I received the Beautiful Blogger award!

On May 10 I received a lovely surprise from fellow blogger Ruth Schiffmann, the blessing of the Beautiful Blogger award!

That’s really encouraging since I feel that I’m not keeping up my blog very well between going back and forth (if you are following my blog you’ll understand what I’m talking about) and trying to catch up on the books I have here to read and review on my blog and elsewhere, along with .. just keeping up.

Have you ever wondered, as I have … when do I get back to my life? Then I realize .. oh yeah! This IS my life!

Enough whining.

THANK YOU to Ruth for this cyber hug. Please pay her a visit at her blog, Out on a Limb.

I don’t know if I can fulfill the rules for this one, share 7 random things about myself, and then pass the award on to 15 other bloggers – that’s the hard part so I am awarding it to 10 instead.

7 random things about me:

A friend recently called me an internet junkie. I think he may be right. And I see nothing wrong with that as long as I am careful about where I go on the Net, get food and exercise, and don’t totally neglect my responsibilities in ‘real life.’
Blessing others is such a joy (blessing) to me. It’s fun to do things secretly, too.
I’m 5’4.5″ (that’s 5 feet 4 1/2 inches) tall. (never forget that half inch!)
When I was a child my eyes were definitely brown, now they are more hazel.
I would love to have a dog like my beautiful Shasta who died three years ago this month. She was German Shepherd/Husky/Wolf and had such personality. I still miss her so much. But I also would like to adopt a Greyhound. Anyone have one?
I enjoy movies, but not horror or gore or ones that are overly sappy or loaded in swearing. I like movies that do not insult one’s intelligence, although some comedies seem to have that as a requirement.
I am starting a list of my favourite words … for no particular reason, I just like them.

I am sending this award on to the following beautiful bloggers:

I hope you visit these great bloggers. Thanks again, Ruth, for this award. 🙂

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

I love Sunshine & I received the Sunshine blogger Award!

Ever need a little something of encouragement that arrives at just the right time? I do now and again. Thanks to Darlene Foster, on March 1 I was given the Sunshine Award! What a lovely, and appreciated blogger award.

This award comes with the requirement to answer “ten easy questions”, but for me it’s not so easy. I cannot pinpoint favourites very well, but I told Darlene maybe it’s because I like so many things. You’ll see how indecisive I am with naming just one thing.

Now, on with the show —

Of course, the Sunshine Award has some rules:

Include the award’s logo in a post or on your blog
Answer 10 questions about yourself
Nominate 10-12 other fabulous bloggers
Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs, letting them know they have been nominated
Share the love and link the person who nominated you.

TEN EASY QUESTIONS

Favorite color: This varies, sometimes pink, sometimes green … or purple

Favorite animal: donkey, elephant, my own dog, – personality is important. 😉

Favorite number: 7, or 4 because I often seem to prefer things to be even

Favorite non-alcoholic drink: ice water with lemon, Rooibos tea, fruity or spicy herbal tea

Prefer Facebook or Twitter? definitely Twitter, I am not convinced about Facebook.

My passion: helping and encouraging others; reading/writing

Prefer getting or giving presents: Giving. Although it’s fun to receive gifts there is so much enjoyment in giving to bless others, especially if it’s a ‘just because’ gift.

Favorite pattern: Snowflakes come in amazing patterns, and frost on window panes can make exquisite patterns

Favorite day of the week: any day of peace in my life – and the rare days I can write and/or read without interruption or other obligations – is a great day. Also, I tend to be reclusive, if possible, to regenerate and think.

Favorite flower: the Mammoth Russian Sunflower

PASSING IT ON:

I hereby pass forward this cheery Sunshine Award to some worthy bloggers whose writing I have discovered and enjoy for one reason or another – even though I don’t get to visit many very often. Give yourself a treat by checking them out.

http://thiskidreviewsbooks.com/

http://deryncollier.wordpress.com/

http://thegracefuldoe.wordpress.com/

http://www.singer-scribe.blogspot.com/

http://www.happybirthdayauthor.com/

http://catherinemjohnson.wordpress.com/

http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com

http://jancoates.ca

http://misscharlottesbookblog.blogspot.com/

http://ishtamercurio.blogspot.com

http://rebeccaberto.wordpress.com/

http://michelledevans.blogspot.com/

And that’s it! Again, thanks Darlene. I will be notifying all the above to let them know of their award. Please visit these wonderful people, including Darlene who can be found at http://darlenefoster.wordpress.com/

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

To blog or not to blog .. is that the question?

I have not been posting to my blog as regularly as I had hoped because of family obligations, but still I try to keep at it. This past week I was thinking about writing, in particular “blogging” —

There are hundreds – no, thousands! – of blogs out there to read, thousands of blog artists sharing their thoughts, ideas, talents, rants, advice, art forms, humour …

It’s a wonderful way to share, vent, contribute, advertise, hone skills, meet people, reinvent oneself. It’s also a sure way to reveal one’s lack of skill, talent, intelligence, tact, and common sense.

