Lazy W Marie

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

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motivation monday: life lately & 5 ways to keep up positive momentum

I can’t remember the last time I went for almost two weeks without blogging, ha! Not that big of a deal, but I do miss writing about the farm and connecting with you. My reasons for neglecting this space are good: Life is full to bursting with happy writing deadlines, interesting volunteer activities, and general momentum. I feel amazing bodily and heartily. Gratitude is seeping out of my bones.

Here’s the low down:

Gardens are awake! All over the farm! This consumes my senses as well as my imagination day after day. I want you to come walk through it all with me. Stuff is sprouting that I do not remember planting; and treasures are blooming that I had feared were lost.

Chickens are laying eggs again like gangbusters.

The statewide spring Beekeepers’ Conference was so fun, and I am just weeks away from new honey-makers. (squeal!!)

Running has picked back up, and my ankle feels amazing. I logged 23 miles last week and have 35 planned for this week. I feel like myself again. I’m beginning to look myself again, too, though happily that is now a lesser concern. Still unsure what races are in my immediate future, but I’m not worried about it.

Handsome and I have been cleaning out, organizing, and freshening up the farm in wonderful ways. Weekend warriors we are. The turnpike might be a phantom worry after all, and together with the weather inching toward true springtime, that happy news is giving us such a boost. We have that old craving to really improve our home. Our nest. Our beautiful sanctuary from the world.

Speaking of which, we have big delicious plans for the sunny, sandy front field. If you say it backwards, it’s nolemretaw.

Gardening class with Maddie is just downright pleasing my soul. She is insightful, sensitive, interested in growing her own food, and simply a pleasure to be with every Thursday. Last week we planted her first round of potatoes on Saint Patrick’s Day! Isn’t that cool? And she has been amending her flower bed with rotted horse and chicken manure (from our farm) and will soon be tackling early veggies. Love it all.

Handsome is blazing through obstacles at the Commish. He makes me so happy and proud. Oklahomans should know that your utility regulators work their guts out and care deeply for doing the right things. Balance, fairness, clean business. Three cheers for PUD!! xoxo

I signed up recently for my first trade/craft show. As “Green Goose” I will be selling handmade textiles at a cool little place not far from here, and locals… I would be thrilled to see you there! If it goes well, I will continue to show up once a month and will add fresh eggs and seasonal produce to my booth.

Let’s see… What else?

Hmm…

Well there is this small detail that soon I will be flying to Colorado to visit Jocelyn!! For the second time in a year I get to spend a week with her in her natural habitat. This time, no hotels. She has her own place now, and (can you even!!) she asked me to help her fix it up. Paint, organize, decorate, etc. We plan to cook together. Hang out. Work in her garden. She even asked me to babysit her beautiful puppy while she’s at work. I MEAN!!! xoxo

dream big, work hard ... xoxo
dream big, work hard … xoxo

So yes, life is wonderfully full. Week to week, day to day, we have no shortage of lovely ways to pursue happiness. And we tend to catch it too, which is amazing. I feel abundantly blessed and motivated right now. Maybe it would be worth sharing a few easy strategies for keeping up this healthy momentum:

