Another day

I know this isn’t technically total silence since I’m writing something. But I felt like I needed to explain why.

There were two heartbreaking tragedies that I know of over the weekend.

A young wife and mother named Julee Turner lost her husband, Matt, in a car accident. He not only leaves behind his wife, but his ten-month-old baby girl. Today is his funeral.

The Ledet family lost their dad and two young brothers in a plane crash. They were flying to the Aggie game in Mississippi when the private plane went down.

I don’t know either of these families personally. But it’s a reminder that life is precious and that there are so many out there hurting for various reasons.

And so today I thought that you could take the few minutes it normally takes you to read whatever nonsense I write and say a prayer for these families and others who may be going through hard times.

Thanks, y’all.

Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

I didn’t post yesterday because we were very busy here with all our big Columbus Day celebrations. I cooked a turkey and we had a live band and a pinata in the shape of the Santa Maria.

Or maybe I just slept in and we had Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast.

Which was honestly better than a pinata because we had a full weekend and I might’ve lacked the arm strength to beat a papier mache’ boat until candy fell out.

I think I mentioned that I spoke at my mother-in-law’s church this past Saturday. And so I spent most of last week alternating between being a complete hermit and worrying. I’m not sure why I was so nervous but I think it was because I’d never spoken at a place where I knew so many people.

As it turns out, it was all fine. And actually fun to see so many familiar faces. I’m putting that in writing so I can save myself the hassle of all the panic attacks next time.

After the event was over on Saturday I felt like I’d ran a marathon. I was like TO MY BONES exhausted. But it was P’s birthday and I wanted to make him a chocolate sheet cake because that’s just the kind of wife I am. And by that kind of wife, I mean that I’m the kind who waits until the last minute to do something to celebrate her husband’s forty-second birthday.

Unfortunately, I think my brain was a little tired from all the morning events and something went awry in my sheet cake process. I still don’t know where it derailed exactly, but I think it was somewhere between the addition of the buttermilk and the eggs. And then the icing was just tragic. You know how icing for sheet cake is supposed to almost pour over the cake?

Yeah.

Mine just kind of fell in clumps over the cake. The cake with burned edges.

So apparently I can either speak to a group of people OR bake a good cake. Not both on the same day. That exceeds my skill level.

On Saturday night we went over to Gulley’s house to watch the Aggie game. Which, for those of you who follow sports may already know, ALMOST KILLED ME DEAD. Seriously. I was hyperventilating. I went through the seven stages of grief. TWICE.

And then Sophie texted me that she and her sister were watching the game and changing locations in the house in the hopes of altering the Aggies’ mojo. Not even two minutes later the Aggies scored to cut Mississippi’s lead to three and I texted Sophie “DO NOT MOVE FROM WHERE YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!” Because nothing really bonds people like shared superstitions about what will make nineteen-year-old boys play better football.

Then the Aggies pulled a win out of their hats. I would say they pulled it out of something else but this is a family blog. Either way, Gulley and I jumped and screamed like two fools all over her living room. I realize it’s just a game, but it felt huge for the Aggies to come from behind to win. That hasn’t happened in a long time.

(In truth, I kind of realize it’s just a game. After the fact I realize it’s just a game. During the actual game I tend to react in a way that would cause someone to think lives are at stake.)

Sunday morning we got up for church and I realized a serious cold front had blown through. If you live north of Dallas prepare to mock me, but temps plummeted to around 56 degrees and I felt like I needed a down jacket. It was freezing.

After church I spent most of the rest of the day wrapped in a fleece blanket while wearing flannel pajamas. I kind of wanted a fire in the fireplace. Maybe eat chili for dinner. Roast some marshmallows. In other words, I was in full winter mode.

Which is why it’s so depressing to find out that it’s going to be back in the 90s by the end of the week.

So that was our weekend.

Except I left out yesterday when I took Caroline shopping. But that’s a whole post of its own that I’m saving for tomorrow because I’m struggling to find words.

So here’s what’s been going on here.

Nothing exciting.

I laughed yesterday because someone made the comment that I hadn’t really written a real post for the last couple of days and they couldn’t wait to hear what I’d been up to. And it made me feel bad that the most exciting thing I’ve done in the last forty-eight hours was pick up some chicken at Church’s.

That may not sound that interesting, but I’ll have you know their biscuits and fried okra are delicious.

The truth is that P and Caroline left on Tuesday afternoon for a quick little fishing trip. Which means that, yes, we allowed her to skip a day of school to go fish. But you know what they say, teach a girl to fish and you’ll feed her for a lifetime. No one has ever said the same thing about learning the different types of polygons.

