Tardy Thank You

I suck.  And this will most likely turn out to be a long post with no pictures to break up my ramblings.  You've been warned.

I grew up in a house where it was mandatory to send thank you letters.  To this day, my mom will ride both my sister and me until we can say that one has been sent.  I now make my kids send them.  They already hate me for it and they're only 5 and 3.

With that said, I am soooo tardy on some thank you's.  Do you ever have every intention of sending one and then time passes, you make notes for yourself so you won't forget, then more time passes, and before you know it, months have passed and you still haven't done it?  Yeah well, that's what happened. 

I could use the "I just haven't had time" excuse, but clearly I could have skipped a food post and done this instead.  As of right now, I have a sink full of dishes, two kid stools to finish painting and two to start on, a dinner to commit to in case I have any prep to do, a front yard to water, a bathroom to clean, laundry to wash and fold, sheets to change, a stack of newspapers I haven't read yet.......on and on and on.  But I told myself that when The Girl went down for her nap, I was finally going to write this post.  So here goes.......

One of the very first blogs I started reading regularly was The Weekend Homemaker.  Crystal and I started our blogs about the same time, I randomly came across hers, and I've been there for every post since.  I've stolen her recipes, her DIY projects and most recently have been coveting her dining room turned office space.  Oh what I would give to have a whole space instead of a hole in my bedroom.

In June, Crystal passed on the Kreative Blogger Award to me.  I did thank her in an email, but I never followed through with the pay it forward in a post like I wanted to and should have.  I will do that now at the end of this post.

Now onto my second late thank you.  Kadie at Seven Alive passed on the Butterfly Award in July.  Again, I thanked her in an email, but never followed through with anything else. 

Kadie has FIVE kids - holy cow, and I'm stressin' out about adding a third.  She's got all kinds of  fun craft projects, a ton of recipes and not unlike me, likes to get her hands in the dirt.  I was just over there today commenting on her Apple Crisp - which just so happens to be one of my most favorite desserts in the world.  Again, I will follow the rules to the reward at the end of this post.

Round three (I told you I suck).  The Versatile Blogger award was passed onto me by Cindy at Old Time Pickers.  She pretty much lives in my dream home spot.  On a lake.  With wildflowers and wildlife completely surrounding her.  And all the goodies she's constantly bringing home from "pickin'" make me drool.  Her blog is my "someday" life.

Last, but not least, I have a new one to add, as of today.  Camylla at Simply Me also passed on the Versatile Blogger award. 

I can't remember for sure how I even came across her blog.  As she mentioned in the award post, we have absolutely nothing in common.  Haha!  She's a baby (just turned 21), is married, but no kids yet, completely picks up every ounce of slack that I lack in fashion, and is just all around girlie and sweet.  She's adorable.  And I like her.  And I'm anxious to see the progress in her new place she just moved into.

So now, the rules to each of the awards are similar, so I'll spare you some anguish and just do them once.

1. Thank the award giver.

2. Tell 7 things about myself.

3. Give this award to my favorite 7 bloggers.

4. Let the bloggers know about the award.

For number one, thank you Crystal, Kadie, Cindy and Camylla!  It was so sweet of you to think of me when passing on your awards.  I love all of your blogs and hope anyone reading will head over and check them out.

For number two, I'll have to come up with 7 new things that weren't on my 25 Things list.  It took me weeks to come up with that one, so we'll see how this goes.  Okay:

1.  My favorite night time snack is stove-popped popcorn with melted cheddar on it.

2.  My favorite sweet treat is peanut butter-chocolate Kix treats.

3.  My favorite quote is  "Insanity:  doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  - Albert Einstein

4.  My favorite holiday is Christmas.

5.  My favorite children's book is The Gardener.  I get choked up every time I read it.

6.  My favorite color is green.

7.  My favorite season is spring.

For number three, I shall FINALLY pay it forward.  These are blogs that I subscribe to and read every post they write.  I've got good taste, take the time to go check them out!  :o)

Mediocre Mommy -  Okay, I know her in real life, but I'm not bias.  She's hilarious and will make you pee yourself from laughing so hard.

These Peas Taste Funny - If you've been around for awhile, you've heard me mention Terry before.  I'm pretty sure we'd be wine drinking buddies friends in real life.  I have no doubt that if we were in the same neighborhood, we would regularly be sitting around eating until we were sick.  With wine of course.

mad.amyt  - Another one that I can't remember how it started, but I can't remember ever NOT reading.  Amy is a hoot and we both LOVE to eat.

Delighted Momma - Again, don't know how we "hooked up", but once I started reading, I never stopped.  Being the absolute opposite of a girlie-girl, I still love her weekly beauty tips, which the majority of the time are things you can make at home.  Plus, she's got all kinds of fun DIY jewelry posts.  And she starves her husband. hahahahaha (Just kidding Lindsay)

Brown Paper Packages -   The pictures on her header had me at hello.  She's got all kinds of fun house projects as well as yummy recipes.  One of her recent posts on fresh picked apples made me want to go running to the orchard.

 

Olga's Home and Garden Blog - I came across this blog at a link party, I believe.  Her posts are so simple and, for lack of a better word, lovely.  She has tea in the garden, crochets amazing things, cooks and bakes delicious looking/sounding things.  I made her Cheddar Cheese Puffs and they were gone in about five minutes.

Gardening With Grace - The garden of my dreams.  The shot on her header is sooo pretty.  You want flower pics, she's your gal.  Plus, she has a daughter named Mindy, which is pretty rare these days.  And she lets me ramble in emails and actually still writes back.  :o)

 

And now for my final thank you.  When I got back from Girl's Weekend at the Rock Farm, I had hit 100 followers.  Did you hear me?  100.  It's now at 107.  To me, that's a BIG deal.  When I started this blog, I had no idea what I was going to write about.  My family already knew what I was eating for dinner and what my kids were doing and what was going on in my house.  And they were the only ones I ever expected to be reading this.  Maybe a friend or two out of pity.  It has literally turned into a day in the life.  My posts are all things I was doing before this blog ever existed.  I was making dinner every night.  Wrangling two kids (soon to be three).  Attempting to make our house "pretty" on a budget of zero dollars.  Playing in the dirt every chance I got.  And now I'm still doing all of those things and you're coming back every day to read about them.  Insane I tell ya.  Out of all the blogs out there, thank you for taking the time to read mine.  It seriously blows my mind.