5 Friday Favorite: February 24, 2023

 

 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 and Happy Friday. Hope you've had a great week. If you live around here, you've had the kind of week where your realize that Northern Virginia is drunk and needs to grab a cab, go home and figure out her life and come back with some reasonable consistency in her weather patterns. It was almost 80 degrees yesterday and tomorrow there is snow in the forecast. Hey, Virginia:

Here are some favorite things from this week:

1. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

This book is not a happy one. At least so far. I'm about half way through, so honestly I'm not sure I can recommend it especially if you are in need of happy prose right now. However, if you appreciate good writing, this is your book. Kingsolver is perhaps one of the most gifted writers I've ever read. The words she chooses, the dialogue, and the description? Incredible. The narrator is so funny all while sharing a heartbreaking tragic journey. I'm not sure there's a better fiction writer out there.

2.  Glocusent Neck Reading Light

I actually saw Jenna Bush Hager mentioning this reading light and I'm very excited about it. I read before I fall asleep every night. For some reason, I find that in the past few years the light from my bedside lamp isn't capable of giving me the right amount of light. I want to blame it on the lightbulbs and not on my own old eyes, so I will continue to do that, thank you very much. Also, if you have someone trying to sleep next to you having a bedside lamp blasting into the room like the morning sun is a problem. The issue with this particular product is that I think it's a slippery slope. If my kids get embarrassed when I pull out my phone light to read a menu, imagine what they'll do when I wear this thing around my neck every time we go out to eat.   

3. Kale Chips

I do not have a photo of Kale Chips because I have not made them yet. The photo is my reaction to being told that these are delicious. My expectations for this food trickery are very low. But I have a friend in Bible Study who assures me these are amazing, so I am walking in faith that my healthy chip dreams will come true. I despise kale. I don't want it snuck in my salad or on my sandwich or in my smoothie. No, thank you. But I actually bought kale yesterday so that I could try these chips because Tostitos are an agent of the devil. I can't buy them anymore because my will power is in the toilet when it comes to tortilla chips. So, is this a favorite? Not yet. The idea of this is a favorite.

Ingredients:

Kale, washed and cut or torn to chip size, Olive oil, Salt

Mix the kale with generous olive oil and salt in the Ziploc bag.  Allow to rest for a while, mixing and turning often.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Lay out kale on baking sheet as flat as possible and not touching. Bake for roughly 20 minutes. Watch carefully, better to have softer chips than to go too long and have bitter, burned chips. Cool on paper towels to absorb excess oil.

4. Old Navy Shirt Dress

As I mentioned, yesterday we got up to 80 degrees here and I was beside myself with happiness and hope for Spring. Tomorrow there is a chance of snow. I ordered this dress from Old Navy because I refuse to accept that forecast. It comes in black, blue and white and is $44.99 but you can get 25% off today with the code BONUS. I could do the math for you, but I don't feel like. Godspeed.

5. The Beginning of the End

Image: fsrsportsnet on Instagram

High School baseball tryouts were this week and we are blessed to get to watch Drew play in the very last high school sports season for the Skinner fam. It occurred to me that we've been through eighteen high school sports tryouts among golf, basketball and baseball. After every tryout we meet the kids up at Glory Days, our local sports bar and we've been lucky to get to celebrate at those dinners.

I dug up this photo of Joe when he made the Freshman golf team. It was our first high school tryout celebration ten years ago and WILL YOU LOOK AT HIS BABY FACE? 

This was our last on Wednesday night.

Be forewarned, reader, that the full -fledged meltdowns and gushing and reminiscing that will happen in regard to these boys and this team and this sport will ramp up to Level Infinity in the next few months. So you might want to take your leave now. It's the same old song I've been singing here for years in this space and I'll likely be singing it louder. The struggles, the triumphs, the lessons, the heartbreak, the joy - the blessings beyond measure - that sports have given this family are more than we deserve and more than we can count and I'm so grateful. 

So, here we go. Last dance. Go Eagles.

Image: fsrsportsnet on Instagram

Have a great weekend, Friends! 

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