Three Small Joys

It's Thursday, a day when I often link up with Carole for Three on Thursday. In her post today, Carole chose to focus on three seemingly normal things that have become simple joys for her. Her post really resonated with me because part of my daily journaling practice during the pandemic has included a list each day of three things I've accomplished and five small things that have brought me joy that day. I started doing it early on, when every day felt the same and all the news seemed to be horrible. Reframing my perspective and forcing myself to find things to be happy about each day has really shown me how much I have to be grateful for. Often those simple joys are little things that made me smile -- like when I saw a fluffy young sparrow on my walk or when the sun came out after several days of rain -- but that's kind of the point, I think. So today I'm sharing three small joys from the past few days.

1. The weather has been dry this week after tons of rain last week, so the roofers have been able to work again.
As of yesterday, they'd gotten maybe a third to half of the back of the roof shingled. The back of the house is a bit more complicated than the front because we have a dormer back there, but it looks like they just might finish it this week. That leaves just the roof over the addition on the back of the house to do before the entire house part of the project is complete (they're going to be doing the roof of our garage as well, but it's smaller and shorter than the house and I hope will take less time as a result).

2. Our rose bushes have started to bloom.
This one was the first one to open up, and I have a feeling there might be a few more open this morning when I go to check on them. These bushes along our driveway were planted a long time ago by a previous owner of the house, and considering that I know nothing about growing roses and the landscapers who come to cut our grass and week likely don't, either, it's nothing short of a miracle that they keep growing. But every year they treat us to these beautiful hot pink blooms starting in the spring.

3. I finished my shawl -- and won at yarn chicken.
That little tangle of yarn you see in the top left of the photo (which is mysteriously coming out very grainy -- sorry about that) is all that is left of the skein after I bound off last night. It's just enough to weave in. I'll block the shawl tonight, if the timing works out, and I hope get the pattern ready this weekend.

I hope your day brings you some small joys and that they make you smile! Have a lovely end to your week. See you back here on Sunday!