Author: Big Mama

  • Fashion Friday: Edition I launched a book this week

    Remember that time this week that I launched a book?

    Yes. I am very tired.

    And I still have miles to go. I’ll be at Royer’s Pie Haven from 11-1 on Friday signing books and then at the MSC bookstore on the Texas A&M campus signing from 2-4 p.m. before the Aggies play Alabama. I’d love to see you if you’re in the area.

    I’m also super excited because I’ve partnered with my friend Mandy at Milk and Honey tees and we have the cutest t-shirts inspired by Church of the Small Things. I think they’re such a great reminder to live out the message of the book, plus I am a sucker to a hot pink t-shirt with a good pair of jeans. You can find them here.

    Now here are some other cute thing I found this week presented without much comment because it is late and I need to go to bed.

    1. denmark striped tunic dress

    This is $99.95 plus 40% off because all sale at Anthro is currently an extra 40% off.

    2. callie ruffled shell

    This is $59.95 plus 40% off. You 2018 summer self will thank you for buying this top in advance.

    3. serafina peasant top

    I adore Hemant and Nanadita clothing and this is no exception. It’s $99.95 plus 40% off.

    4. embroidered high-neck blouse

    I have adored this since I first saw it. It’s on sale for $59.95 plus 40% off.

    5. vintage modern tank

    These tanks have great reviews and straps that are wide enough to wear with a normal bra. They are on sale for $19.95 plus 40% off.

    6. Tie hem sweater

    I love the wide tie on this. It’s on sale for $49.90 and also comes in gray or black.

    7. v-neck sweater

    This comes in other colors but I love the pink.

    8. zella high waist leggings

    These leggings continue to be my favorite. They are so comfortable and don’t fade no many how much I wash and dry.

    9. barefoot dreams hooded cardigan

    We mentioned this on the podcast yesterday. It is so dreamy and a perfect Christmas gift for yourself or someone you really love.

    There is no tenth thing today. Why? Because apparently I forgot and now I need to go to bed.

    It’s also P’s birthday today so Happy Birthday, P!

    Thanks for a great week, y’all.

    Have a good Friday.

  • The Big Boo Cast, Episode 83

    I just have to say a huge THANK YOU for all the support y’all have given Church of the Small Things as its made its way into the world this week. I am so appreciative. And if you’ve read it and have time to leave a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or GoodReads, I would so appreciate that.

    There’s also an excerpt from the book about my brief experience owning a white couch here on Country Living.

    Sophie and I recorded what I’m wanting to call a very special episode of the Big Boo Cast. And by very special episode, I mean we planned it out and had a theme and everything. It’s amazing what a little forethought will do. We talk about all the small things that make us happy and I have to say that this one is one of my favorites we’ve done.

    We’d love for you to subscribe on iTunes, and we’d be honored if you’d leave us a review.

    You can click here to listen. Or here. You can even listen right here on the blog.

    You can also listen on Stitcher.

    And if you’re on the Facebook, well, we are, too.

    Here’s where you can get more info on the stuff / products / places we mention:

    – Church of the Small Things (signed copies!) or here on Amazon.

    – Barefoot Dreams Coastal Chic Lite Hooded Cardigan

    – Holy Kombucha

    – GT’s Cayennade Kombucha

    – Kristen Bell’s Hurricane Harvey Instagram posts

    – GAP Ribbed Sleep Leggings

    – Somersaults Sunflower Seed Bites, salt and pepper

    – “A Stanford researcher’s 15-minute study hack lifts B+ students into the As”

    – Goliath Must Fall: Winning the Battle Against Your Giants

    – “Little Things Mean A Lot”

    – Melanie on Twitter and Instagram

    – Sophie on Twitter and Instagram

  • Welcome to the world, Church of the Small Things

    Before I say anything else today, I have to express how deeply heartbroken I am for Las Vegas and those who were tragically killed and those who are fighting for their lives in the hospital. My prayers go out to them and their loved ones as we all struggle to wrap our minds around this tragedy.

    I hadn’t heard what happened until I arrived at the T.V. studio after I’d dropped Caroline off at school and then I immediately saw the headlines on all the screens in the waiting room. And all I could think is that it feels like there is heartbreak everywhere right now. As a nation, in just the last month, we’ve watched the devastation left by hurricanes, the constant fighting about anything even remotely political, and now this latest tragedy in Las Vegas where so many lives were cut short.

    Honestly, it all feels like too much. Too much hurting, too much fighting, too much sadness and too much tragedy.

