5 Friday Favorites: October 31, 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.
Hello Friends!
I would like to begin with a confession of sorts. When our pastor leads us in prayer each week, he often uses some prompts and then allows us a time of quiet reflection. On Sunday morning when the prayer time began with, “Dear Lord we give you thanks for someone or something that brings us joy, brings us comfort and brings us closer to you”, I sat with my head bowed as the images of my husband and my children formed in my mind. Who did I thank the Creator of the Universe for next? Other family members? My friends? Health? Food on the table? Sunshine and blue skies?
Um no.
Immediately and unintentionally (I promise) the image of a young man returning a punt all the way to the end zone came to me as clear as day. Right after my own flesh and blood children, I thanked God for the blessing of Ryan Niblett.
Y’all, I do not even know what the kid looks like under that helmet. But you bet your boots that his ability to force an overtime victory after the Longhorns were SEVENTEEN points down in the 4th quarter was a blessing worthy of praise and thanksgiving.
If you’d like to watch what caused me to lose my ever-lovin’ mind on Saturday night, please take a look here. I’ve watched it no less than 15 times.
If you’re wondering how loud I was just check out my dog’s reaction to the mayhem that happened when we won. He was concerned. And perhaps a little embarrassed.
Here are some other favorite things from the week.
Lasagna Soup
It’s finally cool enough to be “soup season” around these parts. My friend, Karen, made this Lasagna Soup at our Book Club meeting and it was delicious.
2. Half Zip Sweatshirt
Soup season also means sweatshirt season and I was delighted to pull this sweatshirt out of the closet this week. I bought it almost two years ago and it has held up very well. It’s 20% off today, comes in a bunch of colors and has pockets! SCORE!
3. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
I’ve listed this version of the song, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing before, but I was reminded of it again when we sang it at our Wednesday mid-day service this week. It’s so beautiful.
PS If you are in my area, Arcola Methodist Church offers a 30 minute service each Wednesday at 11:30 am in the chapel. I’ll be speaking this Wednesday, the 5th, and we’d love to have you join us!
4. Trudy 2-Strand Link Chain Necklace
I love this Trudy necklace from Park Lane. It comes in silver or gold and the strands can be worn separately or together. Pendant charms are really trendy right now so if you’re looking for a link chain for a pendant I think the bottom strand of the Trudy would be perfect. It’s only $68.
5. The Grit of Hope
A few weeks ago I wrote down a list of everyone I’m praying for. People who are in very serious, very challenging and even life-threatening situations. My goodness is the list long. And I’ve added to it just about every day in the last three weeks. Praying for all these people had me hoping. And hoping had me thinking. And thinking had me wondering about hoping.
Nobody said it’s easy being in my brain.
Anyway, hope has been on my mind a lot lately. By coincidence the sermon at my church centered on hope as well.
Hope and faith are often spoken in the same breath. I’d often thought of hope as a wishy-washy, watered-down version of faith. But both are mentioned in Scripture, so both must be important, and they must not be the same thing. So what’s the difference?
The great theologian, AI (This is sarcasm. Everybody chill.) says that “faith is a deep-seated confidence in a person or truth. while hope is the anticipation that stems from that faith.”
So maybe hope without faith isn’t very sturdy? And maybe faith without hope isn’t very productive? Maybe all hope is not created equal?
I went to the Bible and found that Romans 5:3-5 tells us that “hope does not disappoint us”. This is a specific kind of hope. The hope Romans refers to begins with suffering which makes it pretty clear to me that I was wrong in my lukewarm attitude about hope. To put it bluntly, she ain’t no sissy. I came across this on Instagram which puts it much more eloquently.
This really resonated with me. It gives me a higher opinion of hope.
I’m wondering if you, dear reader (or reader(s) if you’re out there), might let me know what you think about hope. This newsletter has a comment section below if you’d like to share. What is your initial reaction to the word “hope”? How do you line it up against or alongside faith? Do you find them similar or different and how? I sure would love to hear from you.
Thanks so much for reading and have a great weekend.
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