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That’s right. As of 3:30 p.m. today we are officially on Spring Break. And we plan to celebrate with lots of sleeping in and doing nothing. I cannot wait.

The temps are also supposed to be in the eighties next week which is why I am officially moving towards all warm weather clothing. I even put all my sweaters back in the top of my closet because, considering I hardly wore them during December, January and February, it’s safe to say I won’t be wearing them in late March.

Here are a few things I found this week:

1. evella blouse

This is a great top for spring and would look great with white shorts or jeans. And it’s on sale for $39.95.

2. old navy linen blend shirtdress

This also comes in blue. So perfect to throw on with sandals on a hot day.

3. t-back swing tee

This also comes in a burgundy-ish color. I love the t-back detail.

4. crepe blouson dress

I think I could have one of these dresses in every color because it also comes in coral and royal blue. It’s $78 and I love that it could be dressed up or down.

5. belled silk peasant dress

I’ve had my eye on this for a while. Love the color, the pattern, the style. The whole thing is perfect.

6. vince cameo keyhole trapeze dress

I love green for spring and I love this dress. It also comes in black and navy, but I think the green with gold sandals and accessories is divine.

7. madewell packable straw hat

Now that I’m always aware of how much sun is getting on my face, I wear a hat almost every time I’m outside. I love that this one is packable so you can take it with you on vacation. It also comes in black.

8. tick tock earrings

I’ve been on the lookout for earrings that are different from my normal hoops and I really like these. Super simple, but something different.

9. dot wrap dress

I think wrap dresses are great because they look great on just about everyone. Plus, Ann Taylor is offering 40% off everything if you sign up to receive emails.

10. mixed print flutter tank

How cute is this top? Love the ruffles, the colors and the pattern. And it’s 40% with code BRCFIT at checkout.

That’s it for today.

Have a great Friday.

I was going to write a post about what we did this weekend, but now it’s Tuesday night and I can hardly remember. All I know now is that we are just three school days away from Spring Break and we are so in need of a little vacation. Not that we have any big plans, but it will be nice to get out of town for a few days and just enjoy all the doing nothing.

This past weekend actually was pretty low-key for us because we didn’t have any soccer at all. I can’t remember the last time that happened but I’m not complaining. Caroline had a friend spend the night on Friday night and I let them loose in the kitchen where they had their very own version of cupcake wars and made cupcakes with all manner of marshmallows, candy corn, Redi-Whip and other various things they found in the cabinets. They couldn’t understand why I agreed to judge them based on appearance only but declined to do a taste test. All I could think about was the episode of Friends when Rachel makes the trifle with a layer of beef and peas. “It tastes like feet!”

On Saturday we went to watch Will play baseball, then I went to spin class because it was a beach-themed ride and they played mainly Jimmy Buffet songs and handed out Corona with lime afterwards, which is basically the perfect version of exercise ever. Afterwards, I picked up Mexican food for dinner. Sunday we had church and then Caroline had another friend come over. I decided to spend the afternoon cleaning out my closet and the girls joined me and actually both ended up choosing a few things I was discarding. One mom’s trash is a teen girl’s treasure I guess.

Then Sunday night I watched the final Downton Abbey. I already talked about it on the podcast, but I was so sad to say goodbye to every single one of the characters. Except maybe Daisy. She pretty much bugged me right up until the end. But I am a sucker for a happy ending and so I was thrilled that Julian Fellowes gave us what we wanted and I was able to say farewell to my British friends knowing that life looks bright for all of them. Well, except for the fact that World War II is going to eventually happen and change all of their lives, but they have ten good years or so before that.

Speaking of my favorite British people, can we discuss this?

First of all, kudos to them for taking two little kids skiing. That’s a whole lot of snowsuit wrangling. Although I’m guessing they have a nanny for that.

Secondly, how cute is George? I can’t even deal with his hat. Or his cheeks.

Third, Kate looks better in her ski clothes than I looked at my wedding. The times I have skied I have looked like some version of the Michelin Man with a drinking problem, yet she looks fresh as a daisy. Maybe she has secretly employed my ski strategy should I ever find myself on another ski trip. This involves spending a lot of time at the spa and then just donning ski clothes to meet people for lunch at the base of the mountain.

