Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Stylish Blogger Award



My Frolicking Night Owl daughter, blogger, cooking friend, mother of three of my grandchildren, etc...has awarded me my first blogging award.  It is quite an honor, but, honestly, it made me laugh...and laughing is good!  Helps me digest all that Valentine's Day chocolate we baked yesterday.  You can check our her blog at frolickingnightowl.blogspot.com, and believe me, it is a MUCH better blog than mine.  (I swiped the award image from her blog...don't know where she got it, but it looks good!  And, it looks official.)


Actually, I started my blog as a way to become a part of FFwD, a cooking/blogging group which encourages me to work my way through Dorie Greenspan's French cooking book.  And now I have added Baked  Explorations recipes with an additional group....I enjoy the goodies and I love what the Baked guys are doing.  But most of all, I enjoy the other bloggers.  Love to see what they are doing, appreciate learning tips from them, and totally love their positive attitudes and friendly ways.  I have new cyber friends in every corner of the globe and this is very exciting to me.


Unlike my Night Owl daughter and many of the other bloggers, I am not a photographer...just a point and shooter, but my pics give a good idea of our current cooking/baking experiences, and they create a type of record for me to use as a reference for the next time I bake these recipes...and they give my 7 kids a type of tutorial should they also want to cook the same recipes.  And I'm not clever with Photo Shop, etc...I have no time now for such fun things.  I had thought that at this point in my life things would settle down and I would have time for new hobbies and old interests, but, HA!  Life just gets busier and more hectic, and I don't have my kids around to help me get my jobs completed; they come wanting to play, to eat, and to do things with me...and that is just fine; I love them to be here as much as possible.


But I do have an additional "secret blog" that I keep as a type of journal where I post additional projects (many of them also kitchen related), photos, memories, and thoughts that I don't want to share with the entire world, or, at this point, with anyone.  I do plan to share it in the future, but it is more personal, so I'm not ready for sharing yet....it will need editing!

Because I was given a Stylish Blogger Award, I get to do four fun things...

First, thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award. So, thanks goes to Frolicking Night Owl and I also CONGRATULATE her on receiving the award herself, and in her case, it is well deserved.

http://frolickingnightowl.blogspot.com/

Second, share seven things about myself.

Well, that's easy!  I have 7 wonderful children and that really is the best part of me!  But I will think up 7 additional things as this award seems to be a way to get to know people out there in cyber space on a more personal level.

#1:  I eat chocolate every day.  I am addicted.  I am eating a slice of rich, moist, triple layer, dark chocolate cake as I write this post.  Tomorrow I will "decorate" the chocolate cheesecake which is ripening in the fridge so that we can indulge in more of this high-i- antioxidant food of the gods...and never fear, President's Day is coming up so cherry-chocolate something will be the order of the day!

#2:  Baking is an outlet for me; a de-stresser.  For our business, I am "privileged" to get to do all the paperwork, solve problems, etc.  This means that I am a bill payer, taxes doer, payroll person, errand girl, the make-phone-calls-to-work-out-problems  specialist ...things that are paperwork related, etc...in short, I get all the jobs that don't make money, that don't produce, that aren't fun, that don't build relationships, that are lonely, and that no one else wants.  And I'm not usually "down at the office" but in my "home office" where I would much rather be distracted by zillions of much more wonderful things to do.  So...baking becomes a great outlet for me.  And goodies bring all the kids home, they build friendships, and they provide bribes for things I want or need...and, as a bonus, Hubby is happy when there is yummy food in the house.

#3:  I love the Arizona heat.  I hate (I know, that is a strong word) winter, snow, cold, ice...and that includes ice cream in the winter.  I like to do yard work and I dislike scrubbing bathrooms.  I'd rather mow the lawn than vacuum the floors.  I enjoy planting flowers, getting my hands in the dirt, and picking peppers from my garden.  I have bell pepper plants that are 7 or 8 years old.  I can't grow as many things as I would like, but I am a wiz at peppers. Before AZ we lived, for 8 long years, in upstate NY where I was frozen for at least 11/12ths of every year.  Nice people, beautiful countryside, lush gardens, great blueberries, but...  When temps get over 100^ I am at my best...just re-charges my batteries to be all nice and warm!

#4: I was a music person in my past life (my kids say "back in the day").  I used to be a pretty good piano player; entered contests, won awards, and taught lessons for many years.  We survived during our first years of marriage with that additional income.  But when we moved to AZ and child #5 was on the way, I gave up teaching other people and became more focused on my kids who required more attention.  I also played the violin, guitar, and a few other instruments,  but the violin now lives in its case, the guitar is with my son...and that's how life goes.  I always planned to get back to the piano when my kids were grown, but now they are all on their own, and I want to play my music, do some arranging, and maybe write a few tunes, but between office work, volunteer work, church, and family there is just no time...I really need 48 hour days.  This return to music is still in my future; it is still a goal.

