5 Quick Things #343 🍁

unnplugging, real food, loving our neighbors, & savoring autumn

Hey there,

What a week, right? Regardless how you feel about the outcome of the election, I think we can all agree: we are all glad it’s over! There was such a palpable sense of relief in my bones on Wednesday morning; a bounce in my step and a lightness in my shoulders… Sure, I’m sleep deprived and I’ve been rather distracted (truly, I’ve gotten so little done), but huzzah for no more incessant political text messages, spam calls, and ads. That’s a win for all of us! 🇺🇸

I have so many thoughts about the election results, about the response from various pockets of society, and about what it all says about the state of our culture overall — but all these thoughts are a fairly jumbled mess at the moment. I may share them later once I untangle them (we’ll see), but as for now, many other folks are saying much more cogent thoughts more coherently than I could, so I’ll let them spearhead those musings.

…In the meantime, I’ll be here noticing the leaves falling on my front lawn, listening to the country music blaring from the masons next door fixing the old stone wall dividing our property from our neighbors’, swinging my kettlebells, praying for my cousin and her newborn, and ekeing out another scene in my novel. A zeitgeist-focused journalist God has not made me, that’s for sure. But, like all of us, I’m called to do the work in front of me of loving my neighbors well. That remains true regardless of our politics.

Willie Gillis in College (1946), by Norman Rockwell #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! I’m chatting with my old friend Erin Loechner about unplugging as a lifestyle choice, both for us as adults and for our kids. She’s got kids a few years younger than mine, but we’re both in lock-step with our ethos of letting our kids be kids. We get into the rebellion of not giving our kids smartphones, why it’s important for local friends to do this together en-masse, and how to live fully without instagram, incessant smartphone-checking, and other forms of swimming against the current.

2. Regardless how you voted, I hope you’re a bit more hopeful about the idea of a future with less junk in our modern-day version of food. I know I am! I’ve been a bit “crunchy” for most of my adult life (and definitely during my years as a parent), but since I’ve gone carnivore I’ve gone even deeper into learning about the craziness of what we allow in our food. As an avid international traveler, I’m more than ready to feel the way I feel when I eat the food in Italy, in Thailand, in Turkey, in… well, just about everywhere else but in the U.S. Let’s return to real food! (btw, Dr. Ken Berry is one of my favorite carnivore doctors online, in case you’re interested in learning more — here’s one of his latest live chats — language warning.) p.s. Joel Salatin has been recruited — let’s go!

3. If you’re outside the U.S. and are surprised at the election results — or heck, if you’re an American and are surprised at the results — I really appreciated this perspective from

Konstantin Kisin

. I nodded my way through his short list.

4. Kyle and I had such a lovely anniversary getaway last weekend, and most surprising to me was the highlight of our time: squirreling away at an off-the-beaten-track coffee shop and watercoloring together. It was so therapeutic, such a great passive activity for good conversation, and all-together relaxing on a drizzly autumn day. I’m already eager to find a good excuse to do this again. Maybe this will become a new Sunday afternoon activity for me.

5. And finally — if you’re in similar shoes to me, there are now three people within a block’s radius of our house already festooned with Christmas lights. I totally get feeling an eagerness for the holidays! But I also really love this slower fall season, these weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and then Advent, when we’ll then have plenty of time to ease in to the Christmas spirit. For now, I’ve left our pumpkins out on our front porch, I’m keeping up our autumn leaf garlands on our windows, and I’m keeping lit my fall-scented candles. (Related: this has been a good ambience video in the backdrop of my work day this week.)

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

The new season of Great British Baking Show! It’s delightful, as always (though I’m so sad about the last two contestants who’ve left…)

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Quotable 💬

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

― G.K. Chesterton

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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!

Switzerland, by Anneke Hut

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What's the best thing about November? 🍁

As I mentioned last week, I absolutely love November. It’s the quiet middle child between October and December; it just sits here and does its job well. Except for the Black Friday sales, I’d say I love every one of these reasons (even football, of which I do not follow, because it’s just fun to have on in the background).

• Football: 2%

• Thanksgiving: 56%

• Cooler Weather: 28.20%

• Christmas on its way: 13%

• Black Friday sales: 1%

Find next week’s poll here.

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Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🛶 Join me along the Rhine River

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

Continuing the November theme: what are three small things you’re grateful for right now?

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Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Measured in centuries.