One cannot possibly describe in only one paragraph how it feels when your oldest and only daughter gets married, surrounded by family and friends on a perfect breezy spring day—so I’m not even going to try. I’ve got an essay in the works that’ll better unpack all that I experienced last week, how God gave me grace upon grace to partake of this thin-veiled moment, and what unadulterated joy her father and I both felt during the day of and in the days afterwards… We’re still floating on cloud nine! They’ll come back from their honeymoon tomorrow and I’ll ask her permission to share a few photos here soon, but truly, there’s really only one word to summarize everything about the whole experience: JOY. It’s clichéd, but it’s true. Pure JOY! Such an answer to a decades-long prayer.

…And now tomorrow we graduate our second-born from high school. He’s the kid cut from a slightly different bolt of fabric from his siblings, but is also, quite frankly, the best of all of us: he’s got a heart of gold, he’s brilliant beyond my understanding, and he’s the funniest person I know. I’m so stinking proud of him, and I trust God will sustain me this weekend, once again, as I let the waterworks flow and witness another milestone in one of our kid’s life. What grace.

All this means by this fall we’ll have ONE KID left in the house, and I can hardly believe we’re here at this stage of life already. I’m grateful for the next two years of finishing up high school with him under our roof. …I want it to go by as slowly as possible.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. Several years ago I spoke as the commencement speaker at our school’s graduation—here’s a slightly-edited transcript of what I said: “Listen to tradition. Tradition is the stuff we humans have carried with us for a long time, and while some of it we’ve needed to shed over the ages, much of it is too quickly thrown out as outdated, unnecessary, or holding us back to the past. GK Chesterton called tradition the ‘Democracy of the dead, which means giving a vote to the most obscure of all classes: our ancestors.’ It is very trendy these days to ignore anything that’s old. Don’t be trendy. Listen to good wisdom that’s been around a long time, whether that’s from Dostoevsky or from your grandpa.”

2. I needed this short-and-sweet reminder from my old friend , on how sometimes God speaks to us in our distractions, and isn’t impossibly stuck by our own human diversions: “it struck me: perhaps God is present even in the distracted, curious days like this one.”

3. How not to be an anxious parent—these are simple but true words of wisdom on what our actual roles are as parents, and what it means to love our children enough to let them live with the free will God has given them (this is a newsletter written specifically on parenting boys by , but the wisdom applies to girls, too): “You bring into parenting the same limitations and defects you had before your children arrived. Expecting to make many mistakes is not pessimism but realism; it is the only reasonable stance and, paradoxically, it is a source of peace.”

4. Very rarely do I share a piece from the same writer two weeks in a row, but knocks it out of the park again with yet another timely poem (particularly for me, since he and I are going through very similar life events and are roughly the same age): “Now, on a dark evening, I sit in the lamplight, our house quiet, and I wonder what my son, the one who just moved out, is doing in his new place, if he is reading any of those books we lugged up the steps, and if he remembered to lock the door.”

5. And finally, for some much needed levity (at least for me this week), always delivers with his insightful, timeless wisdom: “Graduates, I want you to take a moment to look at the person sitting on your right and left. In five years, one of those two people will be dead. And you will be married to the other one, so choose carefully.”

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

My old Shmoopy playlist, thanks to our daughter’s wedding1

Quotable 💬

“God spoke today in flowers, and I, who was waiting on words, almost missed the conversation.”

-Ingrid Goff-Maidoff2

What are your summer travel plans (so far)? 🚗

We’re doing a tiny bit of in-state travel in a few weeks (Kyle and I are going on a much-needed weekend getaway!), and then there’s a chance we may make it up to Oregon again to visit family later this summer. But our biggest family travel is to Scotland, which of course you can join us (and should!). I’m so excited—it’ll be a fantastic pilgrimage with delightful people, as always.

• Domestic travel: 46.3%

• Staycation: 24.2%

• In-state travel: 16.4%

• International travel: 13.1%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Join Us This Summer! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I can’t emphasize enough how formative a pilgrimage like this is in your life…. If you’re on the fence, take these words as a sign from the Lord and SIGN UP. You won’t regret it.

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 would your high-school self be glad to know about your current-day self?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Moving cars with the swipe of a hand.

