Janeen at Our Story passed on to me the “You make me smile” award.

Update: Heidi at God’s Grace In Practice also passed this on to me.

Thanks so much! I’m glad to know I make people smile.

The person who originated the award said:

The thing that I love most about blogging is that I learn so much about a person just by reading their blog. I have met MANY wonderful people with wonderful stories to tell,and I am grateful every day for each person that I have the pleasure of crossing paths in life with.

I wanted to create something special for the top ten people who have inspired me through their blogging; the stories they tell, and the lives that they lead with grace and dignity. I visit their blogs for inspiration and encouragement.Although there are MANY people I want to give this award to at this very moment, I am going to choose ten bloggers:

Please grab your badge and wear it(with a smile) proudly, and pass it on because you inspire and encourage me, thank you.”

Here a some bloggers who make me smile:

Linda at 2nd cup of coffee
Diane at A Watered Garden
Susan at By Grace
Katrina at Callapidder Days
Susanne at Living to tell the story
Laura at My Quotidian Mysteries
Cindy at Notes in the Key of Life
Jewel at Down in my little valley
Laurel at Laurel Wreath
Cindy at Yapping Cat Studio

Anyone who has been a Christian for any thing length of time has struggled with some hard questions. Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer beautifully deals with some of these in Why I Believe.

Jeana at Days To Come has an excellent post on not making children share. I never thought of it in the way she presents it, but she’s right. Teaching children to respect other people’s property is as important as teaching sharing.

Karla at Karla’s Cottage is hosting a “What do you love about your home?” party on Tuesday, September 25.

Turkeyfeathers, one of my favorite craft sites, is sponsoring a Finish What You Have challenge.

Make Mine Pink has a short article conveying that the revived Victoria magazine will stay true to its roots. I am so glad!

There are several great give-aways going on. Deena at A Peek at My Bookshelf usually has a few book give-aways going on: here’s a round up of what she currently has going on. You can win a pink or blue ladies’ tool set at Multi-Tasking Moms. The 5 Minutes For Mom site has a whole round-up of give-aways and contests and bloggy happenings. And Shannon of Rocks In My Dryer and Works For Me Wednesday fame has started a new blog just for Bloggy Giveaways.

If you view my blog through a feed reader, it may look like I have made a ton of posts today when I have only been editing.

WordPress has a limit to how many photos we can upload before we have to pay a fee, and I was at my limit. So I have been going back through several old posts to find uploaded pictures, found those on Picasa and uploaded them to Flickr, posted the html from Flickr back into my posts, and deleted the upload file from WP.

I’m not completely finished, but I have done about all I can stand to for today. I have created some more space here, though, and that was the goal. From now on I want to save the space here for clip art and such and keep photos at Flickr.

I just wanted to share a couple of neat things I saw today.

Rob at ivman’s blague has some neat pictures of what life would be like if women ruled the world. Here are a couple of samples:

I’d like those road signs!! The “iv” in ivman stands for “instant vacation.” He posts some neat and funny things each week — you should go check it out. 🙂

Then at disdressed‘s site I saw a couple of pictures and a link to VeganYumYum for these. They are cupcakes, decorations made out of marzipan. Aren’t they gorgeous?

The ladies at 5 Minutes for Mom are at it again with a giveaway for a The Rocketfish Wireless Multimedia Bluetooth Keyboard and Laser Mouse. All you have to do is comment there and link back to a post about the contest on your site to enter. Go here to read all about it.

Janeen at Our Story gave me the “I Love Your Blog” award:

How totally sweet! It is a joy to know that someone enjoys my blog!

It’s really hard to know who to pass this on to, though, because I enjoy all the blogs I read. But to try to narrow it down, I want to pass this on to:

Barb at A Chelsea Morning. Who doesn’t love Barb’s blog? She’ll probably get a ton of these, but she deserves them 🙂 I love the food and craft tutorials and the chats about everyday life, but mostly I love Barb’s sweet spirit.

Dawn at 4:53am. I first found Dawn as a link from someone’s else’s blog related to crafting. Though I originally subscribed to her blog for the crafts, I enjoy the whole thing. I enjoy her creativity and photography and the fact that she is a Christian and often makes reference to Scripture.

“Lizzie” at A Dusty Frame. Lizzie’s husband is in prison and this blog is primarily about lessons the Lord is teaching her and her husband through this experience. Though this is hard on them both, and their son, I have been blessed by reading about them and inspired by the times “Lizzie” has been cast on the Lord alone for help and seen Him answer. There’s great depth and reality to her posts.

Jenny at Everyday is a Holiday. I’ve linked to the craft and decorating eye candy there many times. When I need to feast on something beautiful or want to be inspired creatively, I know I can find what I need here.

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home. I love visiting Kelli’s warm and homey nook.

Rita at The Jungle Hut. Rita and her family were missionaries to Venezuela but had to leave. They are getting ready for a new field in Paraguay after a year’s furlough. I’ve enjoyed Rita’s humor, glimpses of her family, and insight into what has been going on in Venezuela that doesn’t make the news.

I think I will stop there, though, as I mentioned, I could probably list all the 100 or so blogs I’m subscribed to on Bloglines. There is something I love about each one.

Several days ago Alice at Hello, My Name Is Alice gave me the “Nice Matters” award. I couldn’t find the originator of this award, but I saw these lines posted with it on several blogs:

“This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass it on to others who you feel are deserving of this award.”

Thank you, Alice! That’s very sweet of you. I do agree that niceness matters very much.

It’s hard to know who to pass this on to, because there are multitudes of nice bloggers! But I will try to narrow it down to a few and try to name people who haven’t already received it, but if I do name someone who has been named before, that’s all right:

One is Bet at Dappled Things. After having somewhat known of each other during college and after she taught my oldest son when he was in college, we somehow discovered each other’s blogs. She has been very patient with me as I have tagged her for just about every meme going around since I felt I knew her a little better and felt a little freer to tag her. 🙂 She’s one of my first and frequent commenters and she’s a general all around nice person.

Diane at A Watered Garden, Susan at By Grace, and Jewel at Down In My Little Valley have impressed me with their sweet spirits and kind, gracious comments.

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home is the epitome of niceness. Her blog exudes a warm, homey, welcome feeling.

Alice also passed on to me that Thoughtful Blogger Award. The originator for this award says it is “For those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs. For the people who take others feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous. Also for all of those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping others bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.”

Thank you again, Alice! That was very thoughtful of you. 🙂

Again, this could go to so many people. including those already named above. But to name just a few thoughtful people:

Laurel Wreath has been one of my earliest commenters, and she always expresses herself thoughtfully in her comments here and elsewhere.

Janeen of Our Story and Susanne at Living to Tell the Story  are also a sweet and thoughtful both in their blogs and comments on other blogs.

Elle’s blog title at A Complete Thought well suits her, for her blog posts and comments are always well thought out.