1. Morning walks. I am so lucky to have so many beautiful places to walk and Ringo to walk with. We are having a stormy spring which means everything is super green and there are lots of wildflowers. This week we saw a bunch of deer, lots of rabbits, a few heron, a kind of duck I’d never seen before and her babies, and so many birds. A mystery we have yet to solve is a lone deer both Eric and I saw at different times this week that has a big tracking color around her neck and a red tag in her ear.

2. Practice. Keeping me sane, bringing me joy.

3. Mom. She’s trying to wander even though she can no longer walk (but she forgets that and she was never very good at sitting still), and she managed to end up on the floor of her room this week (thank goodness she didn’t hurt herself), so they now have an alarm that will alert them if she tries to get up when she’s by herself in her room. My brother and niece went to visit her the next day and she was hanging out in the main living room. It might be the biggest benefit for her about being at Tokarski House because she’s always been a very social person and being there, she gets lots of visitors and loves all her nurses.

4. Ringo. Repeat bloodwork we were waiting anxiously for came back okay. 

5. My tiny family, small house, little life. Even though he’s not entirely on summer break, is finishing up a few last things at work, it’s been so good to have Eric home more often. After 11 years, Ringo is finally learning to be the dog of a writer, and is content to hang out in my office with me when I’m working. I really didn’t think that would ever happen.

Bonus joy: visiting with Chloe’, birds at my window feeder, pizza, pay day, therapy, grocery shopping, comedy and comedians, poetry and poets, music and musicians, libraries and librarians, starting a new book club, how pretty the honey locusts are this year, how many buds my peonies have, all the Rocky Mountain bee plants at the North Shields Ponds, yoga at Red Sage, other people’s dogs and kids and gardens, clean sheets, #1000wordsofsummer, rain storms, how green and soft the grass is, listening to podcasts, watching TV, naps, reading in bed at night while Eric and Ringo sleep.