It’s Wedding Week around here! As you’re reading this I’ve already written these words several days prior, and I’m happy to report that I’m feeling surprisingly calm and less busy than I’ve been in several weeks… It feels like we’re now just plugging-and-playing all the planning we’ve been doing for months, and simply letting All The Things happen, come what may.

I’m naturally channeling all my focus and emotional energy right now on, you know, my oldest and only daughter getting married 🤯, so this will be short and sweet. Onward!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. Several years ago in celebration of our anniversary I wrote a list of nine lessons learned in marriage—though I wish I had more time to write a fresh list, I honestly wouldn’t disagree with anything I said several years ago. …So if you missed it the first time, hopefully it’s an encouragement to you, and if you read it back then, well, perhaps it’s worth a re-read: “Don’t keep account of wrongs. Notice the good things—how that one color t-shirt looks good on him, how he always drags the trash cans to the curb on Monday nights, that he’s inordinately kind on the phone to that one high-maintenance client of his—and then tell him so. Say a thousand more encouraging things than the tens of issues you may have with him.”

2. A few years ago I also had a podcast conversation with one of my favorite local friends (whom we first met on one of our pilgrimages!), and he and his wife are some of Tate’s favorite people, too. Rick Reynolds is a marriage therapist specializing in infidelity, which I know is a weird thing to bring up, but this conversation was actually super encouraging and uplifting for marriage in general. He’s got great advice.

3. wrote lovely words about why weddings are a communal celebration, not a private affair—this idea has been on my mind for months now as we’ve planned this thing that has sometimes often felt a bit… overwhelming. She hits on so many points I wish I had more time to write myself, so instead, I’ll let her say the words for me: “A wedding is a couples first ‘official’ act of hospitality. There is something wonderful about the way a wedding may display the distinctive character of each couple’s relationship, the qualities and strengths their union will bring to the world.”

4. A few years ago, Edward and Beth Sri recorded a great conversation with Fr. Mike Schmitz on marriage. It was at a college conference, but the focus is still on the nitty-gritty mess of marriage, which I really appreciated—I think it’s an encouragement for all of us. The above is part one; here’s part two.

5. And finally, what’s the most important part of the wedding ceremony? This is a solid answer.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

Remarkably Bright Creatures on Netflix (as someone who loved the novel when it first came out a few years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by this adaptation!)

Quotable 💬

“In the twilight of life, we will be judged on love alone.”

-St. John of the Cross

Whatever your state in life, which quote best describes marriage to you? 🪢

I’m honestly not sure if I could pick a definitive answer here, since I like all these quotes. …So for right now, as I’m writing this, I’ll go with Schubert’s ‘true friend’ idea. Yes and amen—this has definitely been the case with Kyle and me.

• “A perfect marriage is just two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other.” -Anonymous: 38.2%

• “Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupery: 17.6%

• “Happy is the man who finds a true friend, and far happier is he who finds that true friend in his wife.” -Franz Schubert: 15.2%

• “The art of love is largely the art of persistence.” -Albert Ellis: 10.8%

• “Mature love has a bliss not even imagined by newlyweds.” -Boyd K. Packer: 10%

• “If I get married, I want to be very married.” -Audrey Hepburn: 5.2%

• “The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.” -Peter de Vries: 2.8%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Join Our 2026 Scottish Pilgrimage! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Travel is one of the most formational activities we can do on earth; one of the few that, for the most part, is worth the money spent—that’s been the case with pilgrimages for me, and it’s one of the reasons I love leading them.

Consider joining my family and me (along with some new kindred spirits) in Scotland this summer! We’ll walk through the rugged highlands, wander through the halls of medieval castles, and more. You won’t regret it.

“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 small thing are you grateful for this exact second you’re reading this? (pause right now and name it to yourself)

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Seeing as most of Tate’s wedding attendees will be non-Catholic, here’s a friendly list of what not to do at a Catholic wedding. Our programs have a lot of written explainers so that our friends and family know that all the “things” aren’t just random (they all have a purpose!), but these are still good thoughts. …With a caveat.1

Last night we had what I hope was not our last family dinner ever (far from it, Lord willing!), but at least a focused family dinner that I insisted we intentionally put on the calendar before extended family and friends all start coming in for the wedding next week. I wanted time with just the five of us for one last time, around the table eating dinner, with a post-dinner walk and an evening of board games.

