this song

jason isbell, y'all.

this song is everything.

this is from his new album which is killing it on the charts right now.

he's pretty rad.  look him up, read his bios, listen to his stuff.  chris follows him and his wife (amanda shires) on twitter and they are equally adorable and talented and hysterical.  look up, "jason isbell reads me the news".  precious.

here are some of my other old favorites.

cover me up

songs that she sang in the shower

and my favorite: different days

p.s. side note: did you see lauryn hill on jimmy fallon last night (i'm looking at you amber)?  she killed it.

happy weekend, loves!

greatest hits

hi friends,

i'm here, i'm here!

y'all, summer is winding down.  i can hardly believe it.

i feel like we have spent most of it tending to, "watch this!" and "mom, look" and "did you see me?"

and usually what we are "watching" involves some sort of imaginary play involving mouth-made gun noises.

how have you been?

i currently feel like crappity crap but that's ok because it gives me a guilt-free reason to rest.  chris has gone to see phish tonight, which means i can't watch mad men without him (obsessed), so looks like after the boys bedtime i'll be laying on the couch visiting with ramona, luann, sonja, carole and friends.  i love those bitches.

i haven't picked up my camera in weeks, so i will do my best to update via iphone photos.

in no particular order, here's what we've been up to.

1) last saturday, despite ben's strep throat (it's like his body always knows when we have something planned.  it's creepy, really.), we took the boys to the lakehouse with my sister, jake and addy.

it involved the jet-ski, dinner at cedar creek brewery, late night beer drinking on the back porch (the grown-ups, not the kids), and a not-so-fun game of musical beds.

2) for the most part, they try to kill each other at least once a day, but these sweet moments DO exist. and when they happen, ben makes sure to point them out so that he can be acknowledged as a really sweet and patient brother.  ummm-hmmm.

3) while chris was on his trip of a lifetime in chicago to see the dead over the fourth of july weekend, we went to the lake to celebrate and shoot fireworks with the family.  i love this holiday.  no presents, just fun.

4) what feels like a million years ago, i had a lady date with marcy.

she wore a cute dress and everything.

cheers!

5) my cousin is fifteen and to my boys (and me), he absolutely hung the moon.  here they are after one of jake's baseball games.

6) took these clowns with me to trader joe's and they managed to not break anyone's ankles with their kiddie carts.  well done, my little crazy people.

7) summer heat = indoor activities.

on this day: the perot museum.

8) summer also equals peaches from ham's orchards in terrell.  the kids get peach ice cream and drink  dr. pepper out of glass bottles, which they think is pretty rad.

i bought a bag of peaches which were gone and in my belly within two days.

this year we had company.

 9) end of baseball season was celebrated with a pool party at our house.

aren't little boys charming?

 10) marcy had a kid date at her house.  the girls meticulously decorated cookies while the boys tried to destroy marcy's living room. 

 they adore her.

 11) chris and i celebrated our eleventh anniversary over the most delicious dinner at gemma.

if you are in dallas and are ever in the mood to splurge on a meal.  it was incredible, even though they misspelled my name.

it was a close-call because ben got strep that day (seriously).  my dad graciously sat with our sick boy so that we didn't have to cancel our reservation.

12) y'all.  we saw d'angelo.

i am such a huge fan and i never ever in a zillion-million years thought i would ever get the chance to see him live.  the show was amazing (even to chris who isn't as familiar with his stuff).

so now i've seen outkast, q-tip and my boyfriend, d'angelo.

all i need is to see lauryn hill (i'm so sure) and the beastie boys (sobbing) to complete my hip hop bucket list and to die happy and fulfilled.  that's dramatic, but you know what i mean.

ah, that felt good.

looking forward to spending time with my college friends in a couple of weeks AND taking the kids to galveston the week after.

how have you been?  what are you looking forward to?

love,

coco

magnolia

my entire life i was an avid reader.  and i read really fast, so once i commit, i can plow through some books.

 

but then i had kids and my reading slowed down.  like, way down.  life was more about getting sleep than it was about staying up late to finish another chapter.  i have literary commitment issues.

 

while catching up on my blogs the other day, i bookmarked a post by joanna goddard of cup of jo.  (this one to be exact).  she asked her readers to share the most beautiful sentence/paragraph they have ever read.  she received 643 comments, y'all.  i didn't have time to read them all, but i was so moved by the ones i did read.  i want to revisit those comments over and over.

