For the first time ever, I’ve been nominated for a blogging award!  I’m pretty excited!  Much thanks to Charlotte from My Little Homeschool for the nomination.  She blogs about homeschooling her two boys in South Africa; I absolutely love seeing the beautiful South African coast through her pictures and learning how another homeschool mama operates.  Her post about daily survival with special needs kids is applicable to all homeschoolers, and sums up some of my favorite things about homeschooling.

The Liebster Award is a blogger award, given by bloggers for bloggers.  It’s a great way to discover new blogs.

The Rules

1. Acknowledge the blog that gave you the award–give them some love.
2. Answer 11 questions the blogger gives you.
3. Give 11 random facts about yourself
4. Nominate 11 blogs and notify them that you dig them
5. Give them 11 questions to answer

My Q and A Answers

1. What is your absolute favorite meal?

Anything I don’t have to cook myself.  I especially love pizza and really good sushi.  (Not at the same time!)

2. Who is your celebrity crush and why?

Chris Pratt probably.  Or the actor who played Gilbert Blythe in the old Anne of Green Gables movies.  I’m so bad with celebrity names, you guys.  I cannot keep them straight, and am forever mixing up actors that like ‘kind of’ similar.

3. Who is your favorite spice girl?

I’m not even sure what a spice girl is.  I think it’s a band, but I don’t know that I’ve ever heard their music and I definitely have no idea which one would be my favorite.  Cinnamon?  No?  Bad joke?  Okay, sorry.

4. If you were a cocktail, what cocktail would you be and why?

A margarita, because I used to be a lemon.  Seriously, my maiden name is Lemmon.  Also, I really love margaritas!

5. Beach or Mountains

Beach!  I haven’t been to the ocean in far too long, and I’m really missing the beach.  The beaches were one of my favorite parts of living in Hawaii, and probably ruined me for life.  I would love to have a beach house someday and be able to just zip down to the ocean on the weekends!

6. What is your favorite social media platform and why?

Instagram for sure.  I love being able to connect with other homeschooling families.  It is always inspiring and I get some great ideas from the other homeschoolers out there.  It’s a great community and everybody is so supportive.

7. What is something funny your kid says?

So many things.  The funniest, most recent thing was Klaus (my 3-almost-4-year-old) referring to the bit of snow we got overnight as ‘white dust mites’.  So funny.  And accurate.  We’re done with winter over here.  If the weather could get the memo that would be great.

8. What is something weird your kid does?

Eva is obsessed with her belly button.  All the time.  If I’m reading her a story, she’s playing with her belly button.  Basically any time she’s sitting still, she’ll be playing with her belly button.

9. Why do you blog?

I love to write and I love having a record of our days.  Regular posting is not my strong point–I have too many other irons in the fire and something (or somebody) is always competing for my attention–but I try.  I always hope that someday I’ll get it all together and be able to turn blogging into a side-gig.

10. How do you find inspiration?

In nature, history, books, instagram, and pinterest.  In fact, I guess nature and history are really my two root sources of inspiration.  Even when I look for inspiration in books, instagram and pinterest, I nearly always find it in something related to nature or history.

11. Do you have any advice for new bloggers?

Write about things that you’re really interested in.  Don’t try to force it.  If it doesn’t come naturally, it won’t come at all, but when you DO find that thing you love writing about you’ll be continually inspired (even if you can’t find the time to blog :P)

11 Random Facts About Me

1. I play the violin (and wish I played more most of the time.)
2. The library is my favorite place.  When we move, the first thing I do is check out the library.  Don’t care where the grocery store is; where is the library?
3. I love to dream up new novels.  I’m working on one now that I’m really excited about.  Someday, one of them will actually be successful.
4. I love budgeting and menu planning, and am mildly obsessed with sticking to our budget.
5. Being a mom is amazing, but being a homeschool mom is literally the most exciting, awe-inducing thing I’ve ever done.  I love getting to teach my kids, and see their a-ha moments, and learn alongside them.
6. I like to think I’m a Charlotte Mason homeschooler, but then I’ll reread some of the Classical education literature and decide I’m more classical… and the truth of the matter is probably that we’re somewhere between the two and heavily eclectic.
7. I’ve read 23 books since the start of the year.
8. I read multiple books at once.  I’m currently reading about 8.
9. I love to write book reviews and am always thinking about how I would/should/could review a book.  Lately though, I just can’t seem to find the time
10. I’m an introvert, but I like meeting and talking to people.
11. Chocolate is my kryptonite.  Not a lot, but I like to eat a square or two in the afternoon during quiet time.  I stash it all over the kitchen, and my husband is always finding my stash and teasing me about it.  But then he eats it, thus validating my “need” for different caches.

My Liebster Award Nominations

1. Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
2. Joshua’s Girl
3. Our Journey Westward
4. At Home Teaching V
5. Here in the Bonny Glen
6. Blog, She Wrote
7. Eva Varga
8. An Intentional Life
9. A Farmhouse Full
10. Mrs. Criddles Kitchen
11. Stir the Wonder

Questions for my Nominees

1. What is your favorite way to enjoy the great outdoors?
2. What is your go-to snack?
3. Are you a one-book-at-a-time kind of gal or more of a towering-book-stack person?
4. Do you go to the library?
5. Favorite genre of books or movies?
6. Beverage of choice?
7. What do you love about blogging?
8. Any advice for other bloggers?
9. Is there anything you dislike about blogging?
10. What is your favorite season of the year?
11. What is your favorite book of all time?

So there you go! Hope everybody enjoys playing along and making some new blogger friends!