Liebster Award: Recognition, Encouragement and Paying it Forward

Welcome to the weekend! I’m so excited for the lazy mornings and the smell of bacon frying in the kitchen! This weekend, my plan is to get some stuff done; the first is to get this blog post finished and up as I’ve been putting it off since Monday! In all fairness, I’ve had a busy week. But it’s time to get this going...

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CONGRATULATIONS to me and my little blog! We’ve been nominated by Ginger over at The Wild and Wonderful World of Gingerssnaps for a Liebster Award! What is a Liebster Award you ask? Well, of course, I did some research ala Google and discovered that Liebster is an award that really isn’t an award! Sort of.




It is said that the award is of German origin (most likely). The word Liebster translates as “dearest” with its root translating as “dear, good, sweet, kind, nice, lovely, endearing, beloved, kindly, cute, pleasant, valued.” How wonderful to receive an award from a friend and fellow blogger, especially an award with descriptors such as beloved and valued!
So how is it not an award, you ask? Well, there’s no granting agency or governing body; it’s given to up-and-coming bloggers with less than 200 followers from other bloggers who have received the award. There are no real requirements for receiving the award other than to be a blogger with a small following. The Liebster doesn’t recognize a specific achievement or your performance, except that the awarding blogger has decided you have potential and are deserving of encouragement and support. Unlike most awards, when you receive it there’s a set of rules you have to follow (see below). The best difference of all, though, is that the Liebster award is one you accept with the full intention of paying it forward!

So, while the Liebster doesn’t fit any of the standard guidelines for awards, it is a statement of encouragement and support from your peer. That means more to me than any of that other stuff! A HUGE thank you goes out to Ginger for her support an encouragement in building my blog and keeping it going! And another huge THANK YOU to all of you who stop by and read!

I’d really enjoy it if you chose to stick around for the long haul by becoming a follower of the page. There are 4 ways to follow me: (1) by clicking the “Join this site” button on the right, (2) by “Liking” my facebook page, (3) follow me on twitter, or (4) follow me on Pinterest.


Random facts about me:

1. My first car was a 1974 VW Bug.
2. I don’t really like chocolate (I’ll eat it and I enjoy it occasionally if it has nuts in it, but overall I could go the rest of my life without chocolate with no real effort.)
3. My Dad died in a motorcycle accident on September 11^th when I was 6 years old; 33 years later and I still miss him like crazy!
4. I have OCD tendencies and do weird things like alphabetize our DVD collection and create spreadsheets listing all the titles. And I arrange the cans in my pantry so that the labels all face outward.
5. When I’m having a hard time falling asleep at night, I “sing” Don McLean’s song American Pie to myself (sometimes without saying an actual word aloud).
6. I hate to cry in front of people. So much so that I once dropped out of a college PE class because I cried (when I’d been accidentally injured) in class.
7. I collect fortune cookie fortunes.
8. I really like gadgets and new technology, so much so that DH sometimes calls me Gadget Girl.
9. I adore butterflies! So much so that the only thing that I had to do at my wedding was have a butterfly release… it was a magical moment!
10. I love office supplies! Buying them is like preparing for organizational war, which makes my OCD side a happy girl!
11. I also have an unhealthy love for craft supplies! I really enjoy being crafty, but all of my craft supplies have been packed up since we moved to Colorado…I finally got DH to bring them up to the house for me this morning and they’re waiting for me to sort through them and organize them – all EIGHT crates full!

 
Questions from my nominating blogger, Ginger at The Wild and Wonderful World of Gingerssnaps:

1. Where were you born? Clarksburg, West Virginia
2. What is your most favorite thing from childhood? My friends! There are a few friends from my childhood that I am still in touch with, several I reconnected with thanks to Facebook, and those relationships are what I cherish the most from childhood.
3. Why did you start blogging and why do you blog now? Is it the same reason you started blogging? I started blogging at the encouragement of a friend who was a blogger. I keep blogging because I’ve found that it’s a great way to find out how I’m really feeling about something. If I sit down in front of the computer and just start typing, my real feelings just magically show up on the screen!
4. What is your favorite silly made up word? I’ve been thinking about this all week and I can’t really come up with one…my OCD tendencies don’t allow me to use made-up words! If I HAD to come up with one, it would be thingamajig.
5. Who is your favorite leading man/woman? Actor or actress? Ummm…I like a LOT of them for a variety of reasons. It always depends on the role and the story. I’m really enjoying Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling lately.
6. Who is your favorite heroine /hero from any book and why? Somehow growing up, though I loved to escape in a book, I managed to miss reading all the literary classics (but reading them is on my bucket list). Of my favorite books I’ve read, Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, Laura Ingalls from The Little House on the Prairie series, and Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden a a few of my favorites.
7. Have you gotten to know any of your fellow bloggers personally? I only know one blogger in real life and it’s been 20+ years since I saw her in person!
8. What is your favorite holiday? I really like Thanksgiving because the house is full of the wonderful smells of everything cooking, everyone hangs out and has fun and there’s none of the stress of finding the perfect gift or anything. In 2011, Little Man was born the day before Thanksgiving and we came home from the hospital on Thanksgiving – Baby Girl cooked her first Thanksgiving meal that Saturday at our home for us. Afterwards, she gave us the biggest compliment when she told me “Cooking Thanksgiving was hard! You and Daddy always made it look so easy and fun.” I feel so blessed that my kids have memories like that!
9. Who is your role model and why? When I was 6 months old, a family friend became my babysitter; she took care of me until we moved away when I was 10. She was like a mother to me. She treated my brother and me like we were part of her family and heaped love on us. To this day we stay in touch. She’s just one of the most wonderful people I know: never curses, always kind, loving, accepting and she’s a Godly woman. When I think about the kind of person I need to be, it’s always based on her example.
10. What did you want to be when you grew up? Are you there yet, and are you what you wanted to be as a child? When I was younger, I always thought I would be a teacher. When I went to college, I majored in Elementary Education. But, I’m not there yet…hopefully some day. Right now being a mommy is like the best teaching job on the planet!
11. What is your favorite quote? My favorite quote for the last few years has been “Where there is great love there are always miracles!” It’s a good reminder to strive to make all the love in my life great and wait for the miracles I know are coming!

 My nominations for the Liebster Award:

The Vent Line

The (mis)Adventures of a "Born Again" Farm Girl

Close Families

Snark Mom

Hello, Gelibee

So-Called Geek

Outdoorsy Mama

Emily Anne Style

Celebrate Crafts

Scrap Inspired

Dysfunction Junction

My questions for my nominees:

1. What is your favorite color? Any particular reason why?
2. If you had to name a defining moment in your life, what would it be?
3. If you could choose a super-hero power, what would you pick? Why?
4. What is your favorite book?
5. Do you have a hobby/hobbies? What is it?
6. What’s the farthest from home you’ve ever travelled?
7. What’s the most important thing to you on your bucket list?
8. Could you live as a vegetarian? Vegetarians and vegans: Would you ever choose to eat meat? Why?
9. What’s you favorite website?
10. Are you right or left handed? If you could change, would you?
11. If you could pick your own name, what would it be? OR, what is your nickname?