And so I’ve had a lot of time to myself. Some of that time I’ve spent in a productive manner, but in the interest of full disclosure I’ve also spent some of it watching old episodes of Friday Night Lights.

On Tuesday night I went to eat Mexican food with my birthday club group. As usual we solved a myriad of problems while eating an abundance of chips and queso.

And then I slept in yesterday morning because I didn’t have to get anyone up for school or pack a lunch or any of those other grown up things I normally have to do around 7:00 a.m. Then when I finally woke up I sat on the couch in the total quiet and drank a big cup of coffee with the new Coffee Mate Cafe Latte creamer I bought at the store.

I think it’s changed my life.

(Also, just so you know, I was at HEB on Tuesday and the cheese still stands alone. It makes no sense at all.)

(But have I mentioned we’re getting a Trader Joe’s? This is an exciting turn of events. Which is a sure sign I’m in my forties.)

So that’s what’s been going on around here. And so I thought the least I could do is point you in the direction of some good blog posts you might want to read now that I’ve bored you to death with my tales of chicken and Friday Night Lights and Coffee Mate.

1. The Lesson I Learned About Loving My Neighbor by Paige Knudsen

(I pretty much want to be just like Paige when I grow up. Even though she’s only about two or three years older than me.)

2. In Which the Stories That Aren’t Told are the Sweetest to Me by Sarah Bessey

3. This preview of Lisa Leonard’s new reality T.V. show.

I think that’s it. See y’all tomorrow for Fashion Friday.

Now I hope you didn’t get too excited by the title because I just realized you might be thinking COOL! FREE PROPHET!

And unfortunately I am not giving away a biblical prophet today.

However, I am giving away something almost as good.

One of you has the chance to win a full DVD leader kit for Malachi: A Love That Never Lets Go by Lisa Harper which includes a membership book and two DVDs with eight video sessions.

I’ve had the chance to get to know Lisa over the last couple of years and I can tell y’all that she is a perfect combination of hilarious, gifted storyteller and Bible scholar. She’s the friend that you want to save your best stories for because you know you’ll laugh out loud together, but she’s also the person who will sit and cry and pray with you when you need encouragement.

And she has brought all these qualities to her first video Bible study.

Malachi is the study of God’s mercy. It’s learning that he never lets go of us even on our worst days. And that his love for us is never based on performance. It’s constant, never-changing grace and mercy.

It would be the perfect study to do with a small group in your home or at church or maybe someone else’s home so you don’t have to worry about snacks.

Here’s what you need to do for a chance to win:

1. Leave a comment

2. I’ll leave comments open until this Friday at noon.

3. I’ll draw a winner using random.org.

4. That’s it.

Y’all have a great day.

Here’s what you need to know. This weekend was my perfect version of all that is good and right in a weekend.

Exhibit A: It started raining on Friday evening and didn’t stop until Saturday afternoon.

Exhibit B: Which means we knew Caroline’s soccer game on Saturday morning was rained out before we went to bed on Friday night.

Exhibit C: So I got to sleep late and P cooked fried deer tenders for breakfast and then I made blueberry pancakes for all of us when I rolled out of bed at the crack of 9:30.

Exhibit D: The Aggies beat the hell out of Arkansas and we got our first SEC win of the season. Granted, Arkansas has fallen on hard times recently, but a win is a win.

Exhibit E: I didn’t even get out of my pajamas on Saturday. Well, I actually changed into yoga pants at one point because Holly Mathis stopped by (I’ll tell you more about that later this week) and even though I love Holly I felt like I probably needed to have on some version of actual clothes.

Exhibit F: Sunday morning we went to church, picked up Taco Garage afterwards (we didn’t actually pick up the entire restaurant because, FEATS OF STRENGTH, but we got breakfast tacos), and then went to Caroline’s soccer game and they won.

So those were the high points. The following is a little more detailed description if you haven’t already passed out in your morning coffee.

On Friday, I met my friend Leah for lunch at Nordstrom. But I decided to drive out there a little early because I just wanted to look in a few stores and see what they had. Which is how I ended up in Free People TOTALLY DYING over the cutest top that I didn’t even pick out but the salesgirl was a fashion ninja and put it in my dressing room along with a jacket that just made the whole thing perfection. You don’t even know.

But here’s the thing about Free People. It’s not cheap. Apparently it takes a lot of money to dress like a bohemian hippie type person. So I asked the salesgirl to hold everything for me while I went to lunch. I think I knew deep down I wasn’t going to return, but it made it easier to say goodbye. Otherwise there might have been tears.

