“Mrs. O, can we have more classes like this?” is always music to my ears when I hear comments like this as students file out to their next class.

I heard this from a few students this week, and because I was desperate to come up with an in-class project to review all the material we’d covered thus far since September, I whipped up an idea that morning. I divided the students into groups of five, then gave them modern-day scenarios: a local service business that encourages its employees to tell its clients something (an appliance, a car) is about to break down even though it’ll probably last several more years; a soldier ordered to participate in a drone strike with probable civilians (including children) nearby; students at public school demanding that a controversial guest speaker be uninvited because their topic could potentially cause harm, and the like. I then gave each group ten questions specific to their scenario in order to review what Western civilization has received from the three ancient cities that’ve poured its foundation: Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome. After answering the questions, they then had to come to a decision about what should be done in their modern scenario, decipher which ancient city most affected their ethical decision, then defend their answer to the class. It was a lively conversation, one that was much too short for our 1.5-hour class.

(If you’re curious, the city that was most cited? Athens, the birthplace of philosophy and democracy.)

…For the rest of the school year, we’re unpacking the events that led to the legalization (and therefore spread) of Christianity, the inevitable fall of the Roman Empire—and why, and all the pieces that fall into place to set the table for the time periods we’ll cover next year: the “Dark” Ages, Middle Ages, and Renaissance. I’m stoked.

Seven more weeks of the school year, but who’s counting! …Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations is next week to kick off our study of Stoicism.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. One of the more fun names on Substack, , has written a lengthy-but-worth-it (meaning: very readable) treatise on how to be happy. Through all the meta-analyses of various studies that actually say something, he’s synthesized it into ten big things, looking at it through a Christian lens: “If we define happiness as maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain through pursuing dopamine loops and passive living, then yes—that’s definitely not much of a priority for us in God’s mind. But a happiness that comes from living a rich, moral life that’s centered around Him and His kingdom is something followers of Jesus have been pointing toward from the very beginning. Joy, happiness, flourishing, etcetera aren’t the goal of our spirituality, but they’re an undeniable side effect.”

2. Speaking of… I know, I know I keep talking about and/or linking to Arthur Brooks, but since he’s making the rounds with his new book releasing in a few weeks, he’s all over the internet right now, and it’s genuinely good stuff…. Here he is this week—I really enjoyed his thoughts on marriage in particular (fascinating how much more eye contact women need than men).

3. Co-sign on this short thought here from : “You CANNOT increase your joy by avoiding discomfort. Joy and pain run on the same neural circuits, so you actually decrease your capacity for joy by avoiding discomfort.” I’m sure this is neurologically true, but this is also definitely spiritually and emotionally true, too. We were made for hard things.

4. All three of my kids have read the book Project Hail Mary and are frequently nudging me to read it1, and the two that have seen the movie really enjoyed it. I was happy to see my favorite father-son duo, and , discussing the movie in their new shared podcast—I haven’t yet finished their whole conversation, but I’m liking what I hear so far, and I agree with them on why sci-fi matters.

5. And finally, the jury’s still out on what I’m going to make (if anything) for an Easter dessert, but in years past I’ve made this relatively healthy carrot cake (I do cupcakes), and it’s delicious (I go with regular cream-cheese frosting). As a carnivore, last year I simply whipped cream with a touch of allulose and vanilla, then froze it and enjoyed it with blueberries—and since I hardly eat sweet things any more, it felt like a serious treat and was just the hit I needed.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir—the recommended audio version2 (slowly—see above)

Quotable 💬

“I find no difficulty in believing that the veil between the worlds, nowhere else (for me) so opaque to the intellect, is nowhere else so thin and permeable to divine operation. Here a hand from the hidden country touches not only my soul but my body. Here the prig, the don, the modern, in me have no privilege over the savage or the child. Here is big medicine and strong magic...the command, after all, was Take, eat: not Take, understand. ”

-C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

What’s your least-worst chore? 🧹

I agree with the majority here; I actually don’t mind folding laundry (unless it’s Mt. Everest because no one else in the family is willing to do their part). Folding laundry is therapeutic and rhythmic; it’s touching clean things, and it requires me to stay in one place for a few moments. It’s also an excuse to listen to something while I do the otherwise monotonous work. A hundred years ago, laundry would have been an all-day event. Now, if done right, it can be a quiet hum in the background, followed by an excuse to meditate for ten minutes. (I also don’t mind vacuuming for the same reason.)

• Folding laundry: 46.8%

• Handwashing dishes: 25%

• Sweeping and/or vacuuming: 20%

• Dusting surfaces: 7.4%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Our 2026 Pilgrimage to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

“There is no other place like Scotland in the whole world.” - Sir Walter Scott

Come with us to Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What are three things you’ve learned about yourself this Lenten season?

Other than our subscribers’ monthly gratitude chat this upcoming Monday, I’m taking next week off the internet to better keep my focus on Holy Week, so no 5QT next Friday. I’ll see you in two weeks!

See you then,

- Tsh

p.s. - Increasingly me, after three cups of coffee.

As you’re reading this I’m camping with my clan. The weather’s supposed to be beautiful, we’ve got a few more days still until Spring Break winds down, and we’ve got one of the better camp spots at our favorite go-to local state park. We booked this weekend ages ago as a way to celebrate a final family hurrah before the oldest kiddo gets married (in less than two months now 🤯)—unbeknownst to us at that time, her fiancé would now be living in the area, too, so he’s joining us as well!

It should be a delightful spring weekend.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. One of the challenges of camping this time of year: Lent. Since we fast from meat on Fridays, and since we’re big meat-eaters in our family, let’s just say the weekly Lenten fast feels very …Lent-y for our clan. But we’re gonna try fish tacos over a campfire—we’ll see how it goes!

2. If you’ve read 5QT for any length of time, you know of my great love for Arthur Brooks. I’ve already pre-ordered his book that releases at the end of this month, but I was happy to recently see him chat with George Kamel, a more recent follow of mine (as I continue to do research for my upperclassman personal finance class next fall). It was a great conversation (here it is in video form, if you prefer).

3. This past weekend we got another five ladies for our backyard flock! The chicks are currently living in a big cardboard box topped off with a window screen in our dining room and are incessantly chirping at all hours of the day. I used to be intimidated at the prospect of chickens, especially in the early stages, but once you get the hang of it it’s really pretty simple. They’ll live indoors in their box for a few more weeks, and then we’ll slowly introduce them to the big girls currently in the coop out back. There’s a whole art and science to that part, but we’ll get to it later. …Let’s just say it involves watermelon.

4. Speaking of chickens… I really enjoyed this piece from about why all the girl bosses suddenly want chickens. It was reminiscent of my about-face I had in light of burnout in my work about eight-ish years ago, so I wouldn’t exactly say “suddenly” here—I’ve seen a slow, subtle change with a lot of women in this line of work since I started writing online more than eighteen years ago now. But I totally get what she means, and it made me all the more glad I waved goodbye long ago to places like Instagram and media like girl-boss podcasts (and goodness, I haven’t made a funnel in years): “We’re not checking out. We’re hedging in the most human way possible.”

5. And finally, because you know I can’t go too long without sharing one of these from Max Miller… Here’s that deep-dive on what pioneers ate on the Oregon Trail that you never asked for.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

Annika1

Quotable 💬

“Real freedom does not mean being ruled by one’s impulses from one moment to the next. Just the opposite. Being free means not being a slave to one’s moods; it means being guided in a course of action by the fundamental choices one has made, choices one does not repudiate in the face of new circumstances.” -Fr. Jacques Philippe2

It’s been a couple months now… How are those New Year’s resolutions/goals/plans coming along? 🥂

This question was a suggestion from Kyle, and I thought it was fun because I genuinely, legitimately forgot that New Year’s was even not too long ago. …Joke’s on it, though, because I had no goals or resolutions to remember in the first place, like the majority of you. I typically do make some sort of quarterly goal, but what with absolutely everything on my plate this spring—daughter’s wedding, book deadline, class, senior graduating, etc. etc. etc.—I gave myself an overload of grace this year. And I’m glad I did.

• I’m guilt-free because I never made ‘em in the first place: 65.3%

• Uh… They’re ekeing along, I suppose. Hit or miss: 20.6%

• Solid! I review them weekly and track my progress: 7.5%

• Oh yeah—I completely forgot about those: 6.6%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Our 2026 Pilgrimage to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

“There is no other place like Scotland in the whole world.” - Sir Walter Scott

Come with us to Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

You’ve got a weekend free, but with only enough time to go somewhere nearby with one tank of gas, there and back. Where do you go?

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - NYC dogs in bags.

I’m smack-dab in the middle of book edits this afternoon as I write this, and I’m actually making good traction (for once). Therefore, this particular 5QT will be a bit on the brief side. Onward!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. A few days ago I republished to my upgraded subscribers an older piece from The Art of Simple (thanks for answering my question last week!). I just unlocked it for everyone, so here it is, if you’d like to either remember it from years ago or read it fresh for the first time: “Remember what the wise sage Winnie-the-Pooh once said: ‘You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.’ Don’t ignore the friendship possibilities God has already put in your life in the name of waiting for that one perfect kindred spirit that may not exist. Embrace partial solutions, in this and in all of life this side of the veil.”

2. Why do ‘mother of the bride’-specific dresses all look like they think I have big hair and time-traveled from the 90s? I think I finally found the dress I’ll wear to my daughter’s upcoming wedding, but I had to dig deep (and ultimately search for ‘bridesmaid’ or simply ‘cocktail’ dresses). If you needed that wildly specific tip for your life at the moment—well, there you go.

3. Speaking of the 90s (and 80s, for that matter), I was fascinated by this piece about the resurgence of an appreciation for physical media from , especially among Gen-Zers who never grew up with it: “Nostalgia is absolutely a major cause of this moment. Yet, to leave it at that would be missing something. That something would be a cottage industry that is rapidly expanding and improving at the same time the Internet gets worse and subscription costs go up.”

