5 Friday Favorites: January 9, 2026
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.
Happy Friday! I hope everyone is having a great start to 2026. Ours has been pretty lowkey since Drew had his wisdom teeth out last Friday so we’ve been staying home quite a bit. I spent a lot of time managing medications, giving him bags of frozen corn to put on his cheeks and heating up soup, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese.
He just started to feel more normal yesterday which made me realize that I’d been carrying some pretty significant anxiety around for the past week. I was surprised at how much relief I felt this morning, since this wasn’t my first rodeo with wisdom teeth extraction. This is a routine procedure and serious complications are rare. Also, the way that oral surgeon’s office rolled college-age kids in and out of there like they were on a conveyer belt should have calmed my heart. Note to those who are wondering what to do with their lives: Yanking people’s teeth out appears to be a very lucrative career.
My worry was pretty silly especially when I thought about all the moms I met when I volunteered in the pediatric cancer community. I think of those women and their husbands everyday anyway, but this week I was reminded of their bravery and strength yet again. I’ll never get over the experience of being close to that community of people. I know God brought them into my life to give me a perspective I couldn’t have gotten any other way. As difficult as it was to witness, I’ll be grateful for those families for the rest of my days.
Here are some favorites from the week that do not include salt water rinses and ibuprofen.
A Pretty Pink Plaid Shirt
I’m a sucker for a plaid shirt - especially one that is long enough to wear with leggings. I got this one for Christmas in pink. It comes in lots of other colors as well and it’s under $20 today.
2. Osea Body Oi
I’ve mentioned this Osea Body Oil before. It’s not cheap, but it’s about the only thing that helps my skin in the winter when it gets so dry it makes me crazy. The oil absorbs quickly so it doesn’t leave you feeling greasy and it has a delightful mild scent. I love this stuff.
3. Turmeric Super Shot
I spent much of 2025 going to doctors and physical therapists and getting x-rays, MRIs and injections to deal with neck and shoulder pain. Nothing has really helped, so while I’m not giving up on the medical community, I am starting to explore what I refer to as some “'woo-woo” medicine. Turmeric is supposed to help with inflammation, so I have been drinking this shot most mornings of the new year. It actually tastes really good. I have no idea if it will help, but it’s worth a shot. ;-)
4. Glimpses of God’s Banquet Table - Winners!!
Thank you so much for being so kind and excited about my announcement of my first officially published work - an essay included in the compilation, Glimpses of God’s Banquet Table. We are working on getting this book available for purchase on my website here. I’ll let you know when it’s all set up for payment if you’d like to grab a copy.
In the meantime, last week I announced a giveaway of two of the books. Anyone who commented was entered to win and the winners are Jenni Bell and Mary Jo Krist!! Please message me at jlpskinner@gmail.com with your mailing address and I’ll send your copies out to you! I appreciate your support so very much.
5. The Whole World Does Not Have Room
We restarted watching The Chosen since Drew has been home for Christmas Break because he hadn’t seen it. This week we watched the episode when John is beginning to write his Gospel. I was struck by the scene where the last verse of his book is mentioned, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”
Everytime I watch The Chosen’s depiction of Jesus performing a miracle, I get giddy with excitement. Sometimes I even find myself giggling and clapping my hands like a child. As I contemplated John 21:35, I marveled at how amazing it would be to have more to read from Jesus’s disciples about all He did while on Earth. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have more of each Gospel? More Gospel writers? More miracles to clap and giggle and rejoice about?
I often hear Christians - I am among them - lament the absence of witnessing burning bushes, water turned to wine and paralytics suddenly walking again in our modern lives. Perhaps one reason is that our innovations and capabilities along with a heavy dose of distraction blind us to noticing the miracles that show up in our lives everyday. Perhaps another is our outsized expectation of what signs of healing, wonder and joy should look like. And even more simply, maybe we just haven’t been writing down enough of the cool stuff that has happened.
This had me thinking about 2025 and the way I have framed it. Even though there were so many amazing, wonderful, dream-come-true things Jesus did in my life, due to my physical pain and the ensuing mental load that it has brought, I have labeled 2025 as a big ol’ Crap-Show. Please excuse my high-brow vocabulary.
This week in preparation for another doctor’s appointment, I went back through my 2025 calendar from January to December to compile a list of dates of every single appointment, exam, treatment and procedure I had. There were a lot of dates and a lot of disappointment. The list took up one piece of paper ripped from a small kitchen notepad.
I wonder if today I might go back through that same calendar with an eye for “the many other things Jesus did” in those 12 months. I wonder if I could resist my insistence to allow one struggle - albeit a significant one - to overshadow a year full of the favor of Jesus. I know there are some blessings that I wrote in black and white in the pages of my planner, my journal and here in this space. But what about those blessings He bestowed that I never even noticed? What about those tragedies and sorrows that could have happened but didn’t because of His mercy? What about those worries that never came to pass because of His grace?
It occurs to me that if I were to write them all down I couldn’t even get through January before they would fill more notepads than the world could hold.
So today I have reconsidered. It turns out that 2025 was a year of blessings beyond measure. A year of an abundance of miracles worthy of giggling and clapping my hands like a child. Jesus has not stopped doing many things. I’m so grateful.
Have a blessed weekend, Friends.
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