Awards, Kudos, Pats on the Back and High Fives

I have a file that sits in my outlook that houses awards from bloggers when I get them. Its so I don't forget to acknowledge them and what they are and who they are from. These mean a lot to me, so why don't I do something when I get them? It's easy.

If I have already written a post for the day, I try not to post again unless it's really urgent because I know how busy some people are in not only writing a post for their own blog but reading and commenting on others. So I try to post no more than once a day.

Then there are these days lately when I feel like I am fighting an uphill battle all the way and losing each day to feel somewhat normal. Looking back in my mind over the last few months feels like that person I used to be is so far away from me, and all I have now is just a hollow shell of my former self.

I hate being so sick or in pain you are literally stuck in bed, but I resolve myself to doing those things I can while I am down for now like blogging or even reading books for publishers. I love to read or more like inhale words on a page. I can never get enough.

Yet I have quite a few of these awards I wish to acknowledge to those that have graciously bestowed them upon me and pass them along to people as well. I treasure each and every one of these.



Christy Rose at the Secret Life of An American Wife and Mom was nice enough to pass this Circle of Friends award on to me.

I want to forward this award on the the following bloggers and may you please find 5 bloggers to pass these along to as well! To me the Circle of Friends is for those bloggers that always leave a comment for you no matter how busy they might be. My selections are:

1. Jane at Jumpin in the Jungle
2. Misha at From My Front Porch in the Mountains
3. Deby at Apples of Gold
4. Dawn at Dawn's Cottage Corner
5. Thena at Patiently Waiting


Debby at Heavenly Humor passed along the Sunshine Blog Award, The Sugar Doll Award and the Best Blogger award to me. I have also received the Sugar Doll Award from Tami at Hearts Make Families


I want to pass along the Sunshine Award to the following bloggers who make your day just a bit brighter just for stopping by their blog:

1. Sandy at One Day At A Time
2. Denise at Free to Be Me
3. Rosel at Off The Beaten Trek
4. Lidj at Crown of Beauty
5. Mich at Mich


I want to pass the Sugar Doll Award on to the following bloggers that always offer something encouraging to say not only within their own blog posts but in the comments they leave:

1. Michelle at Psalm 104:24
2. Kailee at Hand in Hand
3. Charlotte at Simply Divine Love
4. Candee at Encouragement for the Journey
5. Wendi at My Hearts Always Home



I want to pass along the Beautiful Blogger Award to the following bloggers who go above and beyond just blogging to make you feel special:

1. Loren at The Magoos News
2. Susan at This Day!
3. Kim at Homesteader's Heart
4. Nan at Mom's The Word
5. Dawn at Spontaneous Clapping

I have also received the Prolific Blogger Award from Sitka at All God's Creatures as well as from Susan at This Day, Andrea at Arise 2 Write, Debby at Just Breathe.


I am passing this final award on to the following 5 bloggers that have inspired me with what they write about each day:

1. Denise at Keeping Up With The Jones
2. Teresa at Grammy Girlfriend
3. Lori at Girly Muse
4. LV at Thoughts from Meme's Corner
5. Mari at My Little Corner of the World

I think it means a lot to receive these awards personally and hope that as I pass them along to you that you in return find 5 bloggers to pass them along to. It means so much more when someone acknowledges these awards to you instead of just telling people to pick them up if they want them. I like to see them continually passed on.

It doesn't mean that if I don't award you with one of these awards that you aren't deserving of one, but I am hoping that each of us will in turn take the time to pass them on and forward, coming full circle once again.

Thankful Thursday!!

WOO! Hoo! Another week has come and gone and there are always blessings galore to be found. If you haven't yet participated in Thankful Thursdays and would like to, please visit Sonya at Truth 4 The Journey and sign up today! Her site is beautiful and you will meet many new blogging friends who will stop by and view all your blessings as well!

Here are just 5 of the things I am thankful for this week, and in everything I am always thankful for God and His hand in my life!

1. I am thankful that my air conditioning is still working in the midst of all this heat wave we have had for almost 2 weeks straight. I am praying that God will work on the electric company and keep us from being sticker shocked when we open the bill this month!

