Another day

Well, it’s almost been a month since I wrote anything here besides Fashion Friday or a podcast post and all I can say is it has been a busy one. And now we are just a little over a week away from Christmas break and I hope it involves a lot of catching up on sleep and watching movies on Netflix.

We spent most of our Thanksgiving break in Orlando for a soccer tournament. Before we left on Wednesday, we had a little family Thanksgiving dinner with just the three of us. We have named it Shanksgiving and we ate outside by the fire pit in our backyard and it was a nice little celebration. Then Caroline and I flew to Orlando on Wednesday afternoon and spent Thanksgiving day at Universal Studio, specifically the Harry Potter part of it all. We had a traditional Thanksgiving lunch of fish and chips at the Leaky Cauldron and rode various rides until my motion sickness begged me to basically never move again. It was about halfway through the day when Caroline said, “I don’t know that we are theme park people” and I couldn’t have agreed more. It was incredible to see, the rides are amazing and every detail is perfect, but I don’t need to ever go again. As it turns out, I don’t like waiting in long lines or being in large crowds. None of this actually comes as a surprise to me.

But we had a great day together and laughed a lot, especially at Caroline’s face in this picture that was taken as we rode Harry Potter’s Forbidden Journey ride. There were spiders that jumped out right as the photo was taken and Caroline hates spiders. Meanwhile, I am obviously the picture of a concerned mother. The truth is I was laughing to keep myself from getting sick.

The rest of our trip was all about soccer. She had games on Friday morning, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

We made it back to the hotel room on Saturday night just in time to watch the A&M vs. LSU game. The hotel didn’t have the SEC Network (HOW DARE THEY?) and so I had to watch the entire game on my laptop. This didn’t seem like a big deal initially, but who knew the game was going to go into SEVEN OVERTIMES? The problem with watching online is there is about a ten second delay from live TV and so as overtime began my phone began to blow up with texts and I had to make myself not check it until thirty seconds after the fact so as to not ruin the suspense of what would happen next. It was truly one of the best football games I’ve ever watched and the fact that we won made it all the better. I kept thinking with each overtime that there was no way we were going to be able to score again and then we did. And so there I was, silently freaking out, in a hotel room in Orlando with my computer sitting on my lap and my phone buried under five pillows. Needless to say, I was little exhausted when the alarm went off at 6:15 a.m. the next morning for Caroline’s 8:00 a.m. game, but we both agreed it had been worth it.

The next week was basically spent trying to re-enter normal life and get caught up on sleep. Then I left the following Monday for a speaking event at Bethany Church in New Hampshire. Gulley was able to go with me which made it super fun and I basically fell in love with the entire New England coast and would like to spend all my summers there wearing sweaters and walking on the beach. We drove up to Kennebunkport on the Tuesday before President Bush’s funeral and it was so moving to see the tributes to him all over town.

We ate lobster rolls and seafood chowder and talked until I almost had no voice left and shopped and just had the best time. It’s not often that my speaking trips turn into a little bit of a girls’ trip but this one did and the timing was perfect. Gulley and I say all the time that these teenage years keep us so busy that we hardly ever get to have an entire conversation and finish a thought.

The only downside was we had to leave our hotel at 3:45 a.m. on Thursday morning to catch our 6:00 a.m. flight home and so we were a little tired. We also discovered that the personal hygiene and appearance that feels acceptable when you leave a hotel room at 3:45 a.m. is slightly different than what is probably socially acceptable when you arrive home in San Antonio at noon. But we both discussed later that we went straight home, showered, unpacked, started laundry and took a long nap. And that night I slept the sleep of angels knowing that I am done traveling for the foreseeable future and have an almost empty calendar between now and the end of the year. Well, unless you count the fact that I am on a book deadline but I’m pretending like that doesn’t exist until after Christmas is over.

And so that’s what’s been going on here. Gulley and I did manage to get most of our Christmas shopping finished while we were in New Hampshire, thanks to the wonder that is Amazon Prime. And now my days consist of getting various boxes off my front porch and trying to remember what’s in them. I even got just an empty envelope delivered the other day and am still trying to figure out what it was supposed to be. I guess even Amazon can walk into a room and forget why it went in there in the first place, which makes me feel better about myself and my short-term memory.

So now the tree is up, the dead mums and pumpkins are finally off my front porch, I’ve officially decided not to send out Christmas cards this year, and, rumor has it, P is putting up our outdoor Christmas lights tomorrow. Basically, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Which I guess is a good thing since it’s less than two weeks away.

Hope y’all are doing well and enjoying the season!

Happy Tuesday!

Here are a few things I thought might be of interest. Please pay special attention to #5 because I would love nothing more than for you to leave your answer in the comments so we can all perhaps benefit.

1. Kindle edition of Everyday Holy

The Kindle edition of Everyday Holy, my 100 day devotional for women is just $2.99 on Amazon right now. **Edited to add: I’m sorry! It looks like Amazon has gone back to the $9.99 price.

