Story of Mac's Life

He's happy.

He sees something he wants but can't have.

He's sad.

He's off to find something else that will harm him.
(In this case: a lamp cord. The child has a death wish!)

This cycle repeats itself about 20 times an hour. Does it make me a terrible mom that I find his unhappy face absolutely adorable? Sorry, Mac, I'm not going to let you maim yourself on my watch... Pout away!

Side note: Can we talk about what he does with his toes when he sits up? What a little monkey!

Sounds Like Fall

This morning it was 67 degrees for a one brief, shining moment. It's the time of year when summer lets you know it's winding down; I get excited just imagining long sleeves, hot cider, gorgeous leaves and the "fresh start" that fall brings.

It brings to mind a favorite lyric:

"When autumn comes, it doesn't ask; it just walks in where it left you last. You never know when it starts until there's fog inside the glass around your summer heart."

-John Mayer, Something's Missing

In fact, that whole album sounds like fall to me. It came out ages ago, when I was starting fresh in my hometown - this time as an "grown up," sharing a precious little house and starting classes with a roomful of strangers.

It sounds like figuring out what it meant to live somewhere besides Clemson and slowly beginning to understand what it meant to be an adult.

When I hear it, I think of driving with the windows down through Five Points, wearing new "grad school clothes" and Rainbows (it's still hot in Columbia), wondering what the next few years would bring.

The answer? Lots of change. I'm glad I didn't know it then, and I'm glad every last change came to pass.

Call it nostalgia, but John Mayer's Heavier Things is in heavy rotation this week, an audio time capsule bringing me back to autumns past.

I'm pulling out my orange (and purple!) and preparing for fall, humming all the while. I'm ready to hear the crunch of leaves, the song that shakes the Southland and the silence once our air conditioning doesn't need to hum constantly.

What sounds like fall to you?

That's Amore

You need to have heard this song to understand the depth of my husband's kindness and gratitude in this moment.

A snapshot from our Sunday afternoon. Mac (hallelujah!) is napping upstairs. I'm baking potatoes and B is grilling burgers.

He comes back inside humming, walks into the kitchen, surveying the state of our sink. Evidently it makes him want to burst into song.

B: (warbling sweetly) God gave me you to make things nice and shinyyyyyy. God gave me you for when things get grimy. God gave me you to wash the dishesssssss...

I've never felt so loved. I missed the part in the creation story about Eve being made solely as a dish-washing fiend, but I emptied the dishwasher anyhow. I was afraid of what a second verse might include!

Sunday Tunes

Two songs have been stuck in my head for the last week, so I thought I'd share my new favorites - and why I can't stop humming them.

Taylor Swift's "Mine"

Because my love for Taylor is well documented. Because, as Popwatch pointed out, Taylor love a romantic, narrative video. Because happy endings, weddings and reading books to babies can still make me cry.

Darius Rucker "Come Back Song"

Because Kristen had a point when she said this video is a love letter to Charleston. Because people who have negative things to say about our state must never have been here. Because I could listen to Darius sing the news.

(We sang this in church again today and it's on continuous play in my head as well. Glad my boys don't mind a few tunes on Sunday!)

Shopping and Saving

Seven or eight years ago, online shopping was new and exciting territory. I bought almost exclusively at J Crew and eBay but eventually expanded my virtual buying world, adding in a new sites to my circle of trusty favorites.

When I discovered RueLaLa a few years ago, I was over the moon excited. It was my first online boutique shopping experience and I loved the combination of exclusivity (ooh, I'm special!) and fantastic deals.

Flash forward to today, when I get daily emails from Gilt, Ideeli, Row Nine, Billion Dollar Babes, Zulily and One Kings Lane. I don't buy from these sites terribly often, but I like to keep my eyes peeled for gift ideas and little treats throughout the year.

While I'm in shopping lockdown for the time being, I'm in awe at how much my online shopping habits have changed in a few short years. Unlike the early days of "click to buy," I now find free shipping and additional discount codes to make patronizing my favorite virtual stores easier on my wallet.

More than anything, I loathe paying for shipping. $15 to ship a few insanely light tops? Absolutely not, J Crew.


Knowing this, I'm kicking myself for tuning out the masses who raved about Ebates. It sounded shady, or at least too good to be true. I make money for shopping online? At sites I'd visit anyway, on purchases of my choosing?

I signed up a month ago and, as little online shopping as I've done, have earned a surprising amount of rebates. Birthday money spent at Lands End Canvas, Sephora and eBay went farther with a few rebates! I just went to Ebates, searched for the store, found out the rebate percentage and clicked on any applicable coupons before shopping.

Last month I took a gift card to Sephora.com, where I got free shipping, 8% cash back from Ebates, the standard three free samples and (with a code) a free full-sized mascara as well. I felt fabulous!

