5 Quick Things #159 🍂

Glass jars, an empty nest, cardinal virtues, & NEPKINS

Sep 25, 2020

Hey there,

I just returned from a morning walk with my doggo and I am fully aware that it is the first official week of fall. Anything below 90 here in Texas is a cause for celebration and I am here for it! Six more days and I give myself unbridled permission to head to our local pumpkin patch and start making my go-to homemade PSLs. 🎃

This week I installed this Chrome Extension and it made YouTube instantly more sane. I discussed this documentary in my high school leadership class, and I’m still mulling over the ramifications (though none of the info was new to me). And this app is giving me some insight into not only what I open on my phone, but how often (and when) I pick it up without even noticing. Eye. Opening.

In short: I’m looking forward to a weekend outside with minimal screens. 🙌

A paddleboarder on a canal in Amsterdam, Netherlands. #

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. Continuing our countdown in this last year of AoS, this post has received so. many. views. over the past decade-plus, it’s almost funny to me (as someone who’s just living her life, daily trying to figure this topic out).
2. Oh my goodness, I loved Robin’s sentimental reflection about the past few years and her four bits of wisdom about being a parent of young adults.
3. Today I’m sharing a fantastic conversation I had with YA writer Mitali Perkins, when we talked about rereading childhood favorites + what it was like to grow up as a child of immigrant parents.
4. Good, practical wisdom about how to deal with a friendship ‘quiet season.’
5. I laughed every time I watched this (and it gets me psyched for this!).

Quotable 💬

“It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.”

― Viktor Frankl #

Time Machine ⏰

Six (!!!) years ago this month we left for our round-the-world trip, and I wrote about our family’s all-too-frequent experience in saying goodbye, and what I’ve learned about keeping them healthy.