1. Morning walks. They’ve been a bit unusual this past week because Sam has had a tiny limp that won’t go away (only happens when he first gets up after having been resting for a bit, and he only limps about 3 or 4 steps, so you barely notice it, but he’s 8 years old now and we have to be careful) so we’ve been making him rest. We have a vet appointment scheduled for next week just in case it doesn’t clear up. You might not know this about me, but anything like that makes me anxious, because I always worry that every little weird thing is the first sign of cancer, and not just cancer but fatal cancer, because it’s happened to us like that two times and I keep expecting it to happen again because so far that’s been our reality. So an extra gratitude linked to this one is that while I worry, in this case Eric isn’t worried and has been able to keep me mostly sane.

2. The sky and the bare trees. The winter can be cold and dark, but it can also be beautiful.

3. Baby Ringo, back when his ears were just starting to stand up.

4. Teaching yoga. I subbed twice this week. This morning was almost a disaster because even though I KNEW I was teaching this morning, I forgot somewhere between Wednesday and today. I slept in and was being lazy, totally forgetting I was supposed to teach. Luckily my phone was in my hand when the notification went off, “Yoga: I’m Teaching!” and I only live five minutes away from the gym where I was subbing.

5. Aqua aerobics and then ten minutes in the sauna. Just look at how happy and pink it makes me.

6. My tiny family, and an explanation — many times when Eric and I text each other, we say “How’s it going?” and then include a selfie of wherever we happen to be at the moment. That’s why there’s a picture in this post of me at Om Ananda as I was getting ready to teach, and me in the gym locker room after aqua aerobics and the sauna, and the ones that follow of Eric and I with the dogs.

Bonus joy: Wild writing, Friday !!!, homemade pizza, a crispy gala apple with peanut butter, a working furnace, warm water, clean sheets, texting, Ringo doing well in his Parkour class even though we hadn’t had time to practice, how much more spacious my schedule is next week, and this cutie…