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We had a good weekend around here.

But, honestly, I don’t have time to tell you about it right now because it’s time for the season premiere of Mad Men and, well, I have missed Don Draper.

So the weekend report will have to wait. I can imagine your disappointment because who doesn’t want to read a recap of someone’s weekend that includes a school carnival?

In the meantime, though, I thought I’d share these pictures of Caroline playing soccer. I could tell you they were from this past Saturday’s game, but they are actually from a few weeks ago but another mom with a fancier camera than an iPhone took them and just emailed them to us a few days ago.

But I think the intensity you see here will explain why I sometimes feel like I may have to put myself in a home after we finish debating what she’s going to wear to school in the morning.

To that sweet goalie’s credit, she got up and spit the dirt out of her mouth and only cried for about thirty seconds. Whereas I would have declared myself done with the game of soccer forever and demanded an immediate trip to the orthodontist.

I’m sitting here typing this at the desk in our kitchen because I’m in the midst of cooking dinner and this is what I like to call multi-tasking. We’re having pork chops. And I’m pretty sure they’re almost dried out because I can never time dinner exactly right on the nights P takes Caroline to soccer practice.

But what are you going to do?

Life here in first world suburbia is fraught with all manner of serious issues.

And this has nothing to do with fashion but I’ve just made an interesting discovery about myself that I’m 97% sure none of you will care about. I know almost every word to every song recorded as part of the “lite rock” genre of the 1970s.

I kind of knew this before but it has been confirmed as I sit and listen to a mix of 70s songs on Pandora right now. I know them all. Sister Golden Hair Surprise? Check. Sailing? Check. How Deep is Your Love? Check.

It’s the music of my childhood. And I just quit typing for three and half minutes to sing along with Jim Croce.

Anyway, here are some things I found this week. I’m going to be honest, Gulley and I went shopping on Monday and I was shocked at how little I saw in stores. I don’t know what’s going on right now with fashion, but it feels like slim pickings.

1. lexa striped boatneck

I like this. It’s on sale right now for only about $27 at Anthropologie and comes in some good color combos. Plus it’s the kind of thing I’d wear all the time.

2. north bay top

This would be cute with white jeans or shorts for the summer. I like the little bow detail at the shoulder.

3. lace hem pullover

This would be a great spring sweater and it’s on sale. I like the lace hem detail at the bottom.

4. roll the stone cuff bracelet

I saw this at Free People the other day and love it. It comes in several different colors and I love that it has a whole bohemian thing going on.

5. ruffled picea buttondown

I think this top is so pretty and feminine with that ruffle. And it comes in three gorgeous colors.

6. towne & reese sarah ring

Speaking of gorgeous colors, I love this set of rings. So fun for spring and summer.

7. sloane maxi

Okay, so I think this is already sold out again. But I LOVE it so much. The colors, the stripes, the cut. It’s all perfection. And you can sign up to be notified when they have it back in stock if you’re interested.

8. keynote presentable dress

Isn’t this cute? I have nowhere to wear it, but I think it’s precious.

9. printed henley tunic

Gap is hit or miss right now, but I like this. It comes in some fun prints.

10. chambray embroidered pintuck dress

And I like this. This is the same dress as the one in white I showed a couple of weeks ago. But I think I like the chambray better because it’s more versatile. Could even transition to next fall with boots.

That’s it for today.

Oh. I also forgot to mention that I wrote a couple of posts over on Incourage earlier this week in case you want to read them.

Y’all have a good Friday.

Have you ever wished that you could teach your child to talk like a hillbilly? Then GOOD NEWS.

I just spent all day Tuesday recording the audio version of Sparkly Green Earrings and I bet if you let your kids listen to it a couple of times a week there’s a good chance that they can achieve the American dream of speaking with a very prominent Texas accent. It’ll be just like that time Madonna lived in London for two years and turned British.

Several weeks ago, they called to tell me they would like to have an audio version of the book and could either hire an actor or I could do it myself. And I decided I should do it myself because, first of all, it would be weird to have someone reading a memoir of my life that isn’t me and, secondly, I didn’t feel like I could subject some poor actor who once had dreams of being a regular on General Hospital to spending hours of their life pretending to be me.

So on Tuesday morning I went to a recording studio here in town. Fortunately it was a different studio than the one I went to when I recorded the video trailer for the book. That experience turned out to be perfectly lovely, but when I pulled up to someone’s house and was asked to go around back to the garage, it all felt a little bit like a scene from Silence of the Lambs.

