5 Quick Things #414 🎈

birthdays, cold brew, fireworks, & awkwardness

Hi there,

Today (well, the day before you’re actually reading this) my youngest has turned sixteen years old, and we have a family gathering in a few hours: we’re walking to the neighborhood pizza place for dinner, then returning home for games and ice cream. Soon he’ll host a friend gathering to celebrate the milestone (his plan: cheap canvases and paints to follow along a Bob Ross episode; I’ll add the drop cloth on the couch), but in the meantime, tonight it’s just the grandparents, the parents and siblings, and the newly-christened brother-in-law. [Insert deep thought about how the kids are all growing up too fast, even though that seems to be all I write about here these days.]

Today (the actual today you’re reading this) Kyle’s briefly heading out of town for a quick trip, and both boys have summer jobs to attend to—so after my morning writing, I’m tackling the first items on my summer house project list. If the weather cooperates I’ll be painting some wooden cabinet doors destined for our bathroom’s open shelves (it’s only taken us 9.5 years to get to this point), then potentially decluttering my wardrobe if the spirit moves. I’m craving a return to a summer capsule wardrobe, seeing as 90% of the time I wear the same thing anyway. We shall see.

Huzzah for summer’s (lack of) routines and rhythms! School—what’s that?

Summer on the Lake, by John Joseph Enneking (1841–1916) #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. Yesterday I shared my latest State of the Newsletter “address”—it’s been literal years since I’ve written one of these, yet I felt the need for my own sake (and then it’s nice to share the resulting thoughts with you all). I’m thankful for each and every comment you’ve left about your Commonplace origin, and I also appreciate those of you taking the time to take the included poll (wrong answers and all).

2. When the calendar flipped to June, the High Holy Season of Cold Brew began. Here’s what I do: I take a half-gallon mason jar and insert one of these, add one cup of coarse-ground fresh coffee, then fill it with 7-8 cups of filtered water. Let it sit at least for at least eight hours in the fridge, then enjoy as a concentrate all week long (I make a half-size decaf version in a separate jar for the afternoons). I usually drink it black with ice, but occasionally I’ll add a splash of straight heavy cream (look for a one-ingredient offering at Costco!) and 2-3 tiny drops of a homemade sugar-free syrup.

3. I thoroughly enjoyed Emily Stimpson Chapman’s recent thoughts about a theology of awkwardness, and what it means to be real people living real lives, unencumbered by the technology that strips away the gifts of human awkwardness from us: “Awkwardness matters more than most of us realize. It is what so many of us spend our whole lives running from. We are terrified of saying and doing the wrong thing, coming off the fool, finding ourselves humiliated through our own inadequacy, and not measuring up. Awkwardness is also what makes so many forms of technology—artificial and otherwise—so appealing. It promises us protection from awkwardness—from uncomfortable conversations, badly written emails, poor decisions about paint colors, encounters that don’t go as planned, disappointment in friendship, rejection in love, and so many of the messy moments in romance, work, and life that expose us for the imperfect beings we are.”

4. Even though we rarely go camping during the summer months here in Central Texas, I know it’s the dawn of the major camping season for a lot of you. So, our foray at a local park last weekend reminded me of this quick tip, in case it’s the food that feels daunting to you: make a simple soup ahead of time, then freeze it in a 64-ounce container. Let that serve as part of the ice in the cooler for the rest of your perishables. Bring your Instant Pot, because there’s zero shame in that game, and a few hours before dinner, plug it in and pop that now semi-frozen soup into the pot (which fits perfectly). Let it warm up until dinner, et voilá: a no-fuss already-made meal to eat in paper bowls with disposable spoons. (Yes, this is “car camping” and not hard-core backpacking, but I presume this is the most reasonable style of camping for most of you reading this.)

5. And finally, a few days ago one of my sons (the birthday boy) and I went down a memory lane rabbit hole of rewatching some OK GO music videos… I first encountered them about twelve years ago and was entranced by their creativity. Glad to see they’re still on their a-game!

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📺

Patience, on PBS (well, two episodes in… So far I like it though)

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Quotable 💬

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

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What’s your favorite summertime activity? 🏖️

An impossible question, I know, and one whose answer changes for me by the day. Overall, I’d say simply being outdoors, but with a huge caveat that my favorite outdoor activity is swimming because, hello, Texas… Honestly, I love it all. I know August is scorched earth around here, but overall I’m Team Summer, big time. (My Oregonian husband feels very much otherwise.)

• Being outside (including camping): 43.7%

• Travel: 18.2%

• Reading indoors: 17.8%

• Swimming: 11.8%

• Grilling & eating outdoors: 8.5%

Find the next poll here.

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Scotland: It’s Almost Closed! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

There’s only a few more spots left and we need to close registration soon… If you’re on the fence, sign up NOW (as in, this week). We’d love to still have you join us!

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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’s one thing you could bravely say no to right now? What’s one thing to bravely say yes to?

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Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Barcelona, you win.