4. I’m working on plans for teaching a personal finance elective at our co-op next year, and as I gather resources and ideas for this class, I was reminded just how much I like our family budget-tracking software. I know, such a boring topic! But I thought I’d at least share, in case you’re in the market for something (I know I often focus on our family finances in the spring—hello, taxes). Turns out my software of choice, Monarch, has a thing where current users can provide a link for others to get 50% off their first year—so, here you go. They’re not paying me or an affiliate of any sort! I just thought I’d pass this along.

5. And finally, ten unsexy habits that save me serious money. Similar to the above, this isn’t usually the subject matter I typically consume, but as I research for my forthcoming class, I found this pretty commonsensical yet helpful if it’s needed. (At least I do most of these things, too.)

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

My new Best of playlist

Quotable 💬

“We aren’t always free to change things, but we are always free to live through them in faith, hope, and love so that in every situation we grow humanly and spiritually.” -Fr. Jacques Philippe1

Choose one and only one… 🥩

This quirky question was thanks to my fifteen-year-old son, and as a current carnivore it spoke deeply to my innermost soul. Akin to most carnivores (who can’t shut up about the bioavailability of all needed nutrients through it), I’m Team Beef™ all the way. With a side of bacon.

• Beef: 43.8%

• Chicken: 43.4%

• Pork: 9%

• Turkey: 3.8%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Our 2026 Pilgrimage to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

“There is no other place like Scotland in the whole world.” - Sir Walter Scott

Come with us to Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

We’re just over the halfway point of Lent now—how’s it going for you? What are you learning about yourself?

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - Gondor calls for aid.

This time of year is always interesting as a teacher, because everyone has a case of the blerghs… even the teachers. My students are usually top-notch and have great attitudes, but I can tell that even they are hankering for Spring Break. I’m happy to report that ours begins in just a few weeks, and I am here for it! As a family we’re not doing much other than a few days of camping, but it’ll be nice to have a breather and get out in some nature.

My go-to solution for the school-year blerghs: remember your why for learning the way you do, be it homeschool or wherever. Get some fresh air every day (even when it’s still cold or unseasonably warm). Go on daily walks and move your body, just for fun. Perhaps (briefly) set down the challenging classic and read something short and light-hearted. Schedule a game night one evening—yes, even in the midst of busyness. And keep that menu plan nice and easy.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. Speaking of my students, this week we had a really good in-class conversation on AI and its role in the learning and writing process—and why it’s so important (especially in their generation) to fight with every fiber of our beings the over-reliance on it to do our human work for us (because tool = something that helps us do our work; machine = something that does our work for us). I liked ’s recent thoughts on AI slop, in particular its connection with our diets: “Our bodies crave instant gratification, and the sugar highs and lows we experience from the junk food exacerbate this. Much easier to pick up the phone than go outside to see wildlife (which requires us to expend energy). Much easier to scroll through AI slop than enjoy a good book. When we want to be entertained, we throw patience and effort to the wind and instantly pick up our mobile slop dispensers and scroll the hours away — alongside a packet of crisps or two.”

2. I love the wisdom that’s been going around for a long time (from the likes of Arthur Brooks and Andrew Huberman) about going on a walk first thing in the morning before having any coffee. The problem with that for me is that I wake up naturally at dark-thirty, and as a woman I’m not going on a walk in the dark by myself, even in our ridiculously super-safe neighborhood. But I’ve decided to embrace partial solutions, as always, and the past few weeks have been doing body stretches and light pilates in the living room near all the windows as the sun comes up (I may switch to the back deck next week). It’s been delightful, and it really is fascinating how much better I feel if I do that before having coffee. Once the sun and/or Kyle is up, I’m happily leashing up the dog and strolling through the neighborhood—but before then, I’m doing the closest thing that works for me, and it’s been really good for my mindset (and my body the rest of the day, surprisingly enough).

3. I appreciated this reflection on the role of laughter in our pursuit of virtue—even when we’re the punchline. I admit I struggle with that sometimes, yet ’s words are what I needed to read: “No one enjoys being laughed at. But bearing ridicule may be the kind of foolishness that is consistent with the cross. If we can allow it, mockery can become a kind of small apocalypse, revealing what society thinks of us, what is truly inside our hearts, and the marrow of our actions both public and private.”

4. From late 2007 to the end of 2020, I ran a website called The Art of Simple, and over time, I published many of my own thoughts as well as a smattering of writing friends’ too. I’m toying with the idea of importing some of my favorites written by me (and perhaps by others’ with their permission) here into Substack. It’s getting expensive where I’m hosting it, and Substack is so user-friendly and easy to find. …Any thoughts on this idea?

5. And finally, I loved this short shot-in-the-arm of encouragement from Fr. Mike Schmitz. I completely agree, too—lately I’ve been spending my early morning hours with Jesus just… listening. Not starting with bringing him my laundry list of concerns (because he already knows all of it anyway), but simply enjoying his presence. It’s been a game-changer. 10/10, would recommend.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

Masterpiece’s new The Count of Monte Cristo series—it’s excellent (so far)!

Quotable 💬

“Faith frees us from doubt, error, lies, blindness, and nonsense. Hope frees us from fear, discouragement, worry, and guilt. Love frees us from egoism, avarice, turning in on ourselves, and a narrow, meaningless life without value or fruitfulness. It frees us from frustrations and bitterness. The measure of our freedom is the measure of our faith, of our hope, of our love.” -Fr. Jacques Philippe1

What’s the best thing about the current weather in your neck of the woods? 🌳

I really liked this question from Kyle, because it’s not about a set type of weather, it’s about all the craziness that this time of year brings just about everywhere in the world. If your area is like mine (central Texas), weather changes by the hour. So for my answer today, I’m going with “I love wearing shorts and t-shirts in February!” because it is genuinely warm already around here, and I’m choosing to embrace it.

• No matter the temp, I’m choosing to go with the flow by the hour: 66.7%

• Hey, I like a good reason to stay indoors: 17.4%

• I love wearing shorts and t-shirts in February: 15.9%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Our 2026 Pilgrimage to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

“There is no other place like Scotland in the whole world.” - Sir Walter Scott

Come with us to Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What are you learning about yourself this Lent so far?

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - A sparkler, an egg, and a moment of truth.

What’s the official “anniversary” gift for 400? Platinum? Uranium? Plutonium? Either way, happy 400th issue of 5QT! I started this weekly letter before I migrated to Substack in 2019, and it quickly became one of my favorite regular work tasks. I’m happy to say it’s still way up on my list… It’s sometimes challenging during busy seasons—such as, oh, now for example, what with a book-edits deadline, current open enrollment for my classes next year, and a daughter getting married in a little over two months. But I’m grateful for the work no matter how full life is, so thank you, thank you, thank you for reading this over the years! I’m honored.

When I’m not doing all the above, these days I’m daydreaming about this spring’s backyard garden—I’m keeping it simple this year (see: above), but I’ll at least do my usual cucumbers and tomatoes for my summer stash of pickles and salsa. I want to get better at flower-growing, though… Any resources out there? YouTube channels? Podcasts? Do share!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. If you’re a leveled-up subscriber of The Commonplace, don’t forget to share your monthly gratitude lists—it’s one of my favorite things to read each month. You guys are naming everything from the Winter Olympics, to spring weather, orange cake, planting seeds in milk jugs, Lent, backyard chickens, goofy dogs, and more… I love it.

2. Leisure is the basis of culture, according to the 20th century philosopher Josef Pieper1. But leisure isn’t lounging around or mindless playing; believe it or not, it takes intentionality—and for those of us with a lot of plates spinning, it’s sometimes annoyingly harder than it should be. Arthur Brooks, one of my favorite modern thinkers, has a solid episode about what leisure actually looks like, boots on the ground. Good stuff.

3. Fridays in Lent are challenging for me as someone who eats mostly carnivore, but it helps to still focus on getting as much protein and good fats as possible. Along with some scrambled eggs, here’s my go-to carnivore breakfast smoothie: this bone broth2, about a 1/4 cup heavy cream, about the same in coffee (decaf if I’m already floating), about 10 drops of iodine, and a handful of ice. Blend and done.

4. I never grew up really thinking about generations in a clear-cut, divided-line manner the way they’re talked about now (which is perhaps, ironically, a symptom of my actual generation). I honestly believe I’m from the best generation—the ‘xennials’—which I’ve also heard called the Oregon Trail generation or the Star Wars generation. Basically, it’s those of us born between 1976-1985 (when those OG Star Wars movies released and when we got to play OT in elementary school once a week as a reward for good behavior); we’re not quite Gen-X, not quite Millenial. This short video is surprisingly accurate, I think.

5. And finally, speaking of the 80s… I’ve shared these before, but it’s been a few years, and by-golly if they’re not so much fun (and a rare gem that briefly went viral during that Covid lockdown era). The 1986 one is still my favorite. All hail the fourth grade.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

This Movie Soundtracks for Reading & Studying playlist

Quotable 💬

“Faith is the essence of our capacity to receive the free gift of God.” -Fr. Jacques Philippe3

Reminder: I’ve got a Lent Playlist! 🎧

If you’re reading through my Lent book Bitter & Sweet right now (or even if you’re not), here’s your friendly reminder that I’ve also got an accompanying daily playlist to keep you company throughout this long season. It’s a gem, if I say so myself! …But definitely not because of me—it’s because there’s such good music out there in this department these days.

Over or under: which is correct? 🧻

I asked this visual question a few years ago and I remember the correct answer (over) winning, but I don’t remember it being this much of a landslide... Glad to see I’ve still got a solid group of smart readers here.

• Over: 90%

• Under: 10%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Our 2026 Pilgrimage to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

“There is no other place like Scotland in the whole world.” - Sir Walter Scott

Come with us to Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What are three very small things you’re grateful for?4

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - A lemon on a pear…5

Happy (?) start to the season of Lent! …I never know how to say that. Is it happy? I think so, in a way, because I actually really appreciate this season, but it does feel a little strange because the point isn’t exactly happiness, but more virtue (in a union with Christ kind of way). Then again, Aristotle would say real happiness is a virtue á la eudaemonia, which at a deeper level is about a state of true, deep flourishing. And since virtue is becoming who we’re made to be, and eudaemonia is about well-being at our core selves, then I suppose Lent really is about our happiness. So—a happy start to season of Lent, indeed.

