5 Quick Things #383 🥩

novels, temp drops, favorite dates, & toddler meltdowns

Hi there,

It’s been one of those weeks with some sort of event almost every week night (even fun ones—we went to hear Fr. Mike Schmitz speak a few nights ago and it was wonderful). This, plus last weekend having gone camping, next weekend being Hallowtide, and the following weekend Kyle and me going camping for our anniversary, has made for a full autumnal calendar lately. This is why I officially labeled tomorrow Domestic Day on the family calendar. Lord-willing, I’m not going anywhere except the coffee shop in the early morning for our weekend date, and perhaps a “quick” trip to Home Depot should the need arise (please no). The plan is cleaning, organizing, doing a house project or two, and saying NO THANK YOU to any outside invitations, no matter how lovely. Glory be, do I need a Domestic Day… I’m genuinely looking forward to it.

Boats at Zaandam (1871), by Claude Monet #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. A Drink With a Friend is back for a short fall season! For this series, I’m talking to folks about books: what’s one novel from childhood that’s stayed with you, and what’s one from adulthood? We can learn a lot about a person from what stories have shaped them—and we can learn a lot about that book, too. It made sense to me to kick off this series with my lovely daughter, Tate, so we both unpack which books have long held our hearts dear.¹

2. Hoo boy, I could write a whole reflective response on this thought-provoking piece on Dead Poet’s Society by

shyam

, but over the years, I’ve sadly grown to agree more and more, especially as a classical humanities high school teacher with a front row seat to the ever-growing decline of the true study of the humanities. I was obsessed with DPS as a teenager (I mean, baby Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke didn’t exactly hurt its case), but every time I watch it as an adult, it becomes more and more performative, about the aesthetics and vibes, than it does about saying something actually true, good, and beautiful about literature. “The film is less a failed defense than a cultural symptom. It reveals a collective desire: we want the humanities, but we want them easy.”

3. We’re still in shorts and sandals season over here, but that’s normal—in fact, most of the time it doesn’t get chilly around here until the day after Halloween. Like, literally the day after. This is me, officially placing a bet for next weekend… It’ll finally get cool on November 1, just in time for All Saint’s Day. I’ll report back.

4. A current favorite date night: dinner at the wildly good BBQ restaurant in the beloved local grocery store, while sitting out on the upper deck with a deck of cards. Ah yes, we’ve come to the stage in our marriage when we go to the grocery store for our dates (and hey, bonus: we can pick up a few things before heading home, thus saving ourselves the extra errand).

5. And finally, toddlers having meltdowns for the stupidest reasons (language warning).

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

The Hardacres

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Quotable 💬

“Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

- Pope St. John Paul II

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What would be the hardest to go one week without? 🌳

I so wish I could answer ‘going outside,’ and that would indeed be my second answer. But if I’m honest, my real answer is coffee. Alas. (I already have a sense what my next Lenten fast might comprise of. Sigh.)

• Going outside: 48.3%

• Your phone: 23.4%

• Coffee: 18.6%

• Driving a car: 9.7%

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 the next pilgrimage: Scotland!

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What do I need to say no to? What do I need to say yes to?

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Have a great weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - The not-AI French detective in charge of the recent Louvre heist. (The comments are hysterical… le LARP. 💀)

p.p.s. - So it turns out that was just a passer-by, not the detective—but I’m with everyone here.

1. Annoyingly, we had this conversation in full the week prior and the technology didn’t work for us, so we had to re-record it a second time. …Womp womp.