Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It is a fantastic week for local produce with spring and summer overlapping. In addition to lots of veg, I bring home strawberries, sweet and tart cherries, blueberries, and peaches.

2. I suggest to my friend Aroush and his wife Taneesha that their Saturday team and mine merge for the next season so we have enough folks who regularly make the game. They agree, so we’re looking forward to many fun games in July and August.

3. For only the third time, we’re able to pull off pick-up with the team, this time mostly the women. We play three 4×4 sets, splitting pretty evenly. Then seven of us head out for food and a couple hours of storytelling and laughter.

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

Apparently I’m having a very hard time keeping up with which day is Thursday…

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi and I stop at Dairy Queen for soft-serve cones on our way home from a long weekend. Mine is covered in rainbow sprinkles, his dipped in chocolate.

2. Most of the team heads out for a post-game supper after back-to-back rainout weeks. We discuss astronomical phenomena and what of it does or doesn’t matter to us individually.

3. By pulling up some bolted lettuce in the garden, I can see I have two poblano peppers that will be ready for picking early next week. A shishito should be ready the following week, and our first tomato (a black krim maybe by the end of the month).

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

Three beautiful things from my last week:

1. My fellow volunteer volleyball coach, Aroush, and I took our significant others to watch the new Haikyu! anime movie Saturday morning. It was delightful, with a particularly amazing shot sequence toward the very end of the movie and with a focus on Nekoma setter Kenma, whom we all love.

2. The moms of two of our youngest volleyball kids share their appreciation. One of their kids wrote a story about volleyball for her kindergarten class. The other one told me how much she’s appreciated how supportive we are of the kids. Her daughter came in afraid of the ball and, very last thing before the end of the spring session, got a modified serve over the net.

3. Anna meets me for drinks. We spend several hours catching up, since she hasn’t been to volleyball lately. We have plans to get together again (outside of team stuff) at the end of the month, too.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Our landlord needs to renew his rental license, which means the city wants to inspect all the apartments in our building. Which means the big spring clean we’ve been meaning to do is actually happening. It’s definitely not fun, but we have found some things we’ve been missing (my footie socks like to hide from the wash) and it’s going to feel so good to have it complete.

2. I remembered to pick the lemongrass from the garden for the supper recipe I found in The New York Times. (And it was tasty!)

3. The rain finally stopped and the humidity and temps dropped and the weather turned gorgeous! 10/10. No notes.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Some of the team headed out for supper after the game, only to find the kitchen had just closed. We had a drink, gabbed a bit, and then about half of us went onto another restaurant to grab food. Usually it falls apart when you have to relocate, so it felt particularly good that it did not.

2. I pick the first peas from the garden.

3. The Nationals decisively win the game we attend, and the night is a perfect one for a ballgame.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We celebrated Rudi’s birthday today at a local brewery with friends.

2. When I stopped by the garden earlier this week, the tallest pea vines were 5 feet tall and covered in flowers and the earliest pods.

3. My jam didn’t jell last night, but it made the apartment smell so fragrantly of strawberries. I may try reheating it again tomorrow and adding a little pectin to help solidify it some if I can figure out where it’s gone to. But even if it doesn’t, it will be delightful on ice cream or in yogurt.

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