5 Friday Favorites: April 8, 2022

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.

Good morning, Friends! I'm back after the best weekend visiting with my parents in Dallas and scooting over to Austin for a sorority reunion. The saying "my heart is full" generally makes me roll my eyes, but that's the only way I can describe it. We had the best time. Here are some more favorites from the past couple of weeks.

1. BBQ Ranch Chicken Sandwiches

My guys are perfectly capable of making their own dinners and/or dialing the phone for take-out, but I tried to set them up before I left town with a few things. This crockpot meal from Mix and Match Mama is perhaps the easiest dinner I have ever made. They guys raved about it and ate leftovers for a couple of days. 

2. Mid-Rise Relaxed Fit Linen Pants

Target is on fire lately with the spring and summer clothes. I just wish our weather would behave. I ran into Target in Dallas last weekend and found these adorable relaxed fit linen blend pants. They come in three colors, have the cutest tie in the front and fit perfectly. I appreciate that they are mid-rise because I look like a clown in high rise pants. I'm so over it. Also, I was psyched that they weren't too long for me and now looking at them online I realize that they are supposed to be cropped. They are NOT cropped on me, but they don't drag the ground. For reference, I'm 5'2".

3. Only You - Yaz

There was a lot of reminiscing with the gals this weekend, of course. Lots of early 90s and 80s music being played. That made me go back this week and find this song - which was more like middle school for me, but gosh I loved it. Makes me want to put some stirrup pants on and spray my bangs up to the sky.

4. Easter Gift Basket Ideas for your Girls

If you've read here long enough, you know I have a Fake Daughter. Fake Daughter would love to find this jewelry from Park Lane in her Easter basket. Actually, we all know Fake Daughter would likely sell them and give the money to charity because that's just who she is. If you have a real daughter or daughter-in-law or sister or mama who you'd like to gift an Easter treat, you could grab one of these adorable pieces today and have them in time for Easter: Truth Earrings, Preach Earrings, Grace Bracelet, Heaven Necklace, Abel Bracelet.

5. Reunited

I recommend a girls weekend to Austin whether you were at Kappa Alpha Theta or not, but I'm so sorry if you weren't. ;-). I recommend staying at Hotel San Jose. I recommend shopping on South Congress with your girls because in what universe would my guys spend 10 minutes smelling all the face oils and body lotions with me to find the right scent? 

I recommend having some true blue friends who have had experience in walking each other through a rough morning or two, bring you coffee and Advil and pat your head and open the window letting some fresh Texas air into your room when you might have been overserved because you forgot you weren't 21 years old anymore.

I recommend Mexican food and Ranch Waters at Matt's El Rancho and cheeseburgers and fries at Summer House. I recommend trying on hats that will protect your skin because y'all forgot to do that when you were college girls sunbathing on the roof of your sorority house. I recommend falling asleep next to your besties beside the pool under the bluest sky while you listen to the birds sing when its 83 degrees in the best city in all the world.

I recommend laughing so hard you lose your voice and dancing in an Uber Van with a strobe light. I recommend deep conversations about all the things we've been through over 30 years time: aging parents and divorce and how brutal the college acceptance process is now and cancer and being married forever and dating when you're in your 50s and worrying about who your kids will marry.  I also recommend transitioning in minutes to conversations like "Do you remember when the Sig Eps threw the dead pig in the pool?" (I do not) or the Kite & Key Party or Mexican Food Wednesdays at the Theta house and watching Days of our Lives instead of going to class or playing cards in Kara's room instead of going to class or doing anything in the whole wide world instead of going to class.

I recommend walking the halls of your sorority house and finding your picture on the wall when it was 1989 and your face was full of copious amounts of collagen and/or beer bloat. I recommend standing in the courtyard and remembering dance parties during rush and the code to get in the house and the time you let that SAE crawl through the window to get to so and so's room because your room was on the bottom floor near the air conditioning unit and it was the ideal place to start if a lovestruck frat boy had the will.

I recommend the beautiful gift of seeing each other again. I mean, truly seeing each other. Because when you do, you realize that the essence of the girl you knew at 21 years old is still the essence of the woman standing in front of you at 53. After 30 years, although every single one of us has been THROUGH SOME STUFF, LORD HAVE MERCY, and although we are all different in so many ways, I found that the essence of the girls who loved me and who I loved for four intense years at the greatest University on the planet is exactly, identically the same. It's such a relief and it's the most comforting blessing.

I don't know why college friendships are so deeply special. Four years is such a tiny blip in the whole of our lives. But for me, they are true and real and deep and I am so very grateful for them. I recommend finding a way to see your people again. It will fill you up for days and days.

Y'all have the best weekend.