All this to say: this intro is a short one because I’ve got some camping prep to do. …Let’s cut to the chase and get right to it.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. This week’s episode of Drink—in this one I’m chatting with one of my most requested guest returns: my daughter, Tate! She shares two books and two places she loves (and yes, even though she’s already been on the show to share two books, we all know that we all have more than two…). Even though none of her answers necessarily surprised me, it was still a delight to hear why these four things were so formative for her.

2. From for magazine, I really appreciated his unpacking of pride, and why it’s such a squirrelly vice to understand, overcome, and even just …sit with—solid writing here, too: “A person who understands that we are all always in the process of becoming—which, yes, is Instagram wisdom, but follow along with me—is someone far less likely to feel terrified by evidence that he is not fully cooked yet. To those who are not too eager to be finished building themselves, evidence of weakness is just information, feedback, material for the next development. Again, I know this sounds like the kind of thing that a Peloton instructor says between sets, and I’m sorry for that. But underneath the banality, there’s a real distinction between a conception of one’s self that is open to revision and one that can never be. Pride, or the deadly form anyway, is what happens when that gate closes permanently.”

3. We go camping several times a year, have been for over two decades, and I genuinely love it. My biggest camping advice? Don’t go expecting to 1. stay clean or 2. get the most amazing sleep of your life. In other words: adjust your expectations. Hear me out: I’m all about comfortable hotel beds and the occasional spa day; I’m not Bear Grylls over here. I’m just saying that part of the reason you may hate to camp is because you’re frustrated that camping is so camping-y. Camping equals dirt, cooking outside, sleeping in character-building environments, and generally slowing down and soaking in nature. Expect that, and you may enjoy it more.

4. I have such mixed feelings about reading goals—generally-speaking, I tend to find goals motivating, but in the years I set myself a reading goal, I always start to resent it. I think it’s because reading is my default favorite pastime, and as soon as I slap a goal on it like a sticker, it immediately shifts from pleasure to work. I’m still mulling over this; workout goals are great for me, for example, so I’m not anti-goal. Anyhoo, this is why I appreciate ’s recent musings on reading goals, why his for this year is shifting, and perhaps why I should take myself less seriously when I embark on an (otherwise harmless) reading goal: “One analysis found staying flexible in goal pursuit pairs with better well-being and greater progress toward goals. If you don’t bend, you break.”

5. And finally, renovating a $1 house from start to finish …for some reason Kyle and I were recently mesmerized by this young woman and her dad’s work (even if I do question her living room paint color choice).

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

My Quincy playlist (for specifically when I’m novel-writing…)

Quotable 💬

“A lot of questions get no answer unless you go for a walk in the woods.”

- Norman Maclean

You must have a woodland creature for a pet. Which do you choose? 🦊

File this under ‘Well, That’s an Unusual Reader-Submitted Question,’ but seeing as we’re camping right now, I found it fitting. I want to answer fox, because they’re easily the most beautiful and majestic out of this group of options, but I think realistically I’m going with squirrel2. They just seem like the most feasible for actual indoor pets. …I have no plans to test this theory.

Also, explain yourselves, raccoon-answerers.

• Fox: 31.2%

• Owl: 30.1%

• Deer: 19.6%

• Squirrel: 11.2%

• Raccoon: 7.9%

Find the next poll question here.

Summer 2027: The Tuscan Region of Italy 🍝

One excursion from next summer’s pilgrimage itinerary: the Sistine Chapel—come join us!

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

When was the last time you were truly bored? Why is that?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Stress pear.

• The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norman Juster

• The Case for Jesus, by Brant Pitre

• The Commonplace | Tsh’s newsletter on Substack

• Summer 2027: Join Tsh in Italy! (and maybe Tate…)

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(…In the meantime, non-fiction helps pay the bills. Ahem.)

In my experience, here’s my process of novel-writing thus far:

1. Ooh! What a good idea. Let me write that down before I forget it.

2. Oh yes, this is good.

3. [The next morning, re-reading it] Oh my gosh. This is crap.

4. I’m such an imposter. Why did I ever think I could write?

5. [Let too much time go by]

6. That idea I had? It was actually kinda good. Let’s read it again.

7. Oh wait, this is sorta good after all. Let’s keep going.

8. [Re-writes everything]

9. [Decides the tense needs to change; edit all verbs. Or, decides there are too many weird adjectives disguised as adverbs, still doing more work when a good noun will do; edit all nouns.]

10. Repeat steps 3-6.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. A new episode of Drink! In this one I’m chatting with the lovely about orphan stories (and why kids love them so much), how childhood in America has changed over the decades, her experience free-ranging a European city as a young adolescent, and a favorite new hobby (and why we adults need to remember how to be beginners). It was a delightful chat! (…We’ll get there on the video quality, pinky-swear; in the meantime, most of you are audio-only podcast listeners anyway, as the good Lord intended.)

2. Yes and amen to ’s defense of Halloween and why we need to celebrate it: “If we refrain from celebrating Halloween because we are afraid of what modern pagans have done to our holiday, then we’re abandoning an essential element of the Hallowtide triduum to the wolves.”

3. Everyone’s doing their ‘nine books that I’ll never forget,’ and normally I hesitate doing flash-viral trends like this—but here’s mine anyway. I hesitate because I know I’ll forget something (sure enough: Flannery O’Connor!), but hey, this isn’t one’s all-time top nine. This is just nine good books. I could easily make nine more of these grids.

