Gratitude Friday

Foothills view on our walk the other morning

1. Being home. I’m still conscious of how nice it is to be home, even two weeks later.

View from our front porch

2. Really great resources for dog training. I haven’t said much about it here, but the week before we were supposed to leave the coast, Sam and Ringo started fighting. It wasn’t super bad and no one got hurt, but it did mean some big changes and reaching out for help. We are now working really hard to get them back on track and they are doing so much better, (a huge issue was lack of sleep — we were on vacation, but were working them harder and letting them sleep less and didn’t realize the impact of that until it was too late). I’ll write more about this later, I’m sure, but for now I’m just glad to have help — human, text, and tool.

3. My dogs. So willing to start over, to forgive/forget my mistakes, to keep teaching me new stuff. So smart and so goofy at the same time.

summerlounging toohot patiolounging

5. My garden. Not producing as much as it has in years past, but still such a good thing.

tomatoes latestrawberries

Bonus joy: peaches, peach pie, cucumbers, cold clean water, a warm shower, my new car, clean sheets, good books, naps, cooler mornings, long walks with Eric and the dogs, how hard Eric and I laughed at our fortunes at lunch the other day (mine said “There’s a secret romance blooming! Go for it, in spite of your hesitation” and his said “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”), some good training sessions with the dogs, Ringo singing in the kitchen, Sam sleeping in with me, one more weekend of vacation, lunch with one of my favorites, the surprise storm, a dream in which the foxes came back.

morningwalkaugust

1. Morning walks. Soon it will be cooling down, getting darker in the morning, and all the people who come out for summer will be gone and we’ll have the park back to ourselves again, mostly.

2. Peach season. It’s the best thing about August in Colorado. Eric made a peach pie on our bbq grill the other night that is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted.

bbqpeachpie

3. Our garden. It’s maybe not as pretty this year and certainly not producing as much, partly because we were gone so long thus neglecting it and partly because we had close to forty 90 degree days this season, but I still love it so much.

2016frontgarden watermelon02 sunflower03 beeplantandbee

4. Movies with Eric in the “fancy” theater. The one with the reclining, reserved seats. We went to Ghostbusters a few days ago and had the whole theater to ourselves, and are going to the new Star Trek movie this weekend.

movieswitheric

5. Being home. Of course, I miss Oregon — the beach, my family, the good food, the lack of responsibility. But I’m also so glad to be home, back in my tiny little house.
sunflowers03

Bonus joy: Seeing friends, the Korean Sweet Potato Falafel tacos at Blind Pig, a glass of clean cold water, that the bee in my hair and the other one on Sam’s leg didn’t sting us, a few cool days in the midst of a string of hot ones, clean sheets, not needing to do everything right now, watching movies, peach pie oatmeal for breakfast, Eric taking the dogs running, one more week of vacation, reading in bed at night, being able to sleep at night because I remember a time not so long ago when that wasn’t the way it worked, selling our car to someone who can use it (win/win), gas prices dropping again, catching up on the laundry, going barefoot and my foot not even hurting.