I am Honored!!!!

I was so excited to find out that I was nominated by not one, but two of my blogging peers for the Sunshine Blogger Award.

I have been a blogger for such a short time and, while I am having a ball, I feel like such a newbie, which is why it feels like an honor to be recognized by fellow bloggers

Let me first introduce you to the two who nominated me. I’ve enjoyed both of them as bloggers and growing supporters. I’ve developed (and continue to do so) a really great, new community online. Check out these two who have been so gracious to me this week.

Kendra has a blog called Free Thyme Living. She is a wife, mom, grandma and loves to write. One of my favorite things on her blog is her “Friday’s Favorite Feel Good Quotes.” The most recent quote is from Kelly Bouchard, “Your dreams don’t have to be lofty, they just have to be lived.”

My other primo supporter of the week is Suzan, who has a blog called, It’s My Sustainable Life. She shares so much about her life and all things about fitness, being a small homesteader, natural and healthy products, gardening, cooking. I love that it’s always something different when she offers a new post.

The Sunshine Blogger Award

This award is given to bloggers by bloggers. We have a supportive community who wants to help each other as writers and creators. It’s a way to share love and encouragement…. sharing with you, our readers about our fellow writers. Blogging is not a competition about who gets a bigger following. It is about sharing things with the world that are meaningful and/or helpful and/or just plain fun.

Sunshine Blogger Questions and Answers

Part of the process for this award is that the one who nominates a fellow blogger asks them questions so that our readers and fellow bloggers can get to know us better. Since I was nominated twice, I have TWO sets of questions to answer! I’m happy to have all of you get to know me better….. here goes.

If you could feature an interview with a celebrity (past or present) on your blog, whom would you choose, and why? I’d love to interview Michelle Obama, mother to mother. I admire her very much and I’d have fun just sharing about parenting, values, experiences and kids.

If you could go back to your launch date, what is one thing you would do differently? I actually don’t have any regrets (yet). I did not expect a huge running start… I’m more of a slow and steady

wins the race kind of person, so I just bit off one piece at a time and fit it into it’s place. I’m still doing that… I don’t have it set up optimally, even now. But mostly, I just want to write, so it’s serving it’s purpose already.

What is your favorite app on your smartphone or tablet? How do you use it? I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this, but my favorite app is Candy Crush Saga. It takes me just a few random moments here and there to play a mindless game. I spend so much time trying to be proactive and reactive and nurturing and keep this boat afloat that those little moments are tiny little respites.

List one thing most don’t know about you. Wow! Hmmmmmm. I suppose if I share it here, most will then know it about me. LOL OK… a simple thing is that I ran track in high school and was on a relay that broke a school record. A bigger thing is something from a lifetime ago and some of my circle knows this. I traveled through Central America, El Salvador and Nicaragua, to learn the politics and ways of the people. Our group was stopped by armed guerillas on the way to coffee fields and villages, we slept on concrete floors (which was the honored lodging), and spoke with mothers who’s children were disappeared or conscripted. It was a life changing experience.

What was your most embarrassing moment? I don’t really dwell on things like this. I honestly don’t remember anything huge. Lots of little things… wearing the wrong thing to a party, a dinner for guests that didn’t turn out, screwing up at a band concert in high school.

In another life, what would you be if you weren’t blogging? I’d be Meryl Streep. Just kidding. But I have always had a tiny piece of me who would love to act. Not the fancy glamorous movie star life… the acting in quality roles that would entertain or inspire people.

What is your least favorite household chore? Doing dishes. With 7 kids, IT NEVER ENDS!

List 5 of your favorite foods. Pizza, salad, tuna fish sandwiches, roast beef (if it is REALLY tender), and popcorn

If you could choose a superpower to possess, what would it be,and why? To stop time for brief periods…. long enough to give me a minute or two to process a situation. I hate it when I don’t have the time to think through what would be most helpful or least hurtful, especially when the kids are struggling through hard things.

What is a hobby you wish you had more time for? Quilting. Oh, how I miss quilting.

What would you choose as your last meal if you had only one meal left to enjoy in life? Probably pizza with sausage and black olives.

What is your favorite season & why? Summer! Open windows. Open doors. Fresh air. Being able to come and go with the family without spending 45 minutes getting on coats and boots and hats and finding school supplies and backpacks and dry socks.

What is the toughest part about blogging for you? Right now, it is very hard to find the time I need. I’ve gotten so far behind in my tasks since all the kids are home for the summer. But I wouldn’t trade all the time with the kids this summer for anything. We are having a lot of fun. The toughest part about the actual blogging process? It is prioritizing my time. The more involved I get in the community and receive feedback and have new ideas, the more tasks get added to this whole process. It’s not just about writing.

If you won the lottery, what would be the first frivolous or irresponsible item you would purchase? A cruise with my whole family.