I’ll show my nerdy self out.

We had a fabulous Shrove Tuesday serving and eating pancakes at our parish, followed by a full Solemn Mass for Ash Wednesday, so I’m feeling as ready as I’ll ever be. Bring on the 40+ days.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. ICYMI, a few days ago I shared my simple guide to Lent—and it’s not too late to “start,” even if you haven’t done much (or anything) yet… “This year, you may be invited to more actively participate, or, you may be invited to quietly let the season have its way with you in a posture of receiving. Ultimately, Lent is just that: an invitation, and should be treated as such. Lent is very old—one of the oldest-known traditions in the Church (we have documents referencing Lent from the second century)—which means it’s a time-weathered tradition and practice in the Christian life. It means, practically, that Lent is an invitation for everyone.”

2. This is my fourth Lent in a row where I’ve created a set weekly menu plan for all six-plus weeks of the season. This means I’m plugging-and-playing the same week’s menu for all of Lent …and my household doesn’t mind one bit (in fact, one kid has said he prefers it this way). I keep it super-simple: things like soup in the Instant Pot on Mondays, Taco Tuesday, etc. Nothing fancy. This helps me stay focused on my own Lenten fast, it simplifies our routine, and it reminds us of our modern sensibility for novelty—and how unnecessary that really is. For a season, we can stick to the same simple food at home, and it makes mama a lot saner (and therefore happier).

3. How far back in time can you understand English? This was quite a ride from —I got to about 1300 before it all fell apart in my brain: “Þanne after muchel tyme spak þe Maiſter, and his wordes weren colde as wintres is. His vois was as þe crying of rauenes, scharpe and schille, and al þat herde hym weren adrade and durst nat speken.”

4. I’ve only seen one of these films, but it’s one of my all-time favorites, so I’m intrigued by these other four recommendations for good films for Lent by : “Great art can itself be a kind of contemplation that draws us more deeply into the liturgical reality of Christ’s experience in the desert and His passion.”

5. And finally, because I can’t seem to no longer go a month without sharing something from Tasting History (one of my favorite YouTube channels), here’s that fascinating history of boxed mac-and-cheese you never asked for.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

Fire & Light, by Fr. Jacques Philippe (my chosen Lenten read this year)

Quotable 💬

“We must remember death. I understand.
And yet I remember too the wild grace
That I saw poured out where the waters played. 
So Lent begins: ‘Through him all things were made.’”

- Andrew Peterson (via a new sonnet of his… lovely)

Lent is Here ➕

At the risk of incessantly repeating myself, here’s your remind that Lent has now begun this week, but you’re not behind. If you’re looking for a daily guide for the season, you might like my book, Bitter & Sweet. Together, we spend the six-plus weeks of Lent walking through the seven cardinal vices, as well as their corresponding virtues, and how we might use Lent as a gift to shed the former and take on more of the latter.

Similar to my Advent guide, Bitter & Sweet uses daily Scripture, a short reflection from me, a question to ponder, and a song (with accompanying playlist), as well as weekly art. Lent is a long season, so it’s helpful to have a companion to keep the fire going... If you’d like my words to be that companion for you this year, consider this book—I put my heart and soul into it.

Learn more about Bitter & Sweet 🍋

In these weekly polls for 5 Quick Things, how often is your answer the most popular one chosen? 🙋‍♀️

I know this was a self-referential question, but I’ve been genuinely curious for a long while now… As for me, my answers tend to be the second-most popular choice — I’d say my personal answer is the reader’s top choice only every couple months. I don’t really know what to do with this information, but I wanted to know. And now I do.

• Half the time: 67.2%

• Seldom: 28.5%

• Every couple months: 3.1%

• Every time: 0.9%

• Never: 0.3%

Find the next poll here.

Come to Scotland: July 18-28, 2026 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Until the end of TODAY, February 20, the company I partner with has a generous deal to register for this summer’s pilgrimage to Scotland! You can get $100 off for a single registration when you use the code LOVETHIS, or $250 for two with the code LOVETHIS2. I’d love you to join us! Learn more about our 2026 pilgrimage to the Historic Highlands.

Learn More 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What is your honest hope for Lent this year?

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - Get that dog a medal.

It’s been a bit of a mind game watching the Winter Olympics this week, of which we are huge fans in our household, because temps around here have been gloriously sunny with highs in the 70s (I’m currently wearing shorts, a tank top, and sandals). No matter the weather, watching the Olympics tends to be a bonding experience for our clan, admiring various forms of whooshing down either snow or ice—which, you have to admit, is the bulk of what these winter sports are. I’m mostly a fan of all the skiing, but I also enjoy the wildness of those seemingly made-up-on-a-dare (almost certainly involving alcohol)1 sports of luge, skeleton, and bobsled. (I’m a rarity in that I don’t particularly enjoy figure skating.2)

I’m writing this a few days earlier than usual because by the time you’re reading this we’ve out out-of-town guests for the weekend, so this will be a bit on the short side. Onward!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. In case you missed it, earlier this week I wrote a short essay on why I love travel and how it dovetails well with my homebody nature—and in particular, why I love pilgrimages: “Travel allows us to encounter the world’s wide variety of people and places. Pilgrimages, a particular form of travel, allows us to encounter those people and places while hearing from God about why He wants us to encounter them. What’s the sacred stuff beneath what I’m seeing, tasting, and touching? What’s the sacred stuff in me? What does He want to tell me through this particular journey of mine? How am I called to return home a little different?”

2. I’ve been sluggishly sick this past week, which means I’ve been doing more watching than reading than usual... Because of this, here’s a Q&A with a farmer that normally wouldn’t be my typical topic of interest, but turned out to be riveting. I already appreciated the farming trade, but now I have an even deeper newfound respect for our hardworking farmers.

3. I’m a simple girl these days: I see Arthur Brooks’ name on it, I click play. I appreciated this short-and-sweet interview format, and I love the topic.

4. Continuing with the I’m-sick-so-I’ve-been-watching-stuff… The most isolated town in the world, and why people live there. I’ve been itching to travel lately (see: my essay, linked above), so stuff like this has been my balm until I get back out there.

5. And finally, what book would you live in? What a fun question from .

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

Apologia Pro Vita Sua, by Cardinal St. John Henry Newman

Quotable 💬

“Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Lent is Coming! ➕

Hard to believe, but Ash Wednesday is this next week already, and that day signifies the first day of the Lenten season. I’ll share more of my thoughts in the coming week, but in the meantime: if you’d like a daily reading, might I suggest my book, Bitter & Sweet? In it, I spend the six-plus weeks of Lent walking through the seven cardinal vices—and their corresponding virtues—and how we might use Lent as a gift to shed the former and take on more of the latter.

Similar to my Advent guide, Bitter & Sweet uses daily Scripture, a short reflection from me, a question to ponder, and a song (with accompanying playlist), as well as weekly art. Lent is a long season, so I’ve found it helpful to have a companion to keep me going... If you’d like my words to be that companion for you this year, I’d be honored to walk alongside you this year through this book.

Learn more about Bitter & Sweet 🍋

What’s the ideal Valentine’s Day gift? 💝

We’ve got quite the spread of reader answers over here, and while I do agree that the top choices are all lovely—a walk-and-chat combo is basically my favorite free thing to do—I also agree that it’s a pretty dumb holiday. I mean, the actual St. Valentine the man was probably pretty great, but I’m not a fan of Big Holiday™ telling me when to feel romantic. My contrarian nature pushes me to do nothing on February 14, and instead do the date thing on either the 13th or 15th (or thereabouts).

Therefore, my answer is dinner out: because these days, with all we have going on, Kyle and I feel like ships passing in the night, and nice dinner out sounds like a veritable vacation. I’ll take it. (...But not on the 14th.)

• Walk & chat: 18.80%

• Nothing 16.9%

• Dinner in: 16.1%

• Dinner out: 15.3%

• Flowers: 14.3%

• Chocolate: 10.3%

• Massage: 8.2%

Find the next poll here.

Come to Scotland: July 18-28, 2026 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I love, love, love leading pilgrimages (see the above)—I’d love it if you prayed about joining us in Scotland this summer, where we’ll walk through the rugged highlands and listen to God’s voice on the Isle of Skye, in the halls of medieval castles, walking through historic St. Andrews, and more. And if you sense through prayer that this pilgrimage is meant for you, I’ll join you in prayer that God will provide all you need to go.

From now until February 20, you can get $100 off for a single registration when you use the code LOVETHIS, or $250 for two with the code LOVETHIS2 to register for this summer’s pilgrimage, Historic Highlands.

Learn More 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

Who are three people in your life that you love? (Do they know?)

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - A corpse could do the same thing.

It’s wild that not too long ago we were in an ice storm, because the past few days and for at least the next week, we are in the midst of gorgeous weather… Since it’s around my oldest’s birthday I’m always aware of weather around now (on her first birthday we weren’t sure whether we’d get a snowstorm or a warm day at the park)—you truly don’t know what you’ll get during mid-February in central Texas. Right now, it’s day-at-the-park weather, and I’ll take it.

In unrelated news, that daughter’s fiancé has officially moved to Texas this week! I’m so thrilled that they’re no longer long-distance. With a little more than three months until the wedding, it’ll make all the things so much easier for them, not least of which is their actual relationship. Kyle and I did long-distance for a brief stint of our dating stage, and it was wildly challenging.

Oh, and in still more unrelated news: today is my family’s five-year anniversary of coming into the Catholic Church! It’s been such a great grace, and from that movement God continue to surprise me daily. Absolutely zero regrets.