2. The Incredible Holt

My friend Sheaffer’s cousin’s little boy, Holt, was diagnosed with cancer on September 21st. After multiple biopsies and many tests over the last 6 months, the doctors have determined that Holt has a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma called Anaplastic Large T-Cell lymphoma.

Holt is a beautiful three year old boy. He loves the Hulk, superheroes, PJ Masks, music, and Jesus with his whole little heart. 2018 has been an uphill battle for this little guy and his family.

Please go read Sheaffer’s post here to find out some ways you can help Holt and his family.

3. A Star is Born Press Conference

I haven’t had the chance to see the movie yet, but I’ve already been doing my online research because I know I’m going to be a little obsessed with it. There is so much history behind how Bradley Cooper made this movie and this press conference covers most of it.

4. For Girls Like You Magazine

For Girls Like You is a ministry for young girls and their parents. It includes a bi-monthly magazine, a journal and other print and web resources. Wynter Pitts is the founder of For Girls Like You and she tragically passed away in July this year. You can read more about her story and the heart behind the magazine here.

I was honored to have my devotional for girls, Fearless Faith, featured in the latest edition of their magazine.

5. What is your most useful, yet cheap belonging?

This is the kind of stuff that just sucks me in. I read this post and all the comments and that’s how I ended up ordering both these silicone bottle wine/beer/beverage cap/stoppers and these bamboo toast tongs off Amazon last week. Perry mocked me for the toast tongs but I am telling you that they are a game changer. I can now flip toast in the morning without burning my fingers.

So if you have a useful, yet cheap belonging that makes your life easier, please share in the comments.

Have a great day!

Well.

I read something the other day (Don’t ask me to quote a source because I cannot.) that said it really takes being six weeks into a new school year before it feels like a routine. And so I looked at my calendar and counted the weeks since school began and it was six weeks as of this past Friday. So that means I should be in a normal routine any day now. I can’t wait for that to happen. Then I can say, “It only took me forty-seven years and six weeks to get into a normal routine”.

The truth is I looked at my calendar yesterday and couldn’t believe we are already to October. That means that if I were to walk into Michael’s or Hobby Lobby right now – which I don’t plan to do because I don’t hate myself – I could buy Christmas decorations. We are officially at the time of year when we’ll look up and it will be December and we’ll have decaying pumpkins on our front porch and dead mums in the planters and wonder where on earth the time has gone.

All that to say, we’ve been busy with life but not with anything necessarily noteworthy. It’s a lot of getting up in the morning, cooking breakfast, packing a lunch, going to workout, trying to write, taking Piper and Mabel to the park, picking Caroline up from school, reminding her to finish her homework, taking her to soccer practice, picking her up from soccer practice, heating up her dinner, and then telling her to go to bed until I’m finally too tired to care and go get in bed whether she’s in bed yet or not.

This may explain why my T.V. show of choice is currently watching old episodes of Frasier on Netflix. It’s like my version of Valium. I find it infinitely relaxing because I can pay attention or not, laugh when I feel like it and not ever worry about missing any pivotal plot lines because I’ve seen the entire series already. I told a friend that the other day and she admitted she’s been watching old episodes of Love Boat and I laughed but part of me had to admit that I’m just one news cycle away from watching Isaac and Doc and Julie cuchi-cuchi with Charo on the Lido Deck.

In other news, this past weekend was Homecoming. Earlier in the day, we watched the Aggies play Arkansas and, just as I’ve come to expect, the game lasted approximately 74 hours and took six years off my life. It started off with us returning the opening kick-off for a touchdown and I naively thought this was the year I’d be able to just relax and watch the game. I WAS SO WRONG. I hate that game. I hate it every year. But I’m thankful we managed to pull out the win even though it was a little sloppier than I wanted it to be.

Later that day, Caroline had some friends over to get ready for the dance on Saturday night and I brought all my hair products into her bathroom for the girls to use. One of them said, “Wow, Caroline. Your mom knows a lot about hair.” And in that moment, I knew that was what I’d been training for all my life. Can I help with Algebra? No. Can I assist you with your science project? Not in a million years. Any chance I remember anything about ancient Greece? Nope. But do I know how to curl hair and use some product? YES MA’AM I DO. You don’t grow up in the 80s, the golden age of Aussie Sprunch Spray and perms, and not know how to fix hair. I was born for such a time as this. I don’t know much, but I believe in my ability to do good hair.

Less than ten hours after the Homecoming festivities were over, we were at the soccer fields for the first game of Caroline’s club season. We were supposed to have our first game several weeks ago but the rain caused two different weekends of soccer to be cancelled. The girls played a great game and won 1-0. I was especially happy to watch Caroline play because she’s been struggling with on and off injuries since last spring and she is finally healthy again. As much as I hated the rainouts, it really worked out and gave her time to fully heal so that’s been a good thing.

And, finally, I will leave you with this. I was driving Caroline to Young Life earlier tonight and we were talking about a situation that’s been going on. I’d suggested several times over the last few weeks that maybe she could talk to her Young Life leader, Bella, about it. Except I didn’t say just Bella because Caroline goes to school with several Bellas and so every time I mentioned it, I’d say, “Maybe you can talk to Bella Thorne about it” and Caroline would just kind of nod her head and not say anything.

