5 Quick Things #361 🧳

good stories, conversion stories, packing light, & flowers

Hey there,

I’m currently on a flight to a conference, where I’ll be hanging out for a few days. What is it about airplanes where I can get so much done? There’s just something about forced focus, where no one needs me, no one’s expecting anything of me, and I have limited options (and for me, no wifi on purpose). It’s on flights where I tend to get more writing done than is usually possible… If only I could crack the code of how to implement whatever it is on an airplane that helps me focus in my ordinary coffee shop or kitchen table work mode.

Due to current full plate-status in my life this week, this will be another short newsletter… such is the spring season for me, per usual. Onward!

Fishing in the Spring, by Vincent Van Gogh (1887) #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. New episode of A Drink With a Friend! I chat with Millie Florence, a young author who recently published her first middle-grade novel, Beyond Mulberry Glen, with Waxwing Books. We chat about alternative education, following your skills and interests during the adolescent years (and how homeschooling is a boon for this), the process of getting a novel published, what makes a good story, and more.

2. Kyle is really good at bringing me flowers — he has since year one of our marriage, and does so every couple months just because (which is the best reason, in my opinion). I’m not sure why, but I tend to prefer the inexpensive flowers, the daisies, the carnations, the seasonable bouquets from Trader Joe’s. Give me a sweet sprig of daisies over two dozen roses any day… Plus, they tend to last forever. Yesterday I finally composted a bouquet of lovely carnations Kyle brought home over three weeks ago from a quick run to the grocery store.

3. Last fall I flew up to Ohio to record a conversation with JonMarc Grodi, the long-running host of Coming Home, a lovely show on EWTN. It’s now live! I share my story of becoming Catholic after a lifetime of evangelicalism (plus a brief stint as an Anglican). I was honored to unpack the details of how God moved in our family’s life.

4. I’m only traveling for two days, yet I still tend to travel light even for short trips — I love having everything in one small backpack, tucked under the seat in front of me (it’s actually the same backpack I also use for much of my international traveling). My key tip? Coordinate all clothes so that they all “go” together. I’m currently wearing the one pair of shoes I’ll need the entire time, and they work with both jeans and dresses; I’m also wearing the one pullover/cardigan I need for when the A/C blasts, and it works over both the t-shirt I’m wearing and the dresses in my bag; and I’m also wearing all the jewelry I need (one small pair of earrings, one necklace). Learn what colors and cut of clothes work on you, and lean into them — and embrace the reality that no one will remember the details of what you wear, so long as it’s event appropriate. And bring laundry sheets, just in case.

5. And finally, won’t someone pay attention to my theology beard? “Maybe if you had a Theology Beard, you could do theology the way it was meant to be done: online.”

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

An Inspector Calls, by JB Priestley (this is for one of my classes, but it’s also a great short film starring David Thewlis)

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Quotable 💬

“It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.”

― Albert Einstein

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You have to lose one forever. Which one is it? 🎬

I could live without movies. I could live without chocolate. I could figure out a way to live without the internet (sometimes it actually sounds rather nice). But you can pry my coffee from my cold, dead hands.

• Movies: 40%

• Internet: 24.8%

• Chocolate: 19%

• Coffee & Tea: 15%

• Music: 2%

Find next week’s poll here.

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June 3-13, 2025 🎒

Join my family and me as we amble down the Rhine River this summer — come along as we witness Cologne Cathedral, the Abbey of St. Hildegard of Bingen, the Gutenberg Bible, and beyond:

Amsterdam (2013), by Henrieta Maneva #

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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… 🤔

What are three small things you’re grateful for today?

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Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Ants solving a geometric problem.