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Thank you, thank you to Carole Di Totsi, PhD, for giving me this reader appreciation award. If you don’t know Carole, you should! She writes a few amazing blogs (see below) and is a wonderful promoter of her friends and colleagues at her Twitter handle: mercedeskat45. I first met Carole when she took an online class from me through WOW! Women On Writing. She has now taken a few, and we have become cyber friends. I keep threatening to go to NYC and visit her!

The Reader Appreciation Award is given to writers who have supported other writers’ blogs. Happily, I’ve received the award from Carole, who has three blogs: The Fat and the Skinny, All Along the NYC Skyline, and A Christian Apologist’s Sonnets. All three are totally different because she blogs about health and wellness issues, NYC events, and her own sonnets respectively. But check them out and leave a comment!

There are a few guidelines for accepting this award:

l) Acknowledge the giver of the award and provide a link to his or her blog. (check!)
2) Copy and paste the award to your blog. (check!)
3) Pass the award on to up to ten bloggers. (see below!)
4) Notify the selected bloggers that you have nominated them.

I am happy to nominate these bloggers and their blogs for the Reader Appreciation Award:

1. Donna Volkenannt (Donna’s Book Pub)

2. Becky Povich (Writer-Humorist-Bliss Follower)

3. Cathy C. Hall (Writing is Easy. Rewriting is a whole ‘nother story.)

4. Penelope Anne Cole (Penelope Anne Cole)

5. Sarah Butland (Sarah Butland: For Writers, For Readers, For You)

6. Sharon K. Mayhew (Random Thoughts)

7. Camille Subramanian (A Day In My Life)

8. Erin (In Step With the Spirit)

9. Patricia (PM27′s BLOG: Notes and Observations)

10. Holly Helscher (Becoming Bookish)

These 10 ladies are super supportive of my blog and the authors I host here. I know I probably missed someone–I’M SORRY!–it’s like when you give your Oscar speech, and you forget to thank your spouse. . .

I hope you have some time to check out their blogs. Thanks, ladies, for your support. You are all well-deserving of the Reader Appreciation Award!

So, apparently the word Liebster is German meaning 'favorite' or 'dearest'. That said, it is with humble thanks to Roseanne Dowling I can now post such a Blog Award on this blog. Roseanne and I have worked at MuseItUp Publishing as authors nearly from the beginning. She visited me in Florida and even stayed in my Florida Black Bear Cabin Vacation Rental with her husband. She is a kind, giving and talented writer who could have chosen many other people for the five she had to chose in accepting this award for her own blog, but chose me as one of the five. Thank you Roseanne. In acceptance of this honor, I must now fulfill the same 5 requirements. The intent of the award is to recognize blogs who might not be receiving the recognition they deserve. So here goes: Continue reading →

Thanks to Katrina Lantz for giving this blog award to me.

Since I'm a very obedient person and adhere to all rules (a-hem) I will do what all who post this award must do; Post 15 things that you probably don't know about me.

1) I study 2 disciplines of martial arts; Taekwondo and Hapkido

2) I don't mind going to the movies by myself. I actually kind of like it when I feel like a need an "escape"

3) I have broken both of my legs and both of my arms, but not at the same time. This last broken ankle was the clincher. I'd really like to stop breaking bones now.

4) In 7th grade, my English teacher accused me of plagiarizing a poem that I had written for an assignment. (It was called Lead Foot Granny) I was so embarrassed that I didn't keep it. In hindsight, I wish I had.

5) When I was 16 I got to travel through France for a month with my French group.

6) My husband and I only knew each other for one week before we started talking about getting married. I was only 21 when we got married. The odds were against us, but we'll be celebrating year 18 this May.

7) I had some unusual pets as a kid such as; a turtle, an iguana and hermit crabs

8) I love turkey bologna.

9) My favorite Starbucks drink is a skinny vanilla latte.

10) I was hit by a car when I was 5 years old (see #3) with a broken arm, leg and my face split open, I was lucky I survived.

11) I was a gymnast and a figure skater when I was younger

12) I went to the same church with Clay Aiken a year before he went on American Idol. My jaw dropped the first time I heard him sing a solo from the stage.

13) I once went to a hard-core biker wedding. I went dressed in shorts and still felt over dressed.

14) I once had a friend who had a guinea pig that would do back flips after it ate broccoli.

15) I have a tattoo.

Now I'm supposed to tag people. The rules say it should be 15 people, but honestly by this point it's hard to find bloggers who haven't already had this award given to them. I'll just tag some people and not worry about how many it ends up being. I mean, there aren't any blogging award police out there, is there?

I am tagging:

Kelly Pollark, Rena Jones, Angela Ackerman, Bish Denham, MG Higgins, Cynthia Chapman Willis. Also, if I didn't post your name but you want to participate then consider yourself tagged!

Danica McKellar

My generation knows Danica McKellar best as Winnie from The Wonder Years, and West Wing fans know her as Elise Snuffin (8 episodes). But that’s not why I chose to write about her on my blog on a Monday–it’s because she’s helping girls around the world (especially in the United States and Canada) improve their math skills, treat themselves and others with respect, and strive for high self-esteem and self-confidence. I am a new fan of Danica McKellar and her math series for girls. Here are the three books:

I had seen these books at Borders and Barnes and Noble and thought they looked interesting. But I never really had a reason to pick one up. Then, through my job reviewing books for The News-Gazette, I was lucky enough to review a copy of Hot X: Algebra Exposed a couple weeks ago, and I fell in love with this book. That’s hard to say about a non-fiction book that helps girls do math, isn’t it? But it’s the truth.

What I love about these books is how easy they make math–I was even working algebra problems I hadn’t solved in 20 years. But the best part of Danica McKellar’s math series is the message she is sending to tween and teen girls: “It’s OKAY to be SMART! Being SMART is WONDERFUL! Math is nothing. You have the power over math.” Love it! Love it! Love it! We need a beautiful celebrity spouting out this message, and Danica McKellar is doing just that. Besides math explanations that your daughters and students will actually understand, Danica provides advice and tips for dating, dealing with friends and low self-esteem, and lots of other problems that girls endure. She offers tips from her own life as well as quotes from REAL girls. She even has QUIZZES!! You know teens love quizzes.

If you have a daughter or a female student (the book really is for girls) who is struggling, struggling, struggling with math, then recommend any one of these books.

On a side note, Arlene from Adventure Salon (a blog about your Bucket List!), recently gave me this award:

As part of the award, I am supposed to pick 5 blogging friends whom I can pass on the award to. All they have to do is mention my blog when they tell their readers about the award, and then pick 5 blogs that they enjoy. So, here are my five:

• WOW! Women On Writing’s blog: The Muffin
• Adolescent Girls Blog by Irene Roth
• Deborah Shouse Writes: Connecting Through Personal Stories
• The Kickboxing Writer: A Life Less Ordinary by Holli Moncrieff
• Margaret Fieland: Poetry and Prose (often has interviews with children’s authors)

Thanks, Arlene. Readers, I hope you will check out these other blogs!

1Half-eaten oreo, 2Five Kids In Socks Fun Childhood Colorful Style, 3Honeybee bento, 4Tea cups, 5kawaii twist-ties, 6Atmosphere*,
7Audrey Hepburn 1952,
8smoking hot cup of coffee,
9Snowstorm out of the kitchen!,