Liebster Award! Q&A and A New Friends.

Astrid is a friend of mine and she recently nominated me for the Liebster Award, which is a virtual award recognizing and connecting bloggers. "Liebster" is German and means "sweetheart", "beloved", or "dearest". Astrid is also German ;) I met her a couple years ago through our local Classical Conversations group when two of our children were in the same class. I knew she was raised in Germany, but it wasn't until this summer that I discovered more details about her life overseas as a child. She grew up in East Germany, before the Wall came down, and talks about life back then on her blog One Million Words. We also go to a writer's group together now (thanks to her inviting me) and it's been fun to become closer friends with her, not just because of her interesting life or similar interests, but simple because she is neat and wonderful. Go check her out!


Here are the questions she has given me:

1. Why did you start blogging?

I have always loved talking about my thoughts and observations. After getting quite a few questions about homeschooling and education, I decided I should just start posting all that delectable info online. I really wanted to encourage moms to be brave, to learn new things, and not to be discouraged when life feels kinda boring.


2. Describe your writing voice using three hashtags.

#deeperthanaverage #honestbutearnest #exhortingtowardexcellence


3. Name 2-3 books you read in the last couple of years that you remember best.

I’ve been reading through the Anne of Green Gables series the last few months, which has been incredible. They are creative, down-to-earth, filled with every day adventures, and leave me longing to live in Anne’s era. I also finished listening to Lisa Bevere’s Girls with Swords, which has forever changed my perspective on so many spiritual things, like how I face discouragement or conflict. Last month I read A Light in the Wilderness, a historical fiction novel by Jane Kirkpatrick about a former slave who came to Oregon along the Oregon Trail. It was inspiring, and again, altered my perspective on marriage and how I face daily life.


4. Who inspires you to create?

Mostly God. His Spirit moving in me, His beautiful creation surrounding me, and the ways He interacts with me during every-day-life. A lot of conversations I have with my close friends make me want to jump on my computer and document all the inspiring and challenging thoughts swirling in my head.


5. What are three things you currently love?

Flowers, Thai Iced Tea, Warm Sunshine.


6. What’s one of your favorite posts you have written?

Hmm, that’s a tough one! I think Homeschooling When Service is Not Your Gift. Many people think homeschoolers are super excited to be serving, naturally full of patience, or abounding in love for little kids, but none of these things are true for me. Still, I believe it will be best for our family and wanted to encourage other moms like me. It’s true, you can serve well even if you are not naturally good at serving.


7. What feels the most stressful or overwhelming in this season in your life?

Just the constant interruption. My boys are old enough to do a lot for themselves, but aren’t very naturally independent. My daughter still needs a lot of help, and is quick to cry or fuss or complain. So all day, I feel like I am fielding questions about snack time, about plans for the day, about schoolwork, about going to the bathroom, about playing outside, or about whatever one child did to another. When my daughter cries less about everything my stress level is way lower… I’m trying to not wish the little days away, but I’m certainly looking forward to a little more quiet throughout the day.


8. What do you wish to be remembered for?

Being genuine, unafraid, and hopefully inspiring.


9. How long have you been writing?

Pretty much since grade school. I took breaks along the way, but even in High School I knew I wanted to write for the benefit of others. I started studying 1 Peter in the hopes of encouraging people toward pursuing God in everything… in fact, I’m slowly working on a book centered on the idea of Fruitfulness found in the first chapter of 1 Peter. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but the central idea and outline are getting clearer and more detailed each week. In college, I mostly studied Writing & Literature, but only attended for two years. I’ve had several blogs throughout my adult life, but no clear direction with all of it until the last year or so.


10. What writing topics resonate the most with your audience?

Encouragement, striving for excellence, and being ordinary. At least, this is what the numbers tell me, and the few responses I’ve received :)


11. What’s the hardest part about being a writer?

For me, it’s the constant wondering what other people think about my writing. I’ve never been very popular in general, and while I do get positive responses, I don’t get them super frequently. It’s a constant battle to not be discouraged about my perceived success, but to remember what my goal is - to glorify God and trust His plans for my writing, not basing my success on the praises or input of others.



I am supposed to nominate two people, but out of all my blogging friends have only found one who is bale to participate! One is better than none, so I am nominating my friend Gillian at A Bright Summer's Day.


I met Gillian when my friend Chelsi started bringing me to her local church during my second year of college. We attended church together, had babies opposite each other (but during the same set of years), and have an insane amount of mutual friends. She blogs about her life, her kids, her relationship with God and more. Right now they are in an immense amount of transition, so you'll get to see her faith in action as they navigate moving and dealing with drastically different living situations.


Here are my questions for Gillian:

1. Tell us about how and why you started blogging.
2. If you could go anywhere in the world with your family, where would it be and why?
3. Describe your daily life with 4 hastags.
4. If you were writing a world-famous book, what would it be about?
5. What has the biggest encouragement in your life been?
6. What do you think is the most monotonous part of your life right now? And how to you cope with it?
7. Name one lovely feature about each of your children.
8. What is your favorite topic to write about?
9. Name 3 things you currently love.
10. Tell us your favorite bible verse, and why.
11. If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?

The Official Rules Of The LiebsterAward

If you have been nominated for The Liebster award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about theLiebster award in which you follow the rules below:

• The Liebster award is intended to connect new bloggers with other bloggers. Someone nominates you, and when you accept the award, you have to answer 11 questions that were asked from the blogger that nominated you. Then you have to nominate other new bloggers and ask them 11 (new) questions. “Liebster” is German and means “sweetheart”, “beloved”, “dearest”.

• Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog. If possible leave a comment underneath their blog post that you accept the award – so that it is visible for everybody.

• Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post. You will find plenty of Liebster award logos in the internet or if you feel like being creative you can just design your own Liebster award logo).

• Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

• If you like to give 11 random facts of you, you can but it’s not a must.

• Create a new list of 11 questions for the blogger to answer (or keep some of the old ones if you really like them).

• Copy the rules and display them on your blog that your nominees know what they have to do.

• You can nominate between two and eleven new bloggers that you like and recommend and who have less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)

• List these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

• Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!). It is highly recommended to ask the people before you nominate them if they even want to be part of it and don’t feel overwhelmed. Have fun!