5 Quick Things #431 🥞

analog hours, reflect on your death, good breakfasts, & a human institution

Oct 23, 2026

What’s been more surprising since our middle son jaunted off to college this fall hasn’t been his absence (though I miss him terribly)—it’s been the reality of our youngest son being the only one remaining. As the lone family member with extroverted tendencies, he’s left with no one but li’l ol’ Mom and Dad with whom he can unpack all his thoughts—and unpack them he does. It’s not like he was constantly chatting when his siblings were still home (though he has always been a chatterbox), but there’s something about the quiet of the house now that drives him to want to verbally process his life all the more.

Right now, I’m doing my best to soak it in, knowing how much I’ll miss all our off-the-cuff conversations in just a few years’ time. It’s already been such a wild ride experiencing your own flesh-and-blood becoming adults and taking their next steps out into the world as God intended.

What a trip parenting is... If you do a good job, you raise these humans you think you can’t live without to one day live well without you. Jesus, take the wheel.

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. This week’s episode of Drink—here I’m chatting with Leah Libresco Sargeant, who uses the delightful turn of phrase “a biography, but for things,” among others. We get into living in urban environments, what makes a place feel like home, why we’re drawn to the books we’re drawn to, and more—and like all guests, she’s sharing two books and two places that have shaped her.
2. I appreciated Heather Cadenhead’s recent essay for The Rabbit Room about creating what she calls ‘analog hours’ akin to a form of intermittent fasting: “All I know is that I want to change myself—these old ideas about changing the world have faded for me. …We must change the world by changing ourselves.”
3. A new trailer for season six of The Chosen just dropped …and it’s going to be a doozy.
4. Oof, I felt what Connor Patrick Wood describes here hard when I first became Catholic almost six years ago—we were warned this may happen, but it was still a tough phase to walk through, especially coming from a vibrant Anglican parish. As he says, “…part of maturity in Catholicism is realizing that the Church is perhaps the most human institution in the world, which means it’s always falling apart. Each new generation has to rescue it and be rescued by it anew.” I’m happy to report that becoming part of the Ordinariate has more than made up for it, though, in no small part because it’s full of fellow converts who bring the best of Protestant church life into a Catholic context. (I highly recommend searching for one in your area if you’re feeling similar.)
5. And finally, why Halloween is a great time to reflect on death… in a very good way (I’ve actually got an essay coming your way this Monday, and it’s all about this—so consider me sharing this podcast episode an early nudge to pique your curiosity).

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📖

I Cheerfully Refuse, by Leif Enger1

Quotable 💬

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”

- C.S. Lewis

What’s your typical weekday breakfast? 🍳

No surprise to anybody here, I’m firmly in Camp Meat & Eggs, unless I’m in Camp Nothing which happens from time to time (which usually means my first meal of the day is then some sort of meat and eggs, it’s just closer to lunchtime). When I went carnivore over two years ago now, I thought I’d miss the cereals and what-not, but I really don’t. I already barely ate any pastries, since gluten-free versions are hardly worth their effort or cost. I do miss good pancakes, because the carnivore versions are a poor excuse for food, in my opinion. I do, however, enjoy a good protein coffee smoothie now and then, and if you count dairy as carnivore (which is a weirdly-debated topic out there), then it passes muster. And I count it as carnivore.

Cereal, granola, oatmeal, etc.: 29.9%
Meat & eggs: 26.4%
Bagel, muffin, toast, etc.: 15.6%
Nothing: 14.5%
Smoothie: 12.5%
Pancakes, waffles, etc.: 1.1%