A first for me, I’ve been nominated for a blogger award! I have seen these floating around but never knew much about them. So I did some research into what the Sunshine Award is all about.

According to one site, the Sunshine Award is The Sunshine Award is for “bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere”.

I want to thank Steph from Burbs to Boonies for the nomination. She has blogs about her life in a small town in Kansas, USA, frugal living, healthy cooking, encouragement parenting, co-schooling or supplementing public school education, modern day hunting and gathering, living by faith and getting families outdoors. I love her ideas on getting families outdoors, though, judging by some of the winter activities she suggests, I don’t think Kansas winters get quite as cold as Alberta winters do!

Here are the rules for the award:

1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you (my nominees, you can just answer the same ones!)
4. List bloggers (8-12) that you believe deserve some recognition and a  little blogging love, usually newer or up-and-coming blogs.
5. Let all of the bloggers know that they’ve been nominated.

I’ll start with Bloggers I’d like to nominate. I’m nominating them because I enjoy reading their material and I think that you would too. There is some amazing content here by some very talented writers:
1. Adelien from Blessed Learners (and I see that I’m not the first one to nominate her!)
2. Crystal from Wisdom Seeking Mommy
3. Victoria from Creative Home Keeper
4. Tammy from Creative K Kids
5. Ashley from Joyful Thrifty Home
6. Retha from Bible Fascination
7. Stephanie from Abundant Living
8. Jennie at SelkieMum

Questions:

1. What’s your favorite meal of the day — breakfast, lunch or dinner? Breakfast. Yummy foods like pancakes, French toast, and cheesy-eggy wraps. Plus I love the fact that my husband loves to cook breakfast which means I don’t have to!
2. What’s your favorite fruit? Hmm… tough one. Maybe strawberries. Though watermelon and cold oranges or apples are great on a hot summer day. 
3. When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up? I don’t remember that far back! Maybe a dairy farmer, singer, or a writer. Those were at the top of my list for most of my childhood.
4. What quality do you find most attractive in others? Honesty.
5. What’s your favorite sport? I enjoy swimming and karate but I’m not really into sports. Especially at this point in my life.
6. Gold or silver? Silver to wear, gold to win 😉  
7. What’s your favorite candy? It changes depending on my mood. Right now I could go for some gummy bears. But I also love Reese bars. And vanilla Charleston Chews. And Rockets (or as Americans call them, Smarties). And marshmallow strawberries and bananas. Oooooooh Candy Corn!!!! Can’t believe I forgot about that! …..   Thinking about candy while pregnant is not a good idea! Normally I prefer salty and crunchy treats but, apparently, I prefer sweets when pregnant.
8. What’s your favorite online shopping website? Amazon. If I had a million dollars, I’d buy books.
9. What’s your pet peeve? When people complain about their life but are doing nothing to change it.
10. Winter, spring, summer or fall? Fall. There’s something about the smell and the colors, and harvesting. Cool and crisp and fresh.
11. How many pairs of shoes do you have? About 7, including farm and winter stuff.

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. I’m not very random. I plan everything, even if it’s just seconds before, I have gone over the details in my mind.
2. I love milk. Cold, white milk. I really love it. It’s delicious. I drink a lot of it.
3. I want to grow my hair out. I just love the shock factor of people when I pull waist length hair out of my jacket in the wintertime.
4. I haven’t slept more than 6.5 hours uninterrupted in about 5.5 years. That was just  couple days ago. Now I’m back to the regular 2-3 hour chunks.
5. I would love to be up at 5 and have a couple hours of quiet time before the rest of the world wakes up. I truly would! But see point #4 as to why that just isn’t happening at this point in my life.
6. I love vanilla. Candles, perfume, foods, even the beautiful vanilla flower.
7. I don’t enjoy getting dirt on my hands. I would rather scrape poo in the barn than work in the garden. But, alas, my family appreciates the fresh food so gardening it is!
8. My husband and I think scary alike. At the end of the day, we rarely disagree on anything. He isn’t always as vocal about his view points but I love the strength of his convictions. And his arms… but that’s a whole other story!
9. I am the complete opposite of the mother I thought that I would be before I had C. I do so many things that I stood against (extended breastfeeding, babywearing, bed-sharing etc) and I’m so glad that God opened my eyes to the importance of attaching to your children.
10. I can’t not be running a business of some sort. I tried and my mind gets itching to do something entrepreneurial.
11. Even though I am a true blue perfectionist, I have learned the importance of picking and choosing areas to perfect that I can and cannot control. In other words, my perfectionism does not stress me out. I like to think of it as perfecting my perfectionism. I have also learned recently that perfectionism is a gift not a curse or something to change, as I’ve been told much of my life.