Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The drive up to my folks’ place on Wednesday really wasn’t bad, even though we were hours later than I’d hoped getting out of D.C. (my fault). It took only 9 hours, and that included stops for lunch, supper, and a bathroom break. And by leaving later, we got to see lots of the holiday light displays in the neighborhoods along the Garden State Parkway.

2. My first pumpkin pie was a success.

3. John, who runs volleyball with me on Saturdays, invited us to his karaoke birthday party. Rudi and I ended up staying out singing and playing pool until the wee hours, and then hit up the local doner place on our way home for some late night snackage.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My friend Anna came over to meet the kitties. Ember was particularly friendly.

2. We bought a new mattress to replace the memory foam one we bought to “tide us over” 12 years ago. This one is very firm and both we and the kittens are enjoying it tremendously.

3. After volleyball on Saturday, the pho place we were going to ended up being packed. So I suggested Immigrant Food, an informal fusion place I remembered from years ago, when I worked nearby, and everyone enjoyed it.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Coal, our wee small boy kitten, gained nearly a pound and a half in the two weeks since his previous vet visit. We worked hard to find food he’d eat when he first moved in, but our persistence and Ember’s example of what kitten mealtime should look like is paying off.

2. Julie’s 50th birthday bash included dancing at a bar, delicious cake, and seeing people I hadn’t had a chance to chat with in ages. Everyone had a very good time, including, I’m pretty sure, the birthday girl.

3. New sequels that I’ve been excited to read came off the hold list this week, so I promptly started reading them both. (In the stress around the election and its aftermath, escaping into books has been very appealing.)

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from a hard, disappointing week:

1. My heart team won our first championship in five years and our only undefeated season. Not everyone made the game in person, but everyone was there in spirit. (I did not cry, although I was afraid that I would.)

2. The kittens discovered the Roku screensaver this week and spent quite a while chasing the cars that drove across the bottom of our tv screen.

3. We attended a Halloween party hosted by a young couple I play pickup with on Saturdays. It was nice to hear folks talk about how much that community means to them and to spend a while with them when we weren’t all on the court.

How about you? I know the week didn’t hold what most of us wanted, but what moments of beauty were you able to find?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I got to spend my mom’s 75th birthday with her and my dad. (This also meant I got to catch the tail end of New England’s foliage season.)

2. A woman was traveling with her 3-month-old daughter and had the middle seat on the airplane. The lady sitting at the window offered her that seat instead, thinking it would be more comfortable. “I remember how it was traveling with little ones.” (Because I was already tucked in across the aisle, I also got to hold the delightful baby while mom was putting her bag up above. Don’t worry — I got the bag down for her at the end of the flight, rather than insisting on holding the baby again.)

3. The team went into our final week of the regular season undefeated, but facing our biggest competition yet — one of the two teams with only one loss. (We didn’t face the other one.) We dropped the first set and were down toward the end of the second. But we stayed calm and scrappy and pulled the game back. And then we decisively won the tiebreaker to enter the playoffs in first place.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Two new family members moved into the Burrow this week, a 3-month-old little boy cat and a 4-month-old little girl cat. I’ll share more about them very soon, but know we are in love (even as we are suddenly doing a very big house cleaning since the female kitten, in particular, loves to find all the dusty places under and behind things!).

2. Friends helped me raise nearly a thousand dollars for a suicide prevention walk this past weekend. I can’t begin to say how much their generosity and support mean.

3. We washed our windows this week and the amount of light let back in is noticeable. (Our windows are below street level in a window well, so they get filthy when rain bounces off the ground and hits them.)

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?