All in all, it’s quite the busy season around here: wedding planning, book edits due in a few months, our class registrations for the next school year opens next week (how?), pilgrimage planning and praying… Just so much. But as I was reminded of this morning, they are all things that ten years ago I was merely praying I’d get to one day have on my plate. I’m so grateful to be asked to juggle it all.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. If you’re a leveled-up subscriber of The Commonplace, don’t forget to add your current book stack to this month’s book chat—readers (and me) are sharing what they read last month, what they’re currently reading for February, and what they’re getting started sometime between now and next month. I love reading about all your piles! I see some trends on repeat: The Correspondent, Emma M. Lion, Stunned by Scripture, and the latest for Well-Read Mom, to name a few.

2. Speaking of books, I’m thinking through what I’d like to read over the next few months… I’ve got an essay in my head swirling around about this, but until I actually get it written, here’s a shortlist of my criteria: a simple, straightforward, living-simply leaning personal finance resource (I’ve already read a lot of them, but I’m curious if there’s one I’ve missed—this is both to teach my own kids and for a class I’m teaching next school year); fiction or nonfiction about Scotland (I love to read from where we’ll be traveling this summer!), and newer books that read like classics (sounds weird, but most of my reading hails from at least a hundred years ago). If you’ve got any recommendations, I’m all ears!

3. has been lately championing making third places family-friendlier with simple additions like stepstools in bathrooms. I enjoyed her recent piece on her Step Stool Revolution of 2026: “Big interventions, however excellent, can sometimes seem overwhelming, but a little idea—the kind of small change that individuals can make—can go a long way in making people feel more welcome and supported.”

4. I’m just a tiny smidge younger, so I really appreciated my long-time pal ’s latest piece on what it’s like to inch closer and closer to fifty: “Each loss, small and large, becomes a constant reminder of mortality, a sign that, while The End may or may not be quite near, it is certainly on its way, no matter how loud you scream or protest. But is this long, slow process of becoming less actually a negative thing? Does it have to be an experience we enter into kicking and screaming? Or is there a gentler, more peaceful way to grow older?”

5. And finally, these two men are some of my favorite current living thinkers and teachers, so I absolutely loved this recent conversation of theirs. (I’m gonna try to listen to it a second time this week.)

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

The Natural Order of Money, by Roy Seabag (a re-read; see above)

Quotable 💬

“There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.”

- G.K. Chesterton

If you could take a high school class again, for fun—this time as an adult—what would you take? 🎒

I asked this question a few years ago, and I believe I answered ‘foreign language.’ …It’s still my same answer; I love learning new languages but flat-out don’t make the time for it. I’d love to dust off that skill and learn more: French, Latin, and Italian, to name just a few.

• Art (of all sorts): 38.6%

• Foreign language: 18.9%

• History: 18.7%

• English: 13.1%

• Math: 4.6%

• Science: 3.7%

• Sports: 2.4%

Find the next poll here.

Come to Scotland: July 18-28, 2026 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Travel is one of the most formational activities we can do here on earth; one of the few activities that, for the most part, is worth the money spent—especially when it’s invested in something that pays dividends in our souls for years afterward. That’s been the case with pilgrimages for me, and it’s one of the reasons I love, love, love leading them.

I’d be honored if you prayed about joining us in Scotland this summer, where we’ll walk through the rugged highlands and listen to God’s voice on the Isle of Skye, in the halls of medieval castles, walking through historic St. Andrews, and more. And if you sense through prayer that this pilgrimage is meant for you, I’ll join you in prayer that God will provide all you need to go.

Learn More 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

Where would you choose to go for an afternoon if you had to walk there from your front door?

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - Solving three mysterious with an old-timey pipe.

As I type this we’re waiting on my mom to arrive—she’ll (hopefully) be able to alter Tate’s wedding dress, which has finally arrived and in which my daughter looks absolutely beautiful. Seeing her in the dress makes it so real! My mind is still blown that in 3.5 months I’ll have a married kid.

My mother-of-the-bride dress is also on a hanger; I’ve decided to wait to try it on at the same time. I think I love it, but we’ll see… As a shortie, clothing often fits me funkily. Here’s hoping!

Along with that, we’ve decided on the photography, food, and drinks, and at least who the vendors are for all the other stuff—I imagine all those other details will come fast and furious over the next few months. I’m grateful that, so far, this is a very “it takes a village” sort of wedding: one of her former high school teachers is doing the flowers, part of the centerpieces are hand-me-downs from a friend’s wedding this past summer, the reception emcee (not really a DJ; Tate’s making playlists instead) is a longtime family friend, and along with (hopefully) altering the dress, my mom is also baking the cake (she used to do this professionally). It’s a beautiful thing to witness.

I’m trying to enjoy the process, knowing it’s going quickly and it’ll be my one time as the mother of the bride. I’m super grateful Tate’s about as low-key and flexible as they come, and that so far, this is going to be a beautiful celebration. But by golly, does the Wedding Industry™ want you to think you need a ton of expensive stuff to, you know, get married—that thing people have been doing for millennia. Navigating the whole thing these days requires keeping your wits about you.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. In case you missed it, this week I published a stream-of-consciousness essay essentially singing a paean about my favorite third place (while I was at said third place): “Kyle comes in the front door, plaid shirt and bed-beard, and sees me still talking with Katherine so he walks to the counter to claim his coffee. By the time he sits down across from me, Alex and his wife Cora with their toddler Cece have claimed the table next to us. With Anne and her gaggle of friends at one end and us on the other, as well as the nice tech developer-guy (Steve? I want to say that’s his name) who always asks me how my son’s college applications are coming along sitting in-between, we are now a row of regulars, all in one conversation admitting that we are clearly here to prepare for cabin fever.”

2. We are die-hard All Creatures fans around here, and are thrilled that season six is now out (we’re trying to savor it slowly). I loved this piece from about not only why it’s so good, but what real-life lessons we can take away from this great series (obviously originating from real-life memoirs from a country vet): “Even if your day-to-day tasks lend themselves more to the cerebral, doing physical work is important to our souls as we fight an increasingly contested reality that we are wholly embodied creatures who exist in the material world with bodies that are meant for loving and clapping and cleaning up and clinking glasses and climbing mountains and swimming in the ocean and ladling soup into bowls and digging in the dirt and holding wriggling children in one hand and a well-worn read aloud in the other.”

3. Even though it was far from an “endless winter” around here this past week, this essay from about the meaning behind Narnia’s endless winter read like good timing. It all has to do with what evil actually is—and it’s not what most people think of it: “St. Augustine, drawing from both Christianity and neoplatonic philosophy, teaches that evil is not real. In other words, evil is only real like a hole in the ground is real. As a hole is a lack of the ground, so too is evil a lack of the good. And just as the hole cannot exist without the ground, so too can evil not exist without the good. In other words, evil is like darkness to light, evil is a lack of something.”

4. My friend Katie Kimball is a cooking teacher extraordinaire, and after years of teaching her beloved online class for kids, she’s now got one for her teenagers. If you’re looking for a solid cooking class for your adolescents—either as a homeschool elective or as a genuinely-useful life class for your adults-in-the-making, right now she’s got a free sneak-peek at the class through this Monday (along with a bonus class about parenting teens). It’s long been our goal to launch our kids out of the house knowing how to make ten meals from scratch, and they’re well on their way... If you feel daunted by that prospect, a tool like Katie’s wise guidance could be useful.

5. And finally, speaking of… I’m back with my favorite deep-diver of really old recipes! This one is a classic: what it was like in a medieval tavern.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman

Quotable 💬

“Maybe ye don’t know it, Mr. Herriot, but this is the best time of your life.” “Do you think so?” “Aye, there’s no doubt about it. When your children are young and growin’ up around ye—that’s when it’s best. It’s the same for everybody, only a lot o’ folk don’t know it and a lot find out when it’s too late. It doesn’t last long, you know.”

- from James Herriot’s The Lord God Made Them All1

You’ve got three hours of free time. What do you do?🚶‍♀️

What a bunch of nerds we all are. …But yeah, that’s my go-to first answer, too. Though if I were to answer literally right now, I’d for sure take a nap. The crazy weather has made me so sleepy lately, and I’m positively dragging by the afternoons this week.

• Read a book: 55.2%

• Time outside: 16.2%

• Make something: 14.5%

• Take a nap: 7.8%

• Hang with a friend: 6.3%

Find the next poll here.

Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This summer’s family-friendly pilgrimage is the historic Highlands of Scotland — we’ll explore the Isle of Skye, attend the Highland Games, wander through castles and farmland, and more. I’d love you to join me and my family!

Learn More 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What were you doing this time last year? What do you have to be grateful for in light of that?

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - Please don’t. Hesitate to ask.

It’s been another full and busy week, but we’ve also shifted to spending the past twenty-four hours or so prepping for Texas’ next Snowpocalypse (actually more ice than snow around here, sadly). Nothing has happened yet as I write this—I wore shorts two days ago and barely needed a sweater yesterday, but that’s winter in Texas for you. It’ll change on a dime.

This weekend we may or may not have power, but we do have groceries thanks to my battling at our neighborhood HEB yesterday. …The lines were absolutely insane; I’ve never seen anything like it, even before Thanksgiving. Kyle plans to work on home renovations as usual, but stands at the ready to help with frozen pipes in the neighborhood like he did five years ago. Sometimes it’s handy being married to an Oregonian.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. You should spend more on clothes according to , and I tend to agree. I admittedly used to be more conscientious about this, but reading this has relit a fire to prioritize thrift shopping and a less-but-better closet: “Learning how to spot quality allows you to navigate the marketplace with tactical precision: you get in, take what you need, and leave while avoiding the pitfalls created to sell you cheap stuff.”

2. is right; I do count East of Eden as one of my all-time favorite novels, and he does an excellent job unpacking what makes it so special: “All these people and more ricochet off the walls of the novel in ways that echo the narrator’s contention that every story amounts to the contest of vice and virtue, explicitly grounded in an exegesis of the story of Cain and Abel.”

