Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We sit outside on Halloween evening, surrounded by our pumpkins and handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. That includes a small toddler, for whom we are her very first ever Halloween stop, as well as a pair of British siblings, one of whom is dressed quite boldly as a Red Coat.

2. With my middle school coaching over for the season, I’m able to make it to my volunteer coaching gig for its last week of the year. It’s fun to see the wee smalls again. I start up a new assignment with the group later this month, so it’ll be fun to see how that goes.

3. My team goes up against my friend’s, which he has carefully assembled to fill specific roles. I have gone into this game prepared to lose, but determined just to have fun, as my teammate is moving away, and this will be her final game with us. Periodically, we have magical games, where our trust and communication level up our individual abilities, and this is one of those weeks. We do end up losing, in the end, but we take a set and push the others close to the limit, and we wrap up the night feeling pretty awesome about things.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sarah found us a new farm for apples and cider doughnuts this year. It had gorgeous views, tasty apple turnovers, and an astonishing number of woolly bears who clearly had places to be.
2. The rain came after I was home for the night and departed before I wanted to be anywhere the next day.
3. After an emotional last day of coaching for the season, the local pizzeria still had a slice of cheese pizza left for me. (Usually by that time of day, it’s just pepperoni left.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi and I headed to the local nursery and bought pumpkins to turn into jack o’lanterns next week and some plants that appreciate cooler temps to put into the garden. I got the lettuce, herbs, and arugula in the other day, and hopefully I’ll get the rest in over the weekend.

2. I didn’t have quite enough time left to finish my audiobook before the library was going to slurp it back. The other person in the queue for it must have suspended their hold, because it came right back to me, and I was able to listen to the final three chapters almost immediately.

3. My teammates and I lost our game on Monday, but we went out to supper afterwards anyway and got to catch up, which more than made up for it.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I got to coach the girls’ game on my own on Tuesday, and while I didn’t get the bench players all the time I wanted, I got them all into the game — and we won.

2. We spent the weekend in Connecticut, and in addition to my parents got to see my brother and my dad’s best friends, who are like our uncle and aunt. Also, the replacement base to my dad’s favorite chair arrived the morning we were heading home, so we got to fix that before we left.

3. Susan and I had lunch this week and got to sit outside on a beautiful afternoon and catch up. Since we last saw each other in the spring, her son has started high school, and her husband is taking early retirement from the government. I’ve started my paid coaching gig. We had a lot to catch up on.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I am killing time between the girls’ game and mine by running errands, so get to see the ginormous full moon rising through the evening sky.

2. Misty hasn’t been able to make it to volleyball since winter, but she finally gets to join us Monday night. We don’t get to catch up much, but it’s so good to get to play with her.

3. John invites us to join him for trivia on Wednesday, and our team ends up winning.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Karen and I spend a few hours catching up on the phone to start the week.

2. I sit the middle school practice players down and ask them what they enjoy most about volleyball — and what frustrates them. They want more serving practice, and they like how supportive everyone is (and being able to feel like experts in their gym classes!). But overall, they’re having fun and feel they’re getting better, which was a relief for me to hear.

3. As I hoped, the exercise of dropping a (kid-friendly, very soft) volleyball on your head is an excellent introduction to ball proximity for the 5-to-7-year-old crowd for the first day of coaching. No one ducked out of the way they often do, afraid that the ball will hurt when we gently toss it in their vicinity.

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