    But it also embodies the very heart of what I wanted to share as I wrote Church of the Small Things because what we’ve also seen are neighbors helping neighbors, ordinary people stepping up to make a difference in the lives around them in a million small ways. What’s going on in the world right now can seem so overwhelming and too big for any one person to handle, but each of us can impact our small corner by loving our family, our friends, and asking God to show us what he’d have us do this day right where we are with what he has given us.

    David killed a giant with a slingshot he already owned.
    A widow saved her family with a little bit of olive oil that was already in her house.
    A young boy shared his lunch and it fed 5,000 people.
    Jesus changed the world with twelve men. He didn’t even have an Instagram account.

    That’s the heart of this book. Never underestimate what God can do with a willing heart in the midst of our seemingly small lives and offerings. Let’s love our families and friends, let’s treat each other with kindness, let us embrace this one brief, wild ride we’ve been given on this earth and make it count in a million small ways.

    This is my fourth book and I still can’t wrap my head around this whole process of launching a book out into the world. I cannot thank you enough for all the love and support so many of you have shown as you have pre-ordered and shared the word. I hope you love it.

    And I hope as it gets delivered to your doorstep or downloads on your Kindle or after you pick up a copy at your favorite bookstore that it makes you laugh and cry and think and maybe remember how great movies were back in the days when entire plot points revolved around a mechanical bull riding contest. But most of all, I hope that it makes you realize that God has more for us than we could ever imagine in the church of the small things. We just have to look for him there.

    There are still signed copies available at Barnes & Noble and in most Barnes & Noble stores with exclusive bonus content and a bullet journal in the back. You can order one online here or pick one up in the store.

    And you can find it on Amazon here.

    And you can find all other buying options here.

    Thank you a million times over for supporting me and cheering me on. You’re the reason I get to do this and I am forever grateful.

  • An excerpt from me about Piper and Mabel

    Merry Church of the Small Things Eve!

    Is that a real thing?

    Only if you care.

    And apparently I do because I got home from church yesterday and spent the entire afternoon cleaning my house from top to bottom. This is not normally how I spend my Sunday afternoons. But it’s like I was nesting before my new baby arrives. I can’t explain this phenomenon except that somewhere it’s triggered by the need to control something you can actually control. I can’t make everyone buy my new book but I can dang well make sure my baseboards are clean and all the towels are bleached. The mind is a weird thing.

    Today’s excerpt is by me with a guest appearance by Piper and Mabel. I’ll tell you what I learned from this experience. P and I do not have a future in dog-wrangling. Or maybe Mabel is just camera shy. I don’t know.

    Today is the last day you can order and get all the free stuff for pre-ordering here. (If you have pre-ordered and never got your link with all the stuff, please email me with your order number and let me know!)

    There are still signed copies available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble with exclusive bonus content and a bullet journal in the back. You can order one here.

    And you can find it on Amazon here.

    And you can find the book trailer and all other buying options here.

    Also, if you’re in San Antonio, I’m going to be on Daytime at Nine on Fox this morning and then San Antonio Living on NBC at 10:00.

    Have a great Monday. I’ll just be here probably re-cleaning my house or biting my nails.

  • Fashion Friday: Edition Please come to Boston

    So I’m flying to Boston later today to speak at Gordon College on Saturday. And then I fly back home late Saturday night. This is the start of a crazy couple of weeks so I’m just planning to take deep breaths, find a glass of wine when I can and take more deep breaths.

    Below is a list of the other places I’ll be over the next few weeks just in case you happen to be in the area and want to stop by and get a signed book and talk about Friday Night Lights or mascara or whatever.

    10/5/17 – SAN ANTONIO – Book signing at Barnes & Noble San Pedro – 321 NW Loop 410 San Antonio, TX 7:00pm (A portion of all proceeds from any purchase at Barnes & Noble that night will go to SA Reads which promotes literacy efforts.)

    10/6/17 – ROUND TOP – Book signing at Royer’s Pie Haven in Round Top, Texas during Antique Week 11:00 am-1:00 pm

    10/7/17 – COLLEGE STATION – Book signing at Texas A&M at the Memorial Student Center Barnes & Noble bookstore 2:00-4:00pm

    10/10/17 – DALLAS – Book signing at Barnes & Noble 7700 West Northwest Hwy Dallas, TX 7:00pm

    10/28/17 – HOUSTON – Book signing at Blue Willow Bookstore in Houston, TX 11:00 am

    Now, here are some cute things I found this week and I’ll be the first to say it took some effort.

    1. free people laguna thermal top

    This is the top I bought this week. I’d been on the fence because did I really need it? YES. YES I DID. Now I want it in every color. It’s so soft.

    2. v-neck blouse

    I bought this exact top last year and wore it constantly under cardigans and jackets and kimonos. It’s the perfect length and looks great by itself, too. It’s only $17.99 and also comes in white and green.