Ebates sends me a running total of the percentage I've gotten back from various purchases; I'll let y'all know when I receive my actual check at the end of the quarter. (Right now they're giving a $5 bonus to new members, so scurry on by!)

If we were buying school supplies, electronics, fall clothes or big gift cards, I'd be sure to do it this way. If you're going to purchase something anyway, you might as well get a little cash back for doing so.

Do y'all have any other online shopping and saving tips? Any other sites you use that work similarly? True, I'm in "no shopping" mode. But birthday and baby gifts and necessary purchases all qualify for rebates, too. I'll take all the tips I can get. Do share!

(Note: None of the above-mentioned sites asked, induced or compensated me to mention them. All for the love of the game!)

Moon Pies Get Their Day in the Sun

Cupcakes have been trendy for some time now. They're ubiquitious; every city has its own cupcake cafe, every wedding planner has created a cupcake display, every adult has partaken of these delicious, sprinkle-topped treats.

While I'll never stop craving cupcakes, I think the bubble may have burst for these trendy sweets. The world of haute cuisine is clamoring for a new dessert du jour and, if The Kitchn is to be believed, the next must-have baked good could be the Moon Pie!


While I take issue with calling them truck stop staples, I agree that Moon Pies aren't for everyone. They may be unheard of in certain parts of the country, but around here they're well known - and paired, like snapper and sauvignon blanc, with RC Cola.

While each can be hard to find, the RC and Moon Pie combination is a classic. Clemson's president Robert Cook "R.C." Edwards' wife was even given the nickname "Moon Pie." If that doesn't say "we go together like peas and carrots," I don't know what does.

We gave away orange and white Moon Pies at our wedding a few years ago, but they're not a staple in the Smith household. Though I may not eat many Moon Pies these days, I'm still excited to see this bit of Southern culture trickle into the foodie world.


I might even try this recipe for homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Moon Pies, just to celebrate my roots - and my sweet tooth.

If you're in the mood for a rainbow of original Moon Pies, take a look at what's available. All kinds of "truck stop" goodness.

Are you a Moon Pie fan?

Mac's Sleepless Sunday

Warning: The rant below might make no sense if you don't have small children and/or a compulsion to stay on a routine...

Wishful thinking?

Bradley and I are back in the Sunday School saddle! We started teaching a precious group of 4-year-olds at our church earlier this month and are so excited about it. (We taught this age group before Mac was born, too.)

For this reason, Mac's schedule is a little off on Sundays. Between the 9:15 service, our teaching Sunday School at 11:15 and waiting for our class to be picked up by their parents, Mac will be on campus between three and a half and four hours every week.

This means a nap at church, something he's never been good at, is a must. When he was in daycare earlier this year, he would only doze off briefly in a swing during the course of a day - there was too much to look at!

Church is the same way for him. New faces! New voices! New arms to squeeze him and toys to chew! Even though the cribs are in a quiet, dark, separate room, he's only succumbed to sleep once.

Yesterday was his first four-hour day at church. He usually naps between 10:00 and 10:30, so I tried to put him down myself between services, but that didn't work. And it didn't work for either of his teachers in their separate attempts, so I let the nap dream go.

He had just drifted off in his car seat when we pulled into our driveway, but that was the ONLY sleep he got yesterday.

Yes, you read that correctly. Our sweet two-a-day napper, who enjoys both sleep and alone time in his crib, slept not a wink between 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.

He's cutting his first tooth, which could contribute to the problem, but I'm staring down the barrel of twelve months of napless Sundays. And today he's still 0 for 1 napwise. (To be fair, last night he slept for nearly 12 hours. But he typically naps twice in addition to a full night.)

I'm a firm believer that sleep breeds sleep; it isn't entirely surprising that we're on day two without naps. But it is frustrating.

What do I do? I don't want to push the nap issue and make his teachers and other babies miserable if he just can't settle down to sleep. But I also don't want every Sunday (and Monday, it seems) to be ruined by an unhappy, overtired baby.

Once our small group meetings pick back up in a week or two, Mac will have just over two hours between getting home from church and leaving for small group. How can I make that (lunch, rest, playtime, etc) work if he hasn't slept at church?

I was concerned about how Sundays would work for us, being at church for two services and then having small group in the afternoons, but didn't want to use Mac as a reason not to serve. Plenty of families with far more children are serving at Grace - and it's been such a blessing to us that we knew we'd find a way to make it work. So now I'm asking for some insight on how y'all make busy Sundays work.

Sorry for the panicked rant, but I'm befuddled. Since he started sleeping through the night consistently (the day I left my full-time job), Mac has been a wonderful sleeper. I put him down awake, hand him his blanky, leave the room and come back when I hear giggling hours later.

Twice a day, that's been his routine. He's not crying in his crib right now, but he's not sleeping, either. Did someone slip him baby Red Bull?

Any advice?