3. Yes, yes, yes—being on your phone while you’re with other people isn’t just sad or a ‘sign of our times.’ It’s rude. I’ve felt this way for a long time, but I’m with ; I’m less and less inclined these days to put up with it. “Put the gross little thing away and leave it there. Let your descriptive words, your body language, your scintillating personality shine instead. Save the device for when you’re alone, then go nuts, if that’s what you want.”

4. Speaking of which, here are seventeen ways to be hospitable that don’t require a clean home from —I love the framing that these ideas are forms of hospitality. And I genuinely enjoy doing #16 when I can: “If you’re in the same part of town as a friend, tell her you’ll stop by and drop off a coffee or her favorite chai latte on the front porch. If she’s able to step outside to talk, that’s wonderful! If she’s able to ask you in, that’s even better! But if all you do is drop it off, you’ve shown her that she is loved.”

5. And finally, oof…. What a fantastically depressing (but absolutely worth a read!) short story from . I thought about it for hours afterward.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

The newest season of All Creatures Great and Small!

Quotable 💬

Reporter: “What makes you tick?”

Tolkien: “I don’t tick. I am not a machine. If I did tick, I should have no views on it, and you had better ask the winder.”

-J.R.R. Tolkien to Harvey Breit, New York Times Book Review, June 5, 1955, quoted in Letters, 217-181

How do you usually wake up? ⏰

About five or so years ago I started waking up early without trying, and I haven’t stopped since—not because sleeping in every now and then doesn’t sound delightful, but because I literally can’t. I now wake up anytime between 4:30-6:00 a.m. without fail, and whether it’s light or dark out. If I do miraculously wake at 6:15 or so, that must mean I’m either sick or really need sleep.

I hadn’t really heard of waking up to smell before, but I did add my own answer to this reader-submitted poll question: my own natural circadian rhythms. Seems like I’m in good company.

• Alarm: 47.3%

• My own circadian rhythm (even if it’s still dark out): 36%

• Child: 10.3%

• Sunlight: 4.1%

• Music: 2.2%

• Smell: 0.0%

Find the next poll here.

Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This summer’s family-friendly pilgrimage is the historic Highlands of Scotland — we’ll explore the Isle of Skye, attend the Highland Games, wander through castles and farmland, and more. I’d love you to join me and my family!

Learn More 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What’s one thing you can do at the beginning of this weekend to make your end-of-the-weekend self happier?

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - What a combat roll.

Holy hand grenade, Sir Galahad, has this been a busy week! No complaints, as always, but the school year started back up which meant so did my teaching, I had a meeting with my editor to talk shop on my book—all good changes ahead but they definitely involve a lot of work, and of course, wedding planning is full steam ahead with four months to go! Did you know it’s expensive to host a wedding these days? Boy howdy. Even the most frugal among us (🙋‍♀️) have costs they can’t get around, and man oh man does the Wedding Industry™ want to take you for a ride. We’ve got our heads and budget about us, thankfully, and I’m super grateful my daughter is the opposite of a Bridezilla with her tastes and requirements (she barely has any of the latter). But still… it’s been quite the week!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. Oh look, it’s me every single winter post-holidays. In all seriousness, though, my pal is spot-on with her recommendation for those of us who question mid-school year every idea we had in the summer about homeschooling being a smart move: “Caring for yourself as a person—finite and eternal—is usually pretty obvious: feed the body, mind, and soul that for which it was made. It’s the overflow of Too Many Things or the pain of Not The Right Things that brings us to the bleak midwinter. Choosing to limit oneself, in quantity and quality, in the Age of Possibility and Opportunity is our generation’s work.”

2. I’ve listened to exactly fifteen minutes of this three-plus hour conversation, but if I see Brant Pitre, I stop what I’m doing and I listen. I’ve benefitted so much from at least three of his books, I have no doubt that this latest Pints episode with him will almost certainly be a banger (here it is in video if that’s your cup of tea).

3. I yes’d and amen’d my way through ’s thoughts on not everyone being everything—both regarding current events and our modern culture’s strange insistence on commenting as though everyone needs to hear all our thoughts, but also in regards to the publishing industry in general (and the Christian one in particular). “We all have offices in life, people to whom we are accountable, relationships that constrain and motivate us. But we are not all, and do not need to be, everything. And I think there is something important in realising and accepting that.”

4. Speaking of publishing, ’s thoughts are somewhat niche here, but he’s spot-on in noticing what the publishing world publishes and why (as well as why indie voices matter so much more these days)—this matters even if you’re a reader and not necessarily a writer: “Don’t think for one second that we don’t need independent writers. The forces of conformity and centralization of power are stronger now than ever. Books have always been our safeguard in such troubled times.”

5. And finally, from : boys need to move a lot. Yes, yes, yes. “Whatever your circumstances, if you want to feel less oppressed by your boys, you are going to have to figure out how to get them physically exhausted and your lawn might have to be sacrificed to this end.”

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

The Simple Path to Wealth, by JL Collins (a re-read, but it’s been awhile, and it was a good kick-in-the-pants reminder)

Quotable 💬

“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.”

-Marcus Aurelius

What do you like most about January? ⛄️

This month sometimes gets a bad rap, but I enjoy it—both because it’s the start of a new year and because it’s back to some semblance of ordinary life. Lent will be here before we know it, so for now, I’m enjoying these weeks for what they are (and am grateful for the Texas sun painting them).

• Back to some semblance of ordinary life: 45.5%

• A blank slate for the year ahead: 36.6%

• Cold outdoor temps: 15.7%

• Sportsball: 2.2%

Find the next poll here.

Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This summer’s family-friendly pilgrimage is the historic Highlands of Scotland — we’ll explore the Isle of Skye, attend the Highland Games, wander through castles and farmland, and more. I’d love you to join me and my family!

Learn More 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

If you met your 80‑year‑old self today, what would they beg you to stop postponing?1

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - My new speech for my class next week.

It’s been an interesting week back in the swing of things, even though our local classes don’t start up again until this next Tuesday. I’ve had mountains of work in various categories: book edits, co-op prep, wedding planning, pilgrimage strategizing, all while trying to help my senior stay on top of scholarship applications while not being a nag… I feel like I’m spinning many, many plates these days. No complaints! But I’d be lying if I didn’t say life is very full right now.

But very happily, as I type this I’ve just come back from the hospital where I got to meet my new goddaughter! She’s adorable and squishy and squawky and everything a newborn should be. …It was a delight to meet her and to chat with her parents, local friends who’ve become quite dear.

On top of all that, our local parish community finally moved to our “own” place (in quotes because we’re still renting and we all hope it’s not for forever), and we had our first Mass there this past Sunday. Kyle and I are fairly involved in leadership committees and have been in the trenches getting the place ready. It’s a warehouse-turned-chapel, and we’ve made it as lovely as, well, a warehouse-turned-chapel might be. It’s still scrappy, but we’re a scrappy bunch.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. I’ve been mainlining much of Arthur Brooks’ content lately (I just finished his book that I mentioned last week), including his podcast—I really appreciated this episode on the three micronutrients of happiness. In short: happiness is not a feeling, and it’s good to remember that.

2. I have so many essays floating around in my head that I could write if I had the time (see above: many spinning plates), but perhaps I can unpack one thought here: over the years, I’ve come to appreciate 90-day goals over year-long goals, and now typically focus on that at the start of a new year (and then every quarter following, naturally). Instead of asking what I want to get done twelve months from now—because let’s face it, I’ll forget and/or stop caring—I ask what I want to have accomplished three months from now. It’s much more doable, I can actually see the end of that tunnel, and I thrive on change, which means I can always change it up, toss it out, and come up with an entirely new goal every 90 days.

3. I really appreciated ’s thoughts on why (and how) we should all host more family dinners. We definitely did a bit more this year, and thoroughly enjoyed it… I’d love to host more folks over this next year, and her essay (including the example mentioned at the beginning) has given me the needed kick in the pants: “As soon as you remove the fluff—all those extra stressors that make entertaining feel intimidating—you get a completely different view of it. The experience becomes focused on being with people you like. Yes, the food needs to be good, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.”

4. Here’s another thought that’s been floating around my head: isn’t it weird we’re now entering the second quarter of this century? An absolute ton happened these first 25 years, but they also whooshed by… Hard to believe we’re now in that second phase of a whole century. I remember being in elementary school in the 80s and hearing it was the forty-year anniversary of D-Day (of which held a meaning I barely understood)—but last summer it was the 80th anniversary. Boy, that flew by. …I guess what I’m saying is that cliché we all tend to say: time flies.

5. And finally, 10 tips to read more books this year, from the great . All his points are great, but I’ve definitely benefitted from #3.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

Stranger Things, season 5 (I don’t care what other people say: I found the ending delightfully satisfying)

Quotable 💬

“He has most who needs least. Don’t create needs for yourself.”

-St. Josemaría Escrivá

New Year’s resolutions: yea or nay? 🥳

See, I knew you were my people. I’ve never known a New Year’s resolution to work for me, but quarterly targets certainly do (see above), and both my reflection questions and my Rule of Life help guide me in making those 90-day goals.

• Yea: 8%

• Nay: 24%

• Some other version of planning/goal-setting: 68.9%

Find the next poll here.

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

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Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What’s your Rule of Life these days? (hint: the thing above can help you out if you need it…)

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - What I need to send the current dishwasher-unloader in this household.

Happy 2026, and a very merry ninth day of Christmas today—I hope you’re still celebrating! We returned from Oregon a few days ago and have since hit the ground running with home renovations and my oldest son’s birthday (I now have more adult children than children-children 👵), so this will be a short one.

Hope your holidays have been just what you’ve needed!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. It’s definitely not too late to reflect on 2025 and think about the year ahead—use my annual reflection questions if you need some prompts. I legitimately use them every year, and take about a week or two to fully meditate on what was, what is, and what may be.