However, I have since visited the top and jacket online. It took me a while to find the top but that’s because they had it listed as a dress. A dress for who? Barbie? It was a lovely top but no one has any business wearing it without some type of pants.

I’m just going to practice self-control and hope and pray it goes on sale. Or that I come into a massive amount of money.

Then on Saturday I pretty much already told you what we did. Which was absolutely nothing. It was glorious. Honestly, it was the first weekend we’d all been home since August and I think we needed it. Caroline even occupied herself in her room most of the day, building forts and playing dress up. The high point was when she came out dressed like this.

It’s the mythical afro fairy princess.

Caroline had her first real soccer game of the season on Sunday. It was supposed to be last weekend but the team they were playing was a no show and they ended up scrimmaging against a team of twelve year old boys. AND ALMOST WON.

Fortunately this game was against girls their own age and they got their first win of the season. Caroline scored a goal and took a ball right to the stomach at one point. But kept on playing even though I swear I could hear the air sucking out of her when that ball hit. We made sure to praise her profusely for her mental toughness because this is a child who comes home with a note from the nurse at least once a week describing complaints of “an itch that needed hydrocortisone lotion”.

Then on the way home she melted down. I have no idea all the reasons why, but there was talk of practice tests at school and not wanting to eat what I was cooking for dinner and OH THE HUMANITY at having to clean up her room before she could watch any T.V. P finally told her she needed to improve her attitude which was met with a deep angry sigh as she twisted around more in her seat. And that’s when P pulled out the time-honored phrase:

“I’m about to give you something to be upset about”.

Listen. It even made me sit up straight.

It worked. She snapped herself out of her mood and found her joy in a hurry. Which was good because I was already mentally calculating how many glasses of wine I was going to need to have to not lose it before bedtime.

Now it’s 8:55 on Sunday night and I think I’m actually about to go to bed. Because the party never ends around here. It’s like the Copacabana. But without Lola or any yellow feathers in my hair.

Or a dress cut down to there.

Unless I go back to Free People and get that top and wear it as a dress.

Well P is gone until later tonight and I have to make this quick because I am in need of some uninterrupted television time that doesn’t involve The Outdoor Channel. The backlog of shows on my DVR right now is shameful. If someone walked in and looked at my DVR they might get the impression that I don’t love T.V. at all. And they would be so wrong.

So I plan to start with Parenthood and end with Flipping Out and perhaps catch up on a little Survivor.

Goals are good.

1. I’m going to tell y’all why I love you so much. Because I wrote a post yesterday about the grocery store being rearranged and you all sympathized with me. But what several of you chose to focus on was the gel I mentioned that makes your eyebrows grow.

You are my people.

The great irony is I spent the first part of my life with eyebrows aplenty. As evidenced by this picture taken my senior year of high school.

That girl was unfamiliar with tweezers. However, she was very familiar with using two full sets of hot rollers in her hair each morning.

But I discovered the art of plucking my eyebrows sometime around the mid-90s (about ten years too late) and apparently I grew a little overzealous. That’s how I ended up at an eyebrow specialist who recommended this eyebrow gel to help my eyebrows fill in a little. It’s called Talika Eyebrow Lipocils.

And while I do have to admit that my eyebrows look healthier than ever, I would never actually purchase this product again because, seriously? However, if you do need eyebrow assistance, it seems to work.

Have I ever mentioned I am a sucker for a beauty product? And that I tend to get caught up in the moment?

2. I feel so awkward mentioning stuff like this but I’m going to tell you anyway because after admitting I purchased eyebrow gel it just seems like it’s okay.

I’m speaking at a brunch at Wayside Chapel in San Antonio on Saturday, October 6 from 9-12. For more information or to register, you can click on their registration page.

Did I mention this is my mother-in-law’s church? No pressure there.

At least my eyebrows will look good.

3. Yesterday I was helping Caroline with her spelling words which is a weekly battle. I know you want to recommend Spelling City right now and I appreciate it, but even that didn’t help us. And it’s hard for me because I’m an excellent speller. I don’t want to brag but I was in the fifth grade spelling bee and only lost because I couldn’t spell “hobgoblin” and that’s kind of a stupid word anyway.

I have to claim my academic accomplishments where I can because I am a person who graduated from college while on scholastic probation. Also, I had to google “types of quadrilaterals” the other day to help Caroline with her homework.

My point is that I can help with spelling. But as we went over the words and she sighed her deep sighs, she finally looked at me and said, “When am I ever going to use this again?”

How about every day for the rest of your life?

She just can’t find out about spellcheck or I’m ruined.

That’s it for today. See y’all tomorrow for Fashion Friday.

There’s going to be another giveaway. It’s complete madness.