5 Quick Things #416 ☀️

Roots, immaturity, embracing the heat, & nothing new under the sun

We’ve lived in our 1935 fixer-upper for ten years this September, and perhaps it will bless you (or demoralize you? depending on your situation) to know that we are still working on it. My husband, Kyle, is a former contractor and knows what he’s doing with every stage of home building (not that he particularly enjoys every stage, mind you), which has saved us a ton of money—but it’s also meant we’ve traded money saved for time spent. Basically: it’s taking us forever.

This past week, he installed the last of our window replacements. Yes, it was cool that all of our 24 windows (a heckuva lot for a 1,400-square-foot cottage!) were original, single-pane, and that old-school wavy glass style, but they were horribly inefficient and mostly in horrible shape, all the way from the frame to the glass itself. We like to use old materials whenever possible, but with windows we had to upgrade to modern for a bajillion reasons—and in sticking with our overall ethos of respecting the bones and aesthetic of its 1930s structure, it still looks like the era from which it was raised. (And let me tell you, our heating and air bill approves.)

I’m so proud of Kyle’s ability to do every bit of our home renovation, and watching him install windows was no exception. Now we can proceed with finishing the siding replacement (we had to wait on the kitchen window; it’s complicated), then new trim and paint—and then on to what’s next on the list! It never ends. 🫠

It’s always slower to do it yourself, but the earned satisfaction is almost always worth it.

Old House, Easthampton, Long Island, by Frederick Childe Hassam (1919) #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. I have so many thoughts—and about a quarter of an essay draft written—on the topic Griffin Gooch brings up so eloquently here: why so many people are so immature these days. Hoo boy, do I have thoughts! Before I hit publish in the meantime (translation: I need to be mature and focus on my own book edits deadline), go forth and read his many gems, such as: “We don’t need maturity because it’s annoying that lots of dudes are sitting around playing video games; we need it because we need mature imago Deis who have the confidence to do what God designed them to do.”

2. I’m currently outside in the back yard of our coffee shop, and while it’s breezy at the moment, I know I’ll get gross and sweaty before too long. Last summer Kyle and I made a pact: We will not complain about the weather. And lo, it helped so much! We all already know Texas summers are brutal, and nobody likes the humidity, the mosquitos, the [fill-in-the-blank of your least-favorite hot-related thing], but complaining only makes it worse. We tell our kids this all the time; why would it be any different for us? I’m finding that embracing the hot season and all that comes with it—and not letting it deter me from being outside—has done wonders on my mental health. I look for ways to swim as much as I can, I keep my go-to bug spray (the only kind that works on me, whom bugs love) on me at all times, and I simply acknowledge the reality that I may take multiple showers in a single day. This mindset has helped me love where I live even more.

3. Write for your roots, says Joel Clarkson —oof, yes. It’s all too easy to despair about the rapidly increasing illiteracy of our modern culture (says the woman currently editing her next book manuscript clocking in at 103,000 words). But I say despair is a sin (really) because it’s believing the lie that God is not in control and His promises are not worthy of hope. …That aside, it’s also still so very worth it to write, and write long-form at that (and to read it, naturally!). As Joel says: “We believe that our purpose as creatives is to give people oxygen masks, but we’re not wearing one. We believe that we’re trying to connect everyone else to the source, even as we are unknowingly cutting ourselves off. Friends, before you can save others, you have to save yourself. Before you can call others to attention, you must cultivate that attention in your own heart, soul, and mind.”

4. Observation, which is the same observation I make several times a year (thus further proving my point): whatever the discourse du jour that people are talking about a lot at the moment—it’s truly the same topics people were talking a lot about a decade ago. Letting children be more free-range, not letting tech rule your life, not making trad life a LARP.... It’s all the same stuff we were talking about online when blogging was in its heydey and discussing stuff on the internet was still new. Hopefully that’s encouraging to you—that even in seemingly current topics like this, there’s nothing new under the sun.

5. And finally, Maile Silva has a new middle-grade book! A win for us all.

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller

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Quotable 💬

“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.”

-L. M. Montgomery

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Reminder: Polls will resume as soon as my book edits are submitted! Hopefully in the next few weeks.

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Upcoming Pilgrimages 📍

There may be one or two more spots on the Scotland trip left (we leave in less than a month now, so don’t delay!)—reach out to Select (info on that link) to find out details. But in the meantime... I truly cannot wait to share next summer’s pilgrimage with y’all. For those of you who’ve gone on a trip with me before: be watching your inboxes because you’ll find out first (hopefully in the next week or two), and you’ll get first dibs on spots! I have a feeling this one will fill up fairly fast, so sign up asap.

Note: If it helps your calendar-planning, the 2027 pilgrimage dates are June 14-24!

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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 hard thing can you do this week that the You one year from now will be really glad you did?

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Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Ouch.