1. Morning walks. While Eric is still on vacation, we get to go all together, and that’s my favorite.

2. My “other” family. I was in Oregon last week visiting them – my parents, my brother and his two girls and one of their girls, and some aunts and uncles. It’s always good to see them, and then it’s always good to get back home to my own bed and my tiny family.

Mom and Dad. With them, I am simultaneously 51 and 12 years old, and they are both still younger than me and getting older.

Baby Lia (who’s almost not a baby anymore) and her grandpa, my big brother. She doesn’t like to eat bananas so much as she likes to peel them and throw the peel in the trash.

3. Our garden. We are currently getting tons of zucchini and cucumbers, but our tomatoes still aren’t ripe and our basil didn’t do too well this year. We went to a big plant sale and did some more work putting more flowers in the ground, to feed the bees and butterflies and keep down the weeds. Our goal is to eventually have plants everywhere with some paths winding through.

Image by Eric

Image by Eric

Image by Eric

Golden Raintree, which the bees love

4. My tiny family. They are my favorite.

5. Sweet things, in particular peach pie made by Eric on the grill and Mikalina and home sweet home.

Bonus joy: a safe and relatively easy trip, hanging out at Mikalina’s house and writing with her today, teaching yoga, long naps, good books, good TV, seeing Andrea Gibson with Carrie and getting to hang out with Beka and Tracy too, getting all the laundry done and bills paid and clean sheets on the bed, not having to go back to work in another two weeks, aqua aerobics, hanging out in the sauna with the good people, the little old lady who waved at us as she drove by on our walk this morning, the way Sam follows me around everywhere, the way Ringo only cuddles with me and not Eric, cooking good food, new recipes, a/c.

1. 50% off all perennials at Fort Collins Nursery. We got there right when they opened and I got almost everything I wanted. I even went back a few hours later because I wanted more daisies. It’s supposed to be 100 degrees out today, so they are sitting next to the house in the shade, still in their pots. The next three days are supposed to rain and be in the low 80s, so tomorrow the real work begins.

2. Little by little, I’m making a dent in my summer to-do list. Just little things, every once in a while. The even better news is I decided to bump a lot of it to the fall, give myself a few more months of not having to do ALL THE THINGS. Some family stuff is going on behind the scenes that is stressing me out, so I’m giving myself more space, more grace, and a slower pace.

3. Eric gave the dogs a bath today. I was later that expected coming home from the grocery store because I stopped for more plants, so he used the extra time and took advantage of the warm day to give me clean dogs.

4. Good food. Pan fried burritos and sweet potato tamales with homemade pinto beans, fresh peaches and cherries, our first cucumber from the garden.

5. My tiny family. I’ll be in Oregon for a few days next week and I’m already missing them.

Bonus joy: good movies and music (watched a documentary about The Avett Brothers yesterday that was really good), seeing Toy Story 4 with Eric at the fancy theater, clean sheets, a cold shower on a hot day, aqua aerobics, sitting in the sauna, teaching yoga, San Pelligrino orange sparkling water, napping.