It did not disappoint. Our dinner conversation was delightfully ordinary—we simply went around and named our favorite parts of our days, as well as something we each learned (as we’ve done for years now)—then we took the dog on a walk and witnessed a beautiful pink-orange sunset. We came back, cleaned up from dinner, and then played a few rounds of Apples to Apples and a few rounds of Clue (which we have officially outgrown). That was it. But it was just what I wanted.

She’ll still come over for dinner, of course, but it’ll most likely be with her husband in tow (as it should be!). I wanted to make sure I mentally captured one final evening with just my three kids, goofing around with each other, poking and prodding at each other with their humor (when did they each get so funny?), and watching my husband slowly fall asleep in the chair next to them. It was a lovely evening.

…And now: eight days and counting until the wedding! 🤯

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. If you’re a Commonplace subscriber, head over to May’s chat for all things books: what you read last month, what you’re reading now, what’s on your TBR stack. After a long season of reading and rereading ancient works for both my class and for my book-writing research, I am SO ready for summer reading… I have so many ideas and won’t get to a fraction of them, but the anticipation is lovely.

2. Earlier this week I took a mental walk down memory lane, from my daughter’s day of birth until basically yesterday. I may write a separate essay about that experience sometime, but in the meantime, I’ll summarize by saying I’m so glad I followed the Lord’s nudge to do so, because while yes, I was a mess of hot tears doing so, it was both cathartic and encouraging to just let myself feel all the feelings about my first-born getting married. …Wasn’t she just that two-year-old toddler playing with blocks and talking my ear off incessantly? Wasn’t she just the nine-year-old we took on our round-the-world school-year trip who celebrated her tenth birthday in a hot air balloon over the Masaai Mara in Kenya? Didn’t she just start middle school and become friends with the two girls who will be her maids of honor next weekend? Didn’t she just get her driver’s license and drive to the store for me for the first time? ...Don’t blink, parents. All the clichés about time are true.

3. I quite enjoyed following along ’s experience of becoming a beekeeper (something on my own must-do-just-for-fun list). Delightful! Bees are remarkable.

4. Thanks to a reader here (make yourself known in the comments here so I can thank you personally again!) for linking to a dress pattern when I was bemoaning the lack of good mother of the bride dresses… Because I ended up using that pattern to make my own dress! It was never on my bucket list to make my own MoB dress, but I’m so glad I did. Is it perfect? …Don’t look too closely at it. But I really like it, and it’ll be fun to wear. Plus: IT HAS POCKETS.

5. And finally, if you want to nod furiously in agreement and let your eyes water inconveniently, read ’s poem about AI. Yes, AI. “And be sure to use AI when your next child gets married, so that you can write them the perfect toast or poem or speech or song because no one wants to hear your words, the actual poorly written words of a parent (you) who changed hundreds of diapers for said child…”

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

My daughter’s Reminds Me of Mom playlist she made me a few years ago for Mother’s Day

Quotable 💬

“The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.”

-Alden Nowlan

What does the month of May mean to you? 🌸

It wasn’t until I had school-age children that I understood what was the big deal about “Maycember;” up to then it came across to me like parents putting too much on themselves and making the end of the school year busier than it needs to be. …Then I understood—even as a homeschooling parent—that there are just so. many. events. that are kid-related and put upon us in May which are simply outside our control. (Clearly my asking this question had to do with my state of mind last week.)

I’m happy to report that even with my daughter getting married next weekend and my son graduating the week after, I’m already feeling saner, now that my only day of teaching left is basically the “presentations + wrap-up game” kind of class. Put a fork in me, I am DONE. I’m ready to celebrate my children! …And then move on to a much, much chiller summertime schedule.

• It’s Maycember — tied with December as the most insane month of the year: 30.5%

• My favorite month — spring weather, delightful calm: 22.7%

• Freedom! School ends and it’s the start of summertime: 21.9%

• Meh — it’s just another month: 19.9%

• Blergh — the weather’s blah where I am (and/or allergies are insane): 5%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Join Our 2026 Scottish Pilgrimage! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Travel is one of the most formational activities we can do on earth; one of the few that, for the most part, is worth the money spent—that’s been the case with pilgrimages for me, and it’s one of the reasons I love leading them.

Consider joining my family and me (along with some new kindred spirits) in Scotland this summer! We’ll walk through the rugged highlands, wander through the halls of medieval castles, and more. You won’t regret it.