Blogging is an expanding sense of community, a way to connect with others while building one’s platform – one’s identity and presence in this world, or at the very least – on the Internet.

A quote I found which also follows along nicely with my last post about laughter is by William Saroyan, a writer known for his stories celebrating the joy of living in spite of poverty. He said, “The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

For some, a driving force in life is writing, for others it is the reading of wonderful stories that stimulates their lives.

So, my questions to you are as follows:

Do you agree with William Saroyan’s advice? Or do you have another quote or word of advice to share with me?

If you have a blog, why or why not?

Why do you read other people’s blogs, what do you look for?

How has the blogging world impacted your life, or has it made much of a difference at all?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Surprises, sacrifices and schedules

This is Holy Week in the Christian faith, the week of remembering Christ’s sacrifice for us. It is coming into a weekend of special services and celebrations, family dinners and reunions. I hope it is also a time of reflection for all God has provided for us through the Cross and His unfathomable Love, much more than is realized or that we can even understand.

This weekend is especially wonderful for me because last Sunday we were surprised by the arrival of our daughter who lives in Alberta. She showed up for a three-week visit, which is a blessing to this mother’s heart. For the first time in a few years we have all four of our girls home for a few occasions – one daughter’s birthday, Easter, Mother’s Day. I love it! And tomorrow morning we – and some other family members – are all going to the Good Friday service where I fellowship. That means a lot to me.

On another topic — Now that I have access to my computer only half the time, my posts are having to be scheduled when I can manage to prepare them – which explains why I got two posts up last week when I was not online, in case anyone was wondering about that. A Twitter pal noticed. 🙂 WordPress has this great feature where a blog entry can be scheduled to be posted whenever you want it to be seen. Gotta love that! The only problem is that I can’t reply to comments unless I am here. But don’t let that stop you! 🙂

I plan to soon get another book review up followed by an interview, and another one is already planned for early May as part of a blog tour. So, if you enjoy those then please keep checking back.

I’m trying to keep up between times spent with my dad, but not doing as well as I would like in the other things. Hopefully, I will improve. My time management skills are severely lacking.

So, how are you spending the Easter weekend?

And on the topic of time management, how do you pull it all together?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Do you blog or are you a frequent blog visitor instead?

I’m excited! I have been watching my Blog Stats steadily climb, and sometime this morning it reached the amazing total of 3000. In fact, at the time of this writing it is at 3003! That means that there have been 3003 visits to my blog! Not 3003 visitors, because most are repeat visits by some people who come back again and again – which I love to see. And not all visits mean a comment has been left, nowhere near that many on my blog – not even counting the spam that has been caught and blocked – but when I get to 1000 valid comments I will have to celebrate somehow.

Now I know that for many bloggers that number (3000) is a drop in the bucket, but for me? That’s a lot of visiting, don’t you think? And I have YOU, dear reader, to thank for that. 🙂

SO, my questions to you today are:

Do you like to keep a blog of your own, and does it matter to you if you get many comments?
Or are you a frequent visitor to blogs, not interested in maintaining your own but loving to read what others have to share and then leaving your comments? (If yes, do you have favourites that you follow or do you keep searching out new blogs?)
Or, do you prefer to just visit and not say anything … until you leave me a comment today in answer to that last question? 😉

I LOVE to hear from you! When I started blogging it was with a certain amount of trepidation but now I don’t think I could NOT blog, I’d miss it and you too much. So, leave me a comment? 🙂

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Day 7: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo

I’m writing this post after midnight so it will show up as Monday, but it’s intended as Sunday’s.

It has not been a day of much creative writing, with other things I was involved in taking priority. Then, too, I had a nap this afternoon, which helped keep me going for the rest of the day, but now I am ready to crash for the night. The time change will mix me up a bit for a few days.

I had to think harder today to pull out an idea for PiBoIdMo, but I got one, bringing my total to 10 ideas by day 7. I’m pleased with that.

NaNoWriMo is a different ‘story’ – forgive the pun. 🙂 I only got slightly over 400 words written, a far cry from the 1667 suggested daily word count and pushing my completion to 22%. But, that’s okay. I just have to make up the deficit somewhere along the way. (Check my NaNoWriMo updates page for actual count.) The funny thing is that yesterday my word count was such that my NaNo stats report told me “At This Rate You Will Finish On November 30”, which is great! But tonight, after I had added my meagre total into the count, it now says “At This Rate You Will Finish On Dec 05.” 🙂 I’ll have to work on that.

As you may have noticed, I also got the PiBoIdMo badge loaded onto my home page.

I enjoy blogging! And I hope you enjoy reading what I have to offer.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