4. From Hearth & Field (related: my conversation with Dixie, above), as someone married to a beer connoisseur, I appreciated this take on brewing beer as a means of building culture: “Beer has returned to its rightful place as a locally produced commodity that can, when consumed properly, unite people in conversation and fellowship. Beer cannot save culture on its own, to say the least. It does, however, provide a poignant image of how to return to a productive and festive culture. Putting beer in perspective as a work of culture, integrated within a sacramental view of life, makes it a fitting image for renewal.”

5. And finally, a collected home has evidence. (I, too, have this chair; it was originally $10 from the thrift shop and is now recovered in a beautiful green and my all-time favorite.)

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📖

The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans (on audiobook, which I highly recommend)1

Quotable 💬

“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

- Mark Twain

What’s your favorite thing about autumn? 🍁

For the umpteenth year in a row, fallen leaves and their beautiful colors wins autumn again. My answer depends on the day, and since most leaves here barely turn a yellowy-orange before they plummet to the ground crispy and brown, I’ll go with the outdoor activities. I love me some camping, backyard bonfires, pumpkin patches, and walks while wearing more than shorts and satisfyingly crunching on said dead leaves.

• Leaves changing colors: 47.5%

• Holidays + traditions: 19.3%

• Food + drink: 16.3%

• Outdoor activities: 14.7%

• Sportsball: 2.2%

Find the next poll question here.

Summer 2027: The Tuscan Region of Italy 🍝

One excursion from next summer’s pilgrimage itinerary: Siena’s Cathedral (it’s even more stunning in person…)—come join us!

Learn More & Sign Up 🇮🇹

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

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Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What smell immediately takes you to somewhere from your past?2

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Truly terrifying.

• The Hollow | Dixie Dillon Lane on Substack

• Dixie’s book, Skipping School: A History of American Homeschooling and How It Went Mainstream

• Hearth & Field magazine

• The Commonplace | Tsh’s newsletter on Substack

• Summer 2027: Join Tsh in Italy!

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Our October here in Central Texas has come in like hi, I’m fall weather—not exactly cold, but a definite drop in temps and several days of rain. It’s been glorious! Very often early October is still in the 90s and a punch in the face. So far, so good with the 2026 version.

Fall reading is some of t…

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And on a bright note: today’s high is 78 degrees here in Central Texas! I didn’t know weather could go below the 90s... I have no recent first-hand memory of what that’s like here.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. A new episode of A Drink With a Friend! When you can’t do the ideal, but you can still do something, what’s the good-enough version? That’s called a partial solution. Sounds simple, but it’s hard to enact. We have an ideal in our head, and when we can’t have that, we tend to throw everything out the window and do nothing. But we live in a broken world and can almost never fully achieve that perfect ideal this side of heaven. So what should we do? Embrace the done > perfect (and yes, this episode embodies this very idea, which I explain therein). (And a friendly remind to subscribe to the show, so you won’t miss an episode.)

2. As an avid reader, a semi-avid writer with another book on the way, and someone fascinated by (if not a little weary of) all the AI talk these days, I really appreciated ’s recent nuanced piece on why—and how—books will should never die: “A good book creates an immersive, extended encounter with a consciousness other than our own. ...The quality of the encounter depends not only on who the author is but on what they do with the content. ...The book’s apparent inefficiency creates part of the experience, part of the encounter. It doesn’t detract from its value; it’s a key aspect of the unique value proposition.”

3. October is truly an excellent month of feast days. Yesterday’s was St. Thérèse of Lisieux, today’s is the Holy Guardian Angels, the 4th is St. Francis of Assisi, the 7th is Our Lady of the Rosary, the 15th is St. Teresa of Avila, the 17th is St. Ignatius of Antioch, the 18th is St. Luke the Evangelist, and the 22nd is St. John Paul II. Quite the lineup in one month!

4. ’s latest piece on social capital (vs capital capital) has given me a lot to think about, mostly because it’s an idea I’m very familiar with, yet it’s framed in a way I hadn’t yet thought of. It reminds me of our family’s decision to live where we live: in a fairly small old house, yet in an outrageously walkable neighborhood that’s incredibly easy to host other friends and families (and thereby share its Shire-ness) because there’s so much around us mere feet away: coffee shops, great restaurants, a beloved natural watering hole, community parades and events on the Square… These come at a cost of us living in a small-ish, one-bathroom house. Yet our community-driven location is invaluable. In her words: “So, what do you do if you aspire to a social capital way of life but you lack the requisite staffing? Well, I think obviously you’ve got to gather your people.”

5. And finally, the history of mustard. You’re welcome.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

My Cozy Autumn playlist

Quotable 💬

“I wish that every day was Saturday and every month was October.”

- Charmaine J. Forde

What’s the best day of the week? 📆

I want to have a more creative answer (looking at you, Tuesday and Thursday answer-givers!), but alas, I’m Team Saturday all the way. I also feel like I should say Sunday—which is a close second for me—but it’s eclipsed by Saturday only because of those inevitable Sunday evening blues (though I admittedly enjoy my job a great deal).

But the best feeling of the week? Those show up on Friday nights. I love that start to the weekend, when you’ve got dinner simmering and a good 48 hours ahead of you… Bliss.

(Also, poor Wednesday.)

• Monday: 5.7%

• Tuesday: 2.6%

• Wednesday: 1.4%

• Thursday: 9.2%

• Friday: 24.2%

• Saturday: 29.2%

• Sunday: 27.7%

Find the next poll question here.

Summer 2027: The Tuscan Region of Italy 🍝

An excursion from next summer’s pilgrimage itinerary I’m looking forward to: the Abbey of Sant’ Antimo (one of my favorite places in all of Tuscany…)

Come join us!