2. I am thankful that Caitlyn's teen party went off without any problems and everyone that she invited all showed up and were a part of something special for her 16th!

3. I am thankful that we were all able to take a roadtrip yesterday and discover some amazing things. I will be blogging about it soon, so keep a sharp eye out!

4. I am thankful for my hubby who at this time, remains at home working most days so the kids can really spend some much needed quality time with him. We have been in a deficit for a while.

5. I am thankful for all my blogging friends who remain so inspirational and motivated that I can't wait to see each and every one of your sites and postings each day. I am going to dedicate one day a week to highlight new blogs I have come across to make finding new friends even easier!

Have a most wonderful and blessed day today!

It's Official, We Have a Junior!

Before you start to congratulate me on our recent addition, we didn't just have a baby! My baby booming days are O-V-E-R! Not that I mind kids, it's just now that mine are at the point of becoming somewhat self sufficient, like making their own breakfast, even though it isn't what mom would consider breakfast, like microwave hot dogs because they just taste great in the morning!

What I am talking about is my sophomore daughter has graduated officially today to a Junior! I even teased her that the word "Junior" should be at the end of her last name. She didn't find it as funny as I did.

Do kids ever?

We got all her grades in, turned in all her books, science fair projects, Geometry Projects, Spanish papers, and anything else that doesn't belong to her and handed it all over to the school.

What do we get in return, besides security and peace of mind that we don't have to locate a missing text book before the end of year?

Final Grades!

Yup, she mastered her second year of high school with straight A's.

Hey her standard, not ours. We are super excited she maintains it, but the effort she puts into it all year for her is apparently worth all the long nights, and study hours to get great test grades.

What excited her the most was the new title!

No more Sophomore! I mean I hated that title for a ten grader. Sop More? Sof More?

Nah, now it's Junior. Said with an air of distinction. Like a royal title that rolls off your tongue like honey!

Oh and the added bonus that she is now officially on her summer hiatus! NO more school.

No more grades.

No more tests!

No more studying!

Time to hang out with friends all summer long and make new memories!

Time to forget her school romance that didn't end well.

Her ex by the way, still can't believe she hasn't locked herself in her room, binging on chocolate, crying her eyes out and watching every romantic chick flick ever invented!

Um, not if mom and all her friends network can help it. Nope! Time to get out, and stay busy.

For now, we celebrate.

We celebrate the whole aspect of the possibilities of what a new year can bring, new friends, new activities, courses, college schedules and of course, the possibility of a new love!

For now, we relish the moment of the word, Junior!

Thankful Thursday Participation

It's Thursday again and almost ready for the weekend. So I thought I would take some time and share just a few things that I am super grateful for this week.

1. I am thankful for God's never ending patience, love, grace and mercy! Some days you just feel like you need an extra dose of His love and to not walk too far from Him. I am thankful that He is always there when I need Him and He reminds me not too put too much fair in people as they can sometimes disappoint even when they don't mean too, but God never does.

2. I am thankful that my hubby is working locally in Chino. It means he can come home every night and we can enjoy weekends together again for now. We truly have come to realize that after 13 years together sometimes you have a tendency to take advantage of each other always being there. Since August, he has been on the road constantly, so we treasure moments together as a family and moments alone.

3. I am thankful for my many friends I have made during my recent blogging began in January. Who would have guessed I would be so encouraged and loved by my fellow bloggers and they become personal cheerleaders when the days can turn grey!

4. I am thankful for the change in the weather, we have had some super, hot and sunny days lately in the 100's and the winds have returned sweeping the heat back out to the deserts! I love the cool, crisp days and icy, cold, clear nights.

5. I am thankful I am seeing the light and school for the kids is drawing to a close. As a homeschool mom it's like getting an extended vacation even though the learning technically doesn't end. We are trying to plan our first family vacation in awhile, someplace in the mountains, where it's cold, dark and mossy!

