The other week I saw this tweet and was inspired to make my own list of things I’m loving lately.

This CTRL + ALT + COMPLETE puzzle from a new puzzle brand, Salem Goods. I finally managed to get my hands on it with the most recent restock and I’m so happy I did. This puzzle was very fun to complete and I’m so impressed by the cleverness of the title and the quality of the pieces and packaging. Big love.

Trader Joe’s green grapes. So crisp and sweet and refreshing (and—for now—affordable).

Biweekly calls with a friend across the country. These calls are currently my primary source of socialization and I’m so thankful for them. It is no exaggeration to say they give me life.

Handwritten letters to and from another across-the-country friend. This friend and I have been keeping in touch by handwriting each other letters for close to a year and it’s been such a joy.

Flowers. Always flowers. A fancy bouquet I bought myself, a mini bouquet I picked from the flowers in the courtyard, a bouquet gifted to me by gym friends during a particularly rough week, and blooming bushes in the neighborhood.

Caroline Winkler‘s entire YouTube channel and Dylan Cooper’s TRAINING WITH DOZER series. Caroline’s channel is a relatively recent find and I’m so in love with it. She’s so classically beautiful and charming and funny and smart and earnest (complimentary) and sincere and vulnerable, and her DC apartment is a dream. Also a dream: becoming a nationally ranked Olympic weightlifter, which is very unlikely to be in the cards for me. The next best thing: watching actual nationally (and internationally!) ranked weightlifters train—and shoot the shit—with each other.

This mini puzzle of Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring, found at a local art supply store while shopping for brushes for the paint-by-numbers I recently completed. LOOK AT HOW CUTE IT IS!!! I’m not usually a fan of gluing and framing puzzles. I might make an exception for this one.

Spending so much time outside. I recently learned the word apricate (no etymological relationship to apricot). It means “to bask in the sun,” and it sums up my entire warm-weather manifesto/agenda and life’s mission. I’m basically a lizard—I derive immense pleasure from staying still in the sun, and become skittish when people approach me (or even enter my field of vision). When it’s nice out, I like to do basically everything outside: read, scroll my phone, FaceTime my kids, have my biweekly call with my across-the-country friend, do a word search, eat, workout, people watch, simply exist, etc. I’ve already spent a significant amount of time outside this spring and could not be happier about it or more grateful for it.

Word searches. A few months ago, I decided I wanted something to do while sitting outside this spring and summer that didn’t involve my phone, so I bought a word search book. 12/10 decision. I recently bought another to keep in my car so I have something to do that doesn’t involve my phone when I find myself somewhere waiting—for a place to open, for an order to be ready, for the laundry to dry, while donating blood, to be called back at the doctor, while getting the oil changed, during a pedicure, etc. One of my favorite new activities for sure.

My entire outdoor setup. A few months ago, long before it was warm enough to lounge about outside, I upped my Spending Time Outside game with a large beach/pool bag (in a shimmery pink, of course) and a foldable tanning chair (with a cut-out for your face so I can comfortably do my little word search puzzles while lying face down, of course). The bag is big enough to carry all the crap I bring outside with me in one trip instead of 30, and the folding chair is much more comfortable than an exercise mat placed directly on the ground. Given how much time I spend out in the courtyard during the warm months, I can’t believe it took me FIVE YEARS of living here to give myself permission to invest in these items. I’m so glad I finally did.