Blog Award: Ten things you didn’t know about me
Since I started blogging, I have been nominated for a Liebster award four times (Thank you for the last one, Jessie Singer). I love the idea of the Liebster as it helps new bloggers make wonderful connections and start friendships that last.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t worry, in the beginning I had to Google the Liebster as well. The easiest way to explain it is to think about the basic principles of a chain letter. You receive an ‘award’ where you don’t have to dress up and give a speech, but rather answer a bunch of questions about yourself or blogging and then you get to nominate other bloggers to do the same. This is a nice way of introducing your readership to new bloggers, which they might not have known about without these awards. If you need more information or want to read my previous answers to the Liebster you can find them here.
I’m still building my tribe and figuring out where in the blogging community I fit in, I might still be working on this for years to come. My kids are not babies anymore, all of them are in school this year and while I still remember most of the things I struggled with I’ve done most of the ‘new’ mom things more than five times over.
I’ve also been nominated for a Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award (Thank you, Breastfeedingneeds) and the One Lovely Blog Award (Thank you, Dairy of an Imperfect Mom) and rather than answering all the questions again, I’m using my age and that fact that I’ve parented five kids to bend the rules. I’m making my own rules and have decided that rather than answering the questions and nominating other blogs I’m going to make a List of Ten. I am still going to nominate other blogs and would appreciate it if you visit them and have a look if they choose to answer the original Liebster questions or if they are rebels like me.
Here’s my list of ten things.
Ten Serious facts about me:
- I am in my second marriage. One thing I can say about divorce is that is does not matter how well you handle things everyone still loose. The thing I can say about a second marriage is that you work a lot harder at something when you know how precious it is.
- My middle daughter was conceived through IVF. It is one of the most difficult things I have had to go through.
- I was pregnant at my second wedding. Little Mouse still asks why everyone is in the photos except her.
- I am rape survivor. I had PTSD and worked through the process by creating a photo series called ‘Woman with Wings’.
- I have two sisters. One who lives in Perth in Australia and my younger sister lives near the sea and a sister-in-law who was born deaf. My husband has the one sister and three brothers. Maybe that’s why we cope so well with our noisy house with one boy and four girls.
- I have national colours in Fencing and run a fencing club with my husband. I am a kick-ass sabre fencer and have won medals at the age of 40 after two knee operations. I wish I started fencing when I was young and not when I was in my 30’s but it just shows you hard work and experience trumps youth every time.
- I have magic photoshop fingers and love designing my kids birthday parties.
- I am an photographer that takes beautiful photos of kids, but I am terrible at group photos.
- I’ve had a miscarriage.
- I’ve had meningitis before I had children and no one was sure if I would survive, but I’m still here.
Ten Fun facts about me:
- I’m an excellent speed reader and have read more than a 100 books a year for as long as I can remember.
- At least half of the 100 books each year is YA novels. I can say it is because I want to keep up with the kids, but mainly it’s because I just love the books.
- My husband stole my heart through music and lyrics. After all these years, he is still making me ‘mix-tapes’. These days they consist of Itunes Playlists and I receive at least four every year.
- I’m married to my school sweetheart. He was my first real kiss and I was his. Life took a few strange turns in the middle, but we still ended up together.
- I have a bad habit of cursing. A lot.
- I can make an almost perfect pavlova, but cannot cook rice. It always ends up soggy or burnt.
- I started out as a natural blond but have no idea what my real hair colour is anymore. At one point it was blue. I have the photos to prove it.
- I studied languages and then started studying finance. I finished my degree in languages and gave up on finance just a few credits short of another degree.
- I’m a terrible housekeeper and can think of a thousand better things to do than tidying up. Like reading or playing with the kids.
- The same with cooking. I love new recipes or doing something interesting in the kitchen, but do not like feeding my family every day, three times a day. I find making the same things tedious and would much rather teach the kids to do it themselves. That means that I have eaten some very strange concoctions the kids made over the years. One peculiar one included an energy drink, cold cuts and cream. Don’t ask.
Ten things about me, music and traveling:
- I love music and singing, but cannot keep a tune.
- I’ve been to New York and Sidney, Australia. New York was an experience of a lifetime, but I fell in love with Sidney.
- I’ve been to a U2 Concert. There is nothing I can compare it to. It is a spectacular event and I don’t think I will attend anything in my lifetime on the same scale. It is something that you just have to experience for yourself.
- I’ve been to a James Blunt concert. Love him or hate him, his voice is amazing and he’s not too bad to look at either.
- I’ve been to Paris twice. The second time with my husband was for the world fencing tournament, but it turned into a romantic getaway.