    3. plaid tie back peplum top

    This is so cute and perfect with jeans or dressed up for the office. It’s $54.50 but 40% off with no code needed at checkout.

    4. sole society faux leather saddlebag

    I’ve been carrying my cross body bag a lot lately and I have to say it’s nice to have my hands free while I’m running errands. This one is really cute and it also comes in gray and black.

    5. layered bar charm necklace

    This is only $19 and great for those of us who don’t want to have to actually work to layer our necklaces.

    6. daniella poncho

    I love this striped poncho. It’s like a foolproof outfit with leggings and boots and you don’t have to worry about sucking in your stomach. It’s $32.

    7. jenna kimono

    I love a good kimono. Especially one at a reasonable price point. This one also comes in a light gray and is $38.

    8. sueded knit moto jacket

    I haven’t seen this in person, but it looks promising and is a great addition to any outfit. It’s $59.99 at Old Navy.

    9. long linen blend cardigan

    Speaking of a great addition to any outfit, this is a great piece to throw on over a dress or with a t-shirt and jeans. Plus it’s the perfect weight for a Texas fall.

    10. pilcro corduroy high-rise skinny jeans

    I tried these on in Anthropologie and they are so dang comfortable. They’re like leggings, feel and look like velvet, and they have a high waist so they suck everything in yet don’t feel restrictive or uncomfortable.

    That’s it for today.

    Have a good Friday.

  • Water we going to do now?

    My next few weeks are crazy busy with all the book release stuff and so I purposely didn’t plan much for this week so I could just enjoy a little downtime. And the weather has even cooperated because it has rained pretty much all day, every day which has been very conducive to my ability to both get some work done and watch several episodes of Hart of Dixie on Netflix.

    I have also been conducting an experiment with Caroline’s lunch that I’m calling “Will the grapes go bad or get eaten?” This experiment involves me packing grapes in her lunch on Monday and then putting those exact same grapes back in the refrigerator that afternoon when I discover she didn’t eat any of them. I repeat this process daily until the end of the week, at which time I throw the grapes out because they are a little worse for the wear after all the mileage they’ve seen at the bottom of her lunchbox. So why do I pack the grapes? Because it makes me feel better that she has a healthy fruit option in her lunchbox.

    I can’t control whether she eats them or not, but someday when she’s grown up she’ll never be able to say, “My mom never packed fruit in my lunch.” Also, I know you’re going to suggest maybe I try other fruits and I have with pretty much the same results most days. At least grapes can be recycled for a while unlike their more fragile, delicate fruit cousin, the apple.

    Yesterday I decided to get out and run a few errands. I ended up at the mall because I had a dress I’d bought for Caroline that I needed to return. And this led me to trying a few things on because I am powerless to resist the siren song of cute clothes and a dressing room. However, the time I spent in the dressing room only served to confirm that I am perplexed by fashion right now. I’m not a ruffly, flowery kind of person and everything feels very ruffly and flowery. I also am not interested in having my shoulders hang out of a top or a dress, nor do I want to wear a bodysuit or an outfit that requires a belt. I’m pretty sure this is how people end up wearing sweatpants all the time. Except now they’re called “joggers”.

    So I left the mall with nothing except a long sleeve thermal top that I couldn’t resist because it had three things going for it:

    1. It had shoulders.
    2. It was incredibly soft.
    3. I correctly identified it as a top instead of it being a minidress that I just thought was a top.

    Anyway, it was while I was driving home from the mall that P called and asked me if I’d forgotten to pay our water bill. I asked him why he thought that and he said that the city had just put a lock on our water meter and shut our water off because they said we hadn’t paid our bill.

    Hmm. Well, that is problematic.

    It made me want to ask him, “Water we going to do now?” but it didn’t seem like the right time for a pun. This is what twenty years of marriage has taught me.

    I pulled over and looked online at our bank account and texted him proof that I had INDEED paid the water bill this month and it was clearly their error. Meanwhile, he headed up to the water department to figure out what was going on while I burned with self-righteousness over how we were clearly being wronged. I was already thinking about what I would like to tell them and I’ll tell you the phrase “HEADS ARE GOING TO ROLL” was part of my imagined rant.

    And, as it turns out, I did INDEED pay the water bill this month. However, I neglected to pay the water bill in June and apparently they hold that kind of thing against you. Although, in my defense, I never received any indication that I had missed a month and that we were accumulating late fees until they actually locked us out of our water.

    Whatever. June was a busy month.

    All that to say it was one of those days that I had to remind P that I have other gifts.

    But being able to tell the difference between what designers call a top or a minidress isn’t one of them.