5 Quick Things #184 🏕

Old tents, new overalls, silent to-do lists, & a good waste

Mar 26, 2021

Hey there,

How are you? We returned from three days of camping Wednesday night, with one night of it in the midst of a tornado warning. Let’s just say we finally admitted it’s time to replace our decade-old, very well-used tent thanks to the downpour’s service of revealing just how many seams are not sealed. As I told the kids, tragedy + time = comedy. We’re already laughing about it. Overall, it was a delightful respite from the noise and screens and except for the sleeping bit, I kinda wish we were still out there.

On a related note, I love spring and wish it lasted longer.

Lava flows from the erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano near Reykjavik, Iceland. #

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. What’s FONO? Seth & I unpack the hesitancy many of us have about returning to “normal.” What does it mean to live in a post-pandemic world? And what good stuff can we take with us from our lockdown lives? Loved this chat.
2. “When our class calls are over, I can dance.” I enjoyed these 17 students’ thoughts on what they’ve learned during the pandemic.
3. It’s okay to feel okay. Really.
4. I really loved this piece about the necessity — and the good wastefulness — of beauty. “It’s not my business to assign value to myself or my creations as a writer or a painter. …My task is to live.”
5. And finally, this is such a cool way to think about our stuff.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 🎧

Zero Waste Home, by Bea Johnson

Quotable 💬

“The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God.”

― St. John of Damascus #

From the Community 🏠

If you signed up for our Spring Book Swap, check your inbox for an email from my assistant, Caroline — she’s assigned you your person! (I’m excited to send one of you a book… I’m torn between three book ideas to send you.)

Join Books & Crannies

Elsewhere📍

Tsh Oxenreider ☕️ @tsh

Back from 3 days camping w/ the fam & it was LOVELY–even during a downpour wherein we admitted it's finally time to replace our old tent (b/c no one likes to sleep in puddles). Also, replace "ocean" with "woods" & I thought of this article the whole time.

theonion.comMom Spends Beach Vacation Assuming All Household Duties In Closer Proximity To OceanNAGS HEAD, NC—Continuously doing laundry, cooking, or vacuuming in her family’s rented beach cottage this week, area mom Catherine Yardley has spent a much-needed vacation performing all her usual household chores while in closer proximity to the ocean, sources confirmed. “Isn’t it nice to just get …

Question For You to Ponder… 🤔

If our days were only 18 hours long, what would you eliminate?

Have a good weekend!

xo, Tsh

p.s. I’m in a buy-nothing season for Lent, but this, this, and this are on my treat-yo’self list as a reward for finishing my book manuscript in a few weeks (lately I’ve been living in overalls like it’s 1998).