Name one sustainable lifestyle you practice daily. I know this is meant to be about recycling or self care or something. We try to take a lot of steps to reduce our carbon footprint as a family. But in reality, the best sustainable lifestyle actions I take involve trying to raise my children to be good people, good citizens, and to recognize their own self worth, their own power, and their impact on our world.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? “Don’t ever compromise your heart.” It was during a sermon I heard at Holden Village when I was in my 20’s. I took it to heart! It started a long journey of discerning what my head says to me, what my feelings say to me and what my heart says to me. Which eventually led me to my foster care and adoption journey.

If you could place your office anywhere in the world, where would you work? Describe your ideal office view? The ocean. Probably on the Oregon Coast. I could watch the ocean through storm and sun for days and days. Open the window and hear the waves. Then again, maybe not much work would get done?

What would you attempt if fear or failure were not considerations? This one has had me sitting here for 20 minutes. There are so many things I’d still like to do in life, but none of them have fear or failure holding me back. It’s just a matter of time and opportunity. The cruise, a trip to Greece and Italy, home ownership, learn to swim well, take up acting, sleep for a week.

What inspired you to begin blogging? I have been living an amazing journey with so many kids and I want to share what a gift they are. I would really like to write a book, but the starting point has always eluded me. So my ache to write found an outlet in a new blog. I have already seen the inroads into a series of books. I am SO happy to be doing what I am doing.

Where is your special place? The special place when you visit you completely decompress & just exhale. When I run away from my kids, I end up at the beach, Carkeek Park on the Salish Sea. It never fails.

New Nominees

Another piece of this award is to pass on the Sunshine Blogger Award nomination to other bloggers I’ve come to appreciate. This is the easy part! Please check out their blogs and see if anything resonates with you.

• I nominate Diane who writes At the Birch Tree. She and her husband started foster parenting in 2018 and she has several pieces in her blog about the journey that really touched me.
• I nominate Tina who writes Footprints in Pixie Dust. She blogs everything Disney. I like to see what she is up to because, well, because it’s Disney! And I have kids…. there is no harm in dreaming.
• I nominate Carol who writes Chicky Chick Chick. It is everything about raising chickens. I would love to have backyard chickens, so I enjoy learning everything. She has some good stories!
• I nominate Jen who writes Diffusing the Tension. She writes openly about mental health and describes issues clearly as well as sharing healing and healthy ways.
• I nominate Lori who writes Mother Daughter Dates. She is a daughter, a mom and a grandmom and writes all kinds of wonderful things about connecting women between generations.
• I nominate Ruth who writes Doing Hard Stuff. She is a mom who is also foster parenting and has 7 kids. But my introduction to her was her blog post with an honest view of her very messy small house and her plan to get things in order. It was like she could have walked into my home. I connected right away in many ways.
• I nominate Akiko who writes The Japantry. She writes all things Japan and has so many good recipes and travel ideas. Visiting Japan is on my bucket list… maybe a far dream, but it’s fun to see through her eyes.
• I nominate Ramae who writes Incurable Blessings. She has written at least 8 parts of her journey with multiple myeloma. It’s open and honest and leaves me cheering her on. I admire her without ever having met her.
• I nominate D’Forman who writes Her Heyday. She writes about becoming a widow, but what drew me was her crafty job. She is SO creative and works for Michael’s!!! Jealous!
• I nominate Wendy who writes Beach Living Aspirations. She has a lot of gorgeous pictures and stories about living and being at the beach. I love beaches!
• I nominate Christy who writes A Fostered Life. Once she became a foster parent and found out how much none of us know when we start the journey, she began to share all about it. She has developed vlogs and her blog and does coaching calls and shares them. She is an amazing resource for new foster parents. I admire her work a lot!

New Questions for my Nominees

If you decide to accept this nomination, here are your questions to share with your readers and the rest of us. If you are a reader, I’d love to have you answer any of these in the comments below so I can get to know you better, too!

1. What is your favorite thing to drink and how do you make it to your liking?
2. What is the favorite thing you’ve ever written?
3. What is your best memory as a child or with a child?
4. What time of day do you do your best work?
5. What would you do if you had an extra hour every day?
6. What is at the top of your bucket list?
7. Favorite quote?
8. Who takes the best care of you?
9. What is your favorite pair of shoes?
10. When was the last time you went out with a friend(s) and what did you do?
11. What is one piece of advice you’d give to someone who is starting a new venture of any kind?

Much Thanks

I want to thank all of you. My friends and family who have encouraged me. I am really enjoying my readers and your engagement with my stories. And thank you, again, to Kendra @ItSustainable and Suzan @thyme_free for honoring me.

Rules of The Sunshine Blogger Award

• Rule 1 – Thank the person who nominated you, provide a link back to their blogging sites.
• Rule 2 – Answer their questions.
• Rule 3 – Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them 11 new questions.
• Rule 4 – Notify the nominees about their nomination via their blog or social media.
• Rule 5 – List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in you post. (I created my own display picture as I don’t know the ownership or copyright of the previously displayed photo/logo.)

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