And The Winner Is. . .

ME!

Some Fine Print:  Some super kickass things happened to me this week, and I want to do this right.  This is a long one.  Grab your snacks and beverages, find your comfy spot.  You might want to take a run to the restroom before you start.  It’s OK, I’ll wait. . .

Deflection and deprecation are my default settings when given a compliment.  Today, I shall hike up my big girl panties, and say a proper thank you like a proper grown-up should.  Today I shall acknowledge the kickass head-on, give sincere, heartfelt thanks in return, and pay it forward.  Sure, there’s probably more to a proper acknowledgment of wonderfulness than the tossed salad I’ll be plating here for you, but my inner self is DYING to default and insist this is a series of errors, because come on, seriously, me?

It’s been a few weeks since I began Blogging U.  In this time, I’ve read blogs by terrific people writing on topics I never knew existed.  I get that my blog serves a fairly niche market–there aren’t a great many parents whose children were diagnosed with MD driven to launch a blog immediately after that diagnosis.  I wasn’t expecting to find others chasing quite the same thing I was after.  I wasn’t expecting to learn about the myriad topics my classmates hold extremely close and dear.  And I sure wasn’t expecting this:

The Liebster Award is a newcomer award given by bloggers to other bloggers.  It creates a great platform for new blogs to be discovered and build communications. The best thing about this award is, it creates a lot of encouragement and support within our blogging community.

 

OR THIS:

Bloggers are a cool lot.  Most people I’ve “met” in my class aren’t professional writers.  Many are like me, and just have a story to tell.  I was nominated for the Liebster Award, by Ioana, a music teacher in Romania who writes at Music Teacher Lifestyle.  Check her out!  I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by two different and lovely examples of humanity, Pointless & Prosaic and  Joanne at Beyond Mummy.  Check them out too.  Seriously you guys????   Thank you.  Thank you.  And thank you some more.  It’s true that it is an honor to be nominated.  I’d like to nominate you right back (can I do that?).

There are rules to follow upon acceptance, and I’m probably breaking them by co-mingling them here, so don’t hate on me, dear readers.  I am full up to overflowing with happy.  So here’s whatcha gotta do-

• Thank your nominator.  (Of course!)
• Share the award on your blog.  (Of course!  Can I wear it on a t-shirt?)
• Answer the 10 questions asked to you for the Liebster, or state 7 things about yourself for the Versatile Blogger.
• Ask 10 questions to 10 new nominees who have fewer than 300 followers
• Notify them via social media

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So for the Versatile Blogger Award, here are seven factoids about me.  A few of them have been recycled from a a post I developed last summer when I was feeling pretty cheeky and still ring true.

1.  I’m ashamed to admit my iPhone is more a distraction than I’d ever have thought.  I might be one of those people.  Crushing candy is a poor excuse for a life, but its brainless distraction provides a balm for my oft-times melting mom-wife-professional brain.  Pinging off sassy text messages to a couple of friends and groups who get me is a lot of fun too!  I think I am funny in my text exchanges.  Sometimes I am.
2. I love to travel, but don’t travel much if I have to be the travel organizer.  I’m responsible in all aspects of my personal/professional life and for pretty much everything for my family, but I don’t always want that “honor.”  I love travelling when someone else is planning.  I’d go anywhere, but the reality is that I stay pretty close to home.
3. I will never play Bingo because the thought of yelling “bingo” is so ridiculous and horrifying that I will never even buy into the game.  Bingoers do not screw around, people, and they frighten me a little.  Maybe more than a little.  I can get up in front of an audience to talk with no problem whatsoever, but never is enough times for me to play Bingo.
4. It was terrifying to reveal to others that I blog, and I wish more than anything I hadn’t a reason to feel I needed to get it out, write it out, work it out. Who cares about me and my tale though?  You.  What a gift.
5. I almost never react to anything appropriately.  I over- or under-react much of the time.  French fries soggy?  WHAT?  WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS INJUSTICE?  Tornado zip through the center of my house?  Meh, we’ll figure it out. . .
6. I joke and squawk about my Yahoos–my boys–yes, all three of them, but I love them beyond measure and would do anything to protect them.  The moment I knew I was pregnant with each of my sons, I knew they were boys.  The universe had a plan for me, and the plan was that I would not be the mother of girly-girls.  I do find fart jokes and potty humor funny, thank you very much.  I’m kind of an adolescent boy trapped in a middle-aged woman’s body humor-wise.
7. I am ferociously loyal–to people, institutions, geographic sites, you name it.  I do believe that change is good and all, but my heart is torn when I turn the page.  Some things earn and deserve my loyalty, while others do not.  Doesn’t mean I won’t remain loyal, and loyalty is sometimes my undoing.

