When Left To My Own Devices

Mr. Studley's been out of town this week. When he's away, I get lonely and bored. When I'm lonely and bored, I tend to eat...too much. It's a bad habit which should come with a Surgeon General's warning.

Yesterday, I baked the Muffins That Taste Like Donuts recipe from Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen. Where have these things been all my life? The recipe is so simple, you can hardly call it cooking. The ingredients are something most of us have on hand at any given time. I baked these early yesterday evening and had two for dessert after dinner. At such time as you see above on my kitchen clock (I'm a night owl), I caved, and had to have three more. I had milk rather than coffee with them. I took that picture this morning. In my defense, these weren't full sized muffins. They were more like mini-me muffins. I used a mini-muffin pan. If I bake them that way again, I'll pick up some more mini-muffin pans, as I had to bake them in three batches.

Incidentally, my kitchen walls are not that pukish pinkish peachish color they appear in the clock photo, but are actually a pleasant pale yellow. You can see why I try and take most of my pictures outside in daylight, but that doesn't work when I'm binging on muffins that taste like donuts in the middle of the night.

They just kept calling my name. Renna....Renna...come eat us....and so I did.

And I had them again for breakfast this morning.

Oh, ick. I just realized my coffee looks as funky as my wall color. I can't even come up with a name for that color. Suffice it to say, that's not what color it was.

On the knitting front, I'm still cranking out dishcloths. I should take them outside and photograph them, but 100 degree weather and I are not friends. I need to be knitting a baby gift and a pair of socks for my mom for her upcoming birthday. Clearly, I lack self-discipline. Too often, I eat what I want when I shouldn't, and knit what I want when I should be knitting something else.

Speaking of knitting, A Friend to Knit With is having a giveaway. She's giving away a copy of Debbie Bliss' Design It, Knit It: Babies. All you have to do to be entered is leave a comment between now and Monday the 26th at 12 pm EST. Posting about it on your blog is not a requirement. I just want you knitters to have a chance at winning. The book has such adorable patterns in it.

I want to thank everyone for the nice comments on my last post. I guess misery does love company, as it was somehow comforting to me to see that others of you have similar feelings of 'blahness'. I say, blah-dee-dah to those blahs. I'm going to enjoy my weekend. How about you?

I think I need to meditate on 1 Corinthians 9:26-27.

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I don't know about you, but I'm running hard for the finish line. I'm giving it everything I've got. No sloppy living for me! I'm staying alert and in top condition. I'm not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.

~the Message

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Therefore I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim). I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary.
But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit].

~Amplified Bible

The prodigal...daughter?

I've started a new post a many times in my mind the past few (several?) months. Have you ever put off doing something, you knew needed doing, so long it reached the point where finally doing it would garrishly spotlight the depths of your ability to procrastinate? Rather than face the embarrassment of having that ugly truth publicly revealed about yourself, it becomes simpler to just never do that thing. No? I have.

That 'thing' for me has been to write a new post on my blog. It's embarrassing, because many of you have either written me, or posted concerned comments for my welfare. I seemingly blatantly ignored you. I'm probably not even writing this to you, because, no doubt, you've long since written me off as a blog flake, a name I deserve.

I've thought of a hundred things I'd like to post about here, in recent months, but have always been stopped from doing so by knowing I had to first write a re-entry post. I apologize to you who I ignored. I have no excuse, other than that I am a clout. God's working on me. I really am sorry.

Okay, moving on, as Mr.Studley says when things are getting bogged down. I need to find a place of balance in blogging, in both reading and writing. When receiving comments to my blog posts, I have always felt a responsibility to then go and comment on my commentor's blogs. Not to say all my comments on others' blogs have been done in a dutiful sense, but yes, that's what initially begins my commenting there. As I gained readers (and commentors), the number of blogs I was visiting and commenting on, grew. Add to that, the blogs I read and enjoyed who have never (to my knowledge) even visited my blog (mostly knitting blogs), and much of my day was spent blog reading, and commenting.

I was on overload. Try as I might, I could not find a happy balance. Many times, I tried eliminating blogs I read, but there were so few I could cut out, as I enjoyed them all so much. I like peeking into your lives, getting to know you, but I finally reached that point where I couldn't do it all, so therefore I did nothing. I know this may all seem a bit overly dramatic to some, who may even be thinking I need to just 'get over myself'. It's not like I'm even a big-time blogger who gets dozens of comments per day (hardly); but it's been a struggle for me, nonetheless.

Returning here doesn't mean I've figured out what to do about it. Rather, that I've missed you guys, sharing with you here, and reading what you share. I've started reading blogs again (in Google Reader), just not commenting. I'll be seeking to find that happy balance, which shouldn't be too hard, since my readers have probably dropped down to one or two by now. ;-)

As to knitting, I pretty much backed off it about the same time I quit blogging. I did pick up my needles again during the holiday season, making a few small gifts, most of which I forgot to photograph. I do have a few pictures, though, which I'll be sharing here soon.

It already feels good to be back. :-)

Likewise, ye younger, be subject unto the elder. Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another: for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. ~1 Peter 5:5 (American Standard Version)