Random facts and interesting questions

I want to thank Sanny at the blog “Unraveling the Mysteries of Life” for nominating me for the Liebster Blog award.

Sanny is a student of Media Management who is very creative in her writing and life. She always makes me think beyond the surface with her blog posts. I hope that if you haven’t already, you will check out her blog.

For this award, I need to post 11 things about me, answer the questions that Sanny gave me and nominate up to 11 people with blogs with less than 200 followers.

So here are 11 random things about me:

1. I play the piano and the organ. I haven’t played the organ in years, but I occasionally sit down at my keyboard and play.

2. My mother had nine siblings and my father had eight, plus my grandparents had large families, so I have a lot of relatives.

3. I used to write poetry a lot.

4. My first pet was a dog named Sissy.

5. I love to read mysteries and thrillers.

6. I am really funny about the kind of pens I write with.

7. I carry big purses because I carry with me everything I might need. My right shoulder has a dip it in from carrying heavy bags for most of my life.

8. I have multiple journals that I’ve written in and never finished. Lots of pretty books with lots of blank pages!

9. I’m allergic to tree nuts but not to peanuts. Good thing, because I love peanut butter.

10. My favorite colors are purple and blue. A purplish blue is the loveliest.

11. I have a lot of animal-themed jewelry, especially cat jewelry and paw-print jewelry.

These are the questions that Sanny gave:

1.  Do you believe in miracles? Yes, I believe there are many things that happen that cannot be explained by the usual means.

2.  What is the reason you started your blog? I started my blog to make connections with others suffering from or wanting to learn more about OCD and depression.

3.  What is your favorite animal and why? Cats! I love their grace, their attitude, their beauty. I love their affection, their intelligence, their loyalty.

4.  What do you appreciate the most about your life? My husband and his love and support.

5.  What’s the last book you read and what’s it about? The last book I read is I Hardly Ever Wash My Hands: The Other Side of OCD, by J.J. Keeler. I just wrote a review about it here. It’s about a woman’s struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

6.  If you would go to a lonely island, what three things would you take with you? If I couldn’t take my husband or cats, I would take books, paper and pens, and peanut butter (technically more than three things, but I’ll lump them into three categories).

7.  Do you thing that failure is always a bad thing or can it also encourage you to retry or try it differently? Failure is not always a bad thing. I have learned from failure until I’ve improved at something. And I think it makes us stronger and reminds us that life will not always go our way and isn’t supposed to.

8.  Have you ever had a life changing moment? And if so, what was it about? I’ve had many of these moments. One is when my father died. I realized that my life as I knew it was over forever. Life changes when someone who has been a part of it is gone.

9. What is your favorite TV show? “A Person of Interest.”

10. Besides writing, what do you mostly do on your computer? I read others’ blogs and news articles. I also download and process photos.

11. If you could change something in your life, what would you change? I would work for myself.

Now I’d like to nominate Krystal Lynn, of the blog “Sprinkle Some Sugar on Me: I am More than OCD” for this blog award. She writes down-to-earth, intelligent and heartfelt posts about her own journey with OCD.

What random fact about yourself are you willing to share?

Illuminating Blogger Award

This is an extra blog post for this week.

My friend Nikky at Nikky’s Strength and Weakness recently nominated me for the Illuminating Blogger Award.

This is what the award website says about the award: “Food Stories is pleased to present the Illuminating Blogger Award, a fabulous award that anyone can bestow on their fellow bloggers for illuminating, informative blog content.”

I thank Nikky for thinking of me, and I’m glad for the opportunity to recognize other bloggers who provide illuminating and informative blog content on a regular basis.

Here are the award rules:

1. The nominee should visit the award site http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/ and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way that we can create a blogroll of award winners).

2. The nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting and including a link to their blog.

3. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.

4. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their illuminating, informative posts and nominate them for the award.

5. Notify your nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/.

Here’s one random thing about me: My favorite color is purple and always has been. When I was a little girl in Sunday school, I always chose the purple crayon to color with.

Here are my nominees, who may choose to participate or not participate in the award process. But I hope my readers will visit each of these special blogs. I learn something every time I visit them.

Nadine Feldman

ocdtalk

Heal Now and Forever

Anxiety Schmanxiety

  Two Bears Farm 

Awards and a few random things

Nikky of Nikky’s Strength and Weakness very kindly nominated me for two blog awards, the Versatile Blogger Award and the Beautiful Blogger Award.

I hope if you haven’t already checked out Nikky’s blog, you will soon. She writes with breathtaking honesty about her life that has included war, abuse and crushing disappointment.

In spite of all that she has been through and her continuing battles, Nikky is full of compassion and shares it through her writing.

In accepting the awards, I will do what Nikky did, and that is to combine the rules of the two awards. Here are the rules:

*Thank the blogger who nominated you.

*Share 7 random things about yourself.

*Nominate 15 fellow bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award and 7 Bloggers for The Beautiful Blogger Award.

*Inform the bloggers of their nomination.

*Include the Versatile Blogger Award image and the Beautiful Blogger award image in your blog post.

Here are seven random things about me:

1. I grew up in rural Central Virginia.
2. I have two older brothers, one 11 years older and one two years older.
3. I have played the piano since I was 5. I also learned to play the organ, which I didn’t enjoy nearly as much as the piano. I did play the organ for two weddings along the way.
4. I went to graduate school at Bowling Green State University, in Northwest Ohio, and lived there for five years.
5. I am a vegetarian.
6. I’m allergic to tree nuts.
7. My first paying job was as a salesclerk at Sears.

  For my nominations, I decided to do something similar to what my friend Tracy did when she was nominated for an award for her blog My Thoughtful Spot.

Tracy admires all her fellow bloggers. I do too.

I follow a lot of blogs, and I look forward to the writers’ new posts and new ideas. So I nominate all my fellow bloggers. Feel free to accept the awards and list seven things about yourself so we can get to know you better.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!