Well, it has been almost 48 hours since the Mississippi State / Alabama football game, and I’m still not over it.

It wasn’t that I expected to win. But we played with so much heart and effort, and we never, ever quit. Just like in the A&M game. And the LSU game. And the Auburn game.

And I guess what I’m saying is that at some point I would love it if our fellas could catch a break.

Nonetheless, it’s officially PRIME TIME for college football in Alabama. The Iron Bowl is in two weeks, and the SEC West title is on the line, and OH SWEET MERCY I WOULD NOT LISTEN TO SPORTS RADIO RIGHT NOW IF YOU PAID ME.

I’m all for a meaningful Iron Bowl. But when you don’t have a dog in the hunt, it all gets a little, um, repetitive.

Anyway, I started this post because I was going to link to a new post I wrote over at Ree’s blog, but now I think I’ll just go ahead and link to some other stuff, too, because I’ve had a few “awwwww” moments on the internet today.

I love those moments.

– Here’s the new post I wrote for Ree’s blog. It’s about Scandal. If you don’t watch Scandal, you won’t find it remotely interesting. But if you do watch Scandal – well, I HAVE SOME THOUGHTS.

– By the way, I made Ree’s chicken pot pie recipe tonight, and it is FANTASTIC. The little market by our house didn’t have any flat pre-made pie crusts, so I just bought a 2-pack of deep dish pie shells, let them thaw, and then placed them on the top of the chicken mixture (they fell apart, so I just pretended I was putting together a jigsaw puzzle). Worked great.

– Y’all. Have you seen the pictures of a toddler named Beau napping with his puppy, Theo? I cannot even. Sweetest thing I’ve seen all year.

– This excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian’s latest book just wrecked me. Absolutely beautiful.

– This sermon. According to my husband, I set a new record for the number of times I said “Come on” during a single Sunday morning message. It’s a strong word.

– I don’t have a little girl, but if I did, I’d want her to have a room just like Jayci’s.

– The Hungry Games – courtesy of Sesame Street

– This may be my favorite post that Ann Voskamp has ever written, and that – that is saying something.

– Edited to add one more: Don’t Raise Good Kids – I totally identify with every bit of it.

Hope y’all had a great Monday!

In no particular order:

– bright orange leaves

– UGG slippers (or, in my case, UGG knock-off slippers)

– grilled cheese sandwiches (for some reason this is a fall food to me)

– sweater coats

– 2-pump Pumpkin Spice Latte’ (I know – it’s getting a little cliche’, but it’s delicious nonetheless)

– planning Thanksgiving

– football games where it’s actually cold enough to bundle up

– morning coffee

– really soft pajama bottoms

– rediscovering your favorite blanket (for me it’s a Woolrich throw I bought at Target about 11 years ago, and it gets better with age)

– jeans and boots

– hearing the leaves crunch while kids play outside

– Thorlo socks (in my opinion, they’re the best of the many sock options)

– really good sweet potatoes

– two words: yoga pants

What about y’all?

Well, I had just about the best time ever in Mississippi. It was like a big reunion, really; I saw friends from high school, from college, from my first couple of jobs after college, and from pretty much every phase of my life. I even saw my childhood piano teacher. And one of my dance teacher’s daughters. And my geometry teacher. And my 10th grade English teacher. And you get the idea.

My friend Lea Margaret was so gracious and generous to ask me to sit in her Mistletoe Market booth and sign books, and what I realized after just a couple of hours is that I would have sat there for two days with no books at all. Just hearing the Mississippi accents and listening to people make connections between families and watching grandmamas tend to grand babies while the mamas shopped – every bit of it warmed my heart and fed my soul. Combine that with the fact that I also got to hang out and LAUGH MY FOOL HEAD OFF with some of my best friends from college, and it’s easy to understand why I came home feeling like I have a lot of things to write about.

Everybody has a muse, I reckon. Seems like Mississippi is mine.

I spent most of yesterday hanging out with my fellas and getting all caught up on the last three days, and even though I miss my friends in the magnolia state, it is so good to be home. I don’t have a single travel-related anything on my calendar until the end of January – no speaking, no book signings, no nothing – and I am excited about settling down a little bit and really concentrating on the next book (it’s called Home Is Where My People Are, by the way). The stories are starting to get sort of noisy in my head (I realize that probably makes no sense), so I’m ready to type ’em out and get ‘er done.

Now.

This may be the worst idea I’ve ever had, but yesterday when I was driving home, I was trying to figure out to do with the extra copies of A Little Salty in my backseat. Since I’m not going anywhere book-related for the rest of the year, I was planning to just make a nice little stack-o-books in my dining room, but then it dawned on me that a few of y’all have asked about how to buy signed books for gifts. In the past my response has been, Well, I don’t really know – but yesterday it occurred to me that I have a few extra books + I have PayPal = I can mail out signed copies. Some of y’all have emailed me about doing book signings in places that aren’t the Deep South, and since I just can’t do that right now, this might be an option a few of you will use.

So. This morning I sat down and figured out how to set up a shopping cart on PayPal. I’m pretty sure that steam came out of my ears at one point, but I set it up and it seems to work and I am feeling a little bit like I just solved an algebra problem. I don’t have a whole lot of books, so I’m only going to leave the little order form up for a few days so that I know I can fill whatever orders come in. And there may not be any orders that come in, and that is totally fine. I’ll just make that stack on my dining room table that I mentioned earlier.

The little order form / shopping cart thingie is at the bottom of this post. If you want the book inscribed to a particular person, just list that in the box that says “Inscription.” If you order more than 1 book, just separate the inscriptions with a comma (ex: Donna, Ashley). If you just want the book signed without a specific name, just leave the inscription box blank. And there’s a place on the order form (when you check out) where you can leave me a note if you need to explain anything or if you run out of space in the inscription box.

Shipping is included in the book price (that’s why one book is $20 – to cover waterproof mailers and postage), and I’ll try my best to get books mailed out by the end of next week. I’ll leave ordering open through Friday. If you don’t have a PayPal account, you can use a debit or credit card by clicking “check out.”

All righty. That was a lot of details. I do apologize. And of course I am not trying to pressure you to order. I’m just trying to be proactive about the inevitable stack of books on my dining room table.

Let me know if you have questions. And Happy Veterans Day, everybody. I’m so grateful for my daddy and all the men and women who have served this country so courageously and faithfully (that includes you, too, military spouses).

Hope y’all had a great weekend!