So basically that’s what I’ve been doing. Judging cupcake competitions, watching Downton Abbey and looking at photos of Will and Kate on vacation.

I seriously can’t believe it’s March already. And, here’s a true story, we still have some Christmas decorations that haven’t made it back up to the attic. I mean it’s not like I’m still displaying them or anything, but they are sitting in the corner of my dining room. Maybe now that it’s officially over two full months since Christmas and 85 degrees outside, I’ll finally feel enough shame and/or motivation to put them away.

And this is such a weird time of year for clothes. I’m done buying anything that reeks of winter, no matter how discounted it may be. But it’s still too early in the calendar to wear all the new spring and summer clothes, even though our temperatures are increasingly inching closer to summer like weather. Yesterday I started out wearing boots and jeans and ended the day in shorts and flip-flops.

Anyway, here are some things I found this week:

1. chamechaude poncho

I really like this. I think it would look great thrown over a dress, with a t-shirt and jeans, or even over all white when summer gets here. It’s on sale for $69.95 with an extra 30% with code XTRA30 at checkout.

2. lokka tunic

I love these tunics. The sizes left are limited and they come in several colors. They’re on sale for $39.95 with an extra 30% off with code XTRA30 at checkout.

3. madewell parcel stripe trench coat

A striped trench coat? This is so many components of things I love.

4. scalloped lace sheath dress

This dress is really pretty and so feminine. It also comes in black and hot pink, but I’m partial to this ivory color. Although the hot pink is really fun.

5. steve maddden porto faux leather tote

Just in case you’re looking for a good summer handbag.

6. old navy pleated skirt

I have officially fallen in love with skirts for warmer weather. They are so much more user friendly than shorts and can be dressed up or down.

7. canvas stripe tote

I saw this tote at Target yesterday and decided it’s a perfect bag for travel, the pool or the beach.

8. j.crew classic chambray shirt

This is the time of year when my chambray shirt becomes a go-to item in my closet. You can wear it with a skirt like the one above, throw it on over a maxi dress and wear it unbuttoned, or even pair it with a darker pair of blue jeans or with white jeans.

9. bali tassel pendant necklace

Love the colors in this necklace. It would make even a white t-shirt look good.

10. sophee textured drop earrings

I’m a fan of simple gold earrings and I really like these. They go with everything.

That’s it for today.

Have a good Friday.

I realize that Tuesday was actually Super Tuesday but that doesn’t mean today can’t be its very own kind of super. Especially because it’s Thursday which means we are one step closer to Friday. And for us this upcoming weekend is a weekend of absolutely nothing on the calendar. We don’t even have a soccer game. I don’t even know what we’ll do with all the free time.

And now that I’ve put that out there, I realize I better hope and pray Caroline doesn’t come up with some kind of school assignment that involves building a log cabin replica out of popsicle sticks over the weekend.

My last couple of days have been filled with trying to write some things for the new book, wanting to go yank a leaf blower out of my neighbor’s hands because you can only blow leaves for thirty minutes or so before you are alienating the neighborhood, and dealing with the mood swings of a junior high girl who has had a cough for the last ten days.

Here are a few things that might interest you:

1. #Mom Joke Monday

Y’all. This is so dumb. Truly. But a friend shared it on Twitter and I watched it and I couldn’t quit laughing by the end of it.

2. Wake County Children’s Book Drive

This book drive would provide every child in ten elementary schools in Wake County with ten books each. Unfortunately, only 22,000 books were donated and they needed 110,000. You can read all the details right here. They have extended the drive to March 12th and if you have gently used (or new!) children’s books you’d like to donate you can mail them here:

Elizabeth R. Santana
Administrator
Wake Up and Read
Wake County Public Schools
Crossroads II, Office #2314
110 Corning Road
Cary, NC 27518

I was so glad my friend Lindsey brought this to my attention yesterday. I believe in books and how they can change your life. I would love to see them get all the books they need and more.

