioned, it has been a while since the pace around here was so simple, so single-layered and calm. Today has been a much needed reprieve, and I am fortunate enough to have shared it with my ten-four-good-buddy M Half.
   You probably already know how to do this; it is neither rocket science nor Sudoku. But I snapped a couple of colorful before and after photos, so I want to share it with you guys.
Step One: Rinse your tomatoes and slice lengthwise. I used those small, sweet grape tomatoes today but have used lots of other varieties in the past. Feel free to improvise. Just slice, chop, or otherwise re-size ’em to suit your taste.
Step Two: Pour the raw tomatoes onto a baking sheet and add in some minced fresh garlic. I used my handy-dandy Pampered Chef garlic press for the first time today and L-I-K-E it. For this pound and a half of tomatoes I used about five cloves of garlic.
Step Three: Drizzle all of it with olive oil then sprinkle on some dried Italian herbs (fresh if you are awesome enough to have some) and sea salt.
Step Four: Place into a 200 degree oven for approximately the rest of the day. Specifically, a few hours. You will begin to smell the magic in your kitchen within five minutes. Your adjoining rooms will be perfumed in under half an hour. And by the time you can breathe in the tomato-garlic heaven from your front yard, it might be done.  
The tomatoes emerged from the oven three hours later, looking all shrivelly and exotic, 
promising us delicious toppings for our pizzas.

   That’s about it! A little tiny bit of knife-wielding, a slightly larger investment of time, and some appreciation for organic pleasures. That’s all you need. And if Oklahoma gets the rainy Saturday evening we’ve been promised, this might be a nice way to celebrate.  Enjoy!
xoxoxo

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Filed Under: recipes

Five Senses Tour: Crafts on the Horizon

October 18, 2011

   At any given time I have three hundred and forty five thousand craft projects “in the works.”  The stages of completion range from “just saw this on Pinterest or in a boutique, must try asap” to “I just need to top stitch one more little piece, and it’ done!”  So it’s a little bit funny to be zeroing in on just five items on the crafty horizon.  Still, here they are.

   The general approach around here is to use fabrics and materials already on hand, that wonderful found stuff, recycling and re-purposing every single chance we get and resisting the urge to buy anything new except, perhaps, thread and finishing nails.

Item Number One:
distressed & stenciled piece of furniture

Pinned Image
Miss Mustard Seed does beautiful work!  This is hers, which I snagged off of Pinterest.
Item Number Two:
full bib apron with ruffles & pleats, made from vintage cotton sheeting
My version will be for sale when it’s done.
Unless I love it too much.
Which happens a lot.
Pinned Image
http://christytomlinson.typepad.com/christytomlinson/
Item Number Three:
wreath made from aged book pages
I’ll finish this one tonight while watching movies with Handsome.
Pinned Image
http://thriftydecorating-nikkiw.blogspot.com/2011/08/old-book-wreath.html
Item Number Four:
silly applique pillows using only scraps of course
Pinned Image
http://www.etsy.com/listing/80090478/owl-cushion-pillow-red-blue-green
Item Number Five:
scarf made from recycled tees
This one is intended for my sixteen year old daughter,
and I am using happy-memory shirts from her childhood.
Pinned Image
http://www.craftingagreenworld.com/
   So there we have it, five projects, each of which is underway and also has a recipient in mind.  Happy scavenging!

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Filed Under: five senses tour

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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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