Learn More & Sign Up 🇮🇹

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

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Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What could you start doing this weekend that your end-of-the-year self would be glad you did?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - …Why is this so mesmerizing?

This episode embodies a partial solution because it’s a departure from the usual episodes. But done > perfect, every time.

• The Commonplace | Tsh’s newsletter on Substack

• On Making Friends & Partial Solutions

• Ira Glass’ The Gap

• Summer 2027: Join me in Italy!

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A happy start-of-the-week to you and yours, and a lovely end-of-September as well! This month flew by in some ways, but in other ways I can’t believe we only started school at the top of this month. …Why am I already counting down the days to our fall break week? Hmm. 🤔

Read more

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. FINALLY: A new episode of A Drink With a Friend! I’m dusting off the podcast for another fall season of delightful conversations about both books and places that have shaped us. For this inaugural one, it’s just me talking to you—and I’m trying something new with the Substack live video feature. (Tech-wise, it turns out it’s easy-peasy, but their video quality is super not great. Better video quality to come, I promise.) However, I will never quit audio, as the good Lord intended podcasts to be, so also find the new episode wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. (Subscribe to the show, too!)

2. …Yes, I’m still thinking about the passing of Wendell Berry, thank you kindly. I loved every word of this tribute from , a former student of his from the University of Kentucky—just imagine having him as a professor. I would lead with that factoid at every networking event I’d be forced to attend. What a man: “At that point in the semester, I cared less about getting a good grade and more about simply being a better human being. He wasn’t really teaching us composition as much as he was teaching us how to pay attention, think independently, live honestly, and take responsibility for our words and our lives.”

3. I’m thrilled to report that for the first time in my life, I have a set of wall-to-wall bookshelves in a dedicated writing library that I’m psyched to show you soon (though you can see a glimpse of them in the pixel-y video of the new Drink episode, above). …And yes, it required marrying off my daughter in order to free up space to do so. They’re comprised of beautiful bookshelves Kyle built for me about 12 years ago, but are now sitting together on one wall, attached, and painted a lovely green. Once the ceiling is done being planked, they’ll be capped with crown moulding, and they’ll be a sight to see. Now I just need my Belle ladder-on-wheels. Pics to come!

4. Because we are not machines, we are not meant to place efficiency upon the altar where we worship the culture’s almighty god of Getting Stuff Done So That You Feel Like Your Life Has Meaning. I appreciated ’s thoughts about not only the slowness of reading, but why what we pay attention to matters, and why we must dedicate precious time to paying attention to it: “It pays to ask who or what deserves the precious gift of your attention. ...Philosophy, art, literature, even mathematics at its noblest: these things reward our investment in them because they put us in touch with other souls, and with beauty. They’re worth doing even when you don’t have to do anything.”

5. And finally, a linguist answers word origin questions (I love nerdy stuff like word etymology—watch if you wonder why Americans say ‘fall’ while the rest of the world exclusively uses ‘autumn’).

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📖

The Black Wolf, by Louise Penny (I’m finally, slowly, catching up to this beloved series)

Quotable 💬

“Our culture has filled our heads but emptied our hearts, stuffed our wallets but starved our wonder. It has fed our thirst for facts but not for meaning or mystery.”

- Peter Kreeft

What’s your most favorite area in your life to clean and organize? 🧺

Flipping the script on last week’s poll question… I think I’d have to answer the kitchen, mostly because there’s such an instant gratification there. Countertops sticky? Wipe ‘em down—done. Put the food left out in containers and toss ‘em in the fridge—done. Coffee area all disheveled (🙋‍♀️)? Take ten minutes while it brews in the morning, and you’ve got yourself a tidied-up daily space. We’re in our kitchens multiple times a day, and I, for one, always feel better once it’s cleaned and tidied. Seems like nearly half of you agree with me.

• Closet/Garage: 6.2%

• Bathroom: 5.6%

• Car: 7.4%

• Kitchen: 49%

• Bedroom: 31.8%

Find the next poll question here.

Summer 2027: Italy! 🍝🍷

Join us in Italy for next summer’s pilgrimage… I’d love to have you come along!

Go on pilgrimage to Italy 🇮🇹

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🇮🇹 Come to Italy!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What did you want to be when you grew up when you were ten years old? How close were you to ultimately hitting that target?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - I think of this every first day of autumn (no matter the temps).

In this inaugural “dusting off” episode, I’m answering my own questions—and also explaining a bit of where I’ve been (I promise, it’s not that interesting).

• The Commonplace | Tsh’s newsletter on Substack

• Ep. 192: Childhood Mythology & the Greatest Medieval Epic

• The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin

• Emma M. Lion, by Beth Brower (vols. 1-8 so far)

• Summer 2027: Join me in Italy!

Get more from Tsh Oxenreider in the Substack app

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This weekend I’m also (hopefully) finalizing my new office-library! …I thought I’d be done two weeks ago, but it’s been so humid around here that the new paint on my shelves has taken ages to cure, and thus my books have remained in piles on the floor. It hasn’t really been a problem until this week, when I could not for the life of me find my copy of Beowulf (for my class). I stacked them relatively alphabetically, but still... I have a lot of books, and when they’re not facing outward by spine, it’s a smidge hard to tell what’s what. I finally found it—of course at the bottom of a stack—and was ultimately a minor issue. But it’s made me all the more fired up about my new wall-to-wall bookshelf situation, and I hope to share it with you soon.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. I plan to dust off A Drink With a Friend for the fall season soon! In the meantime, listen in on some of last season’s conversations (of which this next season’s will be quite similar, but with a little additional thought): fighting dementors & 19th-century parables, a girl with power & a powerful woman, and three desires & a 14th-century headstrong Norwegian.