2. Some say that the earwormy song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was originally written as a catechism for young Catholics during the English era when they were not allowed to practice their faith openly. The jury is still out on whether that’s accurate, but nonetheless, the supposed meaning behind each of the gifts is interesting (I mean, I’m not exactly looking for three French hens on December 27). …I’m a bigger fan of the Faroe Islands version, myself.

3. I completely agree with ’s take on the facsimile offering of “online community” and feel less and less cautious about saying so as the years march on.

4. If you’re not feeling the energy to keep on keeping on with the twelve days of Christmas, a host of writers at share their family’s traditions on how they keep all of Christmastide. We keep it super-simple with movie-watching, game nights, leisurely mornings when possible, and lots of neighborhood walks. (It helps so much when you haven’t already OD’d on Christmas during Advent.)

5. And finally, I loved this short reflection from Fr. Mike Schmitz on his five-year anniversary of the release of the Bible in a Year podcast. What amazing fruit has come from it!

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, by Arthur C. Brooks1

Quotable 💬

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.”

- T.S. Eliot

When do you take down your Christmas tree? 🌲

I’m actually pleasantly surprised at how many of y’all wait until Epiphany to take down your Christmas tree, which is the correct minimum date of said ritual (although ‘so crispy it begs for mercy’ is an understandable exception). We’ve had an artificial tree for about five years now, and we’re going full-tilt into the liturgical calendar this year and doing our best to keep it up until Candlemas (which I’m pleased to see almost eleven percent of you do as well).

We’ll take down the ornaments and leave it with just lights, but I’m happy for any excuse to keep the festiveness at home alive and well, especially during the blergh days of of January. If you haven’t yet done the deed, join in on the tradition! See what you think.

• January 6 / Epiphany: 46.3%

• Sometime between December 25 & January 1: 14.4%

• January 1: 13.7%

• When it’s so crispy it begs for mercy: 12.5%

• February 2 / Candlemas: 10.7%

• December 26: 2.3%

Find the next poll here.

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Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What expectation can you let go of for this first week of 2026?

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - Same.

Can you believe that this Sunday starts the fourth week of Advent? This season has truly flown by for me. Perhaps it’s because I was sick this week and thus missed my last day of teaching for the year, but I’m hoping it’ll be this weekend that it starts feeling like the season for me. I’m not complaining, mind you; I’m just surprised. I’ve been relishing in my morning Advent reading with just the lights on the tree and one candle lit in the dark, and I’m grateful my kids are at definitive sleeping-in age. Speaking of which: Tate is officially home! It’s been delightful to have her here, and I’ll savor every second of it until her wedding (five months left and counting!).

Over the next few days we’ll do some baking, watch a few movies, and hopefully enjoy lots of family neighborhood walks. I’ve done all my gift-wrapping, thankfully, but tonight Kyle and I are going on our annual stocking stuffer-shopping date night. We’re headed to Oregon on Christmas Day itself, so the five of us are having our family Christmastime beforehand... it’ll be a busy but delightful week! Bring it on.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! For the final episode of the season, I’m chatting with , a fellow author and all-around great gal. She shares with me her childhood book—one I’ve never heard of but sounds like one I would have loved in my formative years—and one she’s read as an adult that’s been on my TBR list for absolute ever. (I know, I know; it’s a sign I should finally read it already.)

2. My middle child, the one whose birthday is four days post-Christmas Day, calls the week between December 25 and January 1 “the Unweek,” and I love it so much we’ve unofficially adopted it into our family’s vocabulary. The Unweek™ is the best week of the year, when time has no meaning. No one expects much of you (even if you return to work), it’s perfectly acceptable to graze on whatever’s in the fridge at odd hours, and the day’s agenda often involves leisurely walks and multiple movies and a puzzle. It’s when I often finish a novel from beginning to end, and tend to add copious amounts of peppermint to my daily coffee with no shame in my game. I absolutely love The Unweek™.

3. Speaking of reading, y’all gave me some great ideas to pass on to Kyle for my Jolabokaflod book wish list this year. …If you’ve ever wanted to add this tradition, customarily done in Iceland on Christmas Eve, take note that it can absolutely be enjoyed any day near the end of Advent. From those I know who’ve adopted this tradition in recent years, most seem to do it sometime between the 20th-23rd. Just a thought!

4. While I’m sad that the Klavan menfolk are winding down their back-and-forth letter format on , I also completely understand their need for change (been there before). As they sunset their letters, though, they’ve been ending them beautifully—I appreciated ’s thoughts here: “Of course loving good things makes evil things appear worse, as sharper light makes shadows stand out clearer. But the secret is it doesn’t work in the other direction: you can’t know beauty better by hating ugliness more. You have to start from love. Or else you may fathom all mysteries and speak in angels’ tongues, yet still be nothing.”

5. And finally—sorry, but can’t stop, won’t stop… Here’s that new WWII mincemeat pie history and recipe you never asked for. (And here’s his full Christmas playlist—you’ll thank me later.)

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

The Bells of Dublin, by the Chieftains

Quotable 💬

“The Lord Jesus wished to become man for our sake. …He who guides the stars is nourished at the breast, but He fills the angels; He speaks in the bosom of the Father, but He is silent in the womb of His Mother.”

- St. Augustine

What’s the worst holiday song? 🎶

Ah, it’s time for this annual somewhat controversial question... I’m happy to have been vindicated this week by Fr. Mike, who apparently agrees with me (though my top three worst songs are in reverse order of his). Simply Having is absolutely the worst song and it’s not even close—it’s out of tune, the lyrics are banal, and even the great Paul McCartney himself admitted later that he phoned it in. It’s truly abysmal.

• Santa Baby: 21.3%

• Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer: 20.4%

• Christmas Shoes: 18.6%

• Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime: 10.1%

• Baby It’s Cold Outside: 8.1%

• Last Christmas: 8.3%

• Happy Xmas (War is Over): 7.1%

• I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus: 6%

Find the next poll here.

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What expectation can you let go of for this Christmas?

Sometime this next week I’ll share with you a new short Christmas story written by yours truly, but then I’m taking next Friday off from these weekly 5QTs in order to savor the winter wonderland up in Oregon. I’ll be back with your next one in early 2026—still during Christmastide, of course! Don’t forget to celebrate for a full twelve days.

Have a great rest of your Advent season and a Merry (early) Christmas,

- Tsh

p.s. - Oh look, it’s our family.

This week I finished all my holiday shopping (except for stocking stuffers, which Kyle and I usually do as a date night in the few days before Christmas)... I’m rather glad to get that festive monkey off my back. And even though our family has long appreciated taking things slowly and gradually during Advent, we really are this year. Our tree is still adorned with nothing but lights, the house has exterior lights and a few boughs of greenery on the inside but that’s it, and we’ve yet to watch any holiday movies. All the music has been decidedly Advent-centric, meals have been simple, and our focus has been the Sacraments and prayer. In many ways it’s because our schedule has been really full1, but still, it’s been really, really good so far. Not perfect, because it never is. But good.

Plus, Tate comes home from college this next week! 🙌 This makes me six kinds of happy.

Tomorrow a group of menfolk from our parish are coming over to help Kyle re-side the house, and I’ll provide copious amounts of pizza and beer in generous thanks (which, of course, doesn’t say thanks nearly enough). I can’t wait to see the house finally stripped of the 60s-era siding that was slapped on to the original 90-year-old frame... It’s been nine years2 in the making!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! In this one I’m chatting with , a wife and mom of six kids whom she homeschools while raising animals on their homestead in North Carolina. She shares with me a beloved childhood book (that’s very fitting for her life right now), as well as one of the most mind-blowing works of fiction from C.S. Lewis.

2. I remember with great affection when my kids were younger and we’d go on nature walks in Oregon where we lived, noticing the different trees, the sound of running water, the volcanic rock beds, the way snow feels. On our school year around the world, we spent much, much time in the natural world, too, snorkeling and hiking, noticing flora and fauna and how they differed on different continents… I miss those days. I thought of these memories as I read ’s recent delightful essay on how to raise young conservationists: “You walk slow through a park and name what is there like a prayer: oak, milkweed, monarch, salamander, ash, track, fern. You stop and try to remember the ordinary miracles, the kind adults forget to see because we are trained to keep moving. …They learn that water is not just what comes out of a faucet, but what runs downhill, fills rivers, breeds trout, carries canoes. They learn that food tastes of soil, sun, rain, and work.”

3. Yesterday I recorded an upcoming episode for another podcast (I’ll share it in next week’s newsletter), but in the chat I was reminded of one of my favorite seasonal podcasts: Hark!, a show that unpacks the history behind the most beloved Christmas carols. In the past I’ve especially enjoyed the episodes for O Come, O Come Emmanuel and Carol of the Bells—I’m looking forward to their new episodes the rest of this season.

4. For years now I’ve admired my friend ’s bold move to embrace what she calls Mother Academia, and she’s recently declared 2026 the year of “feminine soulcraft”—I love this. “This year, we’ll embark on a journey to study the feminine soul by reading nine novels, memorising six poems, keeping narration and commonplace notebooks, and joining six discussion calls with the cohort over three terms.” If you miss the life of the mind, studying, and/or the lovely camaraderie of university life yet it is entirely out of reach for you in your season of life, I highly encourage you to join her. You won’t be disappointed.

5. And finally, keeping up with my newfound fascination with the Tasting History channel, here’s that history of and instructions for making real Victorian sugarplums you never asked for. You’re welcome.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

The Reed of God, by Caryll Houselander (my personal Advent read this year—it’s a re-read for me, but it’s been a long while and boy is it good)

Your Favorites From My Gift Guide 🎁

Continuing on with my peak behind what you’re loving the most from this year’s gift guide:

1. Spy ink pen

2. Exceptionally Bad Dad Jokes

3. Terrible Maps

4. Pocket binoculars

5. Busy cube

6. Japanese apron

7. The Wild Robot three-book series

8. Pocket microscope

9. Custom movie poster

10. Custom name necklace

Go to the 2025 Gift Guide 🎁

Quotable 💬

“For nine months Christ grew in His Mother’s body. By His own will she formed Him from herself, from the simplicity of her daily life. She had nothing to give Him but herself. He asked for nothing else.”

