5 Friday Favorites: March 27, 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.
Dear Friends.
Hi. It’s Friday. I’ve had my head stuck in this laptop for hours upon hours this week. My goal has been to have my manuscript completely finished and on to the first round of content edits by the end of March and well . . .
We are almost there. My brain is fried. I have barely spoken to another human this week because I have no words left to say out loud which doesn’t make me a very fun hang. Last night when Steve asked how it was going, I said, “I could not be more sick of myself.” And he didn’t quite know what to say to that.
So what I’m saying is that living with me is a fun time right now. To be honest, I am very excited about the book and thrilled to be at the end of this part of the process. I feel very blessed to have come this far.
Here are some favorite things of the week that do not include being inside my own brain.
Spring PJ Set
I have spent an inordinate amount of time in my pajamas in the last few weeks since writing books is much less glamorous than I thought it would be. I don’t have these cute pjs but this brand is usually pretty reliable and I think new spring pjs make a great gift for Easter for your teen, college girl or your ownself. They are 47% off today and come in tons of colors and patterns.
2. A Summer Romper for under $12
I am a sucker for a romper during any season, but especially in the summer and this one is less than $12 today. It comes in lots of solids and patterns.
3. Quest Sour Cream & Onion Protein Chips
In a very exciting development, I have decided that the Quest Sour Cream & Onion Protein Chips are my favorite of all the protein chips. Come back next week when I reveal my favorite brand of gum. Exciting stuff around here.
4. Sunscreen Powder for Your Scalp
I’m not sure if this stuff works because I’ve never tried it, but I’m intrigued. Since I sit outside for several hours at baseball games and don’t like to wear a hat, this sunscreen powder seems like a great idea to prevent sunburn on my scalp without getting my hair greasy from a spray or lotion. Has anyone out there tried a sunscreen powder? Please advise.
5.Sunshine and Hope on Opening Day from 2015
In honor of Major League Baseball’s Opening Day this week and since I am all the way out of original thoughts, I’m sharing a post that I wrote about Little League Opening Day in 2015. Eleven years later for all kinds of reasons, the world continues to deliver fear, pain and darkness on the regular. Today, I hope you will steal some of the optimism that comes with Opening Day and the promise of hope and light it brings with it.
It was Little League Opening Day on Saturday. It is one of my favorite days of the year. The sun shone bright and we almost forgot about the bitter winter we had endured. My older boys have aged out of Little League, but the little man gets to start his first year in the Majors this season. He, as my husband likes to say, was "shot out of a cannon" as soon as he woke up. I had to miss the opening ceremonies because I was with Kyle at a basketball game, but I raced back to the park as quickly as I could to make it for Drew's first Little League game of the season.
I pulled into the full parking lot as if a child looking for Santa. The ceremony was over but the park which had been empty and snow covered only weeks before was bustling with activity. Lines of children snaked between moon bounces and food trucks. Music blared and flags flew high over the fields.
This was a day my community needed. After such a brutal winter, we deserved the bright morning and the changing of the season laid out before us. Opening Day is the hope of pristine white pants (a hope that is dashed as soon as those cleats hit the grass). It is the possibility of a winning season. It's the promise of not one, not two, but three chances to swing for the fences. I was ready for this. I barely had my car in park and was ready to run up the hill to find a flame-haired, freckle-faced boy with black lines smeared under his eyes. A boy who would adjust his catcher's mask with the utmost confidence that though he is small, he is fierce. Opening Day is full of promise.
But I didn't hop out of the car right away. I looked out at all those little children running through the grass and I had to take a minute to take a deep breath and tell myself to focus on all the wonderful things that are wrapped up in the promise of Opening Day.
The sun and the spring bring us hope. They bring us sweetness and light. But I know, and my neighbors know, that even when flowers bud and birds sing, our world can still be full of bleak darkness. Of sickness and fear and doubt. Our little neighborhood received alarming news last week that one of our own is sick. This is a little boy who rides bikes down my alley and plays kickball in the street. The son of a friend with whom I've sipped wine and discussed books. One with whom I've shared block party potluck dishes and with whom I've worshipped. She woke to the same bright sun that morning, but also to the harsh reality of a long journey of cancer treatments ahead. So, I stayed in the car for a bit. And I watched them.
Little boys everywhere. Little boys running and jumping and sometimes tripping over each other. Little boys wearing the smallest pants their mamas could find that still had to be cinched in at the waist and rolled up at the ankles. And spunky little girls, too. Little girls with ponytails pulled carefully through their new caps. Children basking in the newness of spring. Of hope. Of light. Of all the things children are supposed to be and do and have in a new season of their lives.
I stayed in the car and held tears down and I asked God to bring us a child-like faith. A child-like hope. A belief that even if you are the smallest, you can catch a fastball thrown or hit by the biggest. That even if you are the weakest, you can connect with the red stitching on that baseball hurtling at you at lightning speed and send it through the gap. That even when the opponent is formidable, if you rely on your heart and your team and your God, you can fight with courage you might never have known you had.
I asked Him to come to us on that gloriously beautiful day when our souls were feeling scared and dark to remind my friends and neighbors and me of the fact that faith is bigger than fear. That hope is bigger than doubt. And that in our weakness His power is made strong.
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. -2 Corinthians 12:9
Have a great weekend, y’all.
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