2. Our local coffee shop still has its summer menu out for a few more days because they don’t switch over to the new seasonal menu until the actual, calendar-says-so season change. This means that, as much as people are asking them for a pumpkin-spice-whatever, they’re sticking with their (delightful) summer menu through September 21. I love their fall menu so I’m stoked to get one of my favorites next week, but in the meantime—mad respect for sticking to their guns.

3. I really appreciate these thoughts on learning to hear ourselves again from (on behalf of ): “Our enemy loses ground when we stop rejecting the silent wandering mind and embrace it as the very substance of raw prayer. The distractions we interpret as an excuse to call ourselves undisciplined are often exactly what God wants to surface.”

4. Good stuff here from Word on Fire on the difference between confession and psychotherapy, and why so many in the modern world conflate the two, treating the confessional like a free mini-therapy session without the posture of true repentance and a desire not to sin again: “Psychotherapy may help us understand why we fell and offer us the natural comfort of connecting with another human being. However, confession assures us that, by God’s grace, we need not remain on the ground. In an age devoted to explaining ourselves, that may be the most subversive idea of all.”

5. And finally, why you must start a dynasty (I love that there’s a legit Habsburg active on the internet à la ).

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

Caamp Radio

Quotable 💬

“You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”

- Annie Dillard

What’s your least favorite area in your life to clean and organize? 🧺

I mean, I don’t love doing any of these, though I do love having a clean and organized space... I suppose if I were forced to pick today, I’m going with closet/garage, because in our case that’s our added-on backyard shed (our old cottage came garageless and nearly closetless). It’s our catch-all place for things to get to eventually, and right now, it’s a bit of a scary place. Plus, I’m not going near that in this late-summer heat. I look forward to the day when it is finally organized—but today is not that day.

• Closet/Garage: 39.3%

• Bathroom: 32.5%

• Car: 12.2%

• Kitchen: 9.9%

• Bedroom: 6.1%

Find the next poll question here.

Summer 2027: Italy! 🍝🍷

Join us in Italy for next summer’s pilgrimage… I’d love to have you come along!

Go on pilgrimage to Italy 🇮🇹

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🇮🇹 Come to Italy!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

How far back do you know about your family tree? What’s the legacy (good or less-than-good) that’s left to you to steward or change?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - What has four letters.

As we stood in line, the otherworldly scene in downtown New York unfolded on a TV screen (the old cathode ray tube-style bolted from the ceiling), and we assumed it was some sort of action film. I remarked to Kyle, “Why are they showing a movie in passport control? That’s kinda weird.” An American behind us interjected and said, “You haven’t heard yet, have you... They bombed the twin towers in New York. It’s all over the news.”

“Who’s ‘they’?” one of us said.

“We don’t know yet,” the stranger said.

The two of us got through passport control, then beelined it to a pay phone, where we called our hostel to let them know of our arrival (in this era, they’d sometimes bring around complimentary airport transportation once you gave them a phone call).

“We’ll be right there,” the Turkish gentleman on the phone said, “And we are also so sorry about the news. Come and join us; we are all watching everything on the TV in the lobby. There are plenty of other Americans here, too.” I found this a bit strange. I didn’t yet realize just how monumental the day was.

We quickly checked in, then joined the crowd in the lobby. A couple from downtown Manhattan was frantically trying to reach family members on the hostel lobby phone. We all watched for hours, shocked, but unaware until the days that followed just what a life-changing event had just happened. Kyle and I reached out via email to each of our parents at internet cafés over the next few days, checking in on how they were doing. Everywhere we went, Turkish strangers would tell us how sorry they were for us. American flags flew all over this non-American country. We were asked repeatedly if we knew people personally affected by the disasters. It was all anyone talked about for the two weeks we were there.

…Four-plus months later, the two of us left Kosovo and returned home to a different country, now forever changed, and still affected in ways the younger generation will never know first-hand.

Never forget.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. Hoo boy, do I love and appreciate ’s words about how to free yourself from nostalgia and appreciate the time in which you live, because I could copy + paste much of what she said about her adolescent and young adult years (though in different decades for different life stages, I’m guessing—my Avril Lavigne days were early marriage and parenting). But her point remains, and I completely agree: “I can only tell you that once I stopped demonizing my own time, I could start to love it. I could see that there were good things before and bad things too.”

2. This week I’m back to putting a smidge of butter in my morning coffee a la Elizabeth Bright, and so far I do feel a bit better, cortisol-wise (I’ve been experiencing that oh-so-annoying situation of 3 a.m. wake-ups for no real reason the past few weeks, a key sign I have too much cortisol running through my veins). I’ll report soon whether it helps.

3. I’m around a lot of younger women in my real life, so it’s encouraging when I read words of wisdom from someone like , who’s just a bit ahead of me in the parenting game.2 With only two years left of my own homeschooling (how?!), and as someone who gets asked alllllll the time for my secret for The Best Way to Do It™️ (ha!), I really appreciated Elizabeth’s words of encouragement: “I know something now that the woman with all those little children could only know in theory: We do not control the outcome. ...But education isn’t an equation in which the correct inputs guarantee the desired adult at the other end. And frankly, neither is motherhood.”

