I dozed off working on a cover letter last night and didn’t realize until I was in bed that I hadn’t posted here.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Grey Kitten and I talked for a spell in the wee hours one night after Rudi headed to bed. Sometimes a 3-hour time difference can be a good thing.

2. A friend’s mom has come through her brain surgery as well as can be hoped for.

3. My team’s game on Monday was against an opponent who struggled to put together plays. So we stayed afterwards to play a split squad scrimmage (plus a couple others) and had a blast before heading out to the bar.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Two pounds of strawberries, a bag of greens, and my first peas from the garden

2. Rudi turned 50 this week. We threw a big party with dozens of our local friends at a beer garden to celebrate. And I made him a playlist with songs, stories, and photos from friends from all over, ranging from his Salt Lake school friends through our college friends to those we’ve met since moving to D.C.

3. Karen and I finally got to catch up in person for the first time since Thanksgiving. Six months is too long between visits, but we milked the afternoon for all it was worth!

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. This was a good week of volunteering, with the kids being attentive and having fun.

2. I harvested a pint of strawberries from the garden. They were delicious!

3. Most of the team went for drinks after the game on Monday. It was really good to catch up with folks!

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Purple irises for the kitchen

2. I’m hanging out at our local yuppie grocery store/cafe, and they bring out bags of sourdough bread to take home for free.

3. Rudi makes a frittata from seasonal nettles, asparagus, and spring onions.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The lily of the valley bulbs I planted … five? … years ago finally blossomed.

2. My volleyball team added a new teammate who my friend Chris and I played with this winter and welcomed back several others from injury and time away. And then we faced off against most of the folks Chris and I play pickup with and got solidly beaten. But we had fun being together and that’s most important!

3. Grilled pineapple on our Tuesday tacos.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I get to play volleyball in some pretty amazing places, particularly for a landlocked city. I’ve played grass games in the shadow of the Washington Monument and adjacent to the World War II Memorial, and now, finally, I’m back playing sand games just behind the Lincoln Memorial. (They closed the courts during COVID to prevent people from gathering and then decided to refurbish them in the two years since. Judgment is reserved until we have some flooding rain, since they used to have a drainage issue, but so far the courts are very nice.)

2. Saturday morning Rudi and I met some friends down the street from their new apartment at the Florida Avenue Grill, one of the oldest soul food diners in the country, for brunch. In addition to good conversation, I had delicious French toast and grits and veggie sausage and eggs and considered for a period of time never eating again. (At least until Sarah and I spent more hours at the ballpark than expected later that evening waiting out a rain delay.)

3. The strawberry plants in the garden are covered with flowers, which is very exciting. To tide us over, I bought two pints of the first berries I saw at the local farmers market the other evening. They taste like early season berries, but still!

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