Honored

I have been through 2 LARGE boxes of Kleenex in 4 days! Finally, I think I am on the otherside of this virus. I slept on and off all morning yesterday until 2:30 in the afternoon. We were under an ice storm warning and I took the day off from homeschool. The sun never did come out, but the mailman brought a ray of sunshine to me anyway. A package from Niki arrived and things felt brighter. We swapped homemade candles. I sent her some of my soy jar candles and she sent me some beeswax tapers that she makes. I could not smell them yesterday as my sense of smell was gone from this bug, but this morning I can get a "sense" of what they smell like and they are wonderful! She also enclosed a beautiful dishcloth and a Christmas tree ornament. There was a gift wrapped package for Charlotte and Zach too. Niki sent them a card game called Skipbo. Our whole family will enjoy that! The ornament is on the tree and the game is with the kids, but here are the candles and dishcloth.I want to mention that Niki does an incredible job with presentation. Everything was so nicely wrapped and put in the box with such care that I hated to disturb anything. She had the most elegant gift tags and I remembered her post regarding these. Go here to find out how she does this!

Donetta at A Life Uncommon gave me this award.

The award was started by the Shameless Lion Writing Circle and is "the chance to scream from the mountains the good news about the powerful posts that are produced every day in the blogosphere, despite what some mainstream columnists and journalists claim."

I never thought of my posts as powerful, so I am sure she is referring to my Face of Trauma series. I accept this award and am honored by it. Thank you, Donetta. You have been a healing balm in my life and in the life of my daughter. You have opened up your own wounds to help heal those of a child you do not even know. No award could show how much you have blessed those who know you and your courage. Your reward is in heaven!

I am to give this to 5 other bloggers who write powerful posts. What is powerful? I suppose powerful is in the mind of the reader. So this reader will give this award to 5 blogs which when read by me seemed powerful.

Meggie from Life's Free Treats....Meggie and I are from different sides of the world and different sides of the political and spiritual fence. I must say that she has always respected my views and even on my most spiritual posts she leaves a sweet comment letting me know she read it. I respect her and her writing style which is powerful and unmatched. Someday I am sure she will write a book.

Because They Are Quiet. This blog is powerful because it never has one word. It consists of all pictures from a mother and her 2 grown daughters. Cheryl, Corin and Dani post 3 pics each, every week and they are always powerful in what the "say".

Amanda at Much Forgiven. Amanda is one of those writers that shares her heart but will do it in a way that is profound. She touches on areas that others will skate over. She has shared her convictions and then some.

Patty at Morning Ramble. Patty is a new blog I have been reading. She is a gifted writer who has a powerful style. I leave her blog thinking deeper.

Niki at Rural Writings. I give this award to Niki because her blog has been powerful in my life. It has been life changing for me and I look forward to each post. Her posts have the power to make me smile each and every time I visit.

There are so many more I could name. I felt I needed to give this award to actual blogs as it is a huge award. Many times when we say "I think all the blogs I read are deserving of this award, so please take it if you are on my blogroll.", that may be the absolute truth, but NO ONE takes it. I felt the above blogs needed to be honored.