4. The past few days I’ve had a hankering to travel—not to escape my current life, but simply to enjoy some new-to-me experience. I’ve come to learn that when I get this hankering, it usually means I need to interject some form of wonder into my everyday, I’m-here-at-home-for-now life. …A different route on my neighborhood walk, checking out a shop I’ve passed by for ages but never visited, breaking out a hobby I haven’t done in awhile, even for an hour (hello, watercoloring or paddleboarding). It’s a note to myself to do something a little off my beaten path sometime soon, just because. There’s no need to wait until we’re camping at a national park or wandering a European village to take in the gift of wonder.

5. And finally, if this history lesson on how people lived their everyday lives before the ubiquity of air conditioning doesn’t make you thank your lucky stars for the invention of this delightful technology (see: nostalgia, above), well... perhaps you don’t live in Texas.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

Project Hail Mary on Prime3

Quotable 💬

“Deeper than our wanderlust and desire for adventure is the desire to find our way back home. Ultimately, we want the adventure only so that we can savor it and tell it around the fireplace at home.”

- Ronald Rolheiser

Which classic board game would you be willing to play this weekend? 🎲

I liked this reader-submitted question because our family is big on game night, and it reminded me we need to get one on the calendar soon (Reed, we’ll also save one on the calendar for when you’re home next!). I’m with the majority of you: Scrabble and Clue are the GOATs. As for Monopoloy—that’s gonna be a game I’m given in Purgatory. Lord, help me if/when that game ever breaks out in front of me.

• Scrabble: 42.7%

• Clue: 27.8%

• Battleship: 10.1%

• Life: 8.1%

• Monopoly: 7.1%

• Candy Land: 4.2%

Find the next poll question here.

Summer 2027: Italy! 🍝🍷

We’re going to one of my all-time favorite places on earth for next summer’s pilgrimage… I’d love to have you come along! Join us:

Go on pilgrimage to Italy 🇮🇹

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🇮🇹 Come to Italy!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What were you doing twenty-five years ago today when you heard the news?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Here’s a kayak.

Our first day of classes this week went beautifully! This co-op I started two years ago has become bigger than I ever imagined, which means I am beyond grateful for the other parents who’ve rolled up their sleeves to help. My “working genius”2 lies more in vision-casting and launching, decidedly not in maintenance, so I look forward to passing on the keys to this growing ship soon... But in the meantime, I’m so grateful to be back in the classroom with adolescents, who are some of my favorite people to be around during an ordinary week. These 14 to 18-year-olds are delightful, and they give me hope for our future.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. A few days ago we practiced our regular end-of-the-month gratitude by naming ten things, big and small, we’re thankful for. What readers have mentioned so far: “’bracelet making with my 6-year-old,’ ‘air conditioning while heat wave continues,’ ‘my pumpkin coffee creamer making it feel like fall,’ and ‘being brave and saying something that needed to be said with kindness and grace. I think. I hope.’” Join in and share your August list!

2. I knew I’d appreciate ’s reflections on Berry’s death, and I wasn’t wrong: “The most fitting way to honour Mr. Berry’s life and legacy, beyond sharing poems, quotes, and stories, is to make his costly words mean something in your life; to change — really change — the way you relate to your local place, your neighbours, and the wild creatures who also call your place home.”

3. Another Brit who really appreciated Berry’s work, hits the nail on the head with his observations here (and I’m envious of his having gotten to sit around the Kentucky dinner table with the Berry clan): “Berry never bought a computer or used a smartphone; he wouldn’t use air travel; and he lived and worked in the small rural community he brought to life with his words. Unable to call him a hypocrite, his critics had to content themselves instead with calling him an unrealistic fossil, wedded to a dead past. But there was nothing simple about Wendell Berry, and he was not committed to some Romantic fantasy.”

4. This story from about getting permission to reprint one of Berry’s poems made me smile.

5. And finally, I loved this honest poem from about making peace with Wendell Berry, at minimum because she quotes one of my all-time favorite quotes of his (and for many years what has been on my welcome page of The Commonplace here): “One day you will read / Be joyful though you have considered all the facts / and you will rage.”

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📖

Sacred Fire: A Vision for a Deeper Human and Christian Maturity, by Ronald Rolheiser3

Quotable 💬

“So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it.”

- (who else, but our friend) Wendell Berry

Water: what’s your preference? 💧

Obviously I like still water. Obviously. I’d be dead otherwise. But if I had to choose… I’m grabbing the sparkling water.

• Still: 70.5%

• Sparkling: 29.5%

Find the next poll question here.

Come to Italy With Me… 🍷

I’m absolutely stoked about next summer’s pilgrimage… I’d love to have you join my family and me! Let your world get rocked in all the right ways through Tuscany’s beauty.

Go on pilgrimage to Italy 🇮🇹

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🇮🇹 Come to Italy!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What could you do this weekend to please your ten-years-ago self? Your ten-years-from-now self?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Me right now (and let’s be honest, me in Central Texas for the next six weeks still).

I just discovered it’s been a while since we’ve done a gratitude chat, and I can’t think of a better way to end August—and therefore, summer mode (at least around here) than by remembering good things. It’s been a weird season for me, and though I’m admittedly not ready for the rigamarole of classes tomorrow, I am indeed ready for the rhythms and routines of the fall season. Weather-wise it won’t feel like autumn for at least six more weeks around here, but alas, it is indeed time for bouquets of newly-sharpened pencils. I’ll stop fighting it and relent.