But the studio on Tuesday was in a real shopping center right next to an Asian restaurant called Wok This Way. So I immediately knew it was legitimate. Then when I went inside I saw that there were signed pictures of Willie Nelson and the owner hanging on the wall and one of my life philosophies has always been that if it’s good enough for Willie then it’s good enough for me.

The studio owner couldn’t have been nicer and he was so patient considering I really had no idea what I was doing. I just kind of pretended like I was reading Harry Potter out loud to Caroline and that it wasn’t being recorded because then I would have totally over-thought the whole thing and sounded like Mary Katherine Gallagher reading a monologue from a Lifetime movie.

For the next seven hours I read my book. And then my throat burst into flames and I died.

The end.

Not really though because then how could I be writing this right now?

The thing is that as I read the book, Bill the studio owner had to follow right along with me to make sure I didn’t miss a word or mess up anything. And I’ve never been more aware that I really wrote the book for women. Poor Bill learned more about my birth story and mechanical breast pumps than he could have possibly ever wanted to know.

But he was sweet and when it was all over he said, “Well now I enjoyed that story.” God bless him. Because you know it was a far cry from Willie Nelson.

I left the studio and felt like I’d run a marathon. But I made a quick stop at HEB to buy some Ricola cough drops in attempt to salvage my voice. Then I bought some pork chops because I had big plans to cook dinner.

Fortunately, when I walked through the door, P recognized that I could barely speak and suggested we order pizza. This is how I know he knows me. Because, technically, I don’t need my voice to cook but he knew pizza would be my love language.

As we ate dinner, I listened to them talk about their days because I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it but OH MY THROAT. Caroline had taken the first part of the STARR exam that day. (STARR is the name of the worthless and expensive standardized tests that are issued in Texas schools.)

She had taken the writing portion of the test and I asked her what it entailed. Caroline said, “We had to write about our favorite season. So I wrote about deer season.”

We’ve raised her right.

And then I drank some hot tea, popped a few more Ricolas and went to bed.

The good news is I woke up on Wednesday with a voice, but then went to work out at Smart Barre. So now I can speak but I might not be able to use my arms until some time Friday afternoon.

A few weeks ago I was at a conference called DotMom in Frisco, Texas. Even though now that I think about it, I guess it was really more like a month ago. I have no idea. My last month and a half has been a haze of deadlines and stomach bugs and bundt cakes and battles over Easter sandals.

Anyway, while I was there, I noticed an exhibit for something called For Girls Like You, but I was busy and didn’t have time to stop and check it out. But I was curious because I have a daughter and I’m always on the lookout for anything that might be of use to me as I try to navigate the tricky waters of mothering a girl.

So I was excited when I received an email from Wynter. She’s the founder of For Girls Like You and the mother of four, FOUR, daughters. So, you know, she might know something about raising girls.

For Girls Like You is a ministry to young girls (ages 6-11) and their parents. It includes a quarterly print magazine, journal, and other print and web resources. The purpose is to introduce young girls to Christian values in a relatable way so they can walk passionately and boldly in who God has created them to be.

Wynter sent me a few past editions of the magazine and I gave them to Caroline to see if she’d like them. And she did. She read them in bed at night and told me at one point, “Mom, these have some really good advice about things I think about.”

And, trust me, she wouldn’t just say that. She’s a tough critic.

Today I have the chance to give away a gift pack to one of you. It will include a copy of the For Girls Like You Magabook, a Journal and Spring 2013 Magazine Issue, along with a subscription to the magazine. All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment. Maybe you can share how old your daughter is. Or how old your granddaughter is. Or how old the girl you have in mind for this is. Whatever.

One comment per person please. I’ll leave comments open until Friday and then choose a winner using a random number draw.

First of all, I was totally right about my mother-in-law and Facebook yesterday. She had no idea she now had a cover photo featuring David Hasselhoff and two lab puppies. In fact, she didn’t even realize she had her own Facebook page. She just thought she was “on Facebook”.

The best part is she only discovered these things after she read the blog yesterday. And then she promptly sent out a group email thanking my brother-in-law for his “computer help”.

