Happy Monday, friends! I feel like this weekend was a great one: delicious home-cooked food, ample leisure time, and some good miles on the books. Take a look!

FRIDAY

To bring the workweek to a close, Nick and I made our best-yet homemade pizza. During the week, even though he was under the weather, Nick made bread in the early morning before work, and used some of the leftover levain for a natural-levain pizza dough recipe from Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish (yes, that’s the guy’s real name). We’d been wanting to try this for a while (versus using a package of active yeast). Look at these beauties:

While the oven was preheating, we went down to the apartment building’s terrace to enjoy a glass of wine and smell the roses.

There are so many gorgeous blooms all around the neighborhood at this time of year. Peonies, roses, galore! Love them.

When we’d finished our wine (and brainstormed fun puppy names), we went back up to prep the pizza.

Nick got a container of fresh, organic smashed tomatoes with salt and basil from Whole Foods (so good and easy to make ourselves, which we have done before), and we added fresh minced garlic to the mix.

On our pizza: mushrooms, red onion, green peppers, red pepper flakes, and mozzarella cheese. Here’s the before shot:

And here’s the after:

The natural-levain dough made for a much more savory and tasty crust. It had holes and bubbles inside and crisped evenly. We’ll have to do that more often! Also, just look at how beautiful she is.

After our pizza, we went for a neighborhood walk to digest, since the weather was out-of-this-world beautiful (and was all weekend). I met a sweet cat in my back alley who could’ve loved me for days. A dynamite evening, in my opinion!

SATURDAY

Saturday morning, Nick left super early to go on a 23-mile training run for his upcoming race, The North Fork 50k. I did my lazy-morning routine and then suited up for a run at 9 am. The weather was already unbearably warm! I got 5 miles in at the park and then walked another 3 talking to my mom on the phone and just enjoying the outdoors.

After my run and walk (8 miles total, not too shabby), I went home and made an absolutely delicious second breakfast with some leftover pizza toppings: mushroom, red onion, green pepper, garlic, tomato, avocado, and scrambled eggs, wrapped in a tortilla, with a hot cup of coffee on the side. It hit the spot!

After my second-breakfast-for-lunch, I did some light grocery shopping for a few essentials, including a craving I’d had on my run:

It’s that time again! With the weather as warm as it is, a cold Rendezvous-wannabe smoothie was in order. I made one for me and one for Nick (along with his own breakfast burrito) for his post-run feast. I usually don’t measure the ingredients; I just eyeball them for consistency and taste. It’s usually: 6-8 dates (pitted), a banana, ice cubes, almond milk, and a spoonful of peanut butter (or, like we did for our second smoothie of the weekend, chocolate hazelnut butter!). I added some collagen because why not.

That afternoon, after our smoothie, Nick took a little rest while I met up with my friends Michelle and Blair for some pool time. It was nice to catch up with them and soak up some sun. When I got back home, Nick and I made a second pizza (identical to Friday’s) and watched The Handmaid’s Tale. My official professional review of the show: that shit cray. Talk about real nightmares. Anyone else watched it yet?

SUNDAY

As we got ready to go to sleep Saturday night, we decided to set an alarm for 6 am in case we wanted to get a run in together before Nick went to go fly fishing with a friend. When 6 am rolled around, I was too sleepy to move. I cuddled on the couch when Nick brought his secret new morning creation over to me:

Focaccia! He used one of the other pizza dough balls to craft this absolutely outstanding work of art.

It is alarmingly simple: dough, olive oil, salt, rosemary, sliced tomato, and red onion. We paired it with some scrambled eggs and sautéed veggies. I was in heaven.

Nick left to go fishing and I decided to ease into the day and “feel out” what I wanted to do. This is when I do my best to ignore the “shoulds” of the day and just listen to what my heart wants. I highly recommend spending a day like this! I usually just do the best thing in the moment, and it puts me in such a good mood that productivity usually follows, anyway.

On the agenda first: call my mama for Mother’s Day!

(Look at that little dork!)

After chatting with her for a bit (while sipping coffee on the couch, something she taught me well), I felt like I wanted to do something creative. I put some headphones on, listened to my “Favorites” Spotify playlist, and broke out my paints and brushes.

I’m no Van Gogh, but that wasn’t the point. Zoning out to music and playing around with paints was all about the process and not at all about the final product, although I think it’s cute!

Once Nick got back from fishing, we went on what ended up being a 7-mile walk around the neighborhood! We sat in the sun at the park and saw all kinds of birds.

(I sneak photos of him when he’s not looking.)

This family of geese was so cute! The mom is giving me the eye. Happy Mother’s Day, Mother Goose!

Eventually we walked to The Spot for a beer and fries, where we talked about all sorts of fun things to look forward to in the future. I feel quite relaxed and refreshed going back into the workweek, which is a nice feeling to have.

How was your weekend?