- Caryll Houselander

What’s your favorite holiday drink this time of year? 🥃

This question embodies perfectly why I only ask multiple-choice questions in these polls, because otherwise you would have each given me a backstory as to why such-and-such is your choice, but with this special ingredient or that secret recipe, or how what you’d actually pick isn’t listed as an option at all... I get it.

For me this year, I’m going with doctored coffee: my current love is a simple breve latte with a half-shot of mint from my neighborhood café. It’s *chef’s kiss*.

• Hot chocolate: 28%

• Doctored coffee: 19.2%

• Eggnog: 18.7%

• Flavored tea: 15.3%

• Apple cider: 10.4%

• Wassail: 8.3%

Find next week’s poll here.

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

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Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What are you learning about yourself this holiday season?

Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - New movie idea.

Happy St. Nicholas Eve! Without fail, every single year I forget it’s his feast day until the morning of, so perhaps by my writing about him now I’ll better remember to make sure the boys’ shoes are out by the front door tonight. At their age, it’s just as easy to hand them some chocolate on their way to work or what-not, but still... the mom in me wants us to do this tradition for as long as possible. I’m just proud of me for having already bought chocolate coins—usually the stores are all out by the time I remember and we have to settle for some other shape ...of what is ultimately the same chocolate.

This weekend in our town it’s the annual Stroll on the Square, which means we’re flooded with visitors from nearby Austin and the surrounding area. It begins with a hokey-but-charming Christmas parade through our neighborhood, complete with high school marching bands and floats from local organizations, such as the senior citizens’ drill team ladies doing their acrobatic routines with lawn chairs (and with the finale of Santa on horseback, of course); the rest of the weekend the Square is chock-full of booths from farmers, artisans, and other local businesses. There’s live music, various children’s recitals, and one whole block becomes ancient Bethlehem. A few years ago there was even an ice skating rink made of wax, which went as successfully as it sounds.

Small town life for the win! …I’ll never live in a big city again if I can help it.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! In this one I’m chatting with my friend , an author who co-owns an independent bookshop in his town with his wife. He shares with me a classic, perennial favorite childhood book, as well as one of his go-tos from adulthood. It’s always a treat to talk with him.

2. Whenever it’s the week of St. Nicholas Day, the St. Nicholas Center’s website tends to remain open as a tab on my computer. They’ve got a good history of the real Bishop of Myra, a collection of art new and old, customs from around the world, recipes, and more. It’s a treasure trove!

3. Whatever offers is always a gift, but I find her talent especially charming this time of year. Here, she shares with us a panoply of Advent illustrations to print, a calendar, playlist, poem, and more.

4. Yesterday I dried some sliced oranges, which I try to do every couple years (I leave them strung as garland indoors on our windows year-long). This is my go-to basic method, but it’s so simple it’s barely a recipe. The main trick is to pick a day you know you’ll be home for a long stretch of time for getting it done.

5. And finally, here’s the explanation of the medieval Christmas tradition of a boar’s head you were looking for …Meaning, an actual boar’s head. (This is one of my favorite YouTube channels.)

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

My Advent in the Background playlist

My 2025 Gift Guide 🎁

I’ve heard from several of y’all that you appreciate my gift guide this year—I’m always glad to hear this, because it’s a genuine holiday highlight of mine to curate each season! Another highlight: taking a peek behind the curtain and seeing what y’all are ordering. Here’s the top ten from this past week:

1. Japanese apron

2. Spy ink pen

3. Swedish climbing wall

4. Theotokos tee (it’s basically sold out now, but Chris still has other great shirts & stickers)

5. Exceptionally Bad Dad Jokes

6. “I saw that” Jesus sticker

7. Customized name necklace

8. Montessori busy board

9. Wooden slingshot & felted wool balls

10. Waxed canvas work apron (it’s sold out, but here’s a similar one)

Go to the 2025 Gift Guide 🎁

Quotable 💬

“Advent is the spiritual season of hope par excellence, and in this season the whole Church is called to be hope, for itself and for the world.”

- Pope Benedict XVI

What’s your favorite type of game? 🎲

Sometimes, when I ask my youngest for a poll question idea, he gives me something like “What’s your favorite 80’s power ballad?” And then sometimes, he actually gives me a good question like this past week. This is actually a tough one for me—since like with most polls my answer depends on the day, right now I suppose my answer is puzzle game. Still a fan of my daily ‘erdles.

• Puzzle game (i.e., crossword, Wordle): 26.6%

• Board game (i.e., chess, Scrabble): 26.1%

• Card game (i.e., Spades): 24.5%

• Trivia game (i.e., trivia night at a bar): 11.1%

• Party game (i.e., charades): 8.6%

• Video game (i.e., Minecraft, Mario): 2%

• Role-playing game (i.e., D&D): 1.1%1

Find next week’s poll here.

It’s Not Too Late to Begin Advent! ✨

Advent started last Sunday, but that doesn’t mean you’re too late to start a personal or family reading practice—in fact, its “open-and-go”ness is one of the highlights of my book, Shadow & Light. It’s rich and life-giving but mercifully short, and chock-full of music, art, and more.

Learn more about the book 🎄

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

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• 📖 Read my books

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Create your Rule of Life ✍️

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What one small thing could you add to your Advent tradition this year? What one small thing could you take away?

Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Here’s a potential idea for your upcoming family holiday gathering.

Happy day after Thanksgiving! I’m writing this earlier in the week on Wednesday afternoon, hoping to crank out some writing here at the coffee shop before I close up my shop for the rest of the week... Once I leave here, it’s pie-making time and closed laptop until Monday. This means, naturally, that this letter is a short one—so, onward!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. My 2025 Holiday Gift Guide is now live! As always, the theme is “a gift guide for people who don’t like gift guides”—there’s no latest gadgets, trendy fashion choices, zeitgesty references, paid-for sponsors, or twaddley options that you’ll throw away by February. Featured here are the classics: books I love, curated homemade favorites, and beloved staples that please the hard to please.

2. A final friendly reminder that Advent begins this Sunday, November 30. I wrote Shadow & Light because I couldn’t find the devotional I wanted: a family-friendly, open-and-go, simple-but-rich readaloud that’d be no big deal if we missed a day (or three). Earlier this week I opened my newly-delivered latest copy of Hearth & Field, and to my delight I saw that they reprinted my piece I wrote for them about Advent. (It had good reminders that I needed to re-read.)

3. I will click play on any conversation, podcast, or video with Joe Heschmeyer—still not done with this one (clocking in at over three hours), but it’s really good so far (here it is via audio).

4. Next week’s 5QT will be only one day away from the feast day of St. Nicholas (which is on December 6), so in case you want to plan the day with something simple, I love the book Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins, by Jim Forest. It’s a great book that focuses on the real bishop of Myra, and paired with an easy tradition of leaving shoes out by the front door on December 5 so that he can leave chocolate coins in them the next morning, it’s a lovely way to teach about the beloved saint. Last year I also made Speculaas cookies for the day (I used a Springerle cookie mold), and the whole house smelled heavenly.

5. And finally, wrapping up with my November practice of listing seven things I’m grateful for: the crunch of leaves during my morning walk, breve lattes, sunny-but-chilly afternoons, the Book of John, our town’s hokey-but-delightful annual “lighting of the Square” holiday tradition, my youngest son’s current good attitude about helping around the house (I’ll take it while I can get it), and finally—the guys from our parish who are coming over in a few weekends to help Kyle replace our scrappy house’s siding. Community is just the best.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

It’s finally time for my Shadow & Light Advent playlist!

Quotable 💬

“God travels wonderful ways with human beings, but he does not comply with the views and opinions of people. God does not go the way that people want to prescribe for him; rather, his way is beyond all comprehension, free and self-determined beyond all proof. Where reason is indignant, where our nature rebels, where our piety anxiously keeps us away: that is precisely where God loves to be. There he confounds the reason of the reasonable; there he aggravates our nature, our piety—that is where he wants to be, and no one can keep him from it.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

What’s the best thing on the Thanksgiving table? 🦃

My ordinary, non-carnivore self easily agrees with the majority: the stuffing is the best dish on the table, hands down. My now-carnivore self says dark-meat turkey (while secretly wishing it were brisket).

• Stuffing: 34.5%

• Pie: 17%

• Sweet Potatoes: 12%

• Potatoes: 11%

• Turkey: 9%

• Cranberries: 8%

• Green Bean Casserole: 6%

• Bread: 3%

Find next week’s poll here.

Shadow & Light: A Journey Into Advent ✨

Learn more about the book 🎄

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What are three small things you’re grateful for?

Have a great weekend (and start to your Advent!),

- Tsh

p.s. - Make sure you select the right photo.

We’re officially on Thanksgiving break, and we couldn’t be happier around here! Do we still have essays to grade? Yes. Do some of us such as, say, the fifteen-year-old sitting next to me who’s easily distracted by every shiny thing around him still have Spanish homework to complete and Aristotle to read? Also yes. But powering through all this now means Future Us can enjoy cooking and baking next week with leisure while mocking the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in the background, waiting on the dog show to begin.

I love this time of year. I can’t believe next week is already Thanksgiving (maybe that’s because we’re still running the A/C and I’m currently still in shorts and a tank top? …c’mon, Central Texas), but I’m Here with a Capital H for the holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. In this week’s Drink With a Friend episode, I’m chatting with Autumn Kern, a mom of four and homeschooler, and all-around thinker and reader. She shares with me a favorite beloved book (one of my favorites, too, though not from childhood) and a recent one from adulthood—one I’ve never heard of.

2. Earlier this week I shared a short-and-sweet Advent reminder: it begins not this Sunday but the next (November 30)! As I said a few days ago, just as I say every year, here’s your gentle nudge that the last thing you should be during this season is overwhelmed. Remember, Advent, like all the seasons of the liturgical calendar, is a gift, not a burden.