In other news, I returned to Smart Barre this afternoon for the first time since last Wednesday. The rest of last week got busy and I didn’t have time. Not to mention that I could barely get off the couch to drive to the workout studio. There was honestly a point on Thursday night when I wanted to roll over in bed because my right arm was asleep but decided it wasn’t worth the pain.

So here’s hoping my triceps don’t cramp up in the middle of the night tonight. Or my quads. Or anything else that might cause me to yell out in pain and frighten my family and the dogs.

But I have to keep working out because I have discovered a new dessert. Specifically, I have discovered the wonder that is the Cinnamon Roll bundt cake.

Remember several weeks ago when I was lamenting about my bundt cake insufficiencies? I’m sure you do because it was a harrowing tale of sorrow and first world problems involving Pam and falsely labeled non-stick surfaces.

Well, the day I wrote that post I received an email from Shay at Mix and Match Mama. I’d just met Shay about a week earlier at the DotMom Conference in Dallas, but it had escaped me that she is actually the queen of bundt cakes.

It was as if God had brought her into my life at the very time of my deepest bundt cake need. She’s like my Queen Esther of bundt cakes. For such a time as this.

Shay said she would love to send me a few things that might be of assistance as I walked through my bundt cake trials and I said, “YES, PLEASE. PLEASE HELP MY FAMILY LIVE TO SEE A PRETTY CAKE AGAIN.”

I emailed her my address and a few days later I received a large package in the mail. Or maybe it came UPS. I don’t know because details aren’t really my thing. Which may actually be the root of some of my bundt cake troubles. 1/2 cup of oil? Eh. Close enough.

Imagine my delight when I discovered the contents of the box included not only a shiny new bundt cake pan, but also a recipe and ingredients for a new cake recipe. And, perhaps greatest of all, an autographed photo.

Oh yes. That is Sean the Bachelor. Who happens to be Shay’s brother. And, technically, he’s not really The Bachelor anymore because he found true love with Catherine in Thailand and they rode elephants and everything.

However, he is on Dancing With the Stars right now. I just thought you should know.

And so I couldn’t wait to try this new recipe in my new bundt cake pan with Bachelor Sean and his bouquet of roses to cheer me on.

But then I got the stomach bug. And cake was dead to me for a long, long time. Also dead to me? Any type of fish. And various potatoes. And Chinese food. But the Chinese food isn’t because of the stomach bug because I’ve had Chinese food issues for a long time now. It involves a bad Chinese meal in Durango, Colorado followed by a seventeen hour bus trip home. Let’s quit talking about it.

Finally, this past Friday, I felt like it was time to make the cake. I’d even remembered to buy powdered sugar at the grocery store because that’s an essential ingredient. So I whipped it all together with Bachelor Sean giving me moral support from where he lay flat on my countertop and then I did the bravest thing of all, I flipped it out of the bunt cake pan onto my cake carrier.

And, lo, it came out in one piece like a good cake should.

Angels sang. Children wept. My bundt cake past had been redeemed.

Then I did an even braver thing and brought it to some friends’ house for dessert even though I’d never tasted it and had no idea if it was any good. That’s how much I trusted Shay. I mean, how can you not trust a girl who will send you a new bundt pan through U.S. mail or UPS or maybe it was FedEX? Clearly she had my best interest at heart and wasn’t going to all that trouble just for me to bake a mediocre cake.

Here’s the verdict. There were six adults and two children at our friends’ house for dinner on Friday night. And there were exactly two pieces left of that entire cake when we left. It is delicious. Like a big hot cinnamon roll right out of the oven.

And who doesn’t like that? Because that sounds like a person I don’t want to know for fear we have nothing in common.

So bake yourself a Cinnamon Roll cake today. Or tomorrow. You’ll be glad you did. Unless you’re allergic to cinnamon. In which case you might want to check Shay’s website for some other recipe options.

Based on the number of photos I just uploaded from my phone, this post is basically going to be like a family album. And given the fact that I took most of the photos and possess limited photographic ability, it will most likely resemble one of those 1970’s photo albums with the pages that go “SCRITTTCHH” as you pull back the clear coating to reveal yellowed, blurry pictures of that time your Pa-Pa took you to Kiddie Park.

We had a nice long weekend. Caroline was in the fourth grade school musical on Thursday night and so we all went to watch her perform. The theme was School House Rock and Caroline had a role in the Interjection song where she had to yell out, “OH NO! YOU CAN’T GIVE ME A SHOT DOWN THERE!” and, also, “HOORAY!” I don’t want to sound like a stage mother, but I’m pretty sure I smell a Tony nomination.

