Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Introducing the cats to bubbles. We’ve never had cats who’ve taken to them before, and some have found bubbles quite distressing. So we didn’t have high expectations, but both they and we have found this a delightful new pastime. Ember spikes them like volleyballs. Coal takes turns hitting them with one paw, then the other, and then using both.

2. Salads brimming with the tiny cherry tomatoes from our garden. Nothing tastes quite so good as supper you’ve helped grow.

3. Discovering the vending machine in the food hall nearby that offers books by local authors instead of snacks. Desperately need a hit of poetry to get through a lagging afternoon? Got you covered! A y.a. novel to appease the younger sibling while the older one is getting a campus tour? Done! I look forward to finding these in more locations, like train stations and airports.

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

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?