Three beautiful things from the week past:

1. New pj pants. They’re spring green with a tea cup print.

2. A new lamp for next to Rudi’s chair (where I’m currently stationed while Rudi is recuperating on the couch). It makes the living room so much brighter.

3. Daylight savings time means it is lighter later. Several times I leave work this week before the sun sets, and several times this week there have been gorgeous sunsets.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. A blanket of snow lies on the slope alongside the escalator down to the metro station, softening the terraced surface into pleats.

2. Rudi and I saw both Frozen and The Wind Rises last weekend in our effort to fairly judge among the animated Oscar nominees. Both films were enjoyable, if very different, and the latter was especially moving as it is a biopic period piece set in Japan in the early 20th century. (If you aren’t a fan of reading your films, there is a dubbed version made with a decidedly Anglo cast, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, among others. I can’t speak to it, but it’s filled with big names, so I assume it would be well-acted, if very white.)

3.

Outside, I see the first croci of the season and snowdrops in the snow. On the indoor plants, I have new buds on my blooming orchid and fresh blossoms on my African violet.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Both my BFF and my work colleague’s brand new grandson make it through their planned surgeries with flying colors.

2. A box arrives from my college roommate smelling of sandalwood and filled with summery fabrics.

3. A missed opportunity to attend a pie festival turns into an afternoon spent sitting outside on a cafe’s warm wooden bench in the sun, drinking homemade passion fruit soda out of a mason jar while knitting and listening to music on my iPod.

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

Rudi’s back in the hospital with pulmonary embolisms, so things have been a little stressed around here. No reading, although I’m listening to The Thin Man, and no knitting, which means there’s absolutely no chance of finishing the sweater I designated for my Olympic knitting. But, you know, that’s how these things go. He’s getting better and will be home again soon, and those are the important things.

In the meantime, three beautiful things from the last week of my thirties:

1. My parents send a box full of prettily wrapped and bowed birthday gifts to be opened throughout the week. I open at least one at the end of each day, and some I use as an incentive to get through rough patches. As I open the packages, I eat heart-shaped cookies my mother sent back with me when I was home last month and try to guess what each item could be. (Sparkle sugar was an easy one; funkily patterned tights not so much.) To be honest, this week would have been much more challenging without this box o’ love.

2. An online friend, reading of how hard I’ve been taking this last month, makes a donation on my behalf to Heifer International, one of the charities I support. So now every time I see a flock of ducks, I will think of Jessica and her thoughtfulness.

3. My car fails inspection — twice. After the first time, I take it to a mechanic recommended by a friend of Rudi’s, who also drives an elderly vehicle, and get it tuned up. After the second failure, I call the mechanic back and ask what our next step is, and he suggests it’s likely a catalytic converter problem. Turns out he was right, and he and two other mechanics were waiting to show me what mine looked like when I picked up the car. (Imagine one of those peekaboo Easter eggs, except it’s made of metal and filled with a scene of post-apocalyptic platinum rubble.) He finds me a new, less expensive converter, installs it for just the cost of the part, and sends me on my way. It is with great relief that I pass inspection on the third try.

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

Three beautiful things from a week still full of struggles:

1. Rudi is home after nearly a month of mending post-ski accident.

2. After the work deadline that I need to meet hits an insurmountable roadblock after 11 p.m. on Friday, I resign myself to the situation. But, unbeknownst to me, our programmer and a colleague keep working after I log off email and plow through the problem all weekend long, so when I log back in on Sunday afternoon, it’s been resolved.

3. I have a desperate, visceral need to throw something, but breaking things requires cleaning them up and carries a threat of endangering cats. While on an errand, bowling pops into my head and I realize that’s the compromise solution I need. The lane they assign me has the bumpers up still and I leave them, because they help to compensate for my uneven game and allow pins to fall nearly every time, which was, after all, the point. After 20 frames, I am feeling more sane.

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

I dozed off on the couch earlier, so I’m writing quickly as I brush my teeth for bed.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Feeling the cold rise off your scarf as you unwind it and yet not having a chilly neck. And the ear warmer made years back tucked under a hat to double the effectiveness.

2. Sarah leaves a box of Samoas for me with Rudi.

3. My uncle’s memorial service meant a whirlwind trip to Connecticut. I got to hang out with my parents and my grandmother for a bit and to catch up with uncles, aunts, and cousins I hadn’t seen in a long time.

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