And then on Friday, we went to go see The Croods in 3D. Here’s my quick review: It’s about cave people. I was distracted by their enormous bodies and abnormally small feet. I realize the animation folks probably did extensive cave person research, so this is just my own hang up and I tend to have feet issues under the best of circumstances.

After the movie, Caroline and I went on a last minute shopping trip in the hopes of finding her some cute sandals for Easter. I could elaborate on our excursion but I try to avoid profanity on the blog so I’ll just say we didn’t find any that we agreed on. Which meant she was either going to wear her black casual flip-flops or her black Converse hi-tops with her Easter dress.

Perfect.

She doesn’t even know how hard we had it in the 70s with our itchy lace tights and white patent mary janes that always rubbed a blister.

Saturday morning she and P left for a day at the ranch while I got everything at the house ready to host Easter brunch for Mimi and Bops and my sister and her family. I also may have watched some television.

P texted me this picture in the early afternoon.

They found it right by the ranch house and Caroline shot it herself. It’s too bad we didn’t have enough time to turn it into a nice pair of Easter sandals. Timing is everything.

On Sunday morning we all woke up bright and early to see if the Easter Bunny had visited our house. Sure enough, he’d made an appearance.

And brought Fun Dip. A pack of 16 Fun Dips to be exact. You’d think the Easter Bunny has never heard about the cost of modern day dentistry.

After a few arguments and a possible meltdown (mine) over appropriate Easter Sunday hair, we finally made it to church. And the hair argument seemed silly in light of the fact that it was 158% humidity outside with a nice humid wind. But that’s why I’d wanted her to go with the side ponytail instead of wearing it down.

(Really, though. I’m over it.)

We came home and took some pictures because we are almost never all dressed up at the same time and it seems important to capture the moment for posterity.

I was so excited about and totally envious of her denim vest. However, I couldn’t show my excitement because then she wouldn’t have worn it. So instead I just casually mentioned, “Hey. I bought you a denim vest thing to wear over your Easter dress if you want to. Whatever. No big deal.”

(Note to self: Use that same strategy the next time we go shoe shopping.)

I just feel bad because Caroline is so uncomfortable in front of the camera.

And then there’s her mother who chooses to pose as if I need to go to the bathroom really bad. What the heck?

But I love this one of Caroline and P. My Easter peeps. All the love, none of the yucky synthetic marshmallow taste.

Then Mimi and Bops showed up to take a family picture of us.

And one with Mimi and Bops.

After that we ate Easter brunch and then P and my brother-in-law, Chris, hid eggs outside for a big egg hunt for the kids. I took the next two stellar shots.

And then my phone camera went dead. Maybe it couldn’t handle the cuteness of Luke in his bowtie and vest. That’s just my theory.

It’s also possible that my phone is HORRIBLE and I really need to take it into the Apple Store but have been procrastinating. And now Gulley is going to read this and ROLL HER EYES because she is so tired of listening to me complain about my phone that she made an appointment for me last weekend. But I had to cancel it because Caroline came home sick from school that day.

After everyone left, I finished cleaning up the cascarones remains and silly string and then sat down to relax and look at everyone’s Easter photos on Facebook. That’s really when the best part of my day happened. Because I saw on my news feed that my mother-in-law had changed her cover photo on Facebook.

To this:

Why yes. That is David Hasselhoff with two lab puppies.

Here’s what you need to know. There is no way my mother-in-law made that photo her cover photo. Mainly because she wouldn’t know how. And also because she only got on Facebook about a month ago for the sole purpose of keeping up with her children. I’m almost positive this was the work of one of my brothers-in-law. To whom I say WELL PLAYED.

Finally, we watched the sky grow darker and darker the rest of the afternoon and prayed for rain because we desperately need it. And, not only did we get rain, we got hail. Lots of hail. Like I’m pretty sure we might need a new roof kind of hail because it sounded like a herd of horses in tap shoes ran across our roof eighty-five times.

Sadly, that’s my car in the background of that picture. I feel bad for it. But not as bad as I feel for my neighbor’s Range Rover that was in their driveway across the street.

In the words of my friend Debbi, God busted open the gates of hail on Easter.

I hope you had a good one filled with family, friends, and some of those Sweet-Tarts shaped like chicks and bunnies.