Read more

This next Tuesday is our first day of classes, and this year in my dual-credit Western civ humanities class we’re covering the middle portion of our three-year cycle: roughly 500-1650 A.D. I’m eager to dive into this time period because it’s usually so neglected in our modern education system (at least in the States)—yet it is wildly fascinating. We’re starting off with Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, a book I didn’t first read until I was an adult—and once I did, I thought about it for weeks afterwards. I’m excited to unpack it with them.

I tell my adolescent students that I teach from these Great Books not because I think they’ll fully understand them at age 16—but because I hope their interest is piqued enough to consider opening them again at age 36, when they’ll get so much more out of these classics. It’s a delight and honor to read these books alongside them!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. A few days ago I shared a list of 49 things I’m grateful for, having turned 49 on that very day. I cannot believe I’m now starting my 50th orbit around the sun… just the sound of that is so very strange to me. Insert ALL the clichéd reactions here.

2. Yesterday’s dinner was chicken parm using this recipe, which I’ve done about six times now. It’s become a favorite, both because it’s delicious (and carnivore enough for me), and because it’s so stinking easy. 10/10, would recommend.

3. Is the concept of “falling in love” written into our DNA? I appreciated this short piece about romance, romantic love, and what it says about the weight of glory on our shoulders and the design of God written on our human hearts: “[C.S.] Lewis believed that only in heaven will we be able to endure the full brilliance of the divine image in one another. Given eternity, we would have both the time and the capacity to bear the incredible weight of glory present in every person we meet. But not on Earth. For now, we are given only brief flashes—sudden stabs of romantic love: reminders of the eternal love story to come.”

4. and are launching a fun new endeavor: Pocket Stack—analog, 4x6 print copies of Substack essay collections. What a fun idea! I completely endorse this creativity.

5. And finally, what state should I live in? I took this quiz, and it asked me about twelve different states, none of which were Texas… And yet my result? Apparently I should live in Texas. How about that.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

My Best of Andrew Peterson playlist (especially this song on repeat, in honor of my son now away at college… 😭)

Quotable 💬

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

What did you do right after high school? 🎓

Even though I’m with the majority, I’m kinda surprised at how many of us are in the majority here… It would be interesting to cross this with our ages as well. Had I known about the concept of a gap year, I probably would have really benefitted from one—as a classic first-born good-grades girl, I was already burned out on classroom education before my first semester freshman year even started (and my giant state school didn’t exactly help). Alas… I had a pretty decent “gap year” of sorts not long after college, meeting my husband in a tiny eastern European country and all. 🥰

• College (or some other form of higher education): 85.8%

• Work: 6.8%

• Intentional gap year: 3.4%

• Something else: 2.6%

• Ministry: 0.9%

• Military: 0.5%

Find the next poll question here.

Come to Italy With Me… 🍷

Go on pilgrimage to Italy 🇮🇹

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🇮🇹 Come to Italy!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What age do you feel? Why?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Yeah, this all used to be woods.

1. That I have lived four—almost five—decades, a privilege not given to everyone. Getting older is a blessing.

2. That I’m still in my forties for one more year... I’m going to soak it ALLLL up.

3. The breakfast I just enjoyed with a dear friend at one of the many charming eateries in our neighborhood.

4. Our delightfully walkable neighborhood.

5. A few hours in an empty house to myself right now! —with the undisputed best rom-com on in the background. ✏️🍂

6. One kid is successfully married and launched into her own home, another is experiencing his first day of classes at college today, and the youngest just passed his driving test this week. …Is there a better compliment as a mother when your kids successfully step on their milestones?

7. The cup of decaf next to me.

8. That there is such a thing as good decaf.

9. That the decaf is in a mug we got on our honeymoon, and almost 24 years later it still hasn’t broken. Miraculously. 🤞

10. Heavy cream.

11. Church bells.

12. Good little indie bookstores (since the above afternoon film has reminded me). …Fabled, you win (for Central Texas, anyway).

13. Even though it doesn’t remotely feel like it here in this corner of the world ...autumn is on its (eventual) way.

14. Good new books.

15. Good old books.

16. The Emma M. Lion series, and the joy of getting to read the whole thing for the first time this summer.

17. The men in your life painting your bookshelves so that you can truly set up your library-office in your daughter’s former bedroom.

18. ...A bittersweet transition, for sure, but still a blessing that we finally have a little extra wiggle room in an otherwise small old house.

19. Coming back from breakfast with your friend to your son having indeed done his morning chores before going to work.

20. That this son still unicycles to work, to the delight of many in our neighborhood.

21. That the middle son called me from college last night, just to catch up and say hello.

22. Family and friends who text you a many happy returns all throughout the day.

23. That God always, always, always sustains us.

24. ...Even in years when you are positively sure you can barely hold on during all the changes and transitions.

25. Newly-painted toenails.

26. Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy.

27. Our ten-year-old dog who still acts like a puppy.

28. Our cat, who even though she sheds like she’s building another cat out of her own fur, is actually friendly and sweet to humans.

29. My green chair.

30. Good candles.

31. The one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.

32. Our local parish, an outpost of said Church.

33. All the wonderful friends we’ve made from this parish.

34. …And that so many of them live nearby.

35. Getting back to working out (and the sore muscles that follow).

36. Friends who graciously offer their garage gym for free use.

37. My parents are still in good health.

38. ...And that they now live on land—still nearby, but out in the country.

39. Getting to visit the other side of the family in Oregon, such a beautiful slice of the country.

40. Sandals. (I hate wearing socks.)

41. House plants.

42. Good playlists.

43. A camping trip on the calendar.

44. Even though summer mode is winding down this week 😭, there’s a real gift to be found in the weekly routine of a school year.

