Caroline and I left for Nashville on Sunday night. We are here for a little bit of work and a whole lot of fun. And look at the sunset that welcomed us as we landed.
We made our way to our hotel, bought a whole bunch of junk food and spent the rest of the night watching Parks and Recreation since it was already pretty late by the time we settled in. And we had a little glitch because I thought the air-conditioning wasn’t working properly in our hotel room and that’s a deal breaker for me. But in a delightful turn of events, they were able to get the air fixed and gave us a box fan for our room. It may be one of the greatest hotel moments of my life.
Monday morning we slept in, grabbed coffee at Frothy Monkey and then drove to LifeWay to film a webcast with Sophie and a whole bunch of other fun people.
The webcast will be available to watch later this week so I’ll keep you posted on that, but in the meantime Sophie’s new book, Giddy Up, Eunice: Because Women Need Each Other, officially releases today. It’s my favorite of all of Sophie’s books because it is the perfect blend of her humor and stories combined with reminding us how much women need each other at all stages of life.
It’s the perfect thing to kick off your summer and a great read for the beach or the pool or sitting in the air-conditioning with a box fan in a hotel room.
That sound you heard yesterday was us limping across the finish line into summer. Hooray and yay and all that business. We will now commence with all the doing of the nothing for the next three months to celebrate.
If you need me I will be here not packing a lunch.
I’ve had my eye on this dress and it’s now on sale. It also comes in black. I like that it can really be dressed up or down depending on what you do with your accessories.
This also comes in red, but I am partial to the black. It is made of the softest, non-wrinkly fabric ever and is so flattering on. And it can totally transition from day to night. I love a good versatile dress.
Last week someone asked about denim shorts and it caused me to do a little research. I have a pair from Gap that are two years old that I love, but I also think Nordstrom has some good options. These are on sale for $39.90
I like these popover tunics because they can be worn with jeans or leggings or even thrown on as a swimsuit coverup. It also comes in chambray and olive green and is on sale for $44.50 plus an extra 30% off and free shipping with the code CUTESALE at checkout.
We are a day and a half away from summer and I can’t even.
I have one more lunch to pack and, honestly, Caroline will be lucky if it’s not just a granola bar and a Ziploc full of marshmallows with a note that says, “Good luck!”.
This picture of Caroline and one of her best friends totally sums up my mindset right now.
It’s time for summer.
And here’s what I’m thinking about. Caroline and I both revert to total night owls during the summer months and we have big plans to watch a lot of T.V. in between reading all the books we will read. As of now we have Gilmore Girls (which I’ve already seen but want her to see) and Parks and Rec on our list.
So my question is what are some great shows on Netflix? Especially those that might fly under the radar? I feel like it’s important to set goals for the summer and mine are to teach Caroline to do her own laundry and watch a lot of quality television.
We have almost reached the finish line to summer. And I will spare you my thoughts on how it is so dumb that we have to go back to school for two and a half days after Memorial Day weekend. Except to say, it is so dumb.
But we will survive.
In the meantime, there are some good Memorial Day deals to be found and cute clothes to be bought.
I have loved these for a long time now but never purchased because I felt like they were similar to other shoes I already own. But now I’m thinking it’s time to take the plunge because they are currently 40% off and just $39.90.
I happen to love the cork, but they also come in a couple of patent colors, a stripe pattern and a floral.
I ran in Gap the other day and saw this top and thought it was so cute. It comes in blue or pink. Plus Gap is offering 35% off with code EVENT at checkout. They also have all their t-shirts on sale for just $10 so it’s a great time to stock up on basics.
Anthropologie is offering an additional 30% off all sale items. I am a sucker for some new lounge pants and I am also a big fan of this brand because everything they make is so soft. These are on sale for $39.95 with an additional 30% off taken at checkout. No code needed.
Okay, I actually bought this. I have been looking for just a basic white button up shirt. I love this brand because it is so soft and this shirt has three buttons on each side that you can button or unbutton depending on how you want to wear it. It looks great with jeans and shorts and even some of my skirts. It’s a great basic and it’s an additional 30% off.
Nordstrom has a ton of stuff marked 40% off, including these Zella leggings that are now just $31.20. I told Gulley yesterday that I think Zella leggings are about the best out there. And this is a great price. The ones I have wash and wear so well and are so comfortable.
I love these fringe sandals from J.Crew. They are on sale for $49.00 and also come in black and white. Someone also emailed me and said that if you use the code ALMOSTSUMMER at checkout on purchases over $100 that you get another 20% off.
This week has been like most weeks in May. By which I mean insane. The only comfort I have right now is that it’s almost over and we have a long weekend ahead of us with not much on the schedule.
