5 Quick Things #385 🪄

remote islands, storytime, going on fun dates, & Molly Weasley

Nov 07, 2025

Hi there,

As you’re reading this, Kyle and I are out of town camping for the weekend, celebrating twenty-three years of marriage. Twenty-three! It’s hard to believe it’s been that long—and in just a few years, we’ll have been married longer than not (I was twenty-five, he was twenty-four).

As I’m writing this, it’s a bit earlier in the week and I’ve got a heck-ton to do for us to pull out of the driveway tomorrow morning, so I’ll be moving right along here.

But hooray for marriage!

*Noon - Rest from Work (after Millet)*, by Vincent Van Gogh (1890) #

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. In this week’s Drink With a Friend episode, I chatted with Faith Moore, a writer and podcaster of the popular show Storytime for Grownups, as well as an avid reader. She shares with me her choice of a favorite book from childhood, as well as one of her all-time favorites as an adult (it’s one of my favorites, too).
2. Last year I wrote a list of nine true things about marriage, and one year later, I’m happy to attest I still believe them true: “Bring a deck of cards to your next coffee shop date and play a game or three. Watch an old-school movie together you haven’t seen in decades, just for fun. Try a new hobby together, even when (especially when?) life is chronically busy.”
3. A few weeks ago while doing my ‘erdles’ I learned about the Tristan de Cunha, the world’s most remote island—and apparently the algorithms picked up on this because this showed up in my feed and I was duly fascinated.
4. Molly Weasley is arguably my favorite character in the Harry Potter series, so I was delighted by these words of wisdom from Kathryn Haines: “Our convictions of homemaking and hospitality are easy to live out when our homes are beautiful and neatly ordered, but Mrs. Weasley shows us that not only is it possible in less-than-ideal circumstances, it’s necessary. As homemakers, we can wage our own war on darkness and despair by cultivating beauty, celebrating merrily, and creating order where chaos once reigned.”
5. And finally, here in 5QTs during November I’m listing seven things I’m grateful for, one for each day (which is a practice I already do each morning)1. So: beautiful fall weather finally arriving in central Texas, that first morning hour while it’s still dark and quiet and I’m the only one up, British murder mysteries, my green velvet chair, backyard chickens, diner coffee mugs, and my daughter having met the man she’s going to marry (in the most unexpected way).

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

A Man on the Inside (such a charming show!)

Quotable 💬

“The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”

- G.K. Chesterton

What’s the worst Halloween candy? 🍬

I’m not a big candy fan to begin with, so I’d pass on every one of these. But if I had to pick my least favorite, I’m going with Twizzlers. Who’s ever in the mood for plastic rope?

Circus Peanuts: 33.2%
Good n’ Plenty: 19.3%
Necco Wafers: 14.9%
Candy Corn: 11.4%
Tootsie Rolls: 7.5%
Bit o’ Honey: 7.5%
Twizzlers: 6.3%