5 Quick Things #344 🔥

community art, bonfires, holiday prep, & screen-free fun

Hey there,

A few evenings ago I gathered with a group of women from our parish as we enjoyed the cool November air with drinks and dinner. On more than one occasion, the conversation turned to Advent — as in, it’s almost here. What in the world? It’s ridiculously cliché to talk about how time flies, but 2024 really does seem to have whooshed by. But here we are… As of today, Advent begins in 15 days, and thus, the beginning of the liturgical calendar once again (Advent is New Year’s Day, liturgically speaking).

I love Advent. It’s arguably my favorite season of the whole calendar, yet it’s a contradiction: It’s the preparation of Christmas, yet it’s also penitential. It’s during the height of the rest of world’s loud celebration, yet it calls us to inward quiet contemplation. It recognizes the upcoming hallelujah of the birth of Christ, yet it focuses on the pregnant “not yet” of the real, broken world we live in while we wait for all to be made well.

Next week I’ll share some practicals my family and I have practiced over the years, but in the meantime, let this be my shameless (and your gentle) reminder to order a copy of Shadow & Light if you haven’t yet. It’s my open-and-go devotion for families or individuals to walk through the season with a mercifully short reading, daily music and classical art, and a reflection question the family could answer or contemplate on one’s own. It works for families with three-year-olds to ninety-three year-olds.

Here’s to continuing the November countdown! It continues to be one of my favorite months.

Autumn Landscape, by Vincent van Gogh (1885) #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! I’m chatting again with one of my best pals, Sarah Mackenzie — we chat about books, good storytelling, podcasts and newsletters we’re enjoying, holiday books we’re looking forward to, her annual Christmas School, and more.

2. A few weeks ago we splurged on a smokeless fire pit and it was been 100% worth the money. I love bonfires, but I don’t love my hair and clothes smelling like smoke the rest of the night… this fixes that issue (more or less). It’s been a solid purchase for our household this fall — 10 out of 10, would recommend.

3. Earlier this week I shared with Commonplace subscribers a short little reminder I also need these days: we adults need to play more. I’ve now opened it up for free subs to read, so perhaps it’s an encouragement to you as well: “God creates both from ex-nihilo and for pure enjoyment, and while we can’t create from nothing, he does invite us to re-create with him. I’d argue that when we don’t do it enough, we’re missing out on one of the gifts we’ve been given — it’s just sitting there, waiting for us to pick up and enjoy.”

4. Yesterday morning I bought tickets to a local theater’s production of It’s a Wonderful Life on stage. Here’s a friendly reminder to support your local artists and go to community holiday events this season! Orchestras, ballets, plays, bands… there’s so many options this time of year. Kid productions, too! Vote with your dollars the kind of community you want to live in — local art is a sign of flourishing, I say.

5. And finally — I truly love this list of 67 screen-free activities to do with kids. I remember writing about plenty of these in my former days as a blogger with littles, and I still agree with them (though our ‘basketball’ was ‘bowling down the hallway with balled-up socks and empty toilet paper tubes’).

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, by William Gay

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Quotable 💬

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

― G.K. Chesterton

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Advent: 15 Days! 🕯️

As mentioned above, Advent is just shy of two weeks from now… Avoid that last-minute panic of oh-shoot-it-starts-tomorrow and order your copy of Shadow & Light now:

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Do you dye your hair? 🧑‍🎤

I ask this question because I’ve let my hair go color-free for quite a while now, even though I used to mask it with color once I got my first sparkly strands in my early twenties. I’m used to it, but sometimes it still surprises me to look in the mirror — ah yes, I am aging. Which is a good thing! When I choose to remember that. It’s a privilege denied to many.

I want more and more people to let their gray hair just be, and these poll results make me happy. Many heads of hair turn silver earlier than people assume, simply because so many folks cover theirs up. …If more of us let our hair just do its thing, then it wouldn’t be as big a deal to still be on the young side with sparkly locks.

• No, and I have gray hair: 40%

• No, and I don’t (yet) have gray hair: 31.5%

• Yes, and I have gray hair: 20.8%

• Yes, and I don’t (yet) have gray hair: 7.7%

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: Summer 2025!

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

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

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Next Friday I’ll be in the air with my family en route to Oregon for the holiday week, so there’s no new installment of 5QT then. However, I do have a letter coming your way earlier in the week giving you those practicals about Advent, so be on the lookout!

Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Anyone else up for a silent book club?