Happy fall! This week’s Top Ten Tuesday list from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share ten books we’re hoping to read before winter arrives. Here are mine:

1. Dark Reading Matter by Jasper Fforde
2. Partita by Barbara Kingsolver
3. We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman
4. Death Writ Large by Susie Dent
5. Anger Is Only a Shadow by Elizabeth Acevedo
6. Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus
7. Autumn by Ali Smith
8. Whistler by Ann Patchett
9. The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
10. Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz

How about you? What’s on your autumnal want-to-read list?

Three beautiful things from my last week:

1. I held a makeup day for my middle school practice squad and more than two dozen of them showed up on a Friday afternoon. We started the day talking about what we like best and what we’re finding most challenging so far, and we ended with shoutouts (and we had a ton for a bunch of different girls)!

2. My middle school playing squad got their first win on the serves of two girls who’ve been nervous about that skill. The practice squad showed up to watch — and gave us the loudest gym I’ve heard at the school, erupting for good plays.

3. My friend Susan and I have lunch a couple times a year. I sent a text on Saturday and we had lunch on Monday, which was a lovely afternoon to sit outside and catch up.

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

Since preseason started four weeks ago, I’ve been running pretty much nonstop, and I just plum forgot to post this week. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have thee beautiful things, so here they are, just a bit belatedly:

1. My friend Jordan (who is also coaching this fall and probably similarly feeling behind the eight-ball all the time) cat-sit for us last weekend and we arrived home to find him leaving our place. I thought I’d given him the wrong dates, so it was such a relief to find he’d just gone on autopilot instead. Our cats thought it was a wonderful problem to have — beloved by all the people, as they should be.

2. On a day where we thought we were going to have to forfeit and where I was coaching alone, the JV team got their first win of the season.

3. On our drive south, we were able to watch a truly magnificent sunset, the sort where you keep thinking, this has to be its most spectacular and then it improves again at the next curve in the road or peek between buildings.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A cooler weekend and start to the week (we’ll ignore the end)

2. My friend John has returned for a couple months (to pack up his life)

3. Not having to get up to run morning practices

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Two weeks ago, we discovered a slow leak in our bathroom ceiling. Last week it was diagnosed as a cracked iron pipe, and this week, our handyman replaced it, a process that involved no water and no toilet for hours over a couple days. We’re waiting a couple more to let everything dry out and to make sure no extra leaks were missed, and then next week, they’ll seal our wall back up, which will be a relief, since bathroom supplies are spread across the rest of the apartment.

2. Harmony, my teammate who sprained her ankle earlier this summer, brought her first-grader to watch us play our final game on the Mall. It was great to see her again and to better get to know her daughter.

3. On the last day of our beach volleyball program, one girl arrives and runs to give me a hug. Today, I took the bus up to campus with one of my middle-schoolers and we spent the time talking a bit. As we were walking up the steps to school, she told me she thought I was a good coach, which was such a kind compliment to give on a week when I’ve been struggling a bit. (I was running a practice with ~33 girls mostly by myself and things had gone off the rails a bit.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi and I got to see the Foo Fighters on Monday night at Nationals Park. It was a fun, high-energy show, and I’m glad we checked them off our list.

2. High school practices kicked off this week. I haven’t learned all the girls’ names, but I’ve learned a bunch of them. I’ve had several good conversations with the varsity coach and the athletic director, and got a couple nice compliments today. While I’m still nervous about the sheer number of kids showing up next Monday morning for the middle school practice, I’m getting excited.

3. Rudi picked me up from coaching last Friday and we went out for pizza. It felt really nice to sit across the table from him again and talk about our days.

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