Here are seven new-ish or new-to-me blogs I’ve really enjoyed getting to know.  You might too–

The Road to There

It’s About Time 22

SpinningHead

Amy Morris Jones

Pointless & Prosaic

Schmaltz and Menudo

Finding Joy Again

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The Liebster posed these 10 questions.  I liked them, so will ask the same of you–

1. If you had the awesome opportunity to live anywhere else than where you are now, where would you want to live and why?  During the last year, my husband I have been (not entirely) joking about moving to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  Hogtown is a beautiful metropolis with incredible parks and natural beauty to boot.  I would like to live in a place that values education and educators and the greater good.  Plus if Trump wins this election?  I can’t even. . .
2. What kind of music do you like to listen to – your favourite singer/composer?  Easy one for anyone who knows me.  I live and die by the band Barenaked Ladies.  Ed Robertson writes words and melodies that make my head spin.  Kevin Hearn and Jim Creeggan are insanely talented musicians whose songwriting is honest and heartfelt, and the backbone Tyler Stewart provides beats a rhythm alongside my own heart.  On top of their talent, individually and collectively, they are each decent, kind, generous men.  I have met the band several times, and they have made ME feel like the rock star.  I love them.  BUT I do listen to lots of other genres and artists–I enjoy styles ranging from classical to swing to jazz to disco to pop.  I still get a kick from my hair bands, and their oh-so-sweet 90 MPH guitar licks too.  I don’t much care for country or hip-hop and I can’t do rap.
3. What is your favourite blog to read? The Bloggess.  Jenny Lawson.  I so admire her. Someone once said that my writing style reminds her of hers, and I was knocked out.  Then in the next breath I was terrified that Jenny Lawson would read something I wrote (hahahahahahaha) and think I was copying her.  I’m not.  I’m my own special brand of goof.  I’m the one without taxidermy.
4. What’s your favourite activity on a weekend?  Ummm. . .  Honestly?  My favorite part of any old weekend is the part where I don’t have to set an alarm.  I still rise with the birdies, but I don’t HAVE to, and therein lies the difference.
5. What is you favourite book?  Jane Eyre is one of my faves.  Wonder by RJ Palacio is another; The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon still another.  I never know how to answer this.  Read Wonder, and always be kinder than is necessary.
6. Why did you decide to blog?  My older son was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy last year. That day marked an after for me. For the first few days after the day, I could manage little more than crying.  Sitting at a computer forced me to do something else long enough to stop crying once in awhile.  It was also an easy way out–if people asked how I was or what was new, I could say, “Here, read this,” and not have to talk about it.  I write like I talk, and the format fit.  Writing has always helped me organize my thoughts.
7. What is your favourite movie?  Not sure I have one absolute fave, but here are a few movies I can never shut off once I stumble upon them:  Singin’ In The Rain, The Princess Bride, Shrek, The Hangover (yes, really–some of the best lines are Bradley Cooper’s facial expressions and pauses–if it’s on, I am IN for at least the first fifty-four minutes), The Replacements, Sixteen Candles is 80s perfection.  I’ll think of ten more as soon as I post this.
8. If you could give only one wise advice to a 15 year-old, what would it be?  PLEASE know that it’ll take at least another lifetime before you are wise enough to know better.  You will love your future self, trust me.  OR Don’t be a dick.  I know it says one, but they’re both really important.
9. Who is your best friend and what are his/her biggest qualities?  My best friend, Deb, and I were new girls in Mrs. Peterson’s fourth grade class.  We were close friends and we weren’t close friends for periods, and it took til college for us to understand we were best friends.  Deb is brilliant, wise, funny, silly, unfalteringly fierce and loyal.  Our long, shared history and my deep affection for her makes her the closest thing to a sister I’ll know.
10. How long did it take you to finish this post?  First run through, about 40 minutes.  Don’t even ask about the edits.

It’s impossible to short-list my blog loves here–so many good writers telling stories about subjects you’d never dream demand to be read.  Please keep writing, so I can keep reading!  Non-bloggers and fellow bloggers alike, read down and see who strikes your fancy.

Now you’re up:  If you choose to accept the nominations, please pay it forward.  At minimum, I guarantee you will add joy to someone’s day, and it won’t cost so much as a penny.

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