45. Our wonderful co-op, which is growing by leaps and bounds without our remotely trying.

46. My students, and walking alongside them each year as they discover so many insights from so many good and great books.

47. All the folks who join us on pilgrimages, many of whom have become like family when we see them each summer.

48. My many readers here, who continue to delight me by their sheer presence. Truly, I’m so grateful for you!

49. (Almost) twenty-four years of marriage with the perfect-for-me person. It’s a miracle. 💛

I’ll have deeper thoughts here soon, but in the meantime, we gotta get this young man set up in his dorm, fly through a whirlwind weekend of “Disorientation” (that’s what they call freshman orientation at his university), and then the parents are gently shown the door after Sunday brunch. 🥺

I’m grateful both his siblings are able to come up for the day to see him settled in for this big life milestone... I actually really do love this parenting stage with young adults.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. A few days ago I shared some thoughts after a 24-hour personal getaway, with the revelatory epiphany from God to just do the things I know to do: “Those who stop seeking novelty as a means of escaping boredom, and instead embrace the ordinary rhythms that come with a proven track record are the ones who ultimately find the satisfaction they’re looking for. They also don’t wait to feel like doing something before taking action. They just …do the same right-there thing they know to do.”

2. I’m doing St. Michael’s Lent this year, a new (very optional) spiritual discipline for me. It started on August 15, ends on September 29—Michaelmas—and I’m praying this novena (a repeated prayer) throughout. I’m also fasting from certain foods and adding more focused workouts… In some ways it feels like the worst time of year for me to do this (hello, all the things on my current plate), but in many ways that’s exactly why it’s the best time of year for me to do this. So far, it’s helping me remember what matters most, as well as Whose I most am.

3. This letter from to her young son couldn’t have landed at a better time (see above, re: my weekend parenting task): “When people invite you to do things, go. You’ll always have more fun trying things than sitting alone at home. And if you have a terrible time, maybe you’ll get a good story out of it. An experience is never wasted if something has been learned from it.”

4. I also appreciated ’s recent reflections while wading in the same dadgum pool here: “We’ve given it our best effort, I think, but parents are only granted so many days with their children. …This is of course the terrible reality of motherhood: if you do your job right, you work yourself right out of it.”

5. And finally, I’m fascinated by this Spanish priest who’s helped over 1,200 people find their spouses …using WhatsApp, of all things. Hey, whatever works, I say.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

Every Shade of Blue Radio

Quotable 💬

“You don’t think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.”

-Henri Nouwen

What’s your preference? ☕️

Me too, majority of you. Me too.

• Coffee: 62.2%

• Tea: 32%

• Neither: 5.8%

Find the next poll question here.

Come to Italy With Me… 🍷

Go on pilgrimage to Italy 🇮🇹

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🇮🇹 Come to Italy!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

Who in your life could use a word of encouragement this next week?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - That’s a nice porch.

I love me a good old-fashioned deep think. Sometime around this time of year, I do what I can to hole away for a few hours somewhere (sometimes overnight at a guesthouse; more often a few hours at a coffee shop) to reflect, pray, and plan ahead for the rest of the calendar year. I revisit my Rule of Life, occasionally make some tweaks to it, and generally remind myself what matters most in life.

It’s a hard time of year to do this, as both a parent of school-age kids and as a teacher, yet the season always calls me to contemplation, for both my birthday (next week) and the start of a school year, unofficially but aptly known as the “second new year.” I don’t know about you, but the whole newly-sharpened-bouquet-of-pencils season demands a desire for some fresh starts.

Yesterday I went to a friend’s nearby guesthouse and enjoyed this 24-hour-long early birthday gift from Kyle. Typically I show up to these reflection sessions armed with an agenda—or at least a few specific questions that need answering—but this time was a bit more ….vague. I knew I needed something, but I wasn’t sure what. It’s been quite a year for our clan, with many, many changes and transitions, and to be honest, I’m ending this summer season more depleted than usual. But I still wasn’t sure what, exactly, I needed.

I was tempted to get work done (my plate overfloweth at the moment, yet again). I was expecting to scribble away in my journal, brain dumping all my haphazard thoughts about the seventeen moving parts in my life right now. I’d already enjoyed a particularly hard morning workout, followed by Adoration and Mass, then a quick pit stop at the grocery store before hightailing it straight to the guesthouse, still rather sweaty and gross from the gym.

But before showering and whipping out my journal to exorcise all my pressing questions, I slapped on my swimsuit, put in my earbuds, hit play on my audiobook, and splashed into the backyard pool. …And proceeded to stay there for most of the afternoon.

I finished my audiobook, lounging in a floatie with a sparkling water in hand, and enjoyed the longest veg session in ages that I can remember. Instead of brainstorming and working, I floated in a quiet backyard pool, my mind delightfully wandering the streets of St. Crispian’s and Stonecrop Manor.

By the time I showered and toweled off for the rest of my late afternoon and evening, the questions jabbing me weren’t so sharp. I plated my simple dinner, opened my journal, and watched the Texas sunset as I asked God what He had for me. I was now ready to hear.

His answer was clear and gracious. It was this: Just do the thing in front of you. You know what to do.

I was surprised, but I also wasn’t. It’s what I’ve been hearing all year, frankly.

There’s psychological and scientific evidence that those who succeed best in achieving their physical goals (weight loss, muscle gain, what have you) are the folks who repeat the same things again and again—the same breakfast every morning, the same 3-5 dinners, the same workouts, the same general routines to their days. Boring and unsexy, yet effective.

