1. Morning walks. Eric came with Ringo and I a few times this week, which is always nice. We even got to walk close to the river without getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, and the SKY! We also noticed that there are no Rocky Mountain Bee Plants this year but the Milkweed is everywhere.

This next set of pictures ends by showing the secret behind getting Ringo to look in the direction of the camera.

2. Good friends. Lunch with Carrie, playing with Tony the Tiger dog, dinner with Chelsey and Jon, writing with Cynthia, texting with Chloe’ and Stacey and Chris, sharing reels and memes with Kari and Shellie, making art with Janice, working out with Shelby and the gang, hopping around in the pool with the aqua crew, finally reading the book Nicki sent me, an email from Laurie, and all the nice comments y’all leave on my blog or messages you send me.

3. Good food. Breakfast burritos, plantain chips and spinach artichoke parmesan greek yogurt dip, a club sandwich and fries, the very occasional Diet Pepsi, dark chocolate covered almonds, crunchy peanut butter Clif Bars, crunchy peanut butter with celery and an apple, cabbage, sweet potato, pasta, homemade jam, homemade teriyaki bowls, baked ziti, strawberries.

4. Reading. There are so many good books, most likely WAY more than I’ll be able to read in this lifetime — not that I won’t keep trying. Also, HOW cool are libraries?!  

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. I love it here.

Bonus joy: long naps, afternoon rain showers, dragonflies, a warm shower, a big glass of cold clean water, listening to podcasts, watching TV, clean laundry, new clean sheets, fire departments, not giving up, carrots, the guy up the street yesterday morning with a big shop broom sweeping up the mess from the fireworks the night before, good neighbors, slippers, hoodies, down blankets and pillows, a/c, trees, other people’s gardens, a warm mug of tea in the morning, having a clean and comfortable space to practice, dental floss, gummies, grocery stores, the hydromassage chair, crayons, parades, the joy of little kids, crying, no plans or postponed/cancelled ones, making each other laugh, hugs, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.