1. Morning walks. Right now is my favorite time of year to walk. We get to the river just as the sun starts to rise and the sky lights up, so I get to take lots of good pictures.

2. 9.5 weeks of work left at CSU!!! It is going by so fast now! And I have so much work to do, I’m going to be busy right up until the final day. My hope was to save at least two weeks to clear off my computer, tie up loose ends, and clear out my office at a reasonable pace, but I’m not sure if that’s going to work out. I might have to go full speed right up until the end.

3. Practice. Meditation, writing, and yoga. The three together keep me sane.

4. My tiny family. Eric, Sam, and Ringo. The three together keep me sane.

5. My new to me car that’s not new or mine. I know I already mentioned it last week, but I’m still enjoying the freedom of having my own car, even though it’s not really mine.

Bonus joy: writing with Mikalina and Chloe’, making and eating good food, pay day, Pilates, aqua aerobics, sitting in the sauna, sunshine, things starting to bloom, snow, good books, good TV, good music, the technology I need to do the things I want, my three interns, slowly and surely letting go, sleeping in, napping, reading when I get in bed at night while my three boys sleep, talking to my mom, texting my brother.

1. Only 10.5 more weeks at CSU! It is going so fast now. I’m already 2/3 of the way through my final semester. Sure, there will be people I’ll miss and it’s nice to have my own office somewhere away from home but still close to home and the benefits are way better than I’ll have working for myself, but every day something happens to remind me why I’m leaving, ensures me that this is the very best choice for me.

2. Good food. I made bran muffins with dried raspberries and finally tried the Sweet Potato Black Bean Hash recipe I’d been wanting to for quite some time.

3. Teaching yoga. It’s been almost 4.5 years now that I’ve been teaching. Doing my 500 hour certification and teaching a new regular class has really grown my confidence and love for teaching, for practice, for holding space and caring for other people.

“Dad’s home, Dad’s home!”

4. A free rental car. I finally called Toyota last week and made it very clear that no matter how much work they were doing to repair the hail damage on my car, two months was excessive and I needed my car back a.s.a.p. They have probably another 2-4 weeks before they finish it, so they offered to rent me a car until it was done. After going without, having to negotiate my schedule and movement with Eric’s, it feels like pure freedom to just be able to get in my car anytime I want and go anywhere I want.

5. My tiny family. Sam is doing really good, running some and seeming to tolerate it, to the point I’m going to ask at his next physical therapy appointment if we can start weaning him off the pain medication he’s on. Ringo has been so good, finally seems like a grown-up dog at five years old. Eric and I have both been super busy with work and other commitments, and it’s so good to get in bed at night and cuddle, to know no matter how hard things get, he’s always a soft place to land.

Bonus joy: finishing a big project, free lunch, enough snow to make things look pretty but not enough to make it too hard to get around, sleeping in, a massage, good books (I just started Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights – poets write the best non-fiction), writing and giggling with Chloe’ and Mikalina, Pilates and giggling with Ashley and Carrie, getting back in the pool, a whole weekend off, going to breakfast with Stacey and Heather, being able to get new phones when we need them, good TV and movies (I did a 7 day free trial of Starz so Eric and I could watch the new Jumanji movie, which was so funny, and I started watching Girlfriend Experience, which is a TV show but feels like a multiple hour thriller film, so creepy and compelling, and I also finished season three of One Day at a Time on Netflix), practicing writing and meditation first thing in the morning.