5 Friday Favorites: May 23, 2025
It's time for my Friday link up withA Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals.
On Fridays I share things that made me happy from the week - a photo, a song, a quote, a beauty product, a recipe, a pair of cute shoes, etc. If it's a product, sometimes it's something I actually own and sometimes something I just saw online that gave me a smile. Sometimes it's serious and sometimes it's silly. I suppose I believe that God is in the simple details of life and yes, I can even find Him in a tube of lipstick.
Hello. It's vacay time for the Skinner fam and I gotta pack all the things. I hope you all enjoy your Memorial Day weekend and take time to honor and remember those who died for our freedom. I'm so grateful.
Here are some my favorite things from the week.
1. Running Point
I've only watched two episodes of this new series on Netflix, but it is very promising. It stars Kate Hudson as the only daughter in a family of boys who takes over as the president of a professional basketball team called the Los Angeles Waves. I love basketball and I laughed out loud multiple times, so I think I'm sticking with this one.
2. Aerie Crochet the Day Maxi Skirt
This maxi skirt seems like it has the beachy vibe I'm going for next week while still offering some coverage since I don't think it's going to be very warm. It comes in a few colors.
3. Heated Eye Mask
This rec comes from my friend, Mrs. C. who highly recommends it for dry eyes and relaxation. Dry eyes are yet another joy of menopause. So much fun! I also can't live without these eye drops.
4. Large Tote Bag
This tote bag has shown up on my Instagram feed about eleventy billion times. It's so cute and comes in black, blue or pink.
5. The Very Best Words I Read This Week
One of my besties sent this post to me this week from an Instagram account called Moms of Bigs written by Esther Joy Goetz. These are some of the most relatable words I've read in a long time. I want to point out in ALL CAPS: THESE ARE NOT MY WORDS and honestly, I'm not sure there isn't some law against transcribing them in this dinky little blog and posting them here. But I felt them so deeply..
I think when I was in the midst of the chaos of parenting the boys when they were little, I was so busy that although I definitely went to bed every night with regrets, I didn't have as much time to ponder all the mistakes I was making. Now? There is so much time to reflect on all the ways I screwed up. And I spend a lot of time praying that somehow they missed that time I lost my cool (those times) or pushed too hard or not hard enough or wasn't present or was too present or blah, blah, blah. Anyway, this post meant so much to me that I just sat here like a court reporter and typed in every last word, so that I wouldn't lose them. I will need to read them again and again. The words of Esther Joy Goetz - my very favorite thing from this week:
"I was driving up the hill that leads to our home the other day, thinking about my four kids and I just started to cry. Because you know. . . Each one of them is struggling with something. Something that I can probably blame on myself.
My lack of whatever. My too much of whatever. What I modeled. What they absorbed from said modeling.
Too much helping. Not enough just "being". People pleasing, Savior complexes. Workaholism.
The "apple-doesn't-fall-far-from-the-tree" somethings.
As I dug a little deeper, it struck me that some of what they are struggling with has NOTHING to do with me. NOT A DARN THING.
It comes from the fact that they are humans in a human world filled with all the human things.
No one is not struggling. No one's life is up and to the right. No one doesn't feel the weight of the hard and the heavy.
And my precious kids are part of that fragile humanity, one that is scary and gorgeous and awful and holy and everything in between.
I thought when I had clarity in that moment that it wasn't ALL MY FAULT, the tears would dry up and I would pull into my driveway a little lighter. Instead they flowed more freely and I had to stop and pull over.
Because this whole bringing into and trying to raise and watching our kids navigate this beautiful mess of the world that we ALL live in isn't for the faint of heart. It's such a huge risk. It needs so much bravery. It requires being able to sit in the struggle and cry tears on the way up your hill in the car.
As I sat to the side of the curb in stunned silence, the salty drops navigating their way down to my chin before I wiped them away, I couldn't help but think how so much of motherhood is done in the spaces where no one else is.
Where it's just us. All by ourselves. Sometimes crying. Sometimes praying. All the time loving. Not in the way we imagined it at the start of it all. But in ALL THE WAYS, that matter in the end."
Goodness gracious, right? Thank you, Esther Joy Goetz.
Have a great weekend, friends.
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