“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… 🤔

If you have children: what’s your earliest memory of parenting? Or, what’s your earliest memory from your own childhood? -How do these compare to yesterday?

And a happy Mother’s Day to all moms reading this! Your work is so valuable, so needed, and so often unseen… Cheers to you and your late nights, early mornings, and all the errands in-between.

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - I love watching this… (I saw it in person in Ireland, and have a feeling we’ll get to see it in person again this summer in Scotland!).

I turned in my book edits on Monday! …And then immediately took a rare, mid-afternoon hour-long nap in celebration. 🎉 Every time I hit some major milestone—turning in a book manuscript, coming home from leading a pilgrimage, graduating a kid, even simply ending a school year of teaching—my body celebrates by getting sick. Either getting sick, or just getting really, really tired. It’s like I’d been running on fumes, but by God’s sheer grace I was able to power through… I woke up from that nap with had no idea what time it was or what planet I was on.

This now means I’m only moderately busy on an insane level vs. outlandishly so. I won’t belabor the issue, since no one loves reading someone else’s laundry list of to-dos, but let’s just say after I get this email scheduled for your inbox, I’m working on finishing wedding programs and reception signage, followed by scheduling our parish’s monthly email.

But at the time you’re actually reading this, Tate and I will be on a quick, mother-daughter pre-wedding overnighter: nothing major, just a local guesthouse for some time away where we will decidedly not talk about the wedding. …Marriage, though, is definitely on the table. I’m hoping we’ll have good conversations, enjoy a massage and pedicure, get some local take-out for dinner back at the house, and maybe enjoy the backyard pool (though thunderstorms are forecasted). Oh, and maybe watch a movie or two. I’ve been looking forward to this getaway for weeks!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. If you’re a Commonplace subscriber, head to April’s gratitude check-in from this week and add your lists! It’s always a highlight of mine to read them: some favorites include breakfast for supper, a local Italian market in a reader’s area that has the most delicious bread & food, steak from steers raised by another reader, reading Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn for the first time, the smell of freshly cut grass, and The Boxcar Children on the Libby library app for yet another reader’s 7-year-old.

2. Every morning there’s a group of neighbors, mostly older, that meet here at the local coffee shop (I’m here right now, writing this), and I love that this simple gathering has become such a mainstay in their lives. They don’t stay too long, but they do show up religiously. They welcome newcomers to their table, they squeal with delight at all the regular babies and toddlers that come through the door, and seeing as the baristas know my order by heart, I’m sure they know this group of locals’ orders, too. Seeing them here is a bright spot in my morning.

3. “Go touch grass” has nearly become a cliché these days, but I say there are worse ideas to turn into a platitude—I mean, it’s true; we do need to touch grass. I enjoyed Arthur Brooks’ recent episode of why we have to get outside more than we do in our modern world, along with practical ways to do so (hint: evening walks!).

4. In the same vein, I appreciate ’s reminder about why we need more, not less, friction in our lives: “…It is here, my friends, that we really feel the friction: what we need is not what we want; and what we want is not what we need.”

5. And finally, this week I taught on the 4th-century Council of Nicaea in my humanities class, so I revisited this excellent Catholic-Orthodox dialogue on the Creed between Bishop Robert Barron and Metropolitan Nathanael Symeonides from last year (which was the 1,700-year anniversary of the historic moment!).

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

The Chill Mix made for me by Spotify

Quotable 💬

“I suppose the best kind of spring morning is the best weather God has to offer.”

-Dodie Smith

Where/what was your first job? 🛒

This week’s question was my son’s suggestion (again!), and I thought it an apropos one, since he’s about to have his last day at his first job in order to embark on his first day at his second. My first “real” job (I babysat here and there, but nothing major) was at Target. Yep, retail. It actually wasn’t too bad for a big-box chain store, but I think I only worked there for about six months before I became an assistant at my church for several years, followed by waiting tables at local restaurants for years and years (that’s where the good money was).

• Babysitting: 68.8%

• Food service: 12.6%

• Retail shop: 7.1%

• Camp counselor: 3.8%

• Grocery store: 2.7%

• Newspaper delivery: 2.5%

• Lifeguard: 1.5%

• Movie theater: 1%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Join Our 2026 Scottish Pilgrimage! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Travel is one of the most formational activities we can do on earth; one of the few 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.

