Amazing things about staying home.

Since leaving work, I have updated you on some of the things I have learned since becoming unemployed. I have told you about people who asked, "But you have no kids! What do you DO?" I have shared some of the challenges and woes.

But today, every where I look I find something to be grateful for about being home. A tour of my kitchen today reveals:

• Cider I have started and is fermenting in the corner. This cider is a favorite among our friends and a staple for our winter life. Now I have time to brew it! 
• My craft room is filled with a half dozen current projects that I am actively getting done. My half-baked project days are nearly over as I find time each day to dedicate to them. This doesn't come out of obligation, it just flows. 
• My copy of Silver Spoon lays open on the counter. I have been making homemade pizza using these translated italian recipes and I have made several dinners a week using their methods. The prep times are inconceivably long and I love every minute of it.
• Near my stove is my first-ever batch of pita bread rising. I can make things that need to rise and not worry about needing to eat late. It is done with plenty of time and I love the smell of yeast in my house as it rises. 
• On the burner now is raw milk which is just plum easier to get because I am home. Today I am in something of a cheese making frenzy, attempting marscapone from the cream and formage a la creme from the milk. I have time to try these things myself now, making sure the food we eat is a delicious quality food in the most inexpensive ways possible. That's living. 
• Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon with a friend, chatting, sipping tea, and eating homemade biscotti. Living the dream? Yes. 

The most notable thing that I have noticed about my time as a stay-at-home bombshell is that my curiosity and creativity have both exploded into something nearly untamable.  On the days where I am not feeling lonely or forlorn or worried about cash, I find myself absolutely taken with how lovely it is to be here. 

While finding a job would provide financial stability, having half of our partnership at home provides a different kind of stability. Our home SMELLS like a home. It TASTES like a home. It LOOKS like a home. There's something beautiful about that. There's something immensely lovely about returning home and finding, not an endless to-do list, but a fresh soft cheese, a homemade loaf of bread, a warm pot of tea. I am glad to be providing those often unnoticed pieces to turning a house into a home.