5 Quick Things #340 🏕️
small creativity, a house full of books, camping hacks, & gathering
Hey there,
Later this afternoon we’re going camping. This is the peak time of year to camp in central Texas (well, now and the spring), and it’s just what we need right now… A few days ago Kyle and I had a quick coffee date where I unpacked with him a niggling feeling I couldn’t shake — nothing major, nothing to really be concerned about, just something I needed to diagnose so I could treat. I discern as I talk (or write), so I asked him for a few minutes before we started work so I could share with him my casserole of thoughts.
We sat on the coffee shop’s front porch, festooned with pumpkins artfully displayed, and as I glanced over to the now-familiar scene my eyes instinctively started watering. I’m depleted from beauty and nature, I realized. I need to soak in some beauty. That was it.
It was fortunate that we were already scheduled to go camping, but now I’m looking forward to it even more. I also made a commitment to listen to more music and fewer podcasts, to severely limit my current news intake, and to schedule in quick creative-outlet sessions as non-negotiable appointments. These small, conscious choices should help a little. …I’m already feeling much, much better.
5 Quick Things ☕️
1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! I’m chatting with my friend Christine Bailey (if you’re a long-time listener of my podcasts, you’ll remember her from the Simple days!). She and her husband run a regenerative farm AND host all sorts of community gatherings in their beautiful barn — we talk about farming as a family, homeschooling, hosting gatherings, beauty, and much more. I ended this chat feeling a lightness in my steps and a desire to create something similar with what I have available to me. (I’m still thinking about this conversation, weeks later.)
2. In my endeavor to add more small acts of creativity and beauty in my days, I’m ordering my friend Emily’s autumn-themed watercoloring books. I’ve had my eye on them for awhile, and this week’s conversation has given me the nudge to finally place an order. I’m eager to try it out (and probably order the winter or Christmas ones, too).
3. Earlier this week I read this piece on the simple notion that keeping a house full of books leads to increased literacy and other forms of intelligence (to me, file this under Common Sense): “Teenagers with only lower levels of secondary education, but who came from a home filled with books, ‘become as literate, numerate and technologically apt in adulthood as university graduates who grew up with only a few books’.” This is how I responded: “I completely believe it. When young parents ask me for early homeschooling advice, I tell them to start curating a good home library (used are great!) and keep it in the public spaces in the home. Then designate mandatory DEAR (drop everything and read) time once a day, where everyone reads for an hour. If you do this, you’ll be 90% of the way there for the earlier years (and heck, even the adolescent years if you’ve built this into a habit).”
4. This morning my neighbor friend and I met for morning coffee1, and we left deciding that it would love prudent and lovely to plan some sort of local gathering involving the work of our hands — as in, everyone come with some sort of project (painting, knitting, whittling, drawing), perhaps share some supplies, and let’s chat as we create our own things. No agenda other than good conversation and the use of our hands for pure enjoyment. It reminded me of a thing I went to years ago, when my kids were little: an overnight at a local lake house where everyone brought a project — sewing, scrapbooking, whatever — and we worked on them, simply taking in the company of other people while getting things done. I vote for more of this in our communities.
5. And finally, a few of my simple camping hacks (for short trips, 1-2 days long): 1. make a simple soup and freeze it, then use it as an ice block in your cooler — for dinner simply heat in a pot over a camp stove and serve; 2. I’m not a big fan of single-serving oatmeal packets in real life, but they are GOLD for camping breakfasts, 3. neck lights are lifesavers, 4. bring a deck of cards or a card game (we’re fans of Dutch Blitz), and 5. Turkish towels dry MUCH faster than standard towels — get a small set dedicated for camping so you don’t care how stained and dirty they get.
Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚
Adorning the Dark, by Andrew Peterson (a re-read for me, but I’ve been on a kick of his lately and the audiobook is fantastic)
Quotable 💬
“We can become aware of and limit our participation in activities that do not foster the freedom of thought that poetry and religious devotion require; I cannot watch television, for example, and write a poem. I might be inspired by something I hear or see on television, particularly in news interviews, but this is rare. The ordinary activities I find most compatible with contemplation are walking, baking bread, and doing laundry.”
― Kathleen Norris
Rhine River: Summer 2025 ⚓️
Join us next summer as we float down the Rhine River from Amsterdam to Zurich in our own boat — I’d love to have you on board!
What’s your opinion on fishing? 🎣
This question was entirely drummed up by my youngest son, who loves the finer arts of fishing. As for me, I’m somewhere between ‘meh’ and ‘I’d rather do literally anything else,’ and I see I’m in good company here.2
I went fishing once... it was meh: 41.6%
I enjoy it, but I don't do it much: 28.9%
I would rather do literally anything else: 28.7%
I get out to the water as much as I can: 0.6%
Find next week’s poll here.
Quick Links 🔗
Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔
What’s one small creative thing you could do this weekend to boost your mood?
Have a great weekend,
- Tsh
p.s. - This was quite the ride.
I promise I do more than drink coffee.
Though I’m a big fan of A River Runs Through It… does that count for something?
I would love to know more about your creative outlet sessions! Much of professional feels like it should be filling my creative bucket (it's a lot of writing), but I still feel a void. I've thought about building in short breaks to read beautiful poetry, write in my commonplace book, or something else. But flowing this into my calendar intentionally is tough!
Yes!! Love Emily and her workbooks. She's semi-local to us and her brick & mortar is STUNNING. We stock her workbooks, stickers, cards, etc. in our barn, and they sell out in an instant when we get a new batch in! (OHHH and the tea towels...beauty)