5 Friday Favorites: August 21, 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.
First of all, thank you so much to those of you who gave me your opinions on the cover art for my book. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your thoughts. I’ve narrowed some things down and sent ideas to the publisher and I’m so excited to see the final cover. You were all so encouraging and I am grateful to have such supportive readers and friends!
In regular ol’ life updates, Steve and I have officially been living at Lake Anna now for almost two weeks. There have been highs and lows. Here’s a high:
Even though we have owned this house for over 20 years and have come here often, yours truly has never once casted a fishing line into the lake. I fished a handful of times with my dad as a child, but not since. So please mark it down: On Tuesday, August 18th in the year of our Lord, 2026, I caught my first fish on these mighty shores. I was as proud as I could be.
And now for the low:
Yesterday, I finished going through the edits of my manuscript and sent them off to the editor for the next round. To celebrate, I set off to drive to the closest McDonald’s to treat myself to a large Diet Coke because - as everyone knows - the McDonald’s Diet Coke is the superior of all iterations of Diet Cokes in the land. On the way, this happened.
Now, like I said, we’ve been coming to this area of Virginia for lo, some 20 years and I have never encountered a bunch of cows conducting a sit-in to block my pursuit of a Diet Coke.
It was unsettling, but when all was said and done, I had to respect that they availed themselves of their right to peacefully protest and after staring me down for a couple of minutes, they let me pass. God Bless America.
Here are some favorite things for the week that do not include my having to navigate a herd of cows on a Thursday morning. Most of this is make-up/skincare related, so apologies to my male friends. (However, ain’t no shame in a man trying a little undereye bag treatment. Just sayin’)
1. L’Oreal Infallible Setting Mist
In the past couple of weeks, I haven’t been wearing make-up very often because I don’t see a lot of humans. However, we went to a wedding in Virginia Beach last weekend and it was hot, of course, because Beach + August = Hot. It was a beautiful wedding. Perfect in every way. But I knew my makeup was going to take leave of my face as soon as I walked out of my hotel room. I sprayed this L’Oreal Infallible Setting Mist on my face after I put on my make-up and it definitely had its work cut out for it. Infallible is perhaps a bit of a stretch, but all in all it worked pretty well.
2. It Cosmetics Bye-Bye Under Eye Bags
My eye bags are a situation, as is to be expected at my advanced age. Sigh And yet, I’m willing to try just about anything to reduce the puffiness and dark circles. So this week, I decided to do an experiment since, as previously mentioned, I don’t see a lot of humans around here. I bought this Bye Bye Under Eye Bag cream quite awhile ago. I put it on under one eye - the one that has the biggest bag. Let’s just say the largest check-in suitcase in your luggage set, shall we? Anyway, I left it on for 15 minutes and looked again and I was stunned. It looked way better than the other eye. Was it completely depuffed and smooth? No way, but it was more like a small carry-on bag or even a tote bag, if you will. THIS STUFF WORKS. It’s 15% off today, too.
3. ROC Retinol Serum Firming Stick
Ok, I realize now we are getting into the snake oil business because I’m not sure anything can help with another situation that I have which is my neck. BIG SIGH And if you’ve had enough of the Vanity Diaries by now, I understand. I have not purchased this. I have not tried this. I do not know if it’s legit, but I have seen it suggested by an Instagram influencer who says it seems to make a difference on her neck which I realize doesn’t mean much. So I guess the product is not necessarily a favorite this week, but the hope of this product defying all odds and firming up my neck is a favorite. Therefore, I’m considering buying it and/or flushing my money down the toilet and/or buying a bunch of scarves.
4.Trader Joe’s Brazil Nut Body Butter
All of Trader Joe’s body butters are great, but this is the first time I’ve ever purchased the Brazil Nut fragrance and it’s definitely my favorite. It’s only around $6 at Trader Joe’s, but if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s, someone is trying to sell it on Amazon for twice that much. Bummer, but it might be worth it.
5.The People Baseball Gave Me
The first baseball buddy of our group of friends got married last weekend. We celebrated and danced and sang and laughed and even wept happy tears because our sweet friend, the mother of the groom, was so stunning we could barely stand it. And also, “HOW IN THE WORLD IS THIS HAPPENING?” and “LOOK HOW HANDSOME OUR BOYS ARE!” and “WHERE’S SO-AND-SO? WE HAVE TO HAVE ANOTHER PICTURE!”
There will be a lot more celebrating, dancing, singing, laughing and weeping happy tears to come because the Lord’s extravagant love plopped so many amazingly wonderful friends right in my lap when I signed my kids up for baseball. It truly was one of the greatest decisions of my life because it brought me some of the greatest blessings of my life.
And the people in that photo above are a fraction of the dear humans that our family has met through a silly ol’ game. It takes my breath away.
Being together reminded me of a post I wrote years ago about these friends. So I dug deep into the depths of the blog and found this little missive from 2013 where I summarized a typical day’s worth of emails between these folks and me.
Email 1-5: Hi, Girls. Tuesday I'll take the boys and pick them up: Never mind. I'll take the boys and Karen will pick them up because she has to pass out uniforms. I can't wait to see how many Kyles can fit into the pants that I ordered. I'm going with 3 Kyles. Never mind, Karen is driving both ways.
Email 6-15: Hi, Other Girls. Jenn will take two boys to Kandy's on Wednesday and Kandy takes the boys to the game. Adrienne picks them up. Never mind. Kandy picks everybody up and takes them to the game and then goes to Back to School Night. Steve heads to the game after Drew's practice and brings everyone home. We'll switch cars. Never mind. Kandy will leave Back to School night early to get her boys. Steve has the other two.
Email 16: I can't remember who is doing what tonight? What's my name again?
Email 17-25: On Wednesday Jenn will pick all four boys up at school. Regena will pick up Subway for everyone and meet Jenn at her house with the food and her kid's stuff. Tell Regena what your kid wants to eat. Don't forget to tell the Subway gal to use a clean knife on the one with turkey, cheese, lettuce, pickles and mustard or that one will turn into an anaphylaxis sandwich of death. Be sure to drop your kid's bat bag at Jenn's house.
Email 26: AND THE UNIFORM! Don't forget cleats. Are all the boys epipen trained???
Email 27-30: Here's Jenn's garage code for dropping off the bat bags. At least I think that's the code. If that's not right, I'm sure the kids didn't lock the door to the screened-in porch when I told them to, so go there. Jenn will collect the Back to School night schedules. Jenn will take boys to the game and they'll leave crumbs and Subway wrappers all over her car. Somebody's husband will bring them home - HOPEFULLY ONE OF US HAS A WEDDING PICTURE WITH SAID HUSBAND.
Email 31: PS. If you make it into the garage, be sure to hold your breath because I think there is some sort of science experiment going on in the trash can. Feel free to steal the Margarita Wine Cooler from the back of the garage fridge - it's been there since 2010.
Email 32: Switch Jenn and Regena's name in all previous emails regarding Wednesday.
Email 33: If everyone is still breathing, Jacqui will pick all of us up and drive us to Back to School night. I hope Jacqui knows how to get to the school because I still can't even remember my own name.
Email 6,204: CAN WE FIND A CAB COMPANY AND IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE PTA IS OFFERING AN OPEN BAR AT BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT?
Boy, was that a time. Some of you might be able to relate. I sure am grateful to have hopped on the crazy train with this particular group of people. It was the best.
Here are some more photos from the wedding weekend just because CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW HANDSOME THEY ARE??? ;-)
That’s all for today. Have a great weekend, y’all.
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