Remember last week when I said I’d be doing 30 Days of Gratitude this month but that I wouldn’t necessarily be posting them to my blog every day? I meant that. So here’s a round-up of things I’ve been so grateful for lately, in no particular order:

1. Memento Vivere Press is really good to work with. I had a meeting with my publisher last week that demonstrated to me not only incredible transparency and a useful SMART-ER goals discussion, but also that she’s genuinely interested in helping me develop my career as an author. I love this.

2. My classes at school have been raising butterflies and planting milkweed in our school’s Backyard (an extensive outdoor science and ecology space for learning) as part of an ongoing commitment to mindfulness in our use of resources. Almost all of the butterflies successfully emerged from their chrysalides, and on Friday we released nearly a dozen beautiful, grown Painted Ladies. One of them was reluctant to leave the enclosure and spent a few minutes hanging out on my hand first — getting up the courage to fly away, I suppose. I felt like a Disney princess butterfly mom. It was sweet.

3. I have enough food, and so does my family, and so do my friends. And now I’m going to focus on sharing even more than usual, because obviously. I learned today that some Little Free Library stewards have been putting canned goods or fruit into their libraries along with books, and I’m likely going to start doing that as well, in addition to supporting the Houston Food Bank and perhaps other opportunities that might come my way.

4. Saturday night we went out to dinner with some good friends to celebrate a birthday, and it was really nice to hang out with them and try a new restaurant I hadn’t been to before.

5. I got a new hairstyle. Getting my hair done at the salon makes me, perhaps, unreasonably happy, because I know it’s going to look fabulous for at least a couple of days before it reverts back to its usual utter chaos that I’m completely incapable of styling on my own. But hey, right now, it’s kinda gorgeous.

6. My family is wonderful.

Have a lovely week!