Consider joining my family and me (along with some new kindred spirits) 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. It’s worth it!

“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… 🤔

Don’t forget—it’s still Eastertide! What’s one small thing you could do this weekend to keep celebrating?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Comments about Catholics turned into Gregorian chant (I have my son, yet again, to thank for this one).

I finished my book edits this week—late yesterday afternoon, in fact—and now I’m rereading the whole thing once more to see what I missed (so that I can turn it in early next week). It’s nearly one-hundred thousand words (WHAT. HOW. 🤯) so I’ve got my work cut out for me, but I want this thing to be dang good, so it’s worth me to skim it again.

This, plus me needing to finalize the wedding programs (fun fact: Catholic wedding liturgies have quite a few moving parts, especially in the Ordinariate rite) means today I’m publishing a few reruns. Seeing as I’ve been doing 5QTs for almost eight years, I’ve got plenty in the back catalog—which exist specifically for insanely busy seasons such as these.

Enjoy! I’ll be back here soon.

5 Quick Previous Quick Things ☕️

1. #368, first published May 16, 2025: haircuts, seasonal uniforms, & marriage

2. #354, first published February 7, 2025: learning to read, live local, & tell good stories

3. #340, first published October 18, 2024: watercoloring, a house full of books, & camping hacks

4. #331, first published May 17, 2024: free-range parenting, theology of the body, & our universal ache for home

5. #322, first published March 8, 2024: good art, dumb phones, & neighborhood walks

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

The Marlow Murder Club, by Robert Thorogood1

Quotable 💬

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

-Antoine de Saint Exúpery

What’s the best bear? 🐻

You have my 18-year-old son to thank for this question… And it was quite popular, so it seems (one of the more well-answered poll questions). I’m torn between panda, grizzly, or gummi. (Look up ‘drop’ if you’re a fellow non-Aussie like me.)

• Panda: 37.8%

• Gummi: 17%

• Polar: 15%

• Black: 13.7%

• Grizzy: 6.3%

• Battlestar Galactica: 4.5%

• Brown: 4.3%

• Drop: 1.4%

Find the next poll here.

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

There’s still room… We’d love to have you! These small-group pilgrimages are life-changing, and I’m so grateful for the friendships I’ve made through them.

“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’s one thing you can take off your current to-do list?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Words mean things.

This book edits continue, but I’ve made a lot of progress this week—thank you to those of you who’ve prayed for my work; I really appreciate it. I had a quick doctor’s check-up this week, and we could do nothing but laugh at my elevated cortisol levels. Of course they are: I’ve got major edits I’m trying to finish in two weeks, a daughter to marry off in four weeks from yesterday, and a homeschooled son to graduate from high school in five weeks. Oh, and a class to finish teaching the Tuesday before the wedding. (I’m officially in my George Banks season; I’ve sent this gif more times lately than I care to admit.)

I’m hoping a year from now I’ll look back on this season in wonder how God sustained me through it all… It’s all I can do, really! That, and fight for sleep.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. I admittedly haven’t been reading much on the internet lately because my life is too full for such fun. I’ve read some things here and there (see below), but otherwise, unless I’m teaching or running an errand, these days it’s mostly me working on the book (often at our neighborhood coffee shop) peppered every hour or so with walking breaks. Last weekend I did, however, manage to read (via audiobook) Murder Takes a Vacation, by Laura Lippman and it was delightful. For whatever reason, cozy murder mysteries are the perfect antidote for me as I work on a theology-dense book, so unlike what I normally write. Scroll down a bit for my next mystery of choice.

2. I’m such a fan of C.S. Lewis, which means I’m such a fan of this rant from : “I actually believe it’s my calling to impress on you the depth of your error before we, as a generation of Christian culture, lose touch with this great man forever. I hope you’re ready. We’re going to do it up right, with a podcast where I yell at people while they complete remedial Lewis reading, and essays where I wax pedantic about deep lore. I’m going to dig up the oddest bits of ephemera from his deepest archives and remind us all just how blessed we were that such a man lived and loved God with all his strange, wonderful, broken heart and mind.”

