Perfect Saturday--with Pizza and a Fire in the Fireplace

Even though no one sleeps in our guest room this week-end, I'm writing in the front room, by the front window, on the table that we moved there so that my spouse had more room for the parts of his teaching life (grading, class prep) that he has to do from home.  He's an adjunct, so he has no real school office.  I love the view of trees from the front windows.  My writing desk in the front bedroom has a view of the neighbor's house, so I've filled the window sill with objects that mean something to me.

I'm writing at the window in the front room this morning because I moved the computer out here yesterday so that I could be with my spouse and still get work done (writing work, teaching work, social media connecting).  Yesterday morning was chilly and damp, so he built a fire in the fireplace, another good reason to be in the front room.  Yesterday morning, this was my view from my computer:

I remember long ago, in grad school, when one of my friends was in a relationship with an older man who had his own house, a small house that had a fireplace.  I was envious in a friendly, "I wish I had this kind of way," not in a "I want to take this from you kind of way"--especially when she told us about writing her papers for grad school courses in front of that fireplace.

Yesterday was one of those perfect days when we didn't leave the house.  We have often had the opposite, the days when we don't leave the house, but we're restless about it or we're irritated at what must be done or we'd like to leave the house, but we don't have a plan.  Yesterday was the perfect mix of getting some chores done, relaxing, getting work for pay done, and having some down time.  We did a task that we've wanted to do for a long time.  My spouse needs to get the shed organized, so since the cottage is empty right now, we moved all of the shed items into the cottage--and we threw stuff out.

We also did some cooking, an activity that's become one of our favorite things to do together.  During the week, I had come across a recipe for pizza cooked in cast iron skillets, which sounded interesting.  I put together some pizza dough, which I approach as bread baking--ah, bread baking!  In the early part of the afternoon, we put the pizza together, and 15 minutes later, we pulled the skillets from the oven:

It was delicous:

As I posted the picture above, I made this Facebook comment:  "Before anyone gets too jealous, I'm also noticing the paperwork in the background, which is insurance paperwork from the drowned car of late Dec. and the stolen credit card of mid-January--and still, I'm grateful, because if one must have problems, I'd rather have those kind of problems than health or death problems."

As I look at these pictures, I'm amazed at what we can put together with some pantry items.  I made the pizza dough with no recipe--just yeast proofed in warm water with some sugar, more warm water and olive oil as I added flour and a bit of salt.  We didn't have much in the way of pizza toppings--no ground beef in the freezer, no mozzarella cheese in the refrigerator.  But we did have a tin of anchovies and a jar of calamata olives.  We did have parmesan and a blend of Italian cheeses.  We had a jar of tomato sauce.

Yesterday a sense of gratitude suffused my day.  I was grateful that I have time to write, time to pursue my interests, time to take a nap.  I was grateful to be moving back to a mental space where I like our house, even though it needs work.  I was grateful that we know how to cook and how to keep a pantry stocked enough so that we can cook.

But most of all, I am grateful that some of my recent bleakness of mood has lifted.  I realize that both bleak moods and happy moods are transitory--and I'm always grateful when the bleak mood lifts.