5 Friday Favorites: July 18, 2025
It's time for my Friday link up with A 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.
Good morning, Friends! I saw something about this specific week in July that really hits hard. Apparently as of this week, we are closer to the year 2050 than we are to the year 2000.
Listen. I know this is basic math, but this is what it felt like to me when I first started thinking about it.
Then, I felt like this:
Alas, dear friends, it is true. Let’s stop thinking about it and look at some favorites from the week.
1. Red Denim Jumpsuit
I know what you’re thinking. “You do not need another jumpsuit/romper/one-piece outfit, Ma’am.” To that I say, “LET ME LIVE.”
This red denim sleeveless jumpsuit from Universal Thread is a winner. It’s only $40 and comes in two other colors. Look how cool I am in my elevator selfie and my peace sign when I wore it out to dinner with my new writer friends the first night of the conference.
I know what you’re thinking. “Taking a selfie alone in an elevator is not in the vicinity of cool, Ma’am.” And to that I say, “YOU ARE CORRECT.” and “LET ME LIVE.”
2. Heaven in the Hills - Annabel Dwyer
I don’t know if this link will work, but if it doesn’t and you have Instagram, go look up Annabel Dwyer and listen to this absolutely gut-wrenching, but stunningly beautiful song she wrote in response to the Camp Mystic tragedy. So much of the last few weeks had me searching names of victims and friends and family of victims because I know so many are related to people I attended college with at The University of Texas at Austin. My memory isn’t great, but I’m 99.9% sure I went to college with this talented young lady’s dad. These lyrics and this voice have stayed in my heart and head every day since I first heard them. I am amazed by the way God intentionally gives gifts to artists like Annabel so that they can be used for the healing of His people.
3. Ouai Hair and Body Mist
This favorite comes courtesy of my sister who says the Ouai Hair and Body mist smells great and she loves it. In full disclosure, I have not tried it, but I trust her judgment on anything. Well, most things. She just sent me a video of a chipmunk that she thought was cute when she knows that rodents of any sort or kind scare the fire out of me. This showed a massive lack of sound judgment and caused me undue stress on an otherwise lovely Friday morning. I will be calling my dad shortly to tell on her.
4. Roasted Chickpeas
Image: gimmesomeoven.com
We’re all trying to get more protein and fiber, blah, blah, blah. I’m also trying to find something crunchy and salty that isn’t an entire bag of On the Border tortilla chips. I bought a bunch of canned chickpeas, rinsed them, dried them with paper towels (this is important!) and roasted them with olive oil and sea salt. They are not tortilla chips, but they are yummy. Really good as a snack or in salads. Next time I’m going to try some other spices like chili powder or cumin or whatever else I find in my pantry. Look out, Ina Garten. I’m coming for you.
5. Some Thoughts from My Very First Writers Conference
Please ignore my betrayal of Diet Coke. Only Pepsi at the hotel. Get it together, Hilton.
It will take me some time to process all that I learned and experienced at my first Writer’s Conference. Immeasurably more than I could ever ask or imagine. I’ll likely be writing a lot in the coming weeks about it.
I suppose I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. Maybe that’s because I loved reading more than anything in the world as a child. My mom says that what she remembers most about my childhood is that I constantly had my nose in a book. I read every single Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume book ever written multiple times over. When I picture my childhood, this is what I see in my mind's eye: I’m curled up on the blue couch in the formal living room where no one ever went with a well-worn copy of Starring Sally J. Freidman as Herself.
Other than that, my childhood consisted of playing Barbies, swimming in the pool in the summers with my siblings, watching Happy Days every Tuesday night on our gigantic console tv, and riding bikes down our Dallas street with my friend, Amanda. My childhood was not dramatic or exciting. It was simple, comfortable, and by all accounts, pretty normal.
I’ve written this blog for a long time and have wanted to write a book for longer than that. Something has always stopped me. Mostly it’s fear that I don’t have anything compelling to say. My apprehension to write a non-fiction memoir is not due to any sordid secrets I'm ashamed to tell, but is the opposite all together. As much as I have distinctly heard the call to write a book- especially the call to write about the hope and light I find in Jesus - I've often hesitated, wondering, "What in the world do I really have to tell? What lessons might anyone glean from an unremarkable, ordinary life?"
Isn't it funny how we can find a way to discount our gifts, our callings or even our basic worth for any reason at all?
I'm too damaged to do what God is asking me to do. Or I'm not damaged enough.
Huh?
Those of us who are blessed to have had stable childhoods and who have not had a true challenge to our faith have no less important stories to tell than those who have overcome addictions, troubled homes, or disabilities. I’ve heard the statement that “a true faith is a faith that has been tested.” I believe it has merit and that has worried me at times. I know people who have suffered addiction, the loss of children or a spouse, have lived with chronic pain or who have walked through divorce or adultery. Those stories and the redemption and healing of the people who have walked them are powerful and important. Though relationally, I have some experience with those journeys, personally they are not mine to tell.
Would I, could I, hold onto my faith with the same ferocity and the same sure knowledge that I do when I am the walking, talking blessed child of great privilege? Should I wait for tragedy to strike to see how I hold up before I write my story?
These “big” issues - addiction, illness, adultery and poverty - require the loving grace of a Holy God to overcome. In looking at my life, I realize that the seemingly “little” challenges I’ve met? Body image issues, insecurity, anxiety, vanity? There is no overcoming any of them without the same Holy and loving grace of God
In writing this blog while walking with Jesus through the insecurity about what I really have to offer, I find that I have a story, too. One of trying to be faithful in the small things. One of trying to reach out to the hurting. One of realizing that as I nod my head vigorously, looking the recovering alcoholic in the eye and know full well that God can redeem and save her, that same redemption and saving are offered to an ordinary girl with an ordinary life. I have found that God doesn't waste any of our stories - whether they are scarred by extraordinary suffering or tinged with exorbitant blessing.
What He can give us is immeasurable. What He can do with what He gives us is beyond our comprehension. Your gift – my gift - whether it is skill at putting an outfit together, solving an equation, writing a devotional, closing a deal, rearranging a family room, playing Legos with a child or organizing a pantry is not a throwaway gift. Maybe we aren’t supposed to know what the story is for or who the story is for or how the story will be received. Maybe we are simply to live the story, share the story and let God do the rest.
This conference and the people there encouraged me to continue to take to this laptop and write about my ordinary life - about my time driving carpool to the ballpark, sitting in the bleachers at the basketball gym, and scrubbing uniforms in the laundry room. As I write the stories of my ordinary days, God reveals some extraordinary lessons. When I write those lessons down with my hand, I find that they line up pretty well with the Scriptures written by His hand.
Won’t He do it?
What shall I make of a collection of stories about a basic, unremarkable life? I shall make it an example of how seemingly insignificant moments - silly, simple, hilarious, chaotic, mundane and basic - can actually be full of evidence of His faithfulness, His goodness and His unrelenting love. I shall make it a testament to the extraordinary work of God in the life of an ordinary girl. In the end, I hope that those of you who read my words will laugh a little, cry a little, think a little and then set your hearts and minds to finding the One who takes the blank, beige canvases of our lives and makes them astoundingly beautiful masterpieces. He is there in every simple or stunning moment. I've seen Him myself.
Have a blessed weekend.
Disclosure: The View From Behind Home Plate is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn small fees by linking to amazon.com. Post might contain other affiliate links as well.