3. I also absolutely love St. John Henry Newman, so this surprising essay about him and …Easter chocolate? from (actually, her husband) was a nice break to read in between book edits: “…this witness of mutual charity was one more step in the journey of the remarkable Cadbury family, whose frequent contemplation was the query, “And who is my neighbor?”

4. John is my favorite Apostle (the real guy, from the Bible, but sorta-kinda also the character in The Chosen), so this was fun. …Vegemite, however, is terrible.

5. And finally, this is a joke, but also not. It’s also actually a weirdly helpful explanation (bookmarking it for my high school personal finance class next year).

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

The Mudflats Murder Club, by Brian Thiem

Quotable 💬

“Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.”

-St. John Paul II

If you could suddenly, immediately acquire an expert-level skill or talent, what would you choose? 💪

I loved this reader-submitted question! And I genuinely don’t know what I’d choose because it depends on the day and in which area I’m currently feeling deficient… For right now, I’ll say my answer is a trade skill, because I’d love to help Kyle more with our forever fixer-upper renovation. But I do also wish I were a better singer.

• The arts (singing or playing an instrument, painting, writing, etc): 60.2%

• A trade skill (carpentry, electric work, plumbing): 20.2%

• A people skill (conflict resolution, meeting new people, leading a team): 13.2%

• Athletic prowess in your favorite sport: 6.4%

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Join 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

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• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 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?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Sea urchins with miniature hats.

Happy Eastertide! As we continue to celebrate the longest feast season in the Church calendar (remember, Easter lasts fifty full days, all the way to Pentecost), may we keep a lively spirit in the midst of all our to-do lists and plate-spinning. I often find it ironic that this long feast sits smack-dab in the middle of what is arguably the busiest season for many of us (I’m looking at you, the end of a school year), yet here we are.

Our family had a wonderful Triduum this year, participating in our parish’s Spy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and finally Easter Vigil masses and services, and phew, was I wiped out… 😴 My middle son and I also walked ten miles on Good Friday in a pilgrimage starting thirty miles away from our front door. We left our house at 5:30 a.m., and let me just say I felt that. I may or may not have napped for almost three solid hours Monday afternoon.

I’m now spending most of my waking hours steeped in book edits, and probably will be for the next few weeks until I get the next draft of this book to my editor. Which is to say: I’ll most likely be unapologetically absent, quiet, and/or brief on the internet for this current season, but it’s all in the name of making this book what it most needs to be.

Pass the dark chocolate and whiskey. And prayers. Thank you in advance!

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. Did you fast from screens, social media, or the internet in general for Lent and kinda want to still keep up a fast of some sort? and wrote a comprehensive guide for how to carry on the digital fast: “Like monks and hermits, we need a new structure for how to live, one that replaces what has been removed with a pattern of life that accords with our human creed.”

2. I can’t remember if I’ve ever shared this in 5QT, but my go-to recipe database for literal years now has been Plan to Eat. I use it almost daily as my online recipe storage box, and I can’t imagine functioning in my kitchen without it. It’s super-duper handy if you’re looking for something like it.

3. Whenever I have some reading downtime (and I make sure I do each day, even if it’s ten minutes), these days I pick up two novels-in-progress by two writing friends of mine: and Faith Moore, both of whom have asked me to read their books in advance. Are both these novels delightful? Yes. Am I woefully behind in getting back to them? Also yes. Alas.

4. If our grandmas had oura rings, would their lives have been less of a thrill? I nodded my way through ’s short but punchy words: “Have we dwindled life down to scores? Have we literally sucked the fun out of living?”

5. And finally, no one utters fopdoodle with their dignity intact—a fun list of goofy English words from .

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

Alexandre Desplat Radio—good background music for deep-focused book edits

Quotable 💬

“That is one good thing about this world...there are always sure to be more springs.”

-L.M. Montgomery

What’s the best Easter candy? 🍬

Yep, good-old plain chocolate is by far the best choice for Easter (though I don’t mind a jelly bean here and there). Peeps are an absolute abomination.

• Chocolate Bunnies/Eggs: 36.7%

• Cadbury Creme Eggs: 24.4%

• Robin’s Eggs: 18.9%

• Jelly Beans: 17.3%

• Peeps: 2.7 %

Find the next poll here.

Historic Highlands: Join 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 one small thing could you do this weekend that would make your next week better?

Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Space evangelism (and welcome to the old neighborhood).

“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

• 🎧 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 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.

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

Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - Same.