 

it made me jealous that these commenters seemed to have a well of inspiration to choose from.  i thought of all the books i have read over the years and of the ones i fervently underlined and dog-eared and high-lighted in my teens and twenties.  where are those words now?  none at my fingertips.

then yesterday, chris sent me a link (as he does) of an article he knew i would love (and i did).  it was written by frances mayes for garden & gun magazine about the scents of the south, primarily the scent of the magnolia (if you are unfamiliar with that magazine, check it out, like them on facebook.  every issue is a love-letter to the south: it's artists, the makers, the food, the music, the culture.)  and when i read it, it took me somewhere else, to a memory, to a similar experience i have had time and time again, to my childhood.  it is the south.

 

here is my lone contribution to the "most beautiful thing i have ever read (recently)" conversation:

 

"When I lived for many years in California, the lost scents of the South haunted me most. Anytime I returned, I’d find myself outside after dinner, listening to the screeching chorus of tree frogs and night birds, just breathing in the layers of sweet, dank, fecund air. To me, moonlight smells like honeysuckle. When I was small, my bicycle leaned behind a big mother gardenia against the red barn. Cycling reminds me of the cloying, decadent presence of those flowers that bruised brown when I touched the petals. I’m amazed when my scraggly daphne bush sends out heavenly blasts that no conjurer of scents ever came close to capturing in a bottle. Jasmine spreading around the front steps may be home for copperheads, but the narcotizing perfume rising to the porch compensates for that inconvenience."

 

read the rest here

 

it reminds me of when my friend sarah and i lived in colorado one summer.  we had to return to texas in august to start a new semester of college.  we were homesick, but sad to leave beautiful colorado.  as we crossed the texas border, we rolled down our windows to feel the oppressive heat smack our faces.  it turns out we missed the heat, that awful middle-of-august texas heat.  who knew?  you know what else we missed but didn't realize until our return?  cicadas.  sweet tea.  ceiling fans.  all of those memories steeped in your senses that you don't even remember until you forget.

 

thanks for letting me share.  i wanted to put those words here so that i could have them at my fingertips if anyone ever asks me the same question.  feel free share your favorites.  i would love to read them.

 

p.s. while the south is on my mind, here is one of our favorite songs from my favorite artsy-weirdo-southern-gentleman, michael stipe of r.e.m..  a georgia boy, an artist, a lover of all things new orleans... this man is my spirit animal.  lol.  enjoy.

being awake

y'all.

this morning is weighing heavy on me.

i handled discipline with crosby in the absolute worst way.

in the past few months, he has been our greatest challenge.

and i try so hard to remember that i once felt this way with ben.  i would cry and worry and make mistakes day in and day out and pray that i didn't completely screw him up.

it's hard to remember because ben is now the easiest behaviorally he ever has been.

but my cros.

he is going through something difficult.  and i hope, hope, hope it's a phase.  it's bringing out the worst in him and the worst in me.

he needs extra love and understanding, that to be honest, i cannot muster on most days.

i love him so much and i just want him to be a happy little boy.

but my well feels dry.

i need to figure out how to refill it, stat.

parenting is such a mindf*$% sometimes, right???

it is the best and most difficult thing i have ever, ever done.

when i got to work, i was convinced that this funk i am in was permanent,

until i read some jim gaffigan quotes about parenthood on facebook.

laughing never fails.

that and remembering that every parent feels this way at one point or another.

even famous ones.

parenthood can often feel really lonely.

thanks, funny man, for reminding me that i am absolutely not alone.

here are some of jim's jewels on his daily gig:

 

On That Cat Steven's Song"The song goes, 'Morning has broken,' and I'm pretty sure my children broke it. Like everything else they break, if they did break it, they'll never admit it."

 

On The Secret To Life"People treat having a kid as somehow retiring from success. Quitting. Have you seen a baby? They're pretty cute. Loving them is pretty easy. Smiling babies should actually be categorized by the pharmaceutical industry as a powerful antidepressant. Being happy is really the definition of success, isn't it?"

 

On Whether Or Not You're Qualified To Be A Parent"Every night before I get my one hour of sleep, I have the same thought: 'Well, that's a wrap on another day of acting like I know what I'm doing.' I wish I were exaggerating, but I'm not. Most of the time, I feel entirely unqualified to be a parent. I call these times being awake."

 

you can read the rest here.

happily ever after

she found her person.

the road was long.

there were heartbreaks and obstacles,

which she faced and conquered 

with courage and grace.

but the road led her to her independence

and eventually to the love of her life.

last weekend was a celebration of that journey.

i love you, chels and jake.

i am so happy you have found each other.

the weekend was filled with love (and awkward prom poses),

thoughtful details,

new cousins,

champagne toasts and updo's,

big brides and little brides 

(in a dress made from my mom's wedding dress),

dance parties,

new friendships,

old traditions,

and new ones, too.

congratulations, jake, choo & addy!

happy four-day wedding anniversary.

xoxox