Grateful Friday

Today I give thanks for...

Air conditioning, authenticity, accelerated math and foreign accents. (I'm intrigued by the accent of Little Bee's narrator.)
Boys so excited to play ball. To give it their all...their best.
Carpooling, chicken drummies, Camp Grandma, concerts coming up, cheering sections and cheddar aged to perfection.
Dates...to play, to swim, for the movies or for dinner, and dropping dew points.
Eleven: 11 fantastic boys on the team.
Fireflies, freezy pops, French tablecloths and frosted mini wheats with fresh fruit especially blueberries and nectarines.
Grandparents who come to cheer on the team even if it means long drives in the heat and humidity. Good luck charms, goodness and grace.
Heatwaves only because I'm reminded of why I don't loathe the long winter. Hospitality, honesty and humble hearts too.
Iced tea, imaginations, ideas, individuality and ice cream.
Jewelry. The gift of a new pair of earrings in the mail for me yesterday.
Kindness, kinship and kismet.
Librairies where I get me my books for free. Lakes where we can cool off.
Mosquito repellant, memoirs and memories.
Nice people. New friends.
Owls. Old friends.
People who say please and pardon me. Playing hooky...both kids did at least twice this week.
Quintessential summer days and nights. Quiet, quirkiness and the word quince.
Rain.
Seven days of no video games, slushies, swimming, sleep, shade, scaredy cats and sugar snap peas especially with pancetta, romano and a bright lemon vinaigrette.
Team spirit.
Uniforms even if they always are waiting to be laundered again.
Vacation...1 month until we are lakeside. Victory, Vintage hair clips, vim and vigor.
We made it through the week. Five days of work for me...3 baseball games and counting. The team won 17-10 lastnight and now face the #1 team tonite. Walks in the early morning, wishes and wisdom.
X-tra money in my paycheck since I've been working more hours this stretch.
Youth.
Zest and zeal.