This Week's Miscellany (06/14/26)

I Almost Flew into a Sinkhole and Other Tales

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 edition is a little bit more travel-y.

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I sheepishly enter your inbox knowing it’s been far too long since my last missive at the beginning of Maycember. The good news is that I survived getting four children through May and all its chaos, but it was a slog (save for the delightful weekend giving a talk and moderating a panel at Joie de Vivre’s Louisiana Arts and Culture Festival)! And then as soon as the kids were done with exams, I drove them up to my parents’ house in the Tennessee mountains.

The Appalachians have been my happy place for my entire life. I grew up going every summer up to Beech Mountain, NC where my grandparents built a house. My parents relocated an hour away in TN in 2020 and their home has been a haven for me and the kids the past few years. As soon as I get out of Tallahassee, FL, my stress level plummets. (Truly! I can track it with my smart ring!) And it’s like the cobwebs in my head get swept away and I can rest and breathe and think and create again. Here I am safe and cared for.

My teenage son kept busy helping my dad install doors and baseboards to finish out the basement and my oldest daughter has been painting walls and crafting and thrifting with my mom. My littlest enjoys tea parties and colors and adores making all the beds and sweeping like a delighted Cinderella because apparently chores are fun if you’re at Marmee’s house. And it was my middle daughter’s turn for an adventure with me.

One of the goals I’ve made over the past two years is to take each of my kids on a solo trip somewhere before they finish high school. I took my son to Paris in 2024, my oldest daughter to London and Scotland in 2025, and my middle daughter to London and Oxford this summer. My youngest is but seven years old, so I am taking a break on big travel for awhile before doing her trip (I need to save up for a few years to do another big trip) and to give her a little more time to grow. She’s an incredible traveler but I think a few more years will make her appreciate the experience even more!

I cannot overemphasize how healing travel has been for me and my kids. It has brought us joy in a dark time, cultivated our family culture, brought us closer together, and expanded our worlds. And I should write an entire post about the fruits of doing one-on-one travel with kids because that has been so good for my relationships with my kids, helped me get to know them better as teenagers, and given them so much confidence in navigating the world when it’s unfamiliar. But that’s for another day!

Back to this summer’s adventure! I am adding all our London and Oxford experiences to flesh out the London itinerary I’ve been crafting for you all, but the short version is that it was a delight. Museums, great theatre, beautiful churches, and history just seeping out of every cobblestone. My daughter turned 13 while we were there and I am so grateful for the opportunity to spend time just enjoying her.

We had a few minor complications along the way: getting soaked with rain while waiting for the bus, our train to Oxford getting cancelled because the whole line was down and having to figure out how to take a bus there, not realizing Hampton Court Palace is closed on Mondays, etc. But the real challenge was for the return trip. Our flight into ATL was seamless and then just before boarding our final flight to TN, it was cancelled. And later flights were also cancelled. Why? BECAUSE A SINKHOLE OPENED UP ON THE RUNWAY just before our flight was going to be headed that way. Not your everyday travel complication, but I suppose a cancelled flight and having to stay in Atlanta overnight and then rent a car the next day because the airport was closed is preferable to landing in a 20x20 foot sinkhole.

I complimented my daughter/travel companion on her positivity and flexibility and the experience just reminded me of all the life lessons you get when traveling. Sometimes completely unexpected things arrive that destroy your plans! It’s not in your control! You can fall into the depths of despair bemoaning the shift, or put your energy towards finding a way out of airport purgatory, requesting and retrieving luggage from baggage claim limbo, tracking down a hotel shuttle, and reserving a rental car. And you feel empowered because you sorted out a new challenge. And then you have a good story about how a sinkhole wrecked your travel plans.

Reading Lately

• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day is one of my all-time favorite novels. This one is so different but I am loving it and it seemed like the right thing to read on the train in England since it’s about ancient Britain.

What I’ve Been Listening To

• Guys. I’m still obsessed with Noah Kahan’s new album. And there’s a review of it forthcoming for paid subscribers. And I am not buying tix to his Atlanta show because they are HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of dollars but wow I wish I could go. I also needed to revive my Lily Allen West End Girl listening since I found her portrait in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

  

Upcoming Events

• July 31st-August 2nd: Wichita, KS: Midwest Catholic Family Conference

Currently Watching

• The Other Bennet Sister. Y’ALL. Drop everything and watch this. Is it the best Jane Austen spin-off of all time? I’m leaning that way, but the girls and I still have a few more episodes to watch before I’m ready to commit to that opinion.

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

Haley

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