5 Friday Favorites: January 31, 2025

   

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! It's the last day of January. Thank you, Sweet Jesus! I'm back to this space after a few weeks away. Last week, Steve and I got back from beautiful, sunny northern California to frigidly cold, snow-covered and 14 degree northern Virginia which made me get off the plane pretty much like this:

This week we've been sweating in the high 40s so it's all fine now. In any event, we had a great time being with my sister and brother-in-law to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary and both my sister's and my birthdays which fall in the same week of January. Northern California is absolutely beautiful. We visited Half Moon Bay, Sonoma, Healdsburg, Pebble Beach, Santa Cruz and stayed a lot of nights at my sister's house in Los Gatos. There was a lot of laughing and that's of course, my favorite.

Here are some of my favorite things from the last couple of weeks.

1. A Man on the Inside on Netflix

This show is DELIGHTFUL. Ted Danson is a national treasure and the number of times I put my hand on my heart, let out a deep sigh and tried not to cry while watching this was infinity times. If you are walking through a season of trying to care for your aging parents with as much love and respect and obedience as you can while you seek to keep them safe, healthy and happy (or even if you are no where near that stage), you will adore this show. 5 STARS.

2. Vuori Restore Half Zip Hoodie

My sister, Jill, and I both received this hoodie for our birthdays last week. Well, truth be told, she received it from her husband and then I went and bought it for myself and "received" it from my husband without him actually knowing it. I'm not sure I can adequately express my undying love for the Vuori brand. 

Actually, apparently I can. Yesterday Jill texted me asking, "Do you know how many times you've texted me about your Vuoris this week?" Then she proceeded to send me a screenshot of all the texts. I present an "Ode to Vuori":

She was making fun of me, but I do have a text from her that says, "If I had to give up every single thing in my closet to keep my Vuori's I would."

3. The Journey Ring Set 

Park Lane Jewelry released a new collection a couple of weeks ago and this Journey ring set is a winner. So cute to wear all three on your pointer or middle finger or divide them up among your fingers if you like to wear multiple rings.

4. In My Sweater Vest Era

Seems like we're seeing vests - especially sweater vests - everywhere lately. I picked up on some cute ones worn by Kristen Bell in Nobody Wants This and by Christa Miller who plays Liz on Shrinking. There are a bunch of options out there. I like this striped one with a button down or long sleeve tee under it for winter and on it's own when it gets warmer.

5. On Wintering

Winter is rough for a lot of people. Historically, I have not handled the season well. And this one is no different. I still have significant neck and shoulder pain (many, many thanks for all the recommendations from y'all, by the way. I got so many sweet and informative messages and comments.) Because of this and the anxiety that comes from my fear that it will never end, I feel like 2025 has been off to a pretty depressing start.

Please insert your eye roll here because I did get to go on a week long vacation to California where the sun was bright pretty much every day and regular people have actual citrus trees growing in their yards. I recognize how ungrateful and selfish I sound. I have nevet claimed to be otherwise. The Lord and I are working on this every single morning. 

Anyway, in the middle of this winter darkness, I realized that a podcast I listen to often - Annie F. Down's That Sounds Fun podcast - was doing a series on the seasons. I quickly pushed play on the first in the series titled "How Do I Define Winter in my Life?" with Pastor Mike Kelsey from McLean Bible Church. Pastor Kelsey quotes a book by Parker Palmer called Let Your Life Speak:

"The master metaphor of our era does not come from agriculture. It comes from manufacturing. We do not believe that we grow our lives. We believe that we make them. We live in a culture that insists against all evidence that we can make whatever life we want, whenever we want it. Deeper still we run headlong into our own egos which want desperately to believe that we are always in charge." 

I have always intentionally tried to fight against the literal winter season to no avail. I cannot stop the temperature from dropping. I cannot stop the plans from being canceled. I cannot walk outside without a coat and boots and gloves and a hat even though I despise putting all that crap on. 

And what I have found is that not only am I failing miserably at fighting against the literal winter season, I'm also failing at managing the physical pain I'm experiencing as well as the emotional and spiritual "winter" that it has brought along with it. I've tried to deny and ignore it. I've tried to power through it by cranking up worship songs and reciting Scripture and praying for others - those who I imagine need Him more than me. There are many, it's true. When I've actually acknowledged it, I've let my mind go ALL THE WAY into a downward spiral: I'll never be able to work out again. I'll become a person that is impossible to be around because I'll be in pain constantly. I won't be able to pick up my grandchildren one day. I won't be able to type at my laptop ever again and I'll have to stop writing. Am I dying? Is this the beginning of an awful terminal disease? 

Those are fun times as you can imagine. 

What I haven't done much at all is to sit down in the quiet and in the pain and shut up and listen for God. 

Pastor Mike Kelsey says it like this: 

"Understanding how seasons operate in nature and in our spiritual lives helps us remember that we can do a lot, but ultimately we are not the ones that are in control. Embracing the season that you're in is really submitting to God and is really positioning you to receive what God wants for you in that season.

When you realize that you are not in control and you respond to that not with anxiety, but with submission, faith, and belief that God has something for you in this season, you can embrace the wholeness of what God has for you instead of resisting it and resenting it."

Tomorrow is February 1. We are moving forward, closer and closer to Spring. I am praying that I will not simply fight against the winter, but instead lay the anxiety down and take my mind off the speed train to despair. I will feel the pain of this physical, emotional and spirtual winter - and I will boldly ask for healing, but I won't stop there. I will ask God to speak. I will trust that this season will not be wasted and furthermore I will remember that it won't last forever. I will believe that He has something for me in the here and now. 

He has something in this season for you, too. Let's not miss it by fussing and fretting and managing and spiraling. Let's open our hearts and minds to what it might be. Because maybe it's something good. His ways have always been and will always, always be better than we could every ask or imagine. Happy Wintering, Friends.

Have a great weekend.

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