5 Quick Things #423 📖

falling in love, chicken parm, tons to read, & where should you live?

Just in time for school, I feel like my reading slump finally dissipated and I spent a good chunk of the second half of this summer with my nose in a book. …And it was delightful! I’m still finishing up my latest read, but I should finish up this weekend. 🤞

This next Tuesday is our first day of classes, and this year in my dual-credit Western civ humanities class we’re covering the middle portion of our three-year cycle: roughly 500-1650 A.D. I’m eager to dive into this time period because it’s usually so neglected in our modern education system (at least in the States)—yet it is wildly fascinating. We’re starting off with Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, a book I didn’t first read until I was an adult—and once I did, I thought about it for weeks afterwards. I’m excited to unpack it with them.

I tell my adolescent students that I teach from these Great Books not because I think they’ll fully understand them at age 16—but because I hope their interest is piqued enough to consider opening them again at age 36, when they’ll get so much more out of these classics. It’s a delight and honor to read these books alongside them!

The Novel Reader (1881), by Vincent Van Gogh #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. A few days ago I shared a list of 49 things I’m grateful for, having turned 49 on that very day. I cannot believe I’m now starting my 50th orbit around the sun… just the sound of that is so very strange to me. Insert ALL the clichéd reactions here.

2. Yesterday’s dinner was chicken parm using this recipe, which I’ve done about six times now. It’s become a favorite, both because it’s delicious (and carnivore enough for me), and because it’s so stinking easy. 10/10, would recommend.

3. Is the concept of “falling in love” written into our DNA? I appreciated this short piece about romance, romantic love, and what it says about the weight of glory on our shoulders and the design of God written on our human hearts: “[C.S.] Lewis believed that only in heaven will we be able to endure the full brilliance of the divine image in one another. Given eternity, we would have both the time and the capacity to bear the incredible weight of glory present in every person we meet. But not on Earth. For now, we are given only brief flashes—sudden stabs of romantic love: reminders of the eternal love story to come.”

4. Ruth Gaskovski and Peco are launching a fun new endeavor: Pocket Stack—analog, 4x6 print copies of Substack essay collections. What a fun idea! I completely endorse this creativity.

5. And finally, what state should I live in? I took this quiz, and it asked me about twelve different states, none of which were Texas… And yet my result? Apparently I should live in Texas. How about that.

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

My Best of Andrew Peterson playlist (especially this song on repeat, in honor of my son now away at college… 😭)

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Quotable 💬

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

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What did you do right after high school? 🎓

Even though I’m with the majority, I’m kinda surprised at how many of us are in the majority here… It would be interesting to cross this with our ages as well. Had I known about the concept of a gap year, I probably would have really benefitted from one—as a classic first-born good-grades girl, I was already burned out on classroom education before my first semester freshman year even started (and my giant state school didn’t exactly help). Alas… I had a pretty decent “gap year” of sorts not long after college, meeting my husband in a tiny eastern European country and all. 🥰

• College (or some other form of higher education): 85.8%

• Work: 6.8%

• Intentional gap year: 3.4%

• Something else: 2.6%

• Ministry: 0.9%

• Military: 0.5%

Find the next poll question here.

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Come to Italy With Me… 🍷

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Quick Links 🔗

• 📐 Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

• 🇮🇹 Come to Italy!

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What age do you feel? Why?

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Have a good weekend,

- Tsh

p.s. - Yeah, this all used to be woods.