Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I help coach kids and have been working with third graders and soccer for the past several months. This week, one of the kids who struggles with his emotions a bit and I just played one-on-one for the whole hour. He kept up a steady stream of chatter and I teased him a little bit about how in second grade he must not have learned about over and under very well based on the boasts he was making. We made it through the whole session without tears and with laughter, which seems like a win.

2. It’s been a while since I visited the park, so I headed up there for a while Tuesday evening. The sky was painted with the most gorgeous brush strokes.

3. Despite looking in both D.C. and Connecticut, I hadn’t come across any Hershey Eggs, my favorite Easter candy, all season. Sunday, Rudi returned from his bike ride in Maryland with three bags for me.

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

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share books with animals on the cover or in the title. Here are ten from my to-be-read list:

1. Reynard the Fox by Anne-Louise Avery
2. The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde
3. Kelly Barnhill’s The Crane Husband
4. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
5. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
6. Natalie Lloyd’s Hummingbird
7. How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior
8. The Swallows by Lisa Lutz
9. Strange Birds: A Guide to Ruffling Feathers by Celia C. Pérez
10. Roshani Chokshi’s The Gilded Wolves

Do you have any favorite books with animals in the title I should add to my list?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. An evening spent in Annapolis gets us a walk around Maryland’s bayside capital, dinner outside, slightly cooler temps than back in D.C., a coffeehouse open late, and a Micky Dolenz concert.

2. With weather nice enough for shorts, I spend several hours in the garden, pulling weeds, raking leaves, and planting seeds.

3. The redbuds are at peak bloom, turning swaths of woodland and parkland a rosy violet.

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

I could be fooling myself by thinking I can get all this done this weekend, but I’ll find it a little fishy if I don’t cross any of them off!

• Do more laundry
• Open the window
• Spend time with friends
• Get out to the garden
• Clear off the coffee table
• Change the sheets
• Finish a sock
• Play volleyball
• Go to the farmers market
• Watch basketball
• Buy dish soap
• Swab the kitchen floor (yes, I did this just before we left, too)

What are you hoping to do this weekend?

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Our first in-person baseball game of 2023, the final Spring Training exhibition match between the Nationals and the Yankees, was a fine, sunny spring day and brought the Nats a 3-0 win. (And then the Mets gave fans an Opening Day victory we got to watch on tv.)

2. We biked through the peak bloom of the D.C. cherry blossoms on Hains Point. Given people spent three hours stuck in traffic down there over the weekend, our unencumbered ride was remarkably pleasant.

3. Some friends are in the process of moving apartments and Rudi and I were able to give them a hand. We have benefited from help in the past and are always happy to pay it forward (particularly since we’ll need help ourselves again sometime).

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My friend Anna’s alma mater hadn’t made the NCAA men’s basketball tournament since before she was born and then, in their first appearance in over 40 years, upset a #4 seed. We joined her and a couple of her other friends to watch the second round, where her team fought valiantly, but lost.

2. One of the teams in our league has been a no-show for weeks and mostly people stick around to play pickup against their opponents. I noticed this week they had the first slot, so I roused our team to show up early and get in some extra time on the court.

3. I’m up in Connecticut spending some time with my folks. It’s weird coming up at this point in the season, because you literally watch spring disappear as you drive north. But it’s been fun seeing bulbs start to emerge in the couple days I’ve been here and to know that come what may, spring will find New England, too.

What’s been beautiful in your world lately?