1. Strawberry season. Which means pie season has officially begun.

2. Being on vacation. I’ve been spending my days walking the dogs, doing yoga, meditating, writing, reading, cooking, eating, taking naps, watching tv, and sitting in the backyard — it’s been so nice, so necessary.

3. America’s Test Kitchen recipes. They never fail me. Last week, I was craving bran muffins so I bought some at Whole Foods and as seems to happen so often they were a total disappointment. I knew I could make better ones. I looked in our America’s Test Kitchen cookbook and they had a recipe for the most delicious muffins, in part because they were full fat, not this low or no fat nonsense.

4. Garden and flower season. We are getting a few strawberries already, my peonies are about to open, and all the rest of our vegetable plants are in — except for rhubarb, which I’d like to try this year.

5. Hitting the sweet spot with the dogs. I’ve mentioned it before, but this is the moment when they aren’t puppies anymore (so not so much work) and they aren’t yet old (and with that possibly sick or dying). I didn’t appreciate the preciousness of this moment with my first two dogs, or even with Dexter and Sam, because I just didn’t realize how quickly it would pass. This time I know how lucky I am.

Bonus joy: doing nothing, doing whatever I want, sitting in the backyard with the dogs, basil on homemade pizza for lunch, strawberries from our own garden, u-pick strawberries from Garden Sweet Farm to supplement our tiny harvest, pie (!!!), two cars so well maintained that our mechanic always tells us if we ever want to get rid of them he’d buy them even though they don’t have the lowest of miles and one is 13 years old and the other 17, getting offered regular yoga classes to teach over the summer but being able to say no, doing what feels right to me even if other people don’t understand, good tv, good movies, listening to podcasts while soaking in the tub, baking, cooking, eating, laughing, long naps, good books to read, my Kindle, not checking my work email.

image by Eric

1. The pictures that Eric takes when he’s hiking. There are some weeks I don’t get out enough, and even when I do I either don’t have a camera with me or I don’t stop to use it, and then I have no pictures to add when I write a blog post. When that happens, there’s always something nice from Eric that I can use.

2. Feeling better, and having all the time I need to rest. I’m still not completely recovered from being sick. It sucks that I can’t be using some sick days, getting paid for my time on the couch, but the reason I can’t is because I’m on summer vacation and that’s nothing to complain about.

3. Eric made me pie. I was sick, I asked him to make me pie, and he did.

4. Because of the rain, our backyard looks like a golf course. Ringo and Sam love lounging on it, and I love to watch them. Sometimes I watch with my eyes closed. 🙂

5. Netflix and Hulu, allowing me to binge watch tv when I don’t have enough energy to get off the couch.

Bonus Joy: a follow-up call with the amazing women from Feast, finally tying on the string Rachel sent me, finishing yoga teacher training, naps, clean pjs, teaching yoga, Ringo napping on the big bed one afternoon and in his crate with the door open the next, seeing Tig Notaro with good friends and most likely laughing our faces off, the thump of Sam’s tail in the morning when he realizes I might be awake, fresh pineapple, soaking in the tub while listening to podcasts.