3. Doggie jail

Piper and Mabel ride in my car almost every day. I take them to the dog park and to pick up Caroline from school on a regular basis, but they were absolutely trashing my car seats. So I ordered a pet barrier, also known as doggie jail.

You can only imagine the poetry this jail sentence has brought out of Mabel.

Warden, oh warden
A bad case of prison blues
I can’t be fenced in

I am innocent
Sister has the dirty paws
Please let me in front

Bars are everywhere
I can’t see freedom from here
Now plotting escape

Have a super Thursday.

Well since I last wrote I have seen Pat Benatar in concert, thus fulfilling a dream I had back in 1982. My fifth grade self would have been so thrilled for me as I listened to Shadows of the Night live and in person. Honestly, here’s what I will tell you, we should all hope to age as well as Pat Benatar.

On the other end of the spectrum, I was in College Station on Thursday night to speak at a leadership forum for mainly Texas A&M students. It had dawned on me earlier in the week that none of them were even born when I graduated from college, which may explain why I kept telling them all how cute they were. But I couldn’t help it. They were so cute and so fun. I just wanted to wrap them all in a big hug and tell them the next five to ten years might be a little rough but hang in there. And wear sunscreen.

The other speakers at the event were Teri Griege, who is a Stage 4 colon cancer patient who finished the Ironman World Championship after being diagnosed, and Christian Pinkston, who owns a hugely successful public relations firm in Washington D.C. and had his life changed after he almost drowned in the Persian Gulf.

And then there was me. One time I had to pay full price at Gap and my dry-cleaning wasn’t ready when I went to pick it up. We have all had our personal struggles. I think it was my job to let the students know that you can make a 13 on a college exam and it isn’t the end of the world. Ask me how I know.

I stayed with Big and Honey while I was there which was like a mini-vacation, complete with chicken salad from Newk’s and a strawberry tart from Cafe Eccell. Then I drove home Friday morning and we went to the rodeo with a group of friends on Friday night. That’s where we saw Pat Benatar. And she hit us with her best shot.

On Saturday we were able to have a lazy morning complete with biscuits and gravy and then Caroline had a soccer game at 2:00. It was a tough game and they had their first loss of the season. We cooked burgers that evening and then had church on Sunday morning.

I will confess that I watched very little of the Academy Awards and instead opted to just check out all the dresses online. We watched Fletch instead because we’ve only seen it 142 times before and it was the only thing on that held our interest. I really can’t explain it any better than that.

Oh! Our biggest excitement (and I am using that term so loosely and this should really be an indicator of how little is going on with us right now) was that Caroline set the house alarm off by coughing so hard on Saturday night. She’s had a cough and cold for the last week – emphasis on the cough – and the coughing was at an all-time high Saturday night. When she went into her bathroom the coughing triggered the glass break on our alarm system and if you haven’t had your house alarm go off at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night while you’re laying on the couch and reading a book, then you don’t really know what adrenaline rush means. P had already gone to bed and he came flying out of the room, certain he was about to have to fight off an intruder.

Needless to say, I gave her an extra dose of cough medicine and a warning to not cough in the bathroom.

As for Monday, I deemed it errand day and ran all the errands that haven’t gotten finished in the last week. This includes such exciting things as a trip to HEB, the mail store, the pet store, Target, and Gap. I went to Gap to return a few things I’d bought for Caroline and decided to take a quick look around and here’s what I saw: A LOT of bad pocket placement. I don’t know why Gap insists on ruining a perfectly good piece of clothing with pockets. Who are all these people who need pockets? I don’t understand. And even if I had something to put in a pocket, a cotton pocket on a cotton skirt is going to do me zero amounts of good. You can’t put a cell phone in it. And, according to my grandmother, you should never actually put your hand in a pocket because it ruins the line of the clothing. Apparently Gap never got that memo. They envision a world where we need pockets on all manner of dresses and skirts and such. Of course they also believe a flimsy piece of coordinating fabric suffices as a belt, so do with that what you will.

So to sum it all up, love and pockets and coughing are all a battlefield.

Thank you and good night.