5 Quick Things #376 🏡

senior years, short paragraphs, fleeting time, & movie homes

Sep 05, 2025

Hi there!

A little reminder that these 5QTs are currently brief as I focus on my current book manuscript…

*Walk Along the Banks of the Seine Near Asnieres* (1887), by Vincent van Gogh #

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. ICYMI, earlier this week I shared a letter I wrote to the parents of my students last year: “Real education is the formation of loving the right things the right way, and your goal as a parent should be to help this happen for your child.”
2. My second-born and I visited a potential college yesterday, and it's hard to believe I have another senior in high school in the house (didn't we just do this a few years ago? ...Oh right, that's how this works.) From my years of both parenting and teaching adolescents, I've come to the conviction that senior years are often ...let's just say they're time not spent well. Most young adults this age have plenty of class credits, and they're so burned out on school they become listless and restless, aching for some purpose to their days. I say let this be a sort-of gap year. Take the credits they need, yes, but then get a job, volunteer, find a mentor or apprenticeship, and/or learn a new skill. Go on a mission trip. Research and apply to places for your next steps, but don't be chained to a traditional senior year. Do something unconventional with these few rare months.
3. An observation as I write this book (and actually is one I’ve had the previous few books I’ve written, too): We modern readers actually enjoy shorter chapters. Not sure if this is because of the onset of the blog post circa 2004 (and all the forms of quick online writing has morphed into since then), but we appreciate when a book deftly says what it needs to say—beautifully, yes, but with brevity. I appreciate Dickens and Dostoevsky as much as the next gal, but I tip my hat to Anthony Doerr’s one-page chapters and Peter Kreeft’s ability to say something profound in one paragraph that would have taken an 18th-century philosopher three pages.
4. As I look at my next few months filled with helping a daughter plan a wedding and helping a son choose a college, I needed to read this beautiful piece from
Annelise Roberts
—not because I’m living it, but because I did live it, and because it’s true even if it doesn’t always feel like it: “I will miss being the center of my children’s world in this fleeting time when my world revolves around them. I will miss these days of being enveloped in an intensity that was never meant to last, but is mine to love.”
5. And finally, from
Natalie Catalina
, 40 of the coziest movie homes — this is one of those pieces I had to force myself to stop reading because I was using it as a personal distraction from having to write hard paragraphs in my book. (The only reason to watch Something’s Gotta Give is that house in the Hamptons, in my opinion.)

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

This Reading Adventure playlist (good for both background music while writing and while teaching a class on ancient literature)

Quotable 💬

“It is not your business to succeed, but to do right; when you have done so, the rest lies with God.”

― C.S. Lewis

How do you like to learn new things? 🤔

If you’re like me, your first reaction to this question was, “Well, it depends on what I’m learning.” History? Reading. How to cook a steak? Video. What’s what under the hood of my car? Person. The best way to write that dang paragraph I keep avoiding? Trial and error.

Reading: 44.9%
Taught by a person: 32.1%
Video: 14%
Trial and error: 8.8%

Find next week’s poll here.

Join Me in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Next summer’s family-friendly pilgrimage is the historic Highlands of Scotland — we’ll be visiting castles, exploring the Isle of Skye, attending the Highland Games, and more. I’d love you to join me and my family!