5 Quick Things #379 🌞

morning games, marriages, social media break-ups, & Niue

Hi there,

My current book manuscript is due to the publisher in five days, so I’m near the end! One more short 5QT as I run this last mile in the marathon… Thanks again for your prayers. And thanks again to my daughter

Tatum Oxenreider

for writing last week’s newsletter.

September Fete, Pontoise (1872), by Camille Pissarro #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. Even though I’ve barely done anything but write my book the past month, I still start my mornings (post reading and prayer) with my “erdles.” This is the shorthand name given in our family to all our Wordle-like games each of us play. My routine is first Yeardle, followed by Wherdle, then the classic NYT Wordle, followed by Connections, Strands, —then a brief respite while my youngest, Finn, plays Pips (I’m not a fan) —then he hands me back my phone where I finish up with Flagle, GeoConnections, and then finally GeoGrid. The whole routine takes me ten-ish minutes.

2. I’ve hardly had time to do anything more than write, but I absolutely bookmarked this chat with Jason and Crystalina Evert (here it is on video)—I’m only about twenty minutes in, but it’s excellent so far.

3. Speaking of one of my erdles, GeoConnections—in playing it few days ago I was introduced to the New Zealand territory called Niue, which I’d never heard of in my life. I ended up doing a weird deep-dive on the little island: its name means “behold the coconut,” it was the first territory to be covered in WiFi (back in 2003!), as well as the first entire country designated a dark-sky territory, its entire national debt was paid off in 2016, and there are two public schools for the entire place. Who knew?

4. Again with the hardly doing anything else, but I listened to the first half of this episode from Cal Newport when I needed a brain break from all my theology research, and he made some compelling points for truly and finally getting off social media (I’m just referring to the first part of the episode; I haven’t listened to the whole thing).

5. And finally, where to find a Christian husband—

matthew pierce

has ideas: “Walk over there. He’s behind the tree. No, don’t go right up to him—he’ll run away. He was homeschooled and he’s very shy. Listen to me very carefully: sit down next to the tree and start talking in a soft voice about Narnia.”

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

For my book-writing I just reread Stunned by Scripture: How the Bible Made Me Catholic, by John Bergsma—it’s an excellent primer on the topic

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Quotable 💬

“There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”

- G.K. Chesterton

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Which fall flavor do you enjoy the most? 🍁

I like a lot of these, and for most of my life I would have fairly handily answered cinnamon—but this year, for whatever reason, I started developing a skin sensitivity to it. I have no idea where it came from! And it makes me rather sad… So I’ll go with pumpkin spice, which indeed has a smidge of cinnamon in it, but not too terribly much.

• Apple: 27.5%

• Cinnamon: 23.6%

• Pumpkin Spice: 22.6%

• Maple: 13.6%

• Caramel: 10%

• Vanilla: 3%

Find next week’s poll here.

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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. Come on along!

St. Monan's Harbour by Graham Turpie #

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Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Join the next pilgrimage!

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

If you were going to write a book, what would it be about? (…should you?)

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Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Definitely a good Venn diagram.