This Week's Miscellany (02/11/25)

London, Getting Old, Jane Austen, Rick Steves

I’m Haley. Book midwife (editor), author, and single mom of four.

Hello to new subscribers and welcome all to another edition of This Week’s Miscellany. TWM is full of my favorite things from around the web, typically trending literary.

This email is free for you to read, but took time and energy to create. Consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support my family and gain access to exclusive content:

If you’re a longtime subscriber, you know that I formerly did a round up of wonderful things on the internet: mostly literary, lots of Austen, with some little life updates.

I’d like to resurrect this endeavor, although I don’t think I’ll be able to get it out WEEKLY again for awhile. Bear with me. I am still settling in to the post-divorce new normal. (Realizing you’re a bit behind on, ahem, dramatic happenings in the Stewart household? Catch up here.)

---

A Few Updates:

London

As I mentioned in the last Substack I sent, I flew to Spain on my first post-divorce Christmas thanks to an unbeatable flight deal and sweet friends who invited me. For my first post-divorce Valentine’s Day, I’m flying to London. (This trip is for work, not merely to mentally survive a post-divorce holiday.) I’ll be on a panel at the Word on Fire Evangelisation and Culture UK Conference sharing about word on Fire Votive (February 21st and 22nd). But it just FEELS RIGHT to be going to a city I love on a day that would be a little bit sad.

(London, on a pilgrimage through England in 2022)

(P.S. If you are going to be at the conference PRETTY PLEASE let me know so I can say hello!)

I would love your recommendations for must-sees in London. Thanks to a pilgrimage I led to the UK in 2022, I’ve already done The Tower of London, Tyburn Convent, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, Kensington Gardens, St. Martin in the Fields, The Brompton Oratory, Daunt Books, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Museum (although I whirled through the last two and should probably go back). What did I miss? Tell me where to eat and what to see!

I’m Old

My son turned 16 yesterday. So I’m feeling very old and very grateful to have him in my life. He has been a comfort and a joy to me over the past horrible year and I hope for him to have a much better year being 16 than being 15. (I mean, it can’t be worse, right?)

Refi

I finished the refi of my house so that it will be in my name only and so that the mortgage is not on my ex-husband’s credit. I always find things like that stressful so it’s a relief to have it over even though I now have a much higher monthly mortgage due to higher rates than when we purchased in 2022. Honestly, paid subscribers to this Substack have made possible what would have been financially impossible (keeping my children in their home). I cannot begin to express my gratitude. That extra monthly buffer is everything for this newly single mom. (Thank you from the bottom of my heart.)

Links

Here’s a few things I loved reading lately!

I was lost in the cesspit of social media. Then Jane Austen showed me the way out. by Joel Snape

Eventually, I had an idea. In nutrition circles, there’s a strategy called “crowding out” your diet: adding in more and more healthy food until there’s simply no room for the junk. Eat four eggs at breakfast and an apple for elevenses, and a mid-morning custard cream doesn’t cross your mind. I decided to do the same with books: by committing to reading for two or three hours a day, I would leave myself with no time for online rage, recriminations and doom-scrolling. I would crowd out the Tweetstorms and embrace the literary greats, and everything would be fine.

Reader, it was not that easy.

As Fellow Pro-Lifers, We Are Begging Marco Rubio to Save Foreign Aid by

Leah Libresco Sargeant

, Matthew Loftus, Kathryn Jean Lopez, and Kristen M. Collier

Every day, PEPFAR helps about 430 pregnant women get an H.I.V. diagnosis early enough to reduce their viral load and prevent transmission to their babies. If PEPFAR’s work remains interrupted for the full 90-day foreign aid pause, an estimated 136,000 babies will be infected with H.I.V. at birth who otherwise would not be.

What Were the Lives of Medieval Women Like? by Erin Maglaque

Marie de France was a 12th-century poet, known for her collection of lais, narrative poems that celebrated courtly love. Julian of Norwich, an English anchorite walled into a cell in 1373, authored the spiritual tract “Revelations of Divine Love.” Christine de Pizan, a noblewoman at the French court, turned to writing after her husband died, and is best known today for her proto-feminist work, “The Book of the City of Ladies,” composed around 1405. And there is Margery Kempe, a 15th-century pilgrim and author of perhaps the first autobiography in English.

Rick Steves Refuses to Get Cynical About the World

You can travel as a tourist, a traveler or a pilgrim.

---

Speaking of pilgrims…

There are still more spots available for the pilgrimage I’m helping to lead this summer down the Rhine with

Tsh Oxenreider

and Mike and Alexandra Foley. My incredible priest, Fr. Tim Holeda is joining us to offer daily Mass and offer spiritual support. And I’m going to take my 13yo daughter, Lucy, on this one! I’m really excited to share this experience with her.

(Wonderful pilgrims in Belgium!)

Like the trips I’ve been on to France, England, Scotland, and Belgium/Germany, this trip is coordinated by the incredible Select International Tours. They do a remarkable job and after four trips with them, they have my absolute trust.

This particular trip is a river cruise (so most similar to the Seine river cruise in France I went on in 2021). There are certainly some differences between a larger pilgrimage like this and a smaller one that primarily travels by bus. But some of the major benefits of this way of traveling are:

• Not having to pack and unpack for each new location—you travel WITH your hotel room!

• Less time used in transport (the ship can move you to the next place while you sleep or enjoy a great meal). Basically, see more places more conveniently

• Opportunity for getting to know your fellow pilgrims over a glass of wine while you watch German castles go by.

• Great space for talks in the evening while the ship gets you to your next location. For this trip, we’ve chosen Liturgical Living as the theme and Tsh, Mike and Alexandra, and I will all offer talks.

Just a few highlights of this trip which begins in the Netherlands and ends in Switzerland include:

• Mass at the tomb of St. Hildegard of Bingen and a visit to her abbey. (My youngest child is named after her!)

• The Cologne Cathedral (After seeing this last year, I can attest it is absolutely mind-blowing and I can’t wait to go back!)

(My son in front of the cathedral!)

• Cheesemaking in Amsterdam

• Gorgeous medieval towns like Strasbourg, Colmar, Mainz, and more

• Seeing the Gutenburg Bible!

• Experiencing the beauty of the Black Forest

Travel is one of my favorite things but pilgrimage is something extra special because of the connections and friendships that are formed with a common goal of a shared spiritual journey. Every pilgrimage I’ve gone on has transformed me but I must note that the Seine river pilgrimage in France and last year’s pilgrimage through Belgium and Germany were especially healing during seasons in my life that I desperately needed spiritual healing. I’m excited to see what God has in store for this summer!

If you’re interested, please reach out with any questions (you can just reply to this email).

And below you can view the full itinerary:

---

Thanks for reading!

Haley

(Editor of Word on Fire Votive, Author, Podcaster)

Haley’s books

Haley’s Catholic Kids’ Cookbook

Haley’s Children’s Mystery Series about Mouse Nuns

Haley’s Book on Jane Austen’s Novels

Haley’s Book about Radical Simplicity