Those who stop seeking novelty as a means of escaping boredom, and instead embrace the ordinary rhythms that come with a proven track record are the ones who ultimately find the satisfaction they’re looking for. They also don’t wait to feel like doing something before taking action. They just …do the same right-there thing they know to do.

This has been true with my current physical goals, for sure. Why wouldn’t it be any different in other parts of my life?

For continued connection with God, sit in my green chair every morning with my cup of coffee and watch the sun rise from the living room window as I flip my Bible to the day’s lectionary reading. Read. Then read a few pages out of my current devotional or spiritual non-fiction. Then pray.

Then walk the dog before the heat of the day sets in.

Come home, pour that second cup, assign the day’s chores to whichever kids are still living at home, take the evening’s meat out to thaw, and start work. Write before email and Slack. Definitely write before Substack or X. Create before consuming.

Then take a late morning break with break-fasting—pour the third (and final) caffeinated cup, splash in some heavy cream this time, and cook the bacon and eggs. …Sometimes go positively wild and do sausage instead.

Rinse and repeat with all the many moving parts in my life. Teaching: just do the work I know to do. Weight training: stick to my current plan because it’s working. Date nights: weekly at the same local, tried-and-true favorite cafés and diners. Bedtime: the routine I know so well I can do it in my (sometimes near-literal) sleep.

Novelty has its place, yes. But as I edge closer to my next birthday, my last one in my forties (how?!), novelty holds less and less appeal. Twenty years ago, the thought of an unremarkable life was a fate worse than death. But now, as I continue to grow up, I’m more drawn to delighting in the unexpected only here and there—while traveling, for rare milestones and holidays, in painting my bookshelves a fun green—and savoring life’s repeated ordinariness the rest of the time. A morning walk, a good piece of meat for dinner, a well-curated playlist on in the background while I chat with my kids about their days. In bed by 9:30. …There’s very little else I want or need in life right now.

Still a little Baggins, a little Took, yes—but perhaps skewing a bit more Baggins for the measured daily delights, and only occasionally whipping out the Took side for the rare moments that call for it.

I left my friend’s guesthouse ready to re-enter regular life and tackle my never-ending to-do list, grateful for the short time away, and grateful to my good Maker for reminding me what He’s already been gently telling me all year.

Just… Do the thing in front of you. You know what to do.

This next week we’re taking our second-born up to college (🤯), then the following week we’ve got our co-op’s fall kickoff, my birthday the next day, and my next round of book edits due a few days later before my first day of teaching classes the following Tuesday. -When’s fall break?

…It wouldn’t be the second half of August if it wasn’t wildly nuts. **sips aerocano for sanity

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. This week we’ve been sharing what we read in July and what we’re currently reading in August (stop adding book ideas to my eternal pile!). If you’re a subscriber, join in the chat.

2. This summer I started weight training again, and it’s been really good to get back at it—I’ve been hitting up my friend’s garage gym, and I often go with one or two of my kids. It’s been a treat! Anyhoo, I’ve been embracing this idea of needing to practice only seven basic movements, and I suppose it’s too soon to tell, but so far it’s making me enjoy working out again.

3. Arguably one of my favorite reasons to homeschool is the second (and much better) education I’ve received myself. Here’s a good reminder that it’s never been easier to not deprive yourself of closing up any education gaps with all the many resources available to us now: “The future of liberal arts cannot depend on whether elite universities recover their former prestige. It must depend on something much older and more hopeful: ordinary people who continue the pursuit of knowledge for what is good, true, and beautiful.”

4. I really did marvel at the size of Jane Austen’s writing table when I first saw it about ten years ago. We don’t need a Thoreau-ian writing cabin in the woods or Hemingway’s hideaway in Key West to do the daily, ordinary work of showing up to write… We can embrace Austen’s little table behind a squeaky door, purposely never fixed so she had fair warning of an intruder in order to hide her latest manuscript.

5. And finally, eating the K-rations of World War II. …This continues to be my favorite just-for-fun channel on YT.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vols. 6-7, by (Yep, I am flying through them with the goal of finishing the series before the school year begins, and also because they’re just so good.)

Quotable 💬

“Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screeneed porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape.”

-Harper Lee

What’s your honest feeling about summer these days? ☀️

Of course, I asked this in mid-July, so your feelings might have changed since then… It’s definitely gotten swelteringly hot around here. However, since my husband and I have chosen not to complain about the heat for the second summer in a row (since complaining never makes things cooler, and actually makes enduring the summer worse), I still don’t hate summer like I have in previous decades here in Texas—but it’s not the end of the world. Sure, I’d like things to cool off. But in the meantime, I’m appreciating the glory that is still the lazy summer day mindset.

• Slow the heck down, summer…. I’m not done with you yet: 58.6%

• It’s not my favorite, but I’m also not dying: 26.5%

• Is it over already? Please be over already: 10.5%

• What’s summer? (I live in the southern hemisphere): 4.4%

Find the next poll question here.

Come to Italy With Me 🇮🇹

It’s my favorite place to visit… you won’t want to miss this transformative pilgrimage.

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🇮🇹 Come to Italy!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What’s that niggling thing you’re delaying? (…Just go ahead and get it done.)

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Fruit discrimination.

Apologies for the lateness of this August book chat, but I suppose it can’t be helped with my brief traveling absense. ...Heck, normally we simply do one summer chat all together, since I usually take a screen break during the season, so this is a bonus!

Either way, you know what to do: Share what …

Read more