I’m also so close to finishing my book that I’ve reached the point where I can’t sleep at night because it is all-consuming and I know exactly what I have left to write and my brain really doesn’t have an off switch at the moment. But that’s okay. I’ll sleep in June.
In the meantime, I did manage to cook dinner one night this week and the recipe is worth sharing. I think you can probably tell from all the fishing pictures, but we have a lot of fish at our house. P makes the best fried fish in the world, but he doesn’t always have time to do it and yet we still want to eat fish for dinner. Thus, I needed to find a way to cook the fish.
(I realize I could fry it but the process intimidates me for some reason. I worry that I’d burn it or undercook it and we’d all get salmonella or e.coli or an amoeba or something.)
1. I didn’t make the homemade tartar sauce. HEB makes a good tartar sauce and why reinvent the tartar sauce wheel?
2. I will use more Tony Chachere’s creole seasoning next time. Like at least twice or three times as much. Because we like our fish just a little bit spicy.
3. The best part is that this is an easy way to make fish to go in fish tacos. And this fish taco recipe with yum yum sauce is my favorite. It’s yum yum. Just like the name says.
4. You could totally do this with whole filets if you are so inclined. Edited to add since people have asked: We used fresh trout, but I think it will work with just about any type of fish.
5. It was so good that I have no doubt I will continue to use it as a go-to recipe until I never want to eat fish again.
Yesterday morning was one of those low points when I went to pack Caroline’s lunch for school and realized we were out of bread. And ham. And basically all other sandwich-type components. So her lunch was a baggie of pretzels, some Laughing Cow cheese, peanut butter crackers, carrot sticks and a Hostess cupcake. Please note that while I may run out of bread, we never run out of Hostess cupcakes.
I just sat here for five minutes trying to come up with a smooth transition to other things that have been going on around here lately, but I’m drawing a blank. Speaking of Hostess cupcakes, P and Caroline went fishing last week and had quite a good day. I think they ended up catching over fifty fish, but only kept a few of them.
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I think that’s two fishermen who enjoyed their time. And also enjoy matching outfits.
They got home late Wednesday afternoon and then it poured rain most of the day Thursday. Soccer practice was cancelled but, never fear, we still had plenty of soccer in our future because she had a tournament all weekend. Fortunately, the tournament schedule fairies smiled on me and our first game wasn’t until 12:40 on Saturday. We were playing teams that were a year older throughout the tournament so we didn’t win a single game. At one point Caroline was matched up against a girl who – I’m not kidding – had to be almost six feet tall. It was like David and Goliath but with a soccer ball.
But we still had a great time and she always loves being with her soccer friends.
The only downside was the heat. And the humidity. And the heat and the humidity. By the time we got home on Saturday evening I felt like I’d just spent six hours in a sauna. Maybe because I’d spent six hours in a sauna.
We picked up barbecue on the way home and ate dinner while we watched the Aggies play Ole Miss in baseball. We came so close to winning the SEC Championship, but lost the final game of the series. On the upside, we finished the regular season ranked #1 in the nation and there are still good baseball times to be had because the SEC tournament starts this week, then regionals and then, God willing, on to Omaha for the College World Series.
On Sunday morning, I drove Caroline back out to the soccer tournament while P spoke at church. He met us out there as soon as it was over and then we headed home for the rest of the afternoon.
Oh, and in the middle of all of this, I was reading The Nightingale. I couldn’t put it down and picked it up every chance I had all weekend long. It was so well-written, but oh my word at the sadness. That sounds dumb to say because I knew it was set in France during World War II and that premise isn’t generally a harbinger for the feel good novel of the year. When I finally finished it yesterday morning, I immediately regretted that I chose to read it while I’m trying to finish my own book which is supposed to be predominately funny and light-hearted. I immediately had to cleanse my brain palate with several episodes of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and now I am not going to allow myself to read anything else about any sort of war until after I turn in my book. Otherwise I might finish the whole thing with “What’s the point of any of this? The world is cold and cruel. The end.”
But it was a really great book. Just don’t pick it up if you’re looking for a light beach read.
By Sunday evening we were all tired, including Piper and Mabel. In fact, they were so tired that Piper let Mabel use her bed as a pillow.
Mabel wrote a haiku about it later.
Sister shared with me
A place to lay my tired head
Growls replaced by love
And then earlier this afternoon, Caroline spilled a whole bag of Cheetos on the couch and Piper and Mabel declared it to be the best day ever because they were immediately on the scene before we could clean it all up. Mabel wrote about that, also.
Puffed corn tastes of cheese
I have seen the face of God
Joy unspeakable
Hope you have a good Tuesday.
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