Five Ways to Maintain Momentum

  • Eat well. Not too much, not too little, and plenty of whatever makes you feel amazing, long-term. You know what your body actually needs. Everyone has a different chemistry. For me it’s lots of raw fruits and veggies, some Greek yogurt and nuts, and more eggs and chicken than you can shake a stick at. Sometimes a salty snack or bowl of kale soup with lentils. (Magic elixir!) Also at least a gallon of water daily, plus caffeine. When I stick to a mellow eating plan (without severe dieting or endless indulging) I feel like I could do anything for hours and hours. And still be in a great mood.
  • Stay active, especially when you’re exhausted! Running is such a paradox, right? It’s kind of odd that when you feel deeply spent, you can force yourself out the door for just half an hour of hard running and suddenly feel re-energized. Have time for a longer run? Oh man. Make those to-do lists long. But of course you can stay active in hundreds of ways besides running. Even on “rest” days if I stay moving during most of the daylight hours I sleep so great and think so clearly. You too? Physical activity begets more energy and drives out mental fogginess for sure.
  • Yes, also sleep. Stay active but still make time to stretch and sleep, haha. My Fitbit has the peculiar ability to measure sleep patterns (sorcery!) and on my best nights I sleep an unbelievable 7 1/2 to 8 hours. This weekend I was alone in a hotel room on Friday night and slept less than 5 hours. Staying alert for the conference was at times challenging, especially because I was sitting a lot. (How do you office dwellers do it??) I got back to the farm Saturday night and made up for the sleep loss and inactivity with almost 9 solid hours of dreamless slumber, pure bliss! Needless to say, Sunday was grand. I had energy to spare and felt happy all day.
  • Mind your surroundings. I get so much more done and feel so much better along the way when my environment is bright and healthy. Happy. When the house is tidy, smelling great, and somewhat shiny ( no need for perfection every day), our laundry and ironing are caught up at least for the immediate future, and the middle field is (mostly) scraped clean of manure. Each of these are ongoing systems, of course; but that’s why doing a measurable amount of work every single day matters. And it just feeds the positive inertia.
  • Practice Active Gratitude. Every chance you get, notice small, beautiful details. Train your senses to zero in on beauty. Write that stuff down if you can. Say them aloud, even if you’re alone. Celebrate it! Share your excitement about life with others. At the end of every day, rather than bemoaning what didn’t get done or what could’ve gone better, give thanks. Count instead what went well, what you did accomplish, what grace and mercy were shown to you. Say thank you and smile all day, every day. Remember that your mind and body listen to each other and that life tends to reflect your attitude toward it in what it throws back at you.

Okay, can we chat about positive inertia in a different way?

Weekly Goals Instead of Daily Goals

One new ritual I am playing around with is using a master weekly goals list instead of a daily goals list. I tend to make my daily lists too long anyway. So long, in fact, they take several days to accomplish, so why not just admit that? haha! I tried this new approach last week and it helped so much. Last Monday morning I grabbed one of those ginormous wall-hanging white poster sheets of paper, like what you use on a flip-board for meetings? Using a permanent marker I filled one big page with concrete tasks that needed to be completed before the weekend. Many of them were either time-sensitive or required gradual progress. Not average daily jobs: stuff I would likely forget or procrastinate without some mental supervision. My list was red-inked and packed full and nearly grid-like in symmetry and kind of gorgeous. Since no one else is here to motivate me, this big red list served as my mental supervision, and for some reason it was so much better than a notebook-style planner or small paper on the fridge.

Daily Routine

Every single day I started with lots of coffee and happy chatting and life planning with my guy (Hot Tub Summit still reigns supreme). Then came tidying the house, planning our dinner that night, feeding the animals, and running however many miles my plan called for that day. Then I ate some feel-great food (see above), showered, and started nibbling at the master list. First most important thing first. Each day was a little different with regard to how much time was left after basic work for making progress on my goals, but pretty much Monday through Friday I was “done” and ready to get serious by 10 or 11 am. That lefts six or seven hours to focus before the after-office-evening rituals start with my guy. Well, 6 or 7 hours minus snacks and Facebook. : )

Focus

This approach kept me so focused you would not believe it. I felt more and more excited crossing items off the list each day. I was able to scan everything in one spot, looking for the next most important thing (remember Handsome’s excellent advice?); and my energy stayed strong. It was so great. By Friday afternoon when Maribeth and I hit the road for our conference, only two items remained undone, and I was able to finish those this the weekend. All of this made my little road trip waaaaaaay more enjoyable! It made for a restful, productive Sunday too, and now I am looking forward to writing a new ginormous list for this week.

Multi-task, or no?

One final thought, take it or leave it: I have largely abandoned multi-tasking, except for letting household machines work for me while I am doing something else. (Laundry, dishes, etc. Start those super early and be done with it.) I know multi-tasking used to be wildly popular and may still have its place, but this simpler approach seems to save me tons of time and also yields better results in my projects. No more trying to fulfill Master Gardener social media duties while blogging. No more trying to do beekeepers’ data entry while listening to a podcast. You get the idea. Maybe I can sew while listening to meaty stuff, but that’s about it.

One job at a time is great. And please… let’s soon talk about making more deliberate, life-affirming choices with what those jobs are. I have so many thoughts on choosing life instead of being dragged around by it.

Okay, thanks for checking in friends! Lots happening here at the W, as I am sure you’d say about your corner of paradise. Hope to meet again soon.

