Friday Favorites - last Friday in May 2026

Where has the time gone???  Sincerely???  This beautiful girlie turned 24 yesterday - I was 24 in 1996!!  Wasn't that just a decade or so ago???  Gosh, I wasn't even a mother yet. . . .

Let's kickoff the weekend celebration of this girl with some Friday Favorites that I've made note of lately. . .linking up with Andrea and Erika - thanks for hosting ladies!

A picture of my kiddos spending time together will ALWAYS be a favorite - we got to have dinner with them last night to celebrate Erin's birthday and we got to have dinner with these two Sunday!

It's a good week when we get to be with our kiddos in their lives :)

How about a birthday as an excuse to get a picture with grandparents too??  What a blessing to have so much of our family right here in Knoxville with us.Their birthdays are next. . .84 and 87!

This guy.  Look at him with his ball AND his bone in his mouth.Just hanging with me while I work during the day.

A favorite reason to work at home is to be with him and Chelsea.

Look at how he loves his mama!!

I had a chance to serve at a tea last weekend with this friend.  It's a fundraiser for her British Group - I've attended as a guest before but this time wasn't sure I'd be able to attend (it was scheduled for a summer Saturday = lake days) but it rained so I checked to see if they needed any extra help.

I'm not sure how many tables they had, but each one was set beautifully!

We were each assigned a table and this was "mine".  Such a fun afternoon!!  They had a musical guest and a fashion show :). A favorite hobby of mine is service - things like this fill my cup.

My 7 a.m. Saturday morning pickleball (and the people that show up) will never NOT be a favorite!

I've missed the last two weeks (graduation - #7) and Mother's Day Weekend so it was good to be back with them!  Pickleball really is one of those things that truly gives you a community :). 

I have read some really good books lately. . .

I highly recommend them all. . .The Correspondent is so different from the "usual" narration in a book - I really liked it!  The Bright Years took a bit of time to get through but mainly because it was heavy.  I liked how it was told from different character perspectives - a good saga if you like that sort of thing.  Broken Country was really good too - I've told some people it kind of reminded me of the Bridges of Madison County, which I probably read when I was 24 - ha!  I cried in both these stories, even though the main theme is not something I can personally relate to; it's more about showing that emotions and love and life can be complicated.  I'm currently reading Theo of Golden - another winner even though I'm only halfway through it!

And, folks, all this reading is one reason I'm not blogging as much - I've found some GOOD books that have called my name!

Our last Foster graduate!!

Her parents rented a house in Lynchburg for the weekend and another aunt and uncle were able to come from Georgia to celebrate this milestone!!  We went out together Friday night

And then had a small grad party at the house Saturday night - it was such a great celebration!!  Another FAVORITE weekend - and she's now into Week Two of adulting with a job her degree earned her :)

A little croquet for these friends!

It's never not a favorite when your missionary daughter is back in the USA!

She and the team she led were on the other side of the world for most of the month:

And last night she treated us to a slideshow from her travels:

We're always glad to see her beautiful face but what I love the most is how passionately she talks about and shares what she does and loves with us. Her next mission field with Chi Alpha is Brooklyn, NY.  Reach out if you are interested in learning more about what she does and who she serves (college-aged kids/adults) - this is a brand new area for them to pioneer in this fall!  Her friend sent this picture to us last month, when she received her title of "reverend" with the AG Organization.

That was a fun text to get!  

I found this to go with my feelings about this stage of life:

This happened at the beginning of the month and was certainly a favorite - a visit from the Mohlers!  These are parents of two brothers that my sister and I went to elementary/middle school with in Gahanna, Ohio.  We moved to Dayton, OH when I was in 7th grade but their older son, Chad, and I continued to stay in touch through our 20's and then kept loosely in touch through Christmas cards and a random meet-up every decade or so.  A few years ago we figured out that the younger brother lives fairly close to my sister in northern Cincinnati!  Since then we've probably seen one another at least once a year. . .and this time it was on OUR turf!  The Mohler's had a granddaughter graduating from a TN university near Nashville, then they were going to travel to North Carolina to see friends with a stopover in Knoxville!  We hosted them for dinner on Sunday night, gave them a few ideas of "things to do" on Monday in the area, then met for ice cream (and finally remembered to get a picture!) Monday evening.  It's such a sweet example of "never knowing" when you meet someone how they might fit into your life :). I'm thankful for the friendships the Lord has blessed me with through time and place.  Living life is a FAVORITE.

I love having the time to get online and share favorites from life and the pictures I take to capture these "ordinary" yet extraordinary-to-me snapshots in time.  I'm grateful for this space and others that pour into their blogs that, in turn, inspire me to continue seeking the good in the small and big things.  

Summer is here!!!  My FAVORITE season!!!

Love,

Jenni