- I’ve been to Venice for my honeymoon. It is one of the most romantic, magical places on earth. I would recommend not doing it when you are five months pregnant, just because I got tired quickly.
- Japan is on my list of places to visit. I love sushi and can eat sashimi every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- I’ve been to a Coldplay concert. My favourite song is Strawberry Swing.
- I have rowed a kayak down a river with fast rapids, it was exhilarating.
- I’ve had my own business with a close friend and learned valuable life lessons along the way. I have worked with family, strangers and friends and in the end you get out what you put in.
And just because I am a rebel a few extra things:
- I am excellent with admin, but hate doing it. If you ask me to do something I will either do it very well right away, or not at all.
- I am really consistent with disciplining my children when they are little and then I give them a lot of responsibility and freedom when they are teenagers.
- I am a huge Terry Pratchett fan and cried when I heard that he had Alzheimer’s and when he died. For years I read Discworld books every night when I went to sleep and I still consider those books my friends.
- I do not like being in the sun as I burn very easily. I love rainy weather.
- I was once locked in a public bathroom with my younger sister and could not get the door open. From that day we are both leave the bathroom door open when there is no one home and I’m a bit claustrophobic. I am scared of moths, which might have something to do with the fact that there were moths in the bathroom when we were locked in.
- I am one of those annoying moms that makes a big deal out of birthday parties, but I’m a terrible ‘soccer mom’. I hate standing next to the field shouting when the kids are playing team sports.
And in the spirit of the blogging awards here I nominate the following bloggers to answer the questions of the Liebster post or be a rebel and make a list of 10 personal things about yourself and then nominate ten blogs that you think could use the exposure.
You now have a choice. You can choose to accept one of these awards or all three. You can use these badges in your blog post if you want or Google the award, there are other pics available or you can even make your own.
Congratulations everyone. Go forth and have fun, I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
If you enjoyed this post you might enjoy reading: Celebrating Stepmoms
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This post was linked here: Mommy Monday Blog Hop Monday Madness Meet Up Monday Totally Terrific Tuesday The Mad Mid Week Blog Hop
This was an awesome get to know you post. Fencing is a fairly unusual skill–I’m impressed, I’ve never ever tried it. I have had blue hair in the past, and I’d have it again if my job permitted it. I’ve been kayaking many times, but mostly in lakes, or, most recently, in the ocean. I’d love to try kayaking in a river with some rapids, though!
Thanks for stopping by. I’m not sure if the blue hair still fits as I’m getting older. I’m considering going with the silver grey that’s trending next.
Congratulations on a great start of a blog. I think being good at photoshop and taking pictures puts you ahead of normal people like me who can barely use Picmonkey. Power to you with your survivor status and hopefully you are thriving despite life’s traumas. Mucho gusto~ Pangapsumnida!
Maybe you and I are in the same tribe, because that’s something I’ve had trouble figuring out too, even though I’ve been blogging for five years now. I also have five kids, at various stages but not babies any more. I think it’s harder to make a place for yourself blogging when you don’t have a “niche.” But really this kind of post, where you really share about yourself, is the kind I like best. I’d love to hear more about your philosophy of raising teenagers, something I have found a lot more difficult than I expected!
Thank you for checking out so many blog award nominees! I am sure they appreciate it as much as I do. You nominated a couple i have never visited as well, so i will have to check them out!
Thank you for stopping by and for your kind words. I loved your post about Step Families and will check in again to see what you are up too.
Thank you for stopping by. My teenage son is a a breeze at the moment, though now that I have said that I’m not sure if I should send that out into the universe. If he has mood swings I just get him to exercise and once you get rid of the testosterone everything is fine again. My 12 year old daughter is a completely different ballgame. Dad is finding is quite hard to deal with all the female hormones and in a few years we will have four teenage daughters. I’m not sure how we will cope then.
Thanks for stopping by. I love meeting other bloggers and seeing what they are up to. It must be because I’m nosy by nature according to my family.
What a great post. You seem to be a very talented lady!! 🙂 #mmwbh x
Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words.
I’ve avoided the liebster award each time I’ve been nominated (now I have too many followers, I think) don’t know why, I like reading them but never wanted to post my own, odd as I like doing these nominated posts otherwise.
I think the Liebster is a great idea when you are just starting out. I remember how excited I was for the first one, but I think I’m done now. Thanks for stopping by.
Congrats on all the awards! It was nice getting to know you. I love that your husband won you over through music, so sweet. 🙂
Wishing you all the best!
XOXO
p.s Thanks for sharing with us at Mommy Monday!
What a really ace post and seriously interesting read. Its always good to know more about other bloggers. Thanks so much for linking up! #MMWBH