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I’m excited to announce that Nurturing Family & Self has been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Thank you to Kathleen at Sweatpants and Top Knots for nominating my little corner of the Internet for this award. The blogging community is filled with so many talented, creative, and supportive individuals. I am excited about all of the bloggers I’ve met and look forward to meeting more. I am still a newbie to this blogging thing, but my experience thus far is very positive thanks to all the wonderful people I have met along the way!
The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to new bloggers, by other bloggers, who are working to spread positive vibes, joy and inspiration throughout the blogging community.
Award Rules
- Thank the blogger who nominated you in the blog post and provide a link back to his/her blog.
- Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger asked you.
- Nominate 11 new blogs for this award and write them 11 new questions to answer.
- List the rules and the display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.
Here are the 11 questions Kathleen asked me, along with my answers:
What made you decide to start a blog?
I decided to start Nurturing Family & Self around the time I had my daughter. My husband was reading articles about ways moms can make money while staying at home and blogging was one of those things. He encouraged me to start a blog because I could write about my interests and hobbies. Between photobooking, baking, cooking, seasonal home decorating, becoming a mom, and running, there was a lot of content he thought would be great for a blog. Starting a blog also gave me something to focus my attention on when I wasn’t busy being a mom.
Prior to becoming a mom, I was an elementary ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) and reading teacher for over 10 years in an inner city school district. I knew for a long time that I wanted to be a SAHM once I had children. My husband took on a second job so he spends a majority of his days working. My daughter and I would LOVE to have him home more, especially now that we are expecting our second child on December 31st 🙂 Hopefully with some continued hard work, perseverance, consistency, and learning, I can eventually earn some sort of income from this blog to allow my husband to work less hours and spend more time at home.
Where do you hope to see your blog in 1, 2 and 5 years?
I hope to see my blog bringing in a little bit of monthly income in the future. My goal right now is to organize all the “stuff” that comes with running a blog and create some systems for myself. In 2 years, I hope to have created some sort of community around my blog and content being produced on a consistent basis. In 5 years, I hope to see my blog growing consistently. I would also like to have created some digital products that are helpful to my audience and reflect my creativity. As a former teacher, I love creating things! One of my dreams is to write a book, probably an ebook. I am not sure what the topic would be, but it has always been in the back of my mind. Maybe over the next several years, I will feel inspired and come up with a worthy ebook topic!
What is your favorite “me time” activity?
As a SAHM, “me time” is a difficult thing to come by. The time when my daughter is asleep or napping is spent doing chores around the house, catching up on laundry, or working on a house project I can’t do when she is awake.
When I do have “me time”, my favorite activity is probably running with friends.
Prior to becoming pregnant with my second child, I woke up early and met a local running group or just a friend of mine for daily runs. I loved starting my day with these runs!
I still choose to wake up early so I can enjoy a hot cup of coffee and prepare for the day. This time is also spent working on my blog.
A few other favorite “me time” activities are putting together jigsaw puzzles (my favorites are the Thomas Kinkade Disney ones), photo booking, watching movies on the Hallmark channel and baking.
What is one of your blogging road blocks?
One of my biggest blogging road blocks is spending too much time consuming information about blogging rather than actually producing content on my blog.
I love reading blog posts about blogging, getting myself caught in the black hole of information on Pinterest.
Also, I am an over-thinker and perfectionist, causing me to take a long time to compose a blog post or work on creating something valuable for my audience. Sometimes, I get so overwhelmed, that I end up not accomplishing anything. I am trying REALLY HARD to avoid getting overwhelmed by breaking things up into smaller bites and realizing that doing something is better than perfection. When it comes to blogging, I can always go back and update, refine or improve something! Also, the more writing I do, the easier it will become.
What is your favorite cheesy joke?
Hmmmm I don’t really know many jokes, but one of my favorites is:
Knock, Knock
Who’s there?
Orange
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?
How do you unwind on stressful days?
This is a hard question for me because I don’t handle stress very well. I guess I try to unwind on stressful days by going for a walk with a friend, watching a movie, watching a TV show, or just taking a long shower. Sometimes, I just sit down and start making a list of everything that is stressing me out.
Where do you find inspiration for your blog?
I find inspiration for my blog by reading blog posts from other bloggers, browsing Pinterest, and just my daily experiences as a mom to a toddler! Sometimes conversations with my friends, family, husband, or other bloggers inspire ideas for my blog.
You go to the movies and order a Slurpee – Cherry or Coke?
When I go to the movies, I ALWAYS choose a Cherry Slurpee! It is a great complement to the large bucket of popcorn my husband and I share 🙂 Yum! Going to the movies was a favorite date night activity for my husband and I before our daughter was born. Sometimes, I do miss those days!
What is your favorite dinosaur?
I am not really a dinosaur expert, but my favorite is probably the Tricerotops. I think this dinosaur looks neat with the bony neck frill. Also, the Tricerotops is a herbivore and I love to eat my vegetables!
Do you consider yourself serious or laid back?
I consider myself to be more serious than laid back. I take everything I do very seriously, but try to be laid back some of the time.
What is one thing you would drop everything else to do right now?
I would drop everything else to go to Walt Disney World! I love everything about WDW. My husband and I traveled there for our honeymoon and I have participated in several of the runDisney events. In fact, my first marathon was the Walt Disney World Marathon in January 2014. My favorite runDisney event was completing the Dopey Challenge in January 2016. This event involved running 48.6 miles over 4 days: a 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon on four consecutive days. Our honeymoon was my first trip to WDW and we’ve been there six times since then. My daughter was with us for the last 4 of those times 🙂
My Sunshine Blogger Award Nominees with their Blog Links and Twitter Handles are:
- It’s A Brockett Life @ABrockettLife
- Cappuccinos & Chaos @JillAnnSpinelli
- Dresses & Dinosaurs @DressesDinosau1
- House of Housley @HouseofHousley
- Vaughn Day at a Time @VaughnDAAT
- Feels Like Sunshine @feelslisunshine
- The Crazy Wonderful Life @AndreaKardos1
- Eight Square Feet @Eightsquarefeet
- Fluxing Well @FluxingWell
- Knots from the Farm @FarmKnots
- Cakes, Crafts, and Kiddos – Coping with all the Chaos @cakecraftkiddos
Questions for My Nominees:
- What is your all time favorite book?
- Why did you decide to start a blog? What made you decide on your blog name?
- If there’s one thing you’ve learned from blogging, what would that be?
- What are the most essential things in your bag whenever you are travelling somewhere?
- What has made you happy recently?
- It is a rainy, miserable day. Do you stay in or go out?
- What is your favorite food?
- Who do you most admire and why?
- Are you an introvert or extrovert?
- Do you have any pets?
- What is your favorite season? Why do you like this particular season?
Final Thoughts
Thank you again to Kathleen from Sweatpants & Top Knots for nominating my blog for the Sunshine Blogger Award. I enjoyed answering the questions and find it fun to learn about the person behind the blog. I loved being able to pay it forward by nominating 11 more bloggers for this award. Be sure to check out these blogs and show them some love!