Carpe the heck out of those diems!
XOXOXOXO

 

from unfocused to zen

Spring has sprung in Oklahoma, and soon even the stodgy old calendar will agree. My days are filled with worthwhile activity. My heart is brimming with hope and excitement for the immediate future. My mouth actually waters every time I notice a new pink or yellow bloom or that stunning wash of emerald-green in the middle field (which seemed to happen overnight). This week’s soaking rains have rinsed everything so clean, and the breeze is so mild again, that our air has a plump sweetness. It’s delicious. And it carries birdsong in that old, soft cotton, memorized-poem kind of way that we all love so much, especially at daybreak.

My Jane Magnolia has evolved from this just in the few days since I snapped this photo. Now she has almost as much green as pink, and she is gorgeous. Time marches onward!
My Jane Magnolia has evolved from this just in the few days since I snapped this photo. Now she has almost as much green as pink, and she is gorgeous. Time marches onward!

But I haven’t been feeling perfectly springtime-ish every day. Sometimes it takes some effort.

Handsome indulged me early this morning in a little coaching session. Or maybe you’d call it a pep talk or just a nice conversation between husband and wife about life lately. I shared with him that I am feeling a bit scattered, spread too thinly, and unfocused. And what he shared in return was so helpful. I have great respect for him. His words carry a lot of weight in my heart and mind, so his encouragement gave me a much-needed reset. He said to remember that everyone sometimes feels that way when they carry a variety of responsibilities and balance various priorities. (I don’t claim to carry the weight of the world; but I do manage a crazy-quilt lifestyle. It can be, well, crazy.) My guy said calmly that what you do is the first most important thing, then the next, then the next. Stay in control of your time and energy and know that you cannot do all of it all at once and that it is okay to set limits and say no. (I am paraphrasing, but he doesn’t mind.)

Simple, right? But the incoming tide of asks and offers and demands on our time and energy can be so brutal. Sometimes the world sees a person who doesn’t work outside the home and assumes that his or her free time is limitless and energy bottomless. And sometimes these people have a hard time saying no.

Our conversation was like a deep breath of that cool, sweet Oklahoma air. Cleansing. After he left for the Commish I comforted our dog because Klaus pouts for about ten minutes after his Daddy leaves, then I spent an hour doing just the first most important things on my day’s list, without letting my thoughts be pulled in every other direction, and I felt so energized. Soon I had a few minutes to notice again the details of this beautiful morning.

That is what I would add to my husband’s very good advice: When you’re feeling overwhelmed and scattered, start by focusing on small, beautiful details. Aim some of your energy at gratitude and allow your heart to settle on the gifts already at your feet. Then your mind will be more free to zero in on what must be done.

I love this combination approach of focus and gratitude. And articulating it now, I see that it’s a good blend of him and me.

God Bless Hot Tub Summits
XOXOXOXO

marathon monday: sidelined & up in the air

About April. The OKC Memorial Marathon is now seven weeks away. How we jumped from fourteen to seven weeks in just a few hectic days is a mystery to me, but here we are. I have spent the last couple of months in a state of gradually improving physical fitness despite that truly maddening ankle sprain and the attendant stillness that is just not my groove. Life beyond running has been full to bursting with changes and activity too, so it’s no wonder that time has flown. What does this mean for me participating in the April race? Well, maybe the Universe knew it might not be in the cards for me this spring, and that is why around the holidays when registration was cheap I just kept not clicking through and making it happen. I now feel in my guts that a full 26.2 miles is not what my body needs right now. That’s okay. There are other marathons later in the year for which I could train and be really ready. I had resolved last year not to run distance this again unless I was prepared. 2015 was humbling.

So here I am being all rational and peaceful about this conclusion, then Handsome and I drive to Bricktown last night with some friends and I see this view:

open streets

Wide open streets. Barely stormy skies. The Oklahoma City skyline. My gosh. It’s so tempting. I am going to be really sad if I don’t run something at the end of April.

Maybe the half? Back when Tiny T and I finally went to see an orthopedic doctor, I was granted permission to nibble at running short, slow distances, as long as I wore that bionic-woman ankle brace. So I began slowly, grabbing first a mile or two, then ramping up very cautiously to five miles at once then seven. That was about three weeks ago, and I am happy to say that now my weekly mileage is up to around thirteen (total), plus some barre classes or yoga mixed in, and overall my ankle feels wonderful. Sometimes it’s tight or has a stinging sensation, but it’s no longer painful. My follow-up doctor appointment was cancelled because it fell right in the thick middle of some much more important farm business, so I have yet to see the doctor again for that final green light. But I believe when I finally go in he will say, “RUN! Run for your life!” I want this more than Mitt Romney wanted the Presidency.

