1. Our garden. This week we picked and ate our first watermelon and we are still getting strawberries. I especially love the view of the front garden from our bedroom window. I’m so glad we decided to convert the front into garden space instead of keeping the lawn.

2. A successful first week back at work. I am SO tired though, and my job just seems to keep getting bigger and bigger, even though I’m the same size.

3. Some good training sessions with the dogs. We have a private lesson tomorrow morning, and Ringo and I start our Canine Parkour class on Monday. I feel reasonably confident that we can do this.

4. Sam and Ringo. This week I realized that they love me as much as I love them, in the way that dogs love humans that is.

5. Eric. This week I started getting kitchen counter love notes again, which almost makes going back to work worth it. I also am loving all the cool pictures he’s been making with the Prisma app.

Bonus joy: free lunch, watermelon from our garden, a cold clean glass of water, a warm shower, clean sheets, weather cool enough that I have to put socks on, making people laugh, my new car, getting all the laundry done on Friday, walking with each dog alone rather than both of them together, going to bed at night and reading something good on my Kindle, ibuprofen, fresh peaches, peanut butter, texts from my brother, good friends that feel close even when I don’t get to see them that often, healthy babies, how my little friend Sam saw me today and wanted to crawl up in my lap, listening to a room full of English people (students and faculty) share their favorite words, the enthusiasm of freshman their first week on campus, the sidewalk repairs almost finished on our block, remembering to bring my umbrella on a day it rains, good poetry and the poets who write it, dresses with pockets.