Tonight I suggested it again saying, “Maybe you can talk to Bella Thorne about it” and Caroline just started laughing at me. That’s when it finally hit me. Bella Thorne is not the name of her Young Life leader. Bella Thorne is a young actress who’s popular with the kids. I have no idea what movies she has been in but she has over 18 million Instagram followers and that’s what matters most. So I’ve been telling her for the last three weeks to go talk to some actress.

Perfect.

I am officially 100 years old and have turned into my grandmother.

Somewhere this totally cancels out the fact that I know how to do hair.

I asked her why she didn’t correct me all the times I’d said it before and she said, “Because I haven’t really been paying attention to you.”

Honestly, I can’t even blame her.

We are officially in the middle of our first week back to school. And, honestly? It hasn’t been too painful. Even the earlier mornings and packing the lunches doesn’t bother me, although I’m going to need to come back here in mid-October and read that sentence back to myself so I can remember my kinder, gentler, most glass half full self when I’m rolling out of bed with the attitude of a troll every morning.

I think part of the reason that school starting isn’t as sad for me as it used to be is because summer with a teenager is decidedly different than summer with a younger child. Let’s start with this photo of her closet that I took after I’d told her to straighten it up last week and after she allegedly did what I told her to do.

Clearly we have different definitions of what “clean up your room” means.

And then there’s the reality that a fun summer daily activity for a teenager no longer involves going to the neighborhood pool with their mom, but instead they just need you to drive them places to meet up with various friends. Essentially summer with a teenager involves a three month stint of being an Uber driver, Favor delivery and an ATM machine all rolled into one human being. To add insult to injury, they are mild to moderately embarrassed by you at all times even when you really try hard not to rap along with Cardi B. when their friends are in the car.

So I woke up one day in early August, realizing that I was both out of money and out of patience, and decided that the first day of school would be a welcome relief. Not to mention the fact that she’d started to watch Dance Moms on Netflix with an intensity that frightened me for her future SAT scores.

Anyway, all that to say, HELLO SCHOOL! Welcome back!

This is Caroline on the first day of her sophomore year. Sophomore year. What on earth? This has been the year that I can’t read anyone’s social media posts about dropping their kids off at college with going into a full on ugly cry.

And just for posterity’s sake to commemorate this sweet time in our life, this is the first picture I took. Please notice the way her hand is motioning for me to hurry up. The nerve of me loving and adoring her and wanting to document her life.

This first few days have actually gone really well. She likes her teachers and all her classes and even though it’s probably not as mentally stimulating as watching Dance Moms, I’m sure she’ll have a great year.

This past weekend we had our first soccer tournament of the season. It was approximately 184 degrees outside and I think part of my soccer chair melted in the sun. We picked up brand new uniforms on Friday evening before the tournament started on Saturday morning because her SA United soccer club is now part of Sting Soccer which means the same team and coach, but new uniforms and a new league. I realize this is more information than you asked for, but there you have it. Anyway, one of the new uniforms is solid white which gave me pause from the beginning and then this happened.

During the second game on Saturday, she took a ball right to the nose. I’ve been a soccer mom for almost ten years now and so I’m really not one to freak out over an injury because I know a lot of times they look worse than they actually turn out to be. However, the sound her face made when that ball hit caused my insides to shrivel up and curl into the fetal position. But she kept running down the field toward the goal until the ref realized she was bleeding and made her go out. Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out if it’s her nose or her brand new expensive straight teeth that sustained the most damage.

As it turns out, she was fine. There was blood everywhere, but once they got the bleeding to stop, she changed into a teammate’s uniform and went back on the field and scored two goals. I think it’s obvious that she gets her mental toughness from her mother. (Insert sarcasm font) I’ve been known to get in the bed to recover from a hangnail.

And thanks to the power of social media, I discovered that the best way to get blood out is hydrogen peroxide. My kitchen sink looked like a crime scene, but her white uniform is as good as new.

Then on Sunday, she sustained an injury to her toe. I’m going to spare you the pictures because even her coach told me they belonged in a medical journal and not on the blog. The bottom line is she ripped a huge callous off the bottom of her big toe and I may never get over the trauma of it. Our neighbor who’s a doctor came over to look at it for us on Sunday after the game and I thought I was going to have to get my smelling salts and find a fainting couch. But by later that evening I was at least able to channel my best self and tell her she needed to “TOE-Tally have a great first day of school” and that she needed to literally “put her best foot forward”. She laughed and said, “Oh Mom, your sense of humor is delightful!”

Or maybe she just rolled her eyes and told me to please stop. I can’t remember.

But her team did win the tournament so I guess we at least have a medal to show for our weekend ‘o calamity.

Along with enough hydrogen peroxide, blister bandages and Neosporin to start our own medical clinic.

But we’re headed to College Station this weekend to do it all again.

Hope everyone is having a great first week of school and/or getting ready for school and/or watching Dance Moms on Netflix like it’s your job.