Things I Love Thursday.

Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness;

it has no taste.

― Charlotte Brontë

Random things making me happy this week.

The intense quality of the light, filtered through the yellowing leaves, as the sun gives its last gasp before disappearing over the horizon.

Gulping down hot soothing soup or lemon pomegranate tea as the evening air grows nippy.

Pumpkin everything.

The growing certainty that running is, in fact, helping my knees not creak so much on a daily basis.

My foam roller, for massaging out my crankier knee on the morning after a hard run.

Talking to my boys about something and having them end the conversation with, “well, that was a nice intellectual discussion.” They’re probably being sarcastic but I don’t care.

Taking my daughter to have her nails and hair did— I had a Groupon and I always feel guilty for maybe depriving her of “girly” things— and having her wanting her hair undone within the hour; nail polish peeled off with 24 hours. That’s my girl.

This picture.

Oh, and this one too.

Those are my sunglasses she has on. They’re Oakley— I think the Necessity— I’m so very super picky about my glasses (much like anything else that goes on my body) and these don’t pinch or give me a headache, they wrap around enough to fully block sun but don’t distort my vision, and they stay put when running or on top of my head. They’re pretty much the holy grail of sunglasses. Necessity indeed.

I love them.

I love this sentence from this article:

“If a spider turns to look at you, it is almost certainly a jumping spider,” Jakob said, adding that they respond to their own mirror images and watch videos showing insects.

I love Joe Biden and all his malarkey.

I love the Beasties app, which is sort of like a fortuneteller only using animal totems. It’s New Age naturalistic silliness, yes, but the first time I asked a question the Badger answered so I’m sold. Anyway, it’s pretty and I like taking a minute or two of my day to meditate on what the BIG QUESTION is for me today.

I love that my husband and I will sit and watch bug happenings on the porch and narrate them. Who needs TV?

I love this post about happiness and the tale of the happy shirt contained within. From Charlotte Anderson.

I love Big Bird.

I love how much my niece looks like me in this photo.

I love the way my Saint Bernard puppy feels the need to sit on the chair next to me several times a day, placing her big paw on my arm so I must cease clackity-clacking on the keyboard, to rest her heavy-ass head on my shoulder and give me hugs.

I love the new Mumford & Sons album.

I love that tomorrow is Friday already.