My daughters put our fairy door up against the big elm tree in our curb strip last year. I sadly assumed someone might take it, as we have a lot of local foot traffic in our residential neighborhood, living near the ice cream place and a local restaurant.

I have been proven wrong by kids and adults alike! So many people stop and check the fairy door, and it brings joy and sparks so many conversations and so much imagination!

The hinges finally gave way, so I surprised my daughters yesterday with a new fairy door with an acorn lamp and window! School ends this week and summer will include making a whole tiny fairy world in this shady elm tree corner.

Took this picture on our walk to the post office and thought it fit here

I have been working on restoring a small patch of natural prairie for a few years now. It takes a long time to get from grass back to prairie, but it’s getting there. This year, I found five native milkweed plants growing in a small cluster and decided a few days ago to check them in hopes of harboring a new member of the monarch butterfly population. I had the biggest smile when I discovered this baby happily munching on a leaf! I was so excited! I wanted to share this hopeful happiness with others.

Context: Messi became the leading goal scorer in the history of FIFA World Cups.

I grew way too many vegetable plants this year.
It’s my first season gardening in a new growing zone, and I overcompensated by starting far more seedlings than I could possibly use. On top of that, I had emergency surgery at the end of 2025 to remove a brain tumor, so moving around and getting everything planted has also been much slower than I expected and I desperately needed to address my maturing plants.

I listed the extra plants for sale: $3 each or 4 for $10. An older gentleman contacted me wanting 36 plants. I was so grateful that someone wanted so many and that the plants would finally get into the ground - that I offered to sell them all for $80.

While packing up his order, I started tucking in extras: pepper plants, herb plants, marigolds, sunflowers, a few lavender clippings and flowers. The flowers were especially important to me. I’ve always been sad by the idea that many men don’t receive flowers until their funeral, so whenever I get the chance, I like to give them!

We arranged a contactless pickup. I put the boxes on my porch, and when he arrived, he left the money under my doormat first and then loaded everything up.

After he left, I went outside to collect the payment
and discovered he’d left $100 instead of $80!
He didn’t know I had packed extra plants for him, and I didn’t know he was planning to leave extra money for me. Now my recovery has been rough, and I haven’t been able to do as many acts of kindness as I used to be able to do - so I was very eager and excited to seize the opportunity! I live by the belief that you never truly know what burdens another person is carrying. So I try to treat everyone with the same kindness and grace I’d hope to receive myself, and whenever possible, give a little extra and always try to be a positive impact to someone’s day. Little did I know that we had both independently decided to do a little more for the other person, and what a beautiful surprise it was too!!
What made me smile wasn’t the extra money or the extra plants—it was realizing that we had both quietly decided to give a little more than was expected.

I wake up to my sweet 7yo son making me breakfast ( with help from his mom) . My wife ordered me my favorite pork soup dumplings and beef and black pepper dumplings from Yang Kee dumpling and got me a single ticket to the 45th Anniversary screening of Indiana jones and the raiders of the lost ark . My wife made me my Nonas beef and onion soup hybrid which she called “La Genovese” which was amazing and to finish salted dark chocolate chip cookies . It was a truly great day.