More than you ever wanted to know about me.

This is just a fun post to get to know some of my "invisible" friends and some of my "not invisible" friends who blog. 

My sweet friend Dolly at Soul Stops gave me this award:

What is the Liebster Award? The  award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.  The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.

I will list 11 facts about me, answer Dolly's 11 questions, then I will nominate 11 bloggers, and give them 11 questions to answer.

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. I hate shopping and malls. They make me tired and grouchy.

2. Anytime I have opened my mouth to say "I will never do that!" God has laughed and started scheming.

3. I could not leave my house for days and it would not bother me one bit.

4. I don't get Pinterest or Twitter or Google Plus. 

5. I am very organized, keep a clean house, live by routines, but some of my favorite people are completely the opposite and I love them for that. 

6. Cold weather makes me blue. Like depressed blue. I'm a child of the sun.

7. I believe in "a little less conversation and a lot more action" when it comes to showing people Jesus' love. Stop talking and get loving. But I don't always live it.

8. I never thought I would say this but I love homeschooling, being a stay-at-home mom and learning to be a very poor version of Martha Stewart (see #2!)

9. When I get a good book in my hands I turn rudely anti-social and neglect everything else. It's a little like an addiction, I hate to say. 

10. I have terrible, terrible, terrible memory. It annoys my husband. 

11. I really do believe I'm married to the best man in the world, but I guess that is the way it should be.

These are Dolly's questions:

1. Are you a morning person, or a night owl? Or neither?

I am a morning person. As long as there is coffee. I prefer to get up early and get started because by 10:00 pm I am useless.

2. Who has had the biggest positive influence in your life?

Oh, I have been blessed to have lots of people who have had great influence on me. My mom taught me about hard work and goal setting. My friend Diana brought me to Christ and discipled me during my early walk. My in-laws have taught me about Christ-like love and service. My husband teaches me daily how to be a better person overall. And many, many women who have sharpened me like iron sharpens iron.

3. Why? if you answered Question #2

See question #2 :)

4. What is something God is teaching you lately?

To be slow to speak and quick to listen and slow to anger. And that I don't have to give my opinion or my advice. Just listen. It does more good to others than anything I can say.

5. What do you know now that you wish you knew 5 years ago?

Oh, wow. Five years ago I went through the hardest year of my life so that is a loaded question.  I wish I had known that straying from God's path, turning my back on his laws and going down the path of my will is disastrous and dangerous and very, very, painful. But sadly, I learn from personal experience. I once read a quote that says: "Smart people learn from their experiences, smarter people learn from the experiences of others." I am learning to be smart-er.

6. What makes your heart sing for joy?

Jesus. And my family. Listening to my husband play with my children, laugh with them and have "deep" conversations about God gives my heart wings.

7. What are your favorite foods?

Steak. That's all. I could eat meat all day, every day.

8. What do you look for in a friend? 

A gentle spirit, a sense of humor that does not hurt others, and an open mind to keep growing.

9. How did you come to have a love relationship with God based on faith?

Through valleys and mountains. God has been so faithful to me and I have seen him move in my life in such amazing ways that it is hard not to fall in love. He has wooed me.

10. What do you most want me to know about you? 

Ha! That even though I am not writing as often as I would like, I am reading y'alls posts and trying to keep connected commenting and that I have found a great network of support and encouragement in this blog-world.

11. How can I pray for you today?

That I continue to become the mom, wife, friend, follower of Christ that God wants me to be and that our Haiti adoption moves forward. 

The 11 bloggers I hope will answer my questions (either here in the comments, or on their blog if they accept the Liebster award) are:

Heather at Everyday Evans

Cherith at I, Hope

Jennifer at jenniferdavis.com (truth is I have NO idea how many followers she has, but since it's not posted and I want her to do this...I cheated a little)

Kathleen at Kath Ink

Kendal at A Spacious Place

Karrie at Life From Here

Kristina at Momma's Banter

Christy at One Fun Mom (same story as with Jennifer)

Mary Jo at Seeds of Peace

Mariah at Thee Fire Wife 

Angela at This Side of the Rainbow

I'm borrowing some of the questions Dolly had to answer because they are very good:

1. Do you prefer the sea or the mountains?

2. What is your greatest fear?

3. Why do you blog?

4. How would you describe yourself in a sentence or two?

5. What are your passions?

6. Do you prefer sweet or salty?

7. What does your average day look like?

8. What is the most risky thing you've ever done?

9. Did you learn anything from that risk?

10. What's your favorite book?

11. What is the attribute of God that you cherish the most? 

Rules for receiving this award: 1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves. 2. Then answer the questions the tagger sent for them, plus create 11 questions for the people they’ve tagged to answer. 3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post. 4. Notify the people you have tagged. 5. No tag backs.

(If you prefer, feel free to just answer my questions as a comment below. I would love to get to know you better!)

A Cherry On Top!

I started blogging a few months ago because I like to write, because I thought it would be an interesting experience, and because I could. Why not, right? Let’s try this and see what happens.

I had no idea it would be such an enriching experience. I also had no idea of the incredibly large and supportive online community a blog would reveal to me. I didn’t know that so many people blog, that there is a blog for just about any topic you can think of, and that there is a whole sub-culture of the blog world. It was a fascinating discovery for this anthropologist-wanna-be.

But that’s on the research side. On the human side I didn’t know blogging would make my life fuller. Seriously, who knew? I bet you did, if you have been blogging longer, but I? I was clueless. As an example, blogging has given me an excuse to spend extra time with my face-to-face friend Heather, who is my webmaster extraordinaire and has taught me the ins-and-outs of creating headers, posting pictures, and links, etc. She was my first follower, my first commenter, and my first encourager. She is my blog-mentor!

But I expected my family and friends to read, wouldn’t you? The coolest thing was to see people I didn’t know become followers and leave comments. I thought: Whoa! Other people are reading this mess? That. Is. Awesome. And then to get comments from strangers that said such and such post had touched them? I was hooked. (By the way, your comments make my day, so please don’t be shy. I love, love, love to hear from you. Then I get to go to your blog and read your stories. That I love even more.)

Heather, my aforementioned mentor, introduced me to ICWL. I joined. I commented. I received comments. I had a blast. I made new friends. Online friends who share their lives with me. How cool is that? Maybe all of this is old news to you because you are a veteran of the blog world. But do you remember what it felt like when you were new at this and it was all fresh? I may be a few years behind (as I usually am in all things technology) but I am just now being wowed by the awesomeness of it all.

So now I have a blog that gives me a chance to write some stories about the people I love most and who fill me with inspiration, a bunch of other places to go to when I want to read stories that will fill me with inspiration, and several new friends whose lives fill me with inspiration. Do you see a theme developing? You. Inspire. Me.

All of these ramblings to say this:

One of my new friends, Katherine, humbled me by giving me this award:

So now I get to pay it forward by choosing five blogs from among those amazing ones I have found and send them some love and encouragement in the shape of a little cupcake. It has been difficult to pick just five, but here they are (fanfare and drum roll…):

Reach in, reach out, reach up.

Jennifer V. Davis

Write Mind, Open Heart

Heart&Home

Superfluous Pulchritude

(Here are the rules: Link back to the person who awarded you, and then pick five blogs to pass on the award too. Make sure to comment on the awarded blogs so they know they've been picked.)

Some of these people I know personally, some I have met through this journey, some have no idea who I am, but I assure you their posts are worth reading.

There are so many others wonderful blogs and the people behind them. If you are curious, just click on any name in any of the posts’ comments sections and explore. Be warned: you may end up, like me, with a big ol’ long list of blogs to read each morning!