Okay, April. Fast forward through my convoluted brain process to this:

I’m okay with not being fast right now, which is the goal I had set for myself last autumn. I’m okay with postponing a marathon until later in 2016. But…Is seven weeks enough time to both get in the shape I crave (so I’m not dieting during race week) and prepare for a good, solid half marathon?

According to this Hal Higdon Training Program, yeah, probably it is. This is a totally reachable goal, and a lot of great stuff can happen in seven weeks.

So. It’s Monday. My plan is to dive deep into the second half of that half marathon training program and be kind to my body along the way (food, water, vitamins, stretches, positive affirmations). I will also call to set a follow-up appointment to check my tight, stinging ankle, and we’ll go from there. If racing even just the half is not in my cards this spring, it’s totally fine. The OKC Memorial has hundreds of volunteer opportunities that sound really amazing, and I would be very happy to participate that way too.

In the mean time, I know a few people running the Boston Marathon soon and I am VERY excited for them!! Most of all a local friend Robin, who in my mind is the Comeback Queen. So amazing. With her permission I might share some of those training updates soon.

Thanks for listening, friends! Obviously this is a big deal to me, haha. What races are you planning this year? How are you keeping in shape, mentally and physically? Do you ever see a wide open city street and fantasize about running it?

Run for Your Life
XOXOXOXO

 

 

 

friday 5 at the farm: I’m an ADULT YO

Hello, and happy Friday!! We made it. We made it, we made it, we made it. I’m mostly cheering hard for you office dwellers out there who in a matter of hours get to escape the confines of your business-casual arena and explore the weekend however you see fit. But those stay-at-homers among us (like me) are happy for Friday too. Sometimes it actually means a little relaxation, a little freedom to spend time how we actually want to spend it. Reading, running, playing outside without doing required chores. Not always, but sometimes.

Anyway, it’s Friday and I haven’t checked in with you much since sharing our happy-sad news about saying goodbye to Chunk-hi. The funny thing, and you may know this via Instagram, is that he’s still here. Ha! He is wholesale refusing any and all attempts to load him into the trailer brought here by his new family, so every day we go through the same routine of opening and rearranging the maze of gates to form a pseudo-chute, hoping to lure him up to the front to the trailer with sweet, protein-rich treats. And every day he creeps forward on the black tips of his pointy hooves then scrambles backwards again before we can secure the gates. I’m pretty sure at least twice I heard him chuckle under his breath and say, “Yeah right.” But that’s okay. This long, weird goodbye will become part of the fabric of our memories with our big sweet boy, and I am sure one day we will be laughing about it.

Eventually.

Assuming Handsome doesn’t have a nervous breakdown first.

For now, once again, happy Friday! And a quick Friday 5 before I go for a run outside. HALLELUJAH I am able to run again!! Full post on this and related topics on Monday.

Five Things That Make me Feel Like I’m Doing Adulthood Correctly:

  1. Visiting an Aldi grocery store and remembering to bring not just a shiny quarter for the cart but also several reusable bags for my mostly organic, fairly low-priced, delicious haul. Once, before I had the hang of that store, I loaded my arms with good stuff then decided to also buy a giant watermelon, and without the required bags I ended up soccer-dribbling the gorgeous round fruit all the way to my Jeep. That is NOT how you adult.
  2. Collecting trash from all over the house and seeing that last time I did so I remembered to leave clean trash bags at the bottom of each receptacle. Wow.
  3. Doing laundry to the max. I mean, getting the clean stuff dried, folded, ironed, and put away the FIRST TIME and also days before we need said items. Having truly empty laundry baskets for a while. Also, folding clean towels like a hotel does. I don’t know about you, but bath towels folded so you see the open layered edges make me feel weird and sloppy. Best way: fold the towel in vertical thirds then double it over once or twice and make sure you see the smooth, round elbow of fluffiness when you look at your shelf. This is bath towel Zen. Or roll them up if you must, but please let’s not look at those open edges, okay? Eww.
  4. Having either tortilla chips or raw almonds in the pantry and only eating, like, a few at a time. Making the purchase last several days is tantamount in my life to balancing the state budget.
  5. Wearing sensible shoes as well as my fancy brace to allow my ankle to fully heal so I can get back to the business of marathon training, which I clearly was not doing on the night this photo was taken, but it sure was a fun night and anyway I love those shoes!
That red thing is my Super Girl cape blowing in the Oklahoma wind, in case you don't know. So I'm a wedge-wearing, Super Girl-Storm Trooper, and it's awesome.
That red thing is my Super Girl cape blowing in the Oklahoma wind, in case you don’t know. So I’m a wedge-wearing, Super Girl-Storm Trooper, and it’s awesome.

