What I learned while Mike was away

Mike was in California this week for work and though I hate being alone I had all these thoughts of things I would get accomplished in his absence. I thought I would get a lot of crafting done, I thought I would eat healthy and exercise at least once every day, I thought I would catch up on correspondence with friends and family, I thought I would get a lot of writing done, I thought I would catch up on DVRed shows and maybe a couple of musicals I have on DVD that Mike would prefer not to watch. In reality I did none of these things. I didn't eat healthy most nights and really went overboard when Ruth came over for girl's night in and we ate fried chicken, Oreo cookies and ice cream. I exercised only once while Mike was away usually too exhausted from late night Olympics watching to be bothered with it. Aside from setting up this blog I didn't do any writing and I never made it back to the craft room. This has happened every time Mike is away I have these high hopes of all I'll get done and in the end I become a hermit and don't do anything. I'm just so out of sorts while Mike is gone. It's weird for me not having to get up and drive him to work or go pick him up and without a schedule of having to do something or be somewhere I've found it way too easy to just get stuck on the couch and do nothing. I'm in no rush for Mike to go away again but next time I'll make more of an effort to be more productive while he's away.

Now that Mike is back I have to undo all the bad habits I've developed. I have to stop eating junk again and since I won't have the excuse of not sleeping I'll have to give up coffee (or at the very least slow down) again and wow is it hard for me to slow down or give up the coffee, the withdrawal headaches alone make me dread the whole process. I have to start working out every day again which isn't looking likely for today but hopefully by Monday I'll be back to normal and have a little more energy to do so and I truly have to set aside time where I turn the TV off, close my email and just write. I don't know why I find it so hard to do something I love so much, but I am making a promise to myself and all of you that I will spend more time writing and just focusing on something that has always been so important to me.

In addition to breaking the bad habits from this week next week I want to start making at least one new recipe each week. I don't know what next week's recipe will be yet but I will post it once we figure it out and then I will share the recipe and our thoughts on it once we've made it. I have so many cookbooks, cooking magazines and random recipes printed from online sites or clipped from newspapers and magazines that it's crazy that I should find I make the same things all the time.

Today I placed and order for something I have been waiting to purchase for months now but has been sold out everywhere and this purchase will definitely excite me back into the craft room, though I do hope to get back there before this treasure arrives. This is what I purchased. I am so excited because I love Elsie Flannigan, I find her work and products so inspiring and so much fun. If you are interested in getting to know Elsie better you can find her blog here. While I'm sharing another blog I love and a person I am just truly inspired by not only because she's an incredible scrapbooking artist but in my experience is just a truly wonderful person who takes the time to answer emails and read blogs and give advice is Heidi Swapp. Her blog is absolutely fascinating these days because she's living in Beijing and has attended a few Olympic events.

Soon I promise I will post some of my own scrapbooking ideas and maybe a poem or two I have scribbled in a notebook but for now I should get off this couch and live life so I have more to blog about later!

More Soon...