#5:  After raising our 5 children, we needed more!  So, we decided to adopt 2 older girls from a Moldovan orphanage.  Moldova used to be part of the old USSR.  It is the smallest and poorest of all the Eastern European countries.  We had never heard of Moldova until we decided to adopt kids.  We adopted two unrelated girls who shared a room with about 20 other girls...wish we could have adopted them all.  Our neighbors have adopted a few and we continue to help some of the others who have been left behind.  In fact, I just worked on one of those girls today.  She is 21, speaks and writes English fairly well, but has nothing and no one, and she needs a family, even if we are 1/2 way around the world and only a pretend family and most likely will never meet.  These young orphan girls really need help.  Even though Moldova is small, it is #1 in the world for child and women trafficking...slave trade for work and sex.  The government even promotes it....makes money off selling women and girls.  There is no hope for these older girls who get kicked out of the orphanages at age 16, unless someone outside Moldova helps them...but most people offering "help" are offering the wrong kind of "help."

#6:  I have 5 grandchildren; 2 boys and 3 girls.  They are the light of my life and I wish I could have them all with me every day.  4 live close and I get to see them often; 1 lives in northeastern Idaho.  I look forward to seeing him soon, but it is not often enough.  4 of my children are married.  I have hopes for many more grandchildren.



#7:   I don't sleep; never have.  As a babe I drove my mother nuts.  Because of me, she would need a daily nap, but I never did.  At 6 months I figured out how to exit the crib, at 8 months I was running, and I have been on the move ever since.  I rarely go to bed until after 2 or 3 a.m. and then I struggle to keep still.  I may sleep for an hour, but then I'm up wandering around the house.  Sometimes I raid the fridge or the cookie jar, I get a drink, I read a story...I guess I do all the things that kids do...and then I try to lay down again, but I just watch old movies until it is time to get up.  I doze a bit if the movie is boring, so I try to put on the boring ones.  Sometimes I watch them over and over and over trying to rest, but when I get up in the morning after an hour or two, I am always refreshed, energetic, and I am healthy and happy, and I just don't need the sleep.  In the night I blog, read, plan, and I prepare my Adult Sunday School lessons...this year I am teaching the New Testament and for this Sunday, I am teaching about the miracles of Jesus.  And...I always bake treats and make handouts for my class of about 75 adults...they love it!  But poor Hubby.  He knows there is something the matter with me...thinks I need to get fixed.  People who are sleepers just don't understand us non-sleepers.  I used to drive my mother nuts, but now poor Hubby has to put up with my no-sleep self...I do try hard to be really quiet, and sometimes that is the worst part of the whole not sleeping thing...I have so many noisy things to do!

Third, I am supposed to award 15 recently discovered great bloggers. This is probably the best part about getting the award; sharing it with others! It’s my pleasure to give a “Stylish Blogger Award” to the following amazing blogs (in no particular order):   I have been on so many wonderful blogs  over the past few months and enjoy chatting with cyber friends, it is always hard to choose.  I appreciate how others who are "out there" are willing to share their talents and discoveries and knowledge.  I know it takes time to blog and talent to blog well...maybe some of the following bloggers will pass the baton on to some of you!


http://www.abountifulkitchen.com/
http://www.bakingobsession.com/
http://peteandstephaniephend.blogspot.com/
http://blog.amyatlas.com/
http://dessertfirst.typepad.com/
http://anulaskitchen.blogspot.com/
http://www.browneyedbaker.com/
http://bibberche.com/
http://alicemedrich.blogspot.com/
http://rbarlow.com/Site/Ryan_Barlow_Photography___Recent_Photos.html
http://thepixoluxlab.com/
http://americanmatryoshkadoll.blogspot.com/
http://janssmocking.blogspot.com/
http://www.ezrapoundcake.com/
http://parispastry.blogspot.com/

Fourth, contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

Well, I typed all this up and thought about new blog sites that I have enjoyed finding over the past couple of months or wonderful new friends I have met and I think you would like to meet them too.  So...I'll have to contact them all later which will take some time... I'll just have to wait for a paperwork break.

Later, Miss Kris

5 comments:

  1. I also started my blog to participate in ffwD! Congrats on your award! It's well deserved.

    ReplyDelete
  2. THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH! It was such a nice surprise! :)
    Pozdrawiam! Anula.

    P.S. LOVE your cookbook collection! :) Wish I had the same...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just found your blog. Love the photos with the kids in them!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congrats and thanks for passing along this award! Happy cooking,
    Si

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congratulations on your award....I loved learning more about you. I think my hubby must eat chocolate every day, too...I keep a stash of Oreos in the pantry for him so he doesn't have withdrawals :)

    ReplyDelete