Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi is back home!

2. Jess invited the team to her potluck barbecue last Saturday. A bunch of us were able to go on what turned out to be a lovely afternoon for a cookout, and my peanut butter cookies were a hit.

3. The weather this week has been spectacularly pleasant, if occasionally a bit hazy from the Canadian wildfire smoke. I’ve gardened, read outside, watched baseball with Sarah, played volleyball, and walked and biked a bunch. It heats back up next week, so I have a handful more days to soak this up.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Jason and I are taking refuge from the rain in a bus shelter as the sun begins to emerge from the clouds. “With the clearing, there should be — yep! There it is — a rainbow — above the bus, between the buildings!” The woman in the opposite corner says, “You weren’t talking to me, but you made my night. Thanks!”

2. Two of the guys who play pickup with us are moving away, so I bake oatmeal scotchies. Everyone marvels, and I reply that it’s a recipe my grandmother used to make that seems to have fallen out of rotation, based on people’s reactions. “Can you share the recipe?” one woman asks. “Sure. You can find it on the back of the butterscotch chips package!”

3. I do not play well Wednesday night and I say that to the teammates who go out for dinner and drinks after we lose the final. “We win together and we lose together,” they reply, and I believe them.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. One of the streaming services I have access to via a library account offers the new Dean Devlin show, The Librarians: The Next Chapter, that airs on a channel/service we don’t otherwise subscribe to.

2. The Nationals and the Reds serve up a football score (18 runs, 24 hits), and still somehow manage to leave us with breath held in the ninth inning as the Nationals give back two runs in the ninth before eking out the victory. But it’s a great night for a game, I have a credit that covers supper, two friends join us, and Azzi Fudd of my UConn Huskies is a surprise guest at the ballpark. (If she’d been less of a surprise, I would have hustled from coaching so as not to miss her throwing out the first pitch, but still…)

3. There is a brief respite between heat domes, and we glory in the air not feeling like soup for a few blessed days.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week (a day in the sun meant I fell asleep without writing this yesterday):

1. We spent Thursday at the beach. It was my first trip to the beach in over two years — long overdue and greatly appreciated.

2. We’ve been hit by heavy storms several times this week, but each time I was someplace where I could take shelter before the worst of it kicked in.

3. I sprained my wrist earlier in the month and it hurt enough that I needed to take a week off from playing. My friend Rebecca was able to tape it up in such a way that I could play last weekend and sent a link to a video so Rudi could tape it for me for my weekday game.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. At the last minute, I snuck up to spend a few days with my folks. I sprained my wrist (or, rather, another player sprained it for me) just before heading north, so between that and the heat, I was less helpful than I’d hoped to be, but we got the deck swept and the screen door on, and I brought fans up from the basement when their central a/c bit the dust. All in all, we had a nice, low-key visit, eating tasty meals and drinking strawberry daiquiris, chatting and listening to music and watching Barbie.

2. Violent thunderstorms were predicted for D.C. the afternoon I headed home, and even before we left Connecticut, they were announcing a barrage of canceled flights. But it was still dry when we landed, so I was able to get off in Foggy Bottom to hit the farmers market and the library on my walk home. Rudi came down to meet me and help with the bags, which I appreciated tremendously. The skies opened up not long after we made it home, and I was able to enjoy the very loud thunder from my sofa. (It didn’t hurt that it also postponed the volleyball game I was going to have to watch from the sideline.)

3. The showing of Clueless at our local park was canceled *again* tonight due to the forecast and the mud, so I switched up my evening itinerary and headed to Fort Reno to catch the second concert of the season. The last band of the night, Soroche, was particularly fun.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. One of the advantages of grocery shopping after doing an evening watering of the garden is that the shortest path between the two skirts a woodsy hill, which glitters with fireflies toward dusk.

2. I have books to trade at the Arlington library, so I head over the river to take care of that, as well as picking up summer reading prizes. While I’m walking over to the coffeehouse I like to visit nearby, I pass an evening event at the college along the way. The performers are on break, but you can make s’mores at your table, with inventive options like making them using fudge ripple cookies instead of graham crackers. So, I do, because why would you not?!

3. Rachel suggests we do dinner. Rudi finds us a handful of options, Rachel narrows it to two, and I make the final selection, which none of us has tried before. All of us are happy with our entrees, and mine makes a fine meal of leftovers one night when Rudi is out with friends.

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