Okay, tell me one thing that makes you feel like an adult! And please do not say “when I pay the mortgage or find all the magical tax deductions.”

Carpe Some Diems this Weekend!!
XOXOXOXO

farewell to chunk

What I’m not going to write is one more piece on love and loss and the importance of keeping our eyes on the silver lining. We’ve had so much of that here on this blog, because my husband and I have had so much of it in real life. It’s all a worthy lesson, no doubt; but today we just need to rest a bit in a new reality here at the farm. I am writing to ask you for your best loving energy. Your prayers, good vibrations, kind words, or just you quietly nodding head as you read. Handsome and I will appreciate your embrace from a distance.

Just the facts, ma’am.

Okay.

Today we are saying goodbye to a beloved farm-ily member, Chunk-hi the buffalo. Our bottle baby-turned cuddle bug for nearly seven years, our cookie-loving, face-scratch-begging, engine-racing, tractor-tire flipping behemoth is moving on to his next life chapter. We are caught in that all too familiar brackish water where salty tears mix with fresh starts and past meets future face to face.

buff BW face

Chunk is alive and well, don’t worry, just going to live on another ranch. Thankfully, that ranch is here in Oklahoma and owned by the parents of some friends of ours, so it’s possible we can go visit Chunk in his new digs. We could see his new girlfriend. Maybe next year meet his little golden calves. (We could become bison grandparents!!) This ranch happens to be in Stratford, so we can also stock up on peaches when they’re in season.

Those are all silver linings, Marie, stop.

Sorry.

This decision is not one at which we’ve arrived easily, and the factors have been many and building in intensity. During angry, bitter moments we find people to blame (new neighbors usually, the Turnpike Authority also). In tender moments we see that maybe this was always meant to happen, eventually. Our bison dreams way back in 2009 were big, and life has taken so many unexpected twists and turns since then. Whatever you believe about fate and bad luck, these last six and three-quarter years have just evaporated with our sweet buff. He quickly became part of our farm-ily during those early summer bottle feedings. He has etched himself into our identity at the Lazy W (how many children have visited to feed him cookies and scruff his wooly face?). He will always of course own a slice of our hearts.

I promised not to wax too poetic about this. It’s just such an emotional thing.

Chunk is being picked up today around Noon, and it will be only his second time in a trailer. He will be arriving at only the third place he has ever seen on this beautiful earth, and besides his mother (moments before she was hunted, I feel the need to point that out), he will soon meet his first adult American Bison. Word on the prairie is she’s quite a looker and feeling amorous.

Wink-wink…

We are not heart broken, exactly. We are heart-aching. We know this is the responsible thing to do and that Chunk-hi will be safer (uninvited attention from passersby on our road has been a huge problem this year), and we even believe he will find a whole new level of happiness in his new life. Of course that last part stings a bit, but gosh. We have survived a child leaving the nest and finding happiness. We’ll survive this too.

It’s all for the best.

So please keep us in your happy thoughts, and for sure keep Chunk-hi in your happy thoughts. Hope for him wide, green pastures, abundant fresh water, excellent romantic companions, and just enough human interaction to help him remember us fondly. Believe in these hopes and we will too, and no doubt he will be okay.

To Robbie and your family, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Knowing that good people love Chunk is such a comfort. We reminisced this morning that it was Robbie who helped us feed Chunk grass clippings when we were neighbors. It was Robbie who held off a dog attack before Chunk had horns to defend himself. And it has been Robbie all along who watched Chunk grow just as both our families’ kids were growing. As poetic full circles go, this is a lovely one.

Friends of the Lazy W, if you have ever visited our farm and shown love to our buff, thank you too. Thank you so much. Thank you for your cookie generosity, your inquisitiveness, your sense of caution and bravado. We have enjoyed it all. We would really love it if you took a moment to share a Chunk-hi memory with us.

We love you Chunk! We already miss you, sweet boy.

Oh give me a home
Where the buffalo roam..
XOXOXO