5 Friday Favorites: July 26, 2024

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. I am so happy to be back in Virginia after being away for most of the month of July. We've had a very basic week - cleaning, laundry, cooking, working out, reading, writing and thinking. So boring. I loved it.

Here are some favorite things from the week.

1. Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

I listened to this book while cleaning out closets and pantries this week. I love Liane Moriarty books and this one delivers. Really good.

2. Molouf Bed Sheets 

I bought these Malouf Sheet sets years ago from HSM or QVC or something like that and could never find them again, but HERE THEY ARE. I'm hoping they are the exact same ones because these are the softest sheets ever at a really good price. Sleeping has become one of my favorite things since I've become such an interesting, cool person in my 50s and I'm not sure there is anything more important than comfortable sheets.

3. The Phoebe Ring by Park Lane

Park Lane Jewelry had a new line come out this month and people are freaking out over this Phoebe heart ring. It comes in size 6-10 and is $48. You can get it here.

4. Can't Buy Me Love

I heard someone mention this movie the other day and I practically ran to find where I could stream it. I LOVED this movie in high school, so I looked it up and rented it for a whopping $3.79 on Amazon Prime. I remembered every bit of it from Cindy Mancini's suede outfit to Ronald's African dance moves to Cindy pouring the milkshake on her jerk of a date's head to them riding off into the sunset on the lawn mower. The clothes, the hair (oh, THE HAIR!), the music and even the original Nacho Cheese Doritos bag made me giddy. If you are a child of the 80s, YOU ARE WELCOME for the reminder about this classic.

5. On Minding my Own Business

These are some thoughts that have been running around in my muddled up mind this week. They are not fully formed which means that it's quite possibly foolish to work them out here and I might go back to read them in a month or week or even later today and think, "Well, that's the dumbest thing you've ever written." 

However, I do believe that the majority of my readers are about my age or on their way there, so maybe if this is the dumbest thing I've ever written, it still might be a tad bit relatable. Over the 12 years of writing this blog, it is the readers who show up here who often make me feel less alone in my crazy. So here goes. We'll see.

I'm reading quite a bit and talking a lot to friends about peri-menopause and it's unwelcome symptoms.They include, but are not limited to excess belly fat, hair loss, hot flashes, anxiety, sleeplessness, dry skin and brain fog. 

Oh, it's just so delightful, AMIRITE?

Anyway, the brain fog is what I've been thinking about. Which is hard because you know, brain fog. I'm not sure what all the term encompasses, but for me, it seems that lately, I am suffering from an inability to make decisions - of any kind - big or small. I think I tend toward difficulty in this area anyway. (If you're familiar with the Enneagram Personality Type Test, I am a Nine which means decision-making can be a challenge. But that's another discussion altogether.) I wondered this week if this difficulty is not only a biological or personality driven tendency, but also a circumstantial one.

You see it appears at this stage in my life with kids out of the house that the world is wide open for me. And it's the same for many of my friends - whether they were moms working out of or inside the home. When making even the most trivial decisions in the last 20 plus years, I have almost always had to take the needs/schedules/dreams/goals of a bunch other people into consideration first. 

Our summer vacations were determined by the baseball tournament schedule. For many years we didn't travel for holidays because Jesus's birthday was right smack dab in the middle of high school basketball season. Even the most basic decisions about when I would take a shower, where we would eat out or when I would sleep were controlled by other human beings. 

And it was great. I was good at making decisions then. Their lives were my vocation. And I wanted it that way and I am grateful for it. I knew I was right in the center of God's will for my life and I don't regret that they were the priority always. 

Looking back, it seems that while there was stress and chaos, the criteria for making decisions that would get us successfully through that stress and chaos were pretty clear. What was the best decision I could make in that moment with the information I had and my gut intuition for these little people God had entrusted to me? 

Was it as easy as I'm making it seem? Certaintly not, I'm sure. See: Brain Fog

Now, to a great degree, those people's lives are none of my business. Which means, essentially, I gotta mind my own business. And it's weird.

I can do or be whatever the heck I want. I can sleep when I want. Do my work when I want. Exercise when I want. Cook what I want, when I want and more importantly, if I want. Wake when I want. Leave town without hiring a babysitter. Take a vacation that doesn't center around a baseball tournament schedule. (Almost. We still have one left in the game and mama doesn't miss many innings.) 

This seems exciting and empowering, yes? But for me, I think it's a bit overwhelming and even paralyzing. 

It reminds me of being in my 20s. The possibilities were endless and everywhere you went older people were reminding you, "You can do whatever you want! You are your only responsibility!" with a gleam in their eyes and perhaps a tad bit of resentment. I remember that time being wonderful and exciting and also terrifying and confusing. And I don't think I've felt that way since then until now.

Of course, I have to consider my family and my friends still. No man is an island and all that stuff. And, of course, I live in the greatest country the world has ever known. I've always had the opportunity to do and be whatever I want. 

But it seems that at 55 years old, I'm suddenly more keenly aware that I am in charge of my one wild and precious life.

It's time to mind my own business and get to it. So here's to walking in confidence that God has created us to be strong, courageous and discerning. That He will be with us in all of our decisions - great and small. That there will be good fruit when we stay in the center of His will and that He will catch us and redirect us when we slip outside. To take the first step, it seems at this juncture that we might need to take some time to get acquainted with our own selves. 

Hello, Jenn. I'm Jenn. What are we going to do today?

I think at this point, we're going to go get a Diet Coke and get our hair highlighted. First two decisions of the day are made. That wasn't that hard. We got this.

Have a blessed weekend, friends.

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