5 Quick Things #396 ❄️

endless winters, medieval taverns, third places, & say less (and get on with it)

Hi there,

As I type this we’re waiting on my mom to arrive—she’ll (hopefully) be able to alter Tate’s wedding dress, which has finally arrived and in which my daughter looks absolutely beautiful. Seeing her in the dress makes it so real! My mind is still blown that in 3.5 months I’ll have a married kid.

My mother-of-the-bride dress is also on a hanger; I’ve decided to wait to try it on at the same time. I think I love it, but we’ll see… As a shortie, clothing often fits me funkily. Here’s hoping!

Along with that, we’ve decided on the photography, food, and drinks, and at least who the vendors are for all the other stuff—I imagine all those other details will come fast and furious over the next few months. I’m grateful that, so far, this is a very “it takes a village” sort of wedding: one of her former high school teachers is doing the flowers, part of the centerpieces are hand-me-downs from a friend’s wedding this past summer, the reception emcee (not really a DJ; Tate’s making playlists instead) is a longtime family friend, and along with (hopefully) altering the dress, my mom is also baking the cake (she used to do this professionally). It’s a beautiful thing to witness.

I’m trying to enjoy the process, knowing it’s going quickly and it’ll be my one time as the mother of the bride. I’m super grateful Tate’s about as low-key and flexible as they come, and that so far, this is going to be a beautiful celebration. But by golly, does the Wedding Industry™ want you to think you need a ton of expensive stuff to, you know, get married—that thing people have been doing for millennia. Navigating the whole thing these days requires keeping your wits about you.

Snow Scene at Argenteuil, by Claude Monet (1875) #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. In case you missed it, this week I published a stream-of-consciousness essay essentially singing a paean about my favorite third place (while I was at said third place): “Kyle comes in the front door, plaid shirt and bed-beard, and sees me still talking with Katherine so he walks to the counter to claim his coffee. By the time he sits down across from me, Alex and his wife Cora with their toddler Cece have claimed the table next to us. With Anne and her gaggle of friends at one end and us on the other, as well as the nice tech developer-guy (Steve? I want to say that’s his name) who always asks me how my son’s college applications are coming along sitting in-between, we are now a row of regulars, all in one conversation admitting that we are clearly here to prepare for cabin fever.”

2. We are die-hard All Creatures fans around here, and are thrilled that season six is now out (we’re trying to savor it slowly). I loved this piece from Julie Kilcur about not only why it’s so good, but what real-life lessons we can take away from this great series (obviously originating from real-life memoirs from a country vet): “Even if your day-to-day tasks lend themselves more to the cerebral, doing physical work is important to our souls as we fight an increasingly contested reality that we are wholly embodied creatures who exist in the material world with bodies that are meant for loving and clapping and cleaning up and clinking glasses and climbing mountains and swimming in the ocean and ladling soup into bowls and digging in the dirt and holding wriggling children in one hand and a well-worn read aloud in the other.”

3. Even though it was far from an “endless winter” around here this past week, this essay from The Culturist about the meaning behind Narnia’s endless winter read like good timing. It all has to do with what evil actually is—and it’s not what most people think of it: “St. Augustine, drawing from both Christianity and neoplatonic philosophy, teaches that evil is not real. In other words, evil is only real like a hole in the ground is real. As a hole is a lack of the ground, so too is evil a lack of the good. And just as the hole cannot exist without the ground, so too can evil not exist without the good. In other words, evil is like darkness to light, evil is a lack of something.”

4. My friend Katie Kimball is a cooking teacher extraordinaire, and after years of teaching her beloved online class for kids, she’s now got one for her teenagers. If you’re looking for a solid cooking class for your adolescents—either as a homeschool elective or as a genuinely-useful life class for your adults-in-the-making, right now she’s got a free sneak-peek at the class through this Monday (along with a bonus class about parenting teens). It’s long been our goal to launch our kids out of the house knowing how to make ten meals from scratch, and they’re well on their way... If you feel daunted by that prospect, a tool like Katie’s wise guidance could be useful.

5. And finally, speaking of… I’m back with my favorite deep-diver of really old recipes! This one is a classic: what it was like in a medieval tavern.

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman

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Quotable 💬

“Maybe ye don’t know it, Mr. Herriot, but this is the best time of your life.” “Do you think so?” “Aye, there’s no doubt about it. When your children are young and growin’ up around ye—that’s when it’s best. It’s the same for everybody, only a lot o’ folk don’t know it and a lot find out when it’s too late. It doesn’t last long, you know.”

- from James Herriot’s The Lord God Made Them All¹

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You’ve got three hours of free time. What do you do?🚶‍♀️

What a bunch of nerds we all are. …But yeah, that’s my go-to first answer, too. Though if I were to answer literally right now, I’d for sure take a nap. The crazy weather has made me so sleepy lately, and I’m positively dragging by the afternoons this week.

• Read a book: 55.2%

• Time outside: 16.2%

• Make something: 14.5%

• Take a nap: 7.8%

• Hang with a friend: 6.3%

Find the next poll here.

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Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This summer’s family-friendly pilgrimage is the historic Highlands of Scotland — we’ll explore the Isle of Skye, attend the Highland Games, wander through castles and farmland, and more. I’d love you to join me and my family!

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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 were you doing this time last year? What do you have to be grateful for in light of that?

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Have a great week,

- Tsh

p.s. - Please don’t. Hesitate to ask.

1. Hat tip to Julie Kilcur, whose piece about All Creatures I also linked to!