Have I told you the one about the redbud tree?

ED NOTE: If you are crazy bored and don't mind weeding through baby updates to see recipes, you are more than welcome to continue to follow us on our family blog: Scott-Nems-Doots. XOXO!

(oh and PS: image courtesy of the ever-fabulous Solar Photographers :P )
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Not too long ago, I noticed that we have a half-dead redbud tree on our property. And by that, I mean - I was made aware by my dear Hubs that we actually have a redbud tree on our property. And it’s half dead. How is it that I’ve lived at this house for a year now, and I’ve never noticed that big ole, half-dead, half-pink-flowered tree in our backyard?

Yikes.

I think this is an appropriate time to give you an update on my life as a blogger.

Stilton and Bacon Cheesecakes

As I’ve mentioned before, blogging was something I picked up on a whim in 2007, to keep myself busy. We were just married and throwing every spare penny into savings for our home and other things. That means not a ton of disposable income, and therefore I was spending A LOT of time in our wee-tiny apartment kitchen, keeping my hands busy by making all our treats and dinners at home. I always surfed through food blogs looking for something new to make, and thought they were so darling and cute. Hey, why not give it a shot? Blogging was cheap (hell, it was free!), it was a good outlet for any writing I wanted to do, and it was a way to feel productive while spinning my wheels and waiting for our “Real Life” to start.

Once I got immersed in the blogging community, I found it very addictive. This whole food blogging thing, it has a life of its own and you meet so many people and can do so many things! Suddenly I wanted to push myself to attempt more complicated recipes, to tackle new baking methods, to join a slew of baking groups and blogging events and a few contests.

White Chocolate and Lime Cheesecake Bars

When not working, I was always thinking about recipes to try. When home, I was baking and cleaning up and baking and cleaning up and baking and cleaning up…. Our grocery bills went up, as I was buying "butter, chocolate, sugar, flour" practically every trip to the grocery store. And then you add in the photographing/layout/composing time… My goodness I spent a lot of time with my butt at the computer, clicking and typing away.

And I loved every second of it.

It did take over my life a bit, though. Hubs took it like a champ and joined in the fun - he’d help me pick final recipes, would visit me in the kitchen and poke around while I baked away, and would hang out by the computer in the evenings to (*ahem* bug me) keep me company. I’d get so upset with myself if a recipe didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped, or if I didn’t feel quite right about what I had written. I felt a certain need to keep people happy by blogging every other day. It was a lot of pressure that I totally put on myself; I didn’t want to be one of those people who “flaked out” and quit my blog. No way, I’m not one of them. Besides, I love what I’m doing.

Blackberry Jam Cake

So I kept baking and writing through the big life milestones that came into my life. I made 6 new recipes in the evenings while we were going through that tangle of house hunting, signing all that paperwork, and finally owning a home of our own. I made the Daring Bakers Opera cake in between marathon painting sessions at our new home. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning for 4 nights straight so I would have a back-log of posts while people visited. Then we were trying for a family, and I pushed myself to keep baking and blogging through the fun times of pregnancy exhaustion and morning sickness and food aversions…

Carrot Cake

And then suddenly I'm 9 months pregnant, standing on our back deck that I never seem to find time to enjoy, having the Hubs laugh and point out to me that half-dead redbud tree that's been in our (not-very-large) backyard this entire time.

For me, that was what finally made me stop and think. I love blogging and baking, this is true, but how much was me doing it just to not "look like a flake"? In reality, I was ignoring that whole “Real Life” thing that I was waiting for this whole time. Yeah. That isn’t right.

Ambrosia Macaroons

So I guess what I’m saying is: it’s time to retire this blog. Now, I don’t plan on taking it down at any point, so if you plan on making any past recipes you don’t need to worry about copying/pasting/what-have-you. They’ll be up until Blogger no longer exists. I am going to stop adding to this blog, though, or at least - will not be adding to it for a good long time. It’s time for me to concentrate on my family and my house and friends and all that other fun messy stuff called My Life.

Julia Child's French Bread

I do have a personal blog, and it will probably have recipes from time to time (there is no way a food blogger can go cold turkey). If you are interested in following me on there and don’t mind all the non-foodie posts found in between recipes, leave your e-mail in the comments and I’ll send you a link.

And I leave you with this: thanks for everything, my darling readers - you really do mean a lot to me. I’ll miss ya, lots. And now I’m off to figure out what to do with a half-dead redbud tree.

Toodles,
Nemmie

Total baby deliciousness, best thing I ever baked. Photography by Josh Solar Photo.