5 Friday Favorites: March 20, 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.
Hello, Friends! Happy Friday
In what surprises no one, this week was full of college baseball for us. The season marches on and we are enjoying the heck out of it. We had a great time watching the boys play at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Such a beautiful campus and adorable town. My sister-in-law snapped a couple of pics of my kiddo.
As you can see it’s really hard to pick him out. That hair. I’ll never get over it. It still surprises me after 21 years.
PS Lest you imagine that I am playing favorites here at the weekly newsletter, I will have you know that if we could get into Kyle’s Nashville office or Joe’s Spartanburg radio station or broadcast booth to take pictures of them, we absolutely would. It’s just that, as I understand it, sitting in a kid’s actual adult work environment, snapping pictures and cheering every time he closes a deal or makes a great call might be frowned upon. I even have looked at their Instagram accounts to try to find photos to steal from them and it appears that Kyle and Joe’s most recent posts were in 2022 and 2025 respectively. They don’t play the social media game very well.
Here are some other favorite things from the week.
I Speak Jesus - Charity Gayle
I’ve been listening to this beautiful song we heard when we attended Drew’s church with him in Danville all week. I am reminded of a story a friend of mine told me years ago about a group of her friends. Let’s call them Nancy, Anne and Sally. I might not get it exactly right, but here’s the gist. Nancy said that she, Anne and other believers were considering going to talk to a friend, Sally. Sally was in need and was struggling to believe in the goodness of God. Eventually one of the group decided to head out to have the conversation with Sally. And Anne said, “Don’t forget. No matter what else you say, you have to say JESUS.”
I’ll never forget that story. Speak Jesus. His name is the most important of all the words we speak.
2. Ouai St. Barts Body Wash
I bought the Ouai Hair and Body Mista long time ago and I am in love with the St. Barts scent. Last week, I ran out of the body wash I was using, so I was so happy to find that Ouai has a Foaming Body Cleanser in the same scent.
3. Shrinking: Season 3
Steve and I are loving Season 3 of Shrinking. I adore every character. (Shoutout D-TRAIN!!!) and I cry at the end of almost every episode. Don’t tell anyone, but I think Steve might have even experienced a teeny-tiny-micro tear when he watched this week as well. FYI: The language is terrible so if that’s a deal breaker for you, you might need to skip it, but the humanity and love these people is so beautiful, I will never miss an episode. 5 stars and 2 thumbs up.
4. Anna Luisa Platform Sandals
I love these sandals. I want these sandals. But my Lent rule is that I can’t buy anything new for myself unless I run completely out of something that needs to be replaced. (For Example: the body wash). I looked in my closet and it doesn’t look like I have run out of sandals. I’ll have to skip these, but maybe you’re fresh out of sandals? They’re on sale.
5. Mom
My mom went to be with Jesus three years ago today on March 20, 2023. St. Patrick’s Day of 2023 was the last day I saw her. Monday, March 23rd would be her 85th birthday. All that to say, this particular week of March has the potential to put me in the bed.
Grief is weird. To be honest, I truly thought maybe I had it licked this year. Last month as I sat in the sunshine in Miami and then again in Texas, I had a couple of deep conversations with God, thanking Him for healing me. I felt like I had crawled out from under the crushing pain of losing my mom. I thought I might even breeze through March without the heaviness that this month has brought in the previous two years.
This week as I tried to go about my regular supposedly “healed” life, March 17th, March 20th and March 23rd seemed to mock me from my kitchen calendar. It was as if each date was bolded and underlined, daring me to forget.
And I didn’t forget. I struggled all week. On St. Patrick’s Day, I replayed the entire week I was blessed to spend with her before her death. I remember specifically where we shopped and the dress I tried on that we thought I might wear to Kyle’s graduation in a couple of months. I remember the coffee shop we sat in, what we ate and drank, the Rumikube games we played with my dad, the Jeopardy episodes we watched, how we talked and laughed, and how in the last moments I spent with her she offered me some Bailey’s Irish Cream to add to the coffee I poured before leaving for my early morning flight. When I declined, she shrugged. “Suit yourself!” she laughed, splashing the liqueur into her coffee cup. She died three days later.
I have had numerous dreams about my mom in the last two weeks. While I have woken up empty and longing for her, the message I have heard loud and clear in all of these dreams is that she is happy, content and fully at peace in the presence of her Savior. As much as I know she doesn’t want those she left behind to hurt from missing her, when she appears in these dreams her conviction is unmistakable. She has no interest in being back in this world. I guess heaven is even better than any of us could have imagined. And she will stay put, full of unthinkable joy, waiting to share it with us when we get there.
I suppose what I realized this week is that no matter how much progress I’ve made in the three years I’ve existed in a world without my mother, there will be no complete healing on this side of heaven. Just as there was no complete healing for her here either.
Today though, despite the fact that I simply cannot enjoy the full measure of peace, joy and laughter that she is experiencing, I can decide to live the rest of my days in hopeful expectancy to find splashes of peace, joy and laughter right here in this broken world.
I will see you again someday, Mom. Until then, “I remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13)
Which just might include a little Bailey’s Irish Cream in my coffee today.
Y’all have a great weekend.
PS If you’ve been around this blog from the beginning, you’ve already read this essay I wrote about my mom back in 2012. If you haven’t, you can read here about the best person I have ever known.
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