3. This time last year I was sure adhering to a carnivore way of eating would make the saddest Thanksgiving feast ever. This year, and I’m so used to eating carnivore that it wouldn’t cross my mind to endure the carb crash and sugar hangover in the name of tradition. I won’t force my extended family to eat the way I do (don’t be That Guy), but my plan is to eat what I want at the family gathering, then enjoy cooking my own feast sometime that week at home. Not 100% sure what I’m going to make yet, but lots of these ideas are bookmarked, in particular the pumpkin cheesecake.

4. I really appreciated ’s honest reflections on the slow death of family compounds as large houses are being sold by older generations in the name of ease (which is, in many ways, understandable). What does it look like to have a “matriarchal” home where your adult children and grandchildren can gather together? It’s been on my mind a lot, too: “Many millennial moms no longer go over the river and through the wood for holidays, but instead stay put and attempt to host multigenerational gatherings in our 1400 square-foot homes. There are definitely some upsides to this, as I no longer have to navigate busy holiday travel with young children. But one of my long-term goals is to establish a home and property large enough to host my children when they have children of their own.”

5. And finally, keeping up with my November practice of listing seven things I’m grateful for: new coffee mugs that are shaped just-right, the conversations I’ve gotten to enjoy for the podcast this fall, seasonal puzzles on the coffee table, my pillow cube (a birthday gift from this year), the narrow end table in the living room made from a tree stump by Kyle, my green velvet chair next to it, and our lovely little-but-growing parish community.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

Christmas Around the Fire: Stories, Essays, and Poems for the Season of Christ’s Birth, by Ryan N.S. Topping (our next book club read!)

Quotable 💬

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”

- G.K. Chesterton

When do you start listening to Christmas music? 🎶

I realize I should have rephrased this question to “holiday” music, because Advent and Christmas music are two different categories. For me, there’s the theoretical answer and the practical answer. Theoretically, I hold off on holiday music until the first day of Advent; Christmas music after Mass on Christmas Eve. In practice, an Advent song gets a play or two starting around the week of Thanksgiving, and Christmas music in the house (because I mean, I can’t control Last Christmas already making its rounds at Home Depot 🤢) starts up sometime mid-December.

I care about traditional best practices, but I’m also not a purist.

• Day after Thanksgiving: 50%

• November 1 (or earlier): 15%

• Advent, Day 1: 14%

• December 1: 11%

• Christmas Eve: 6%

• I don’t: 5%

Find next week’s poll here.

Come to Scotland in 2026! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I’d love you to join us for next summer’s pilgrimage: this time we’re going to Scotland to witness the beauty of the Highlands. We’ll wander through the Isle of Skye, spend a day with sheepdogs at a real working farm, sample some Scottish whiskey, walk the end of Fife’s Pilgrim’s Way into St. Andrews, go to the actual Highland Games, and much more. Your family is welcome to join mine! We’d love to have you.

Learn more about the trip 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What are three small things you’re grateful for?

Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - It’s bring anything but your backpack to school day.

This is the season when I tend to feel at odds with my outer and inner life. Work and parenting tends to really pick up right now: article deadlines, book edits, essays to grade, essays to write, kids to encourage, kids to lovingly nag about their chores and schoolwork and scholarship applications, kids to (soon) welcome home after a semester away, kids to bake bread and buy groceries for.

And yet the weather, the scent of backyard bonfires, the crunch of the leaves underneath my feet, the hygge-ness of novels and their plots, the yellow autumn glow of the sunset bouncing off the deck chair, the one-more-cup of coffee waiting in the carafe... These things are beckoning me to slow down. I’m yearning for it right now, and based on my conversations with tons of people around me, I’m not alone.

I think there’s a two-pronged solution here: part one is to power through the acedia and ‘do the hard work anyway’ in the name of cultivating more of the virtue of magnanimity, for the sake of my soul and for the benefit of those around me. Part two is to listen to the season’s beckoning and not let it slip by in the name of Getting Things Done. The beauty of this short season is the best thing about it, and to brush it aside like an annoying gnat means to miss what makes autumn and its slow onramp to the holidays so nourishing.

Here’s to doing the laundry and the essay-grading and all the other annoying work, and here’s also to ending the day at a reasonable hour with a lovely drink in hand on the deck chair after an ambling neighborhood walk to witness the day’s sunset. Both are necessary, and both are better because of each other.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. In this week’s Drink With a Friend episode, I’m talking with , who writes the well-loved newsletter Over the Field and lives in northern England among farmers and apples. He shares with me his choice of a favorite book from childhood (one I’ve never heard of before), as well as a recent read for his choice of favorites as an adult (I read it for the first time this year, too!).

2. As a homeschooling mom to only teen boys in the house now, I’m continually thinking about how to best nurture their God-given maleness so that they become who they’re made to be and flourish, and not live subconsciously as though they’re defective girls (I know that’s a big statement and I don’t have bandwidth for a whole essay about it, but I do believe our culture, especially in education, often unintentionally treats boys this way). I appreciated this short list of ways from to increase my “boy tolerance”: “To be boy-tolerant is not to indulge immaturity or excuse vice; it is to recognize in a boy’s energy the raw material of virtue. The goal is to help a boy learn how to channel his vitality toward good ends. The world does not need nice guys; it needs dangerously good men.”

3. Even though I love autumn and holiday scented candles, the good ones can be ridiculously expensive. Hot tip: light simple scent-free candles for their ambience, then diffuse an affordable essential oil like this to waft the festive scent of orange and spices throughout the house. A few drops goes a long way, plenty to get you through an entire season.

4. Okay, I love so very much ’s idea of six weeks of simple, weekly community nights: “When it’s filled with people, our little patch of weedy grass turns into a beautiful space for community.” My brain is a-storming… What would it look like if only fifty readers here did something like this in their neighborhoods? I dare say it could be the start of something big.

5. And finally, continuing my November practice of listing here seven things I’m grateful for: last weekend’s camping trip to sit under the canopy of orange and yellow leaves, the mattress topper we added to our camper’s mattress (🙌), lovely smelling candles and oils (see #3), the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the ick-free heavy cream at Costco, baby laughter, and I’ve got another driver in the household again. Huzzah!

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

The recently-found fall vibes but instrumental because i’m studying playlist

Quotable 💬

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When do you start decorating for Christmas? 🎄

I’m a combination of ‘day after Thanksgiving’ and ‘first day of Advent’—but gradually, if I can help it (though some seasons honestly call for more decor earlier on). The key in all this—and maybe I’ll ask you this in a future poll—is when you take your decor down. Because there’s an objectively correct answer to that one.

• The day after Thanksgiving 44.5%

• Whenever I get around to it: 23.5%

• The first day of Advent: 15.1%

• December 1: 10.7%

• November 1: 4%

• Christmas Eve: 2.2%

Find next week’s poll here.

Scotland in 2026! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I’d love you to join us for next summer’s pilgrimage: this time we’re going to Scotland to witness the beauty of the Highlands. We’ll wander through the Isle of Skye, spend a day with sheepdogs at a real working farm, sample some Scottish whiskey, walk the end of Fife’s Pilgrim’s Way into St. Andrews, go to the actual Highland Games, and much more. Your family is welcome to join mine! We’d love to have you.

Learn more about the trip 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What are three small things you’re grateful for?

Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Stunning.

As you’re reading this, Kyle and I are out of town camping for the weekend, celebrating twenty-three years of marriage. Twenty-three! It’s hard to believe it’s been that long—and in just a few years, we’ll have been married longer than not (I was twenty-five, he was twenty-four).

As I’m writing this, it’s a bit earlier in the week and I’ve got a heck-ton to do for us to pull out of the driveway tomorrow morning, so I’ll be moving right along here.

But hooray for marriage!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. In this week’s Drink With a Friend episode, I chatted with Faith Moore, a writer and podcaster of the popular show Storytime for Grownups, as well as an avid reader. She shares with me her choice of a favorite book from childhood, as well as one of her all-time favorites as an adult (it’s one of my favorites, too).

2. Last year I wrote a list of nine true things about marriage, and one year later, I’m happy to attest I still believe them true: “Bring a deck of cards to your next coffee shop date and play a game or three. Watch an old-school movie together you haven’t seen in decades, just for fun. Try a new hobby together, even when (especially when?) life is chronically busy.”

3. A few weeks ago while doing my ‘erdles’ I learned about the Tristan de Cunha, the world’s most remote island—and apparently the algorithms picked up on this because this showed up in my feed and I was duly fascinated.

4. Molly Weasley is arguably my favorite character in the Harry Potter series, so I was delighted by these words of wisdom from : “Our convictions of homemaking and hospitality are easy to live out when our homes are beautiful and neatly ordered, but Mrs. Weasley shows us that not only is it possible in less-than-ideal circumstances, it’s necessary. As homemakers, we can wage our own war on darkness and despair by cultivating beauty, celebrating merrily, and creating order where chaos once reigned.”

5. And finally, here in 5QTs during November I’m listing seven things I’m grateful for, one for each day (which is a practice I already do each morning)1. So: beautiful fall weather finally arriving in central Texas, that first morning hour while it’s still dark and quiet and I’m the only one up, British murder mysteries, my green velvet chair, backyard chickens, diner coffee mugs, and my daughter having met the man she’s going to marry (in the most unexpected way).

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

A Man on the Inside (such a charming show!)

Quotable 💬

“The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”

- G.K. Chesterton

What’s the worst Halloween candy? 🍬

I’m not a big candy fan to begin with, so I’d pass on every one of these. But if I had to pick my least favorite, I’m going with Twizzlers. Who’s ever in the mood for plastic rope?

• Circus Peanuts: 33.2%

• Good n’ Plenty: 19.3%

• Necco Wafers: 14.9%

• Candy Corn: 11.4%

• Tootsie Rolls: 7.5%

• Bit o’ Honey: 7.5%

• Twizzlers: 6.3%

Find next week’s poll here.

Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What are three small things you’re grateful for?

Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - My current stage of parenting.