1. Strawberry season. Which means pie season has officially begun.

2. Being on vacation. I’ve been spending my days walking the dogs, doing yoga, meditating, writing, reading, cooking, eating, taking naps, watching tv, and sitting in the backyard — it’s been so nice, so necessary.

3. America’s Test Kitchen recipes. They never fail me. Last week, I was craving bran muffins so I bought some at Whole Foods and as seems to happen so often they were a total disappointment. I knew I could make better ones. I looked in our America’s Test Kitchen cookbook and they had a recipe for the most delicious muffins, in part because they were full fat, not this low or no fat nonsense.

4. Garden and flower season. We are getting a few strawberries already, my peonies are about to open, and all the rest of our vegetable plants are in — except for rhubarb, which I’d like to try this year.

5. Hitting the sweet spot with the dogs. I’ve mentioned it before, but this is the moment when they aren’t puppies anymore (so not so much work) and they aren’t yet old (and with that possibly sick or dying). I didn’t appreciate the preciousness of this moment with my first two dogs, or even with Dexter and Sam, because I just didn’t realize how quickly it would pass. This time I know how lucky I am.

Bonus joy: doing nothing, doing whatever I want, sitting in the backyard with the dogs, basil on homemade pizza for lunch, strawberries from our own garden, u-pick strawberries from Garden Sweet Farm to supplement our tiny harvest, pie (!!!), two cars so well maintained that our mechanic always tells us if we ever want to get rid of them he’d buy them even though they don’t have the lowest of miles and one is 13 years old and the other 17, getting offered regular yoga classes to teach over the summer but being able to say no, doing what feels right to me even if other people don’t understand, good tv, good movies, listening to podcasts while soaking in the tub, baking, cooking, eating, laughing, long naps, good books to read, my Kindle, not checking my work email.