Love and Hugs ~ Kat

A Gift From God

I had to add this extra blog in as a super surprise and at the majesty of just how God can bless your life at the lowest of hours! I got a blog award from Sitka on All God's Creatures! This truly made my day and it's so hard to get passed up by all the little things in life, but this one was just like getting an academy award.

Two rules accompany this award:
1. Confess 5 things you are addicted to
2. Pass the award on to 5 deserving bloggers

Task one: 5 Things That I Am Addicted To:

1. Grey's Anatomy. Never miss an episode if I can help it. Yes, I am one of those people filled with the hope that Meredith and Derek will finally get married and live happily ever after.
2. Chocolate. Perferably the darker and sweeter the better. Plus I heard it's good for your heart too! I especially love See's Dark Chocolate Bordeauxs.
3. My Hubby. I was loving him far before he ever fell for me. He helped me through one of the most difficult times of my life, and now loves me in spite of my many shortcomings, too many to list here.
4. My kids. Yes, they can get on my nerves sometimes, but I would never trade a day without them. They help mold me into the mom I am today.
5. God. He is not only the period at the end of each sentence in my book on my life, but the author, publisher, editor, and creator! Some may wonder why I placed Him last instead of first, and the truth is, He is always first in my life but He is also my last. He completes who I am and even though I leave Him sometimes, He never abandons me. He is always there for me.

Task Two - The blog award is being passed to:

1. Caitlyn at Dear Craisin . She is my daughter and its her first blog, I think it's amazing that she is writing from a teenager's point of view. My goal for her was to continue to write as a journal and be able to look back at both the high and low points of her life and see the amazing ways God has blessed her. A mom couldn't be more proud.

2. Samm at Samm's Inspirations. Again another teenager that I know quite well that has used her blog to help her through a difficult time in her life. She is working on advancing her photography career as well as her spiritual walk in a home where her parents are hard on her. Keeping the faith!

3. Michelle at Scribbit. She has the most amazing blog and has inspired me to follow suit. I can only hope at some point to live up to her blog. She is a mom who lives in Alaska and I find myself living through her eyes what life is like in Alaska. She gives great advice to bloggers and I look forward to reading her post everyday!

4. Layla at the The Lettered Cottage. She is super amazing designer and the ideas and pictures she shares has given me some hope that some of my ideas might not be so far off. She will even do a consultation for you via her site and email for a fee. So if you have that hard to decorate room or like me, have tried in vane to find the right paint color for the room, she is the answer.

5. Rachel at Made With Love and Glue. Again she is amazing with creative, low cost ideas that will not only inspire you to join in but will give you the faith to step out on your own as well and try some simple things. Love this site.

Thanks again to my wonderful friends for all your wonderful blogs and amazing ideas.

It's All In How You See It!

How do you see the world? Black and white, technicolor or do you see the unseen things or the things that God shows you every day that you take for granted. Take for example between reading chapters from the book Max Lucado wrote called, "Every Day Deserves a Chance", and waiting for my daughter to get out of her track and field meeting at school I watched the world for 30 minutes. OK I don't need therapy but I just paused for a moment in my day and saw things a completely different way. Oh and by the way, the book is amazing, incredible and as my daughter put it, "I love the way he writes, I oculd just eat his words!"

So here is what I wrote while waiting and I hope you enjoy it. The jet trails trace their paths along a baby blue backdrop of sky while the stark maple sentinels stand guard over the winter evening while anxious buds await the coming spring.

The silence that falls when the last car heads home before the close of the day as the setting sun and rising moon not only say, 'Good Night' but 'Good Morning' as they pass in the span of time.

Heavenly lights appear at first as a dull faded light but grow in intensity as more of them join together like friends keeping each other company. One by one the black inky darkness is pierced by yet another heavenly light until the night sky is lit up with the twinkling of millions of stars and suddenly the night moon isn't lonely anymore and can show its full face to those that look up to see it.

As the stillness of night fades from black into a midnight blue, the moon begins it's descent home again, ready to begin the process all over. Then the morning magic begins as the morning sky begins a one of a kind light show created by God. He paints a unique watercolor masterpiece each